Rediscovering magnetic health

It’s amazing how people are going back to the basics. Many are resorting to herbal medicine after having been doused themselves with chemical products. Now we’re told that a good number of people around the world are rediscovering magnetic field therapy, Far-infrared technology, and Pi Mag ("Living Water").

My family is into magnetic healing. A tennis-playing niece who’s been suffering from a bad tennis elbow, is now wearing a black band that’s supposed to help her get rid of her discomfort, especially when she wants to "kill" the opponent with a deadly smash. A sister is sleeping with a magnetic blanket, and another keeps rolling a gadget with magnet balls around her knees to cure her arthritis. I’m using some of these myself. An uncle has placed a magnetic soles in his shoes.

We’re into this craze, thanks to our eldest brother, Dr. Hermaneli M. Torre-villas, M.D., who has been engaged in private medical practice in Blacktown, New South Wales, Australia, for the last 26 years. Several years ago, he ewnt into acupuncture, even as far as studying to be a Fellow in the field, as an additional service to his patients, who, it turned out, welcomed the use of the ancient healing method. Then he also studied nutritional therapeutics and anti-oxidant therapy. These days, however, he is preoccupied with magnetic field therapy. He is in town to spread message of good health and wellness through these alternative therapeutic methodologies.

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According to Nell, the use of magnetic therapy was recorded by the Chinese in the Yellow Emperor’s Book of Internal Medicine around 2000 B.C. Authors/researchers George J. Washnis and Richard Z. Hirak claim that "very vital magnetic energy enters our bodies from the earth’s natural magnetic field. Unfortunately, the earth’s field has been declining over the centuries, as much as five percent in the past century alone. And its effect is further reduced by reinforced concrete buildings, elevators and autos. Somehow we have got to make up the difference, as well as fight off the effect of certain adverse electromagnetic fields from high power transmission lines, computers, microwaves and other household appliances."

Magnetic therapy can relax tense muscles, relieve muscular and skeletal pain, and accelerate the healing process. The treatment involves the placing of simple natural magnets on the body tissue, allowing the body to heal itself.

Millions of Americans use natural alternative medicine such as magnetic therapy. Worldwide, over 100 million people use magnetic therapy – 30 million in Japan alone, where 10 million sleep on magnetic beds or mattresses to counter the effect of stress, fatigue, arthritis, sciatica, carpel tunnel, asthma, migraines, and other ailments. A negative magnetic field applied to the body stimulates the sleep hormone, melatonin, and promotes more restful sleep. In fact, champion golfer Jim Colbert is said to rely on magnets to keep playing without back pain and discomfort. He damaged a disc in his lower back when he was 15 and played in constant pain until he discovered magnets.

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Dr. William H. Philpott, chairman of the Bio-Electro Magnetic Institute in Oklahoma City and a psychiatrist and neurologist and author of Brain Allergies and Victory over Diabetes, writes that the human body itself is an electromagnetic machine. Each body cell has a positive and a negative field and physical and mental functions from the brain and central nervous system. All life, in fact – plant and animal, including human – exists in and responds to the magnetic field of the earth. For example, earth’s magnetism activates the enzyme system in fruits and vegetables that causes normal ripening. Homing pigeons are magnetically guided back to the coop. "In just the past decade, we have begun to realize that, since magnetic energy influences our health, it can be used to intentionally improve our health," says Dr. Philpott.

Nell says that the magnetic process works well in the reversal of stress. For a large majority of people, stress lodges itself in five body areas, such as the base of the skull, the shoulder and the lower back, as well as the stomach and intestinal area.

Sleeping on a magnetic mattress pad not only improves sleep for most people, it provides wholistic, "whole body" benefits by relaxing muscles, improving circulation, and aiding the body’s nightly repair and restoration processes.

During the day, a set pad used in the car or at a desk relaxes the lower back muscles. Nothing beats a shoulder massage, but the second best choices, says Nell, are magnetic pads on the shoulders or a magnetic necklace.

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To learn more about the goodness of magnetic therapy, you may want to listen to Nell give a lecture/demo on Saturday at 6 p.m., at the JMT building on 1603 ADB Street, Ortigas Center. Just to show you that the medical profession is willing to listen to developments in alternative medicine, Nell will be talking to faculty members, doctors and students at the University of the East Ramon Medical Center (of which he is an alumnus, Class ’67). And on Tuesday, he will be a guest panelist at the Bulong-Pulungan sa Westin Philippine Plaza. The public is invited to attend the lecture, and pay only for the lunch.

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On another front, a sandwich by any other name is still a sandwich. But not so, declares Jessie (Yogi) Yarcia and Frederick (Deck) Herrera, who became friends in London, where she was studying at the London School of Economics and Political Science and he owned and managed his remittance company and who is also a prolific song writer and recording artist with a hit single, Ako Na Lang Ang Lalayo a few years back.

In London, they spent a lot of time at Pre-a-Manger, a popular coffee shop that served hearty, healthy sandwiches and delicious pastries. Now the two are back, and managing Plaid, the Sandwich Bar Co. on the ground floor of the Orient Square Building on Ruby Road, Ortigas Center.

Plaid is a truly convenient store where yuppies can just go in, grab their favorite sandwich, salad, fruits and go. The building’s 4,000 employees can well afford the sandwich meals offered. Corporate meetings on the board rooms order the sandwich meals which are prepared fresh daily in the state-of-the-art kitchen.

What’s on the menu? Chief Abby Almeda’s sumptuous list of sandwiches: for the chicken lover, Rose N’ Jack (chicken and rosemary), Bombay dreams (chicken tandori), Pinoy Classic (chicken adobo), Seafood Executive (salmon), Catch of the Day (white meat fish), and Vegetarian Diet. For the non-meat aficionados, there’s BLT, Saltom’s, Roast Beef Royale and Casa Longga. Three pannini choices, and three baguettes, pork tenderloin in hoi sin sauce, shrimps with Cajn spice, turkey ham with ceasar dressing. All are mixed with the freshest vegetables and herbs, varieties of cheese and herb oil.

Plaid has a fine selection of pastries, freshly brewed barako coffee, and the freshest fruit concoctions – pineapple-dalanghita, papaya-kiwi, mango-lime-strawberry or banana-kiwi-strawberry which is called "smoothie" – a real health fix on a hot summer day.

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