Medicinal Effects of Copper Bracelets
For much more detailed information and analysis regarding medicinal bracelets, see Intriguing Anomalies: An Introduction to Scientific Detective Work.
Copper bracelets cause no side effects other than easily reversible discoloration of the skin and occasional skin irritation in people with metal allergies. So, in light of the ease of using these bracelets, their potential for conveying therapeutic effects is deserving of careful investigation.
In fact, the only clinical study of copper bracelets in arthritis reported positive effects in most cases (Walker and Keats, 1976). And the only other serious clinical trial of copper bracelets, by the Mayo Clinic (Bratton et al., 2002), found that they were effective in about three quarters of the cases of musculoskeletal pain, which is roughly equivalent to the rate of effectiveness of standard drugs used to treat arthritis and other musculoskeletal pain disorders. So the only two clinical studies of copper bracelets agree that they are indeed effective in treating arthritis and musculoskeletal pain. Recent cases suggest that, when zinc is added, they can effectively treat arthritic pain in the hands; and in a recent case study involving a 70-year old male engineer with essential tremor in the hands, a copper bracelet with magnets on the inside of the two ends reduced the tremor by an estimated 80%. However, copper and copper-zinc bracelets have one counterindication: Alzheimer's Disease.
Such promising preliminary findings should encourage researchers to test copper bracelets (and copper + zinc bracelets) further to determine their full range of clinical indications as well as their mechanisms of action.
Copper is an important human trace element. Some 75-150 mg are present in healthy adults, with a daily turnover of 2-3 mg. In humans, copper plays a role in some 30 enzymes, including the critical enzymes superoxide dismutase--SOD (a suppressor of the leading reactive oxygen species superoxide) and ceruloplasmin (an antioxidant that keeps copper and iron ions from creating oxygen radicals; ceruloplasmin is also important for the uptake of iron into hemoglobin). In the (blue) blood of some crustaceans, copper substitutes for iron to form cyanoglobin. Aside from the rare genetic disorder of copper overload (Wilson's disease), humans can store and use a rather large amount of copper without any deleterious effects, though oral intake of some copper compounds can cause nausea and vomiting. Obviously, significant overdoses can cause a range of damaging effects, including hepatomegaly and cirrhosis of the liver. Copper is abundant in a variety of foods, including legumes, nuts, seeds, and shellfish.
Available in two main isotopes and two states of oxidation (+ and +2), copper is absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract via the same mechanism as zinc, and it readily substitutes for zinc and iron in the body because of its similar location in the periodic table (electronic configuration). In turn, silver (and perhaps gold) can substitute for copper in enzymes like ceruloplasmin. So ion substitution plays a significant and not fully understood role in copper metabolism, and thereby in its medicinal effects.
Copper in the History of Medicine
To those familiar with the long history of copper in medicine (Dollwet and Sorenson, 1985), the notion that copper bracelets can convey beneficial effects should not seem surprising. In ancient Egypt, various copper compounds were used to hasten wound healing, treat headaches and epilepsy, and sterilize water. Copper acetate--known as verdigris--became the antiinfective of choice in Greek medicine, and Roman medical treatises recommended a number of copper compounds for a range of skin, neurological, and inflammatory disorders. Copper was used in ancient India and Persia to treat lung disorders, while the Aztecs used it, perhaps in a gargle, for "heat of the throat". In India copper found extensive use for treatment of skin and internal disorders. In ancient China a law prohibited the use of paper money in bars and prescribed that payment be made with copper coins, for hygienic reasons.
One difficulty in assessing these reports, of course, is that many practitioners simultaneously used a half-dozen other compounds in addition to copper.
The renowned Renaissance physician Paracelsus treated inflammatory and autoimmune diseases with copper, and he held that copper was an effective treatment of parasitical disorders.
During the 19th century, certain French and German physicians used copper compounds extensively and conducted intriguing epidemiological studies. J.G. Rademacher found that copper hammerers were healthier than workers in other industries; but his treatments with oral copper compounds frequently led to nausea and even vomiting, so he had to mix them with cinnamon and wine. Rademacher treated with copper compounds a range of neurological and rheumatic disorders as well as herpes and warts.
In his book Metallotherapie (1871), Victor Burq showed that workers in the copper industry had far lower death rates during the cholera epidemics of 1865 and 1866 than workers in other industries. Burq used both oral copper and copper or copper/zinc (brass) bracelets to treat hysteric paralysis, migraines, and anemia.
Italian physicians also determined that inhaled copper dust swiftly corrected the anemias of chlorotic girls who took jobs in the copper industry.
A copper-based potion of the
Swiss physician Koechlin, based on a Chinese original, was widely used in Central
Europe to treat a range of skin, neurological, and infectious diseases including
tuberculosis. A. Luton conducted clinical studies in which he successfully used
copper to treat pulmonary tuberculosis.
For much more detailed information and analysis regarding medicinal bracelets, see Intriguing Anomalies: An Introduction to Scientific Detective Work.
Bibliography
Bratton, Robert L. et al. (2002). "Effect of 'Ionized' Bracelets on Musculoskeletal Pain: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial". Mayo Clinic Proceedings 77, 1164-1168
Dillon, Kenneth J. (2003). Close-to-Nature Medicine. Washington, D.C.: Scientia Press
Dollwet, Hellmar H.A. (1981). The Copper Bracelet and Arthritis. New York: Vantage
Dollwet, H.H.A. and J.R.J. Sorenson (1985). "Historic uses of copper compounds in medicine". Trace elements in medicine 2, No. 2, 80-87
Fairlie, David P. and Michael W. Whitehouse (1991). "Transdermal Delivery of Inorganic Complexes as Metal Drugs or Nutritional Supplements". Drug Design and Discovery 8, 83-102
Guy, R.H. et al. Metals and the skin. New York: Marcel Dekker, 2004
Hostynek, J.J. (2003). "Factors determining percutaneous metal absorption". Food and Chemical Toxicology 43, 327-345
Walker, W.R. and Daphne M. Keats (1976). "An Investigation of the Therapeutic Value of the 'Copper Bracelet'--Dermal Assimilation of Copper in Arthritic/Rheumatoid Conditions". Agents and Actions 6, No. 4, 454-459
Williams, R.J.P. and J.J.R. Fraústo da Silva (1996). The Natural Selection of the Chemical Elements. The Environment and Life's Chemistry. Oxford: Clarendon Press
Of possible interest: www.scientiapress.com/findings/fatalmoments.html .