I’m not an expert or specialist about healthy living, I know about as much as the next guy, eat well, exercise well, stay off everything that’s not good for you.

But ever since I started work age 16yrs, I’ve been working every day in recording studios with magnets, magnetic tape, different size magnetic recorder heads and large magnetic tape bulk erasers. Over the years I’ve talked with others in the same situation, and we all agreed there are some health benefits from magnets.

About 30yrs ago I came across magnetic underlays, bed sheets with small magnets sown into them. So I looked around and bought a set, a king size fitted bed sheet together with a small sheet that fits inside a pillow case, so your head actually sleeps on magnets.

These small magnets are about 10cent in size, sown in every 5” into the washable sheet. After a while we didn’t notice them but they do work you get a better nights sleep. I realised that after we spent a month on vacation, sleeping on different beds. If you go on line, you’ll find there are for, against and different quality products but I’m not selling any here. ) But if you’re interested, you‘ll find a shop that sells a quality product.

In 1770 Capt. Cook noticed the magnetic effect on his ships compass when he sailed past Magnetic Island near Townsville off the Qld coast. There’s a guy in Toowoomba who just celebrated his 110th birthday, might have something to do with that.

Cheers.

Magnetic Island is 700 miles away from Brisbane and Toowoomba. It's not that magnetic.

During my time in radio, when we had quarter inch reel to reel tape, we'd have the occasional bulk eraser in the studio. On occasion I would hold the bulk eraser to the side of my head, press the button for a few seconds, and then invite others to try doing the same thing. Sure, my vision jiggled a bit while it was on. It was fun. But there were no takers on the offer, even though I was also training to be a science teacher and clearly knew what I was doing.

Fairly sure it didn't affect me.

I think.

Andrew

Thanks Andy, I corrected it to read Townsville which is 13.5kms from Magnetic Is. But everything else is correct, Cook actually named Magnetic Is. after he had magnetic compass trouble there.

Cheers.

You can get copper bracelets with magnets. We have iron in our blood and my theory is that the north-south are all higgledy-piggledy, and the magnets align them pointing them all in the same direction.

Hi Donald, I think you’re correct, many on line Magnetic Underlay people say all the magnets are positioned in their sheets pointing North, avoid South. If anyone’s interested it’s worth reading up on this.

Cheers.

Gotta jump in on this!

The lava field of the volcano in Hawaii indicated that the direction of the Earth’s magnetic field has changed considerably over time. The iron particles in the lava flow “froze” when the lava cooled.

Did a quick search and one of the first hits on this was at https://earth-chronicles.com/anomalies/in-hawaii-in-the-kilauea-volcano-area-a-magnetic-field.html.

Lately, (recent years, not millennia) the magnetic north pole has been moving relatively fast. History has shown that Magnetic pole reversals have occurred in the past very fast so you may want to hang onto your seat (maybe even use a seat belt) as the northern hemisphere can become the southern one.

The magnetic field helps to protect us homo sapiens from some harmful radiation so when it weakens we loose this protection. May want to scout around for good caves to live in. What’s this you say, back to the future?

Interesting John, looks like that’s every 300,000 yrs or so, hope that’s not coming up soon.

Disclaimer: We should note here there’s no proof that magnetic underlays cure aches, pains or any illness. I’m pretty sure Chris Hurd and certainly me will not entertain any legal action as a result of buying any magnetic underlays with the intention of curing your ills. With any discomfort, consult a medical professional.

Cheers.

"Ask your professional video guy if magnets are right for you."

Andrew

Magnets, the bain of shipbuilding. That's why most ships' keels are laid east-west when building to minimise the N-S magnetisation of a ship during its build.

How do I know this useless bit of information? I spent years making training videos for the RAN (Aussie Navy).
Going out to sea, and under it in subs shooting then editing practical work training videos right through to producing highly involved technical videos on systems like Link 16 etc.

Magnets are so interesting no wonder a lot of societies have developed an almost mystical aura around some of their properties.

So many of us don't realize just how much magnets affect so much of life. Just look at the impact of magnetism in the terms of naval warfare where magnets abound in naval history. From magnetic mines to degaussing a ship on return to harbour to make it less susceptible to destruction by magnetic mines.

With regards to Link 16, the earth's magnetic fields have a lot to do with the accuracy of navigation information in the battlefield.

https://www.everythingrf.com/community/what-is-link-16

Love magnets!

Chris Young

https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/bitstream/handle/10072/14419/39673_1.pdf%3Bsequence=1

https://www.navyhistory.org.au/home-home-on-the-range-degaussing/2/

How does earth's magnetism influence the ship's Magnetic Compass - Geomagnetism - YouTube

I agree Chris, magnets are cool … until they get too hot.

Quote from Discover Magazine. ‘The magnetic fields associated with medical MRI and TMS are the strongest that a human might realistically be exposed to. Still, they are “hilariously puny” compared to those found beyond our planet, says Paul Sutter, an astrophysicist at Ohio State University and chief scientist at the COSI Science Center in Columbus, Ohio. At the extreme lies the aptly-named *magnetar* which is a rare type of neutron star with a magnetic field one thousand trillion times stronger than Earth’s.

If any human ever got close to a magnetar, they would quickly find themselves in dire straits. “Strong magnetic fields can start to do surprising things,” says Sutter. At the atomic level, the strong magnetic field would move all of the positive charges in your body in one direction and the negative charges the other way, he explains; spherical atoms would stretch out into ellipses and soon they would start to resemble thin pencils.

That drastic change in shape would interfere with basic chemistry, causing the normal forces and interactions between atoms and molecules in the body to break down. “The first thing you would notice is your entire nervous system, which is based on electrical charges moving throughout your body, is going to stop working,” says Sutter. “And then you basically dissolve.”

Sutter guarantees that our local neighborhood — which he defines as a radius of a few hundred light-years around Earth — has been surveyed and certified magnetar-free. None of these exotic objects are approaching us, and none of the massive stars nearby are likely to turn into magnetars when they die.) The nearest magnetar is a safe distance of tens of thousands of light-years away. So, at least for the time being, we can rest easy and take comfort in our planet’s own meager magnetic field.’

Cheers.

About 30yrs ago I came across magnetic underlays, bed sheets with small magnets sown into them. So I looked around and bought a set, a king size fitted bed sheet together with a small sheet that fits inside a pillow case, so your head actually sleeps on magnets.

Does that mean I can't use my tape recorder in bed?

And if someone has a stainless steel implant somewhere, will it remain firmly stuck to the sheet? That could be disappointing.

If we started promoting hifi pseudo science, like directional cable and gold plated connectors and the sticking of magnets on speaker cabinets to align the stray magnetic fields, we would shout loudly about the application of science in non-appropriate contexts. My grandad was convinced his copper bracelet helped his arthritis. I suspect the drugs might have been more likely reducers, but at first I thought this topic was one of our joke ones, that I just didn’t get, but now I’ve realised you’re all sincere. The point about MRI scanners got washed over. If giving somebody a scan doesn’t produce any impact on their health from the magnetic field a magnitude greater than little magnets, is this not just belief, not fact?

Luckily stainless steel is non-magnetic. That's why people who collect scrap have a magnet. Most metals that are none magnetic are worth more at a scrapyard.
Back to the benefits of magnets. Is it mind over matter.

The people who have stained skin under their copper bands. Copper can be beneficial in small quantities - if this is exceeded, copper toxicity can be quite nasty. The symptoms can be quite nasty. Luckily magnets seem to have no evidential impact on our bodies - but that of course might also suggest they do indeed, as Donald suggested, just convince some of us that they're beneficial, so the placebo effect can be good for you.