Contact: Maridith Geuder
For many older people, pain in the joints is a daily fact of life. Treatment for osteoarthritic joints usually involves anti-inflammatory drugs, physiotherapy and-as a last resort-replacement surgery.
With the goal of helping improve research in the field, Mississippi State University soon will begin a study to evaluate the effects of low-magnetic fields. Associate professor John Lamberth and assistant professor Scott Meyer of the department of health, physical education, recreation and sport are directing the effort in cooperation with Oktibbeha County Hospital.
But, before the project can get under way, approximately 60 local volunteers are needed for a clinical study to test an instrument emitting low-level magnetic fields. Manufactured by Jacobson Resonance Enterprises of Boca Raton, Fla., the non-invasive magnetic resonator will be simultaneously tested in studies at Cornell and Texas A&M universities and the University of Oklahoma.
"Over two weeks, the study will expose the knee to 56 minutes of magnetic fields of varying strength," Meyer said. "All are very small, Food and Drug Administration-approved amounts generated in a uniform area."
"The person participating will feel nothing," Lamberth added.
Providing medical expertise will be Dr. Joseph Scoggins of Oktibbeha County Hospital, assisted by Dr. Robert C. Cooper of MSU's College of Veterinary Medicine.
"Preliminary studies indicate that some patients report a 70 percent decrease in symptoms," said Meyer, a physiologist who specializes in muscle strength and biomechanics, among other areas. "There is some indication that the technology provides therapeutic effects on bone and soft tissue diseases."
Half of the 60 participants will be exposed to the emissions and, as a control group, half won't. To ensure objectivity, neither the participants nor the person administering the test will know which group is which.
Before the study begins, researchers will need to test muscle strength in the legs of participants and administer the McGill Pain Questionnaire, a widely used test that measures chronic pain, Lamberth explained.
"We will survey and test muscle strength immediately following the test and also two weeks later to compare results," he said.
Participants who suffer from more than every-day aches and pains are preferred, both researchers emphasized.
"We want to identify participants whose level of pain will help us establish, logically and deliberately, the validity of the machine," Meyer said.
For more information about the study, contact Meyer at (601) 325-2963 or Lamberth at (601) 325-0906.