Cured by the attraction of magnets

But one woman who has no doubts about their capabilities to improve your health Eleven years ago Val Dargonne was told by doctors she was going to go blind.

Diagnosed with the degenerative eye condition Retinitis Pigmentosa, she was sent home and told there was nothing that could be done for her.

"I was suffering with peripheral vision problems and night blindness," she explains.

"I was told it was incurable and I was given a couple of years before I completely lost my sight.

"It was a shock, but my way of coping was just to ignore it. I didn't want to think about it so I just carried on as normal."

In an effort to keep her life as normal as possible the 45-year-old carried on her work as a remedial massage therapist in Hove.

And it was while throwing herself into her work in this way that she stumbled across the treatment which she says saved her sight, magnet therapy.

After a patient suggested she could try incorporating magnets into work, she invested in the treatment.

Impressed by the results they seemed to have, Val decided to splash out on an expensive, more powerful electro-magnetic machine to use in her clinics.

"One day I decided to have a go myself," she says.

"With one treatment I suddenly realised I could see the horizon again, which I could never see before. I remember it was in the evening and my ex-husband was driving. I made him stop the car, I stepped outside and for the first time in a long time I could see the stars."

Val is adamant that the improvement in her vision is down to magnet therapy.

She says the therapy improves the body's electromagnetic energy, making it function more effectively, which she believes helped her sight.

Over the course of the following two years she continued with the treatment and her eyes continued to get better.

"I eventually plucked up the courage to go to the optician," she says.

"My test showed that there had been a big improvement in my peripheral vision.

"The treatment just seemed to really work for me."

Val, who now teaches magnet therapy at her base, Care For Life in Portslade, as part of her holistic work, says she has seen first hand the benefits magnet therapy has given her patients.

She says claims by two US scientists printed in the British Medical Journal this month that the benefits of magnet therapy are virtually zilch are simply wrong.

"I'm not saying that magnets are a miracle cure, but I believe they can help the body to heal itself and there are scientific reviews to prove it," she says.

"They seem to help increase the blood circulation and are particularly helpful for people suffering with arthritis and sports injuries.

They are also very good at reducing the swelling in people who have had their lymph glands removed.

"For me, they helped give me my sight back and let me see the stars again."

However, Brighton GP Dr David Delvin is with sceptics when it comes to magnet therapy.

"Doctors do quite often see people with rheumatic illnesses such as carpal tunnel syndrome who claim magnets have helped them," he says.

"The problem is any treatment, whatever you give people, is always going to produce some improvement. It's a known fact that if you give people dummy pills an awful lot improve.

"One thing I would say is I've never seen magnet therapy do anybody any harm. It doesn't seem to have any side effects, and you can't say that for the powerful drugs we doctors prescribe."

• Val Dargonne is based at Care For Life, 34, Langridge Drive, Portslade. Call 01273 421077