Copper vs Arthritis! Does It Work, & If So, How?

It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

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In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

No question/request too big or small 😎

❝What is the science about copper bracelets for arthritis? And magnets, can they give relief or is it just placebo?❞

The short answer is: no, these things do not work at all, except insofar as they can indeed contribute to placebo effect.

Which latter is not nothing!

People think of placebo as make-believe, but actually it’s more like believe-make.

That is to say, your brain directs, mostly without your conscious thought, almost all of your bodily functions, either directly (through messages sent via nerves) or indirectly (through messages sent via hormones produced somewhere other than the brain, where those other hormone-producing places got their signals from brain).

So, it genuinely can be a helpful thing, and is not just a case of “imagining it’s better”.

Learn more: How To Leverage Placebo Effect For Yourself

So it’s certainly not beyond your brain’s ability to modulate, for example, an inflammatory response (to either fight a disease, or else stop it from overreacting to something and causing problems, as in the case of arthritis*).

Yes, arthritis is divided into “inflammatory” and “non-inflammatory” arthritis, but actually both involve inflammation as part of their pathogenic process, it’s just that in the “inflammatory” kind it comes first, whereas in the “non-inflammatory” kind, physical damage comes first and the inflammation comes later. In both cases, alleviating the inflammation can alleviate the pain and improve function.

For more on this, see:

• Avoiding/Managing Osteoarthritis
• Avoiding/Managing Rheumatoid Arthritis

There are also lots of supplements that enjoy popular claims of helping vs arthritis; not all of them actually do, but here are some good evidence-based ones: Five Supplements That Actually Work Vs Arthritis

One way copper can help

Copper is an essential mineral, and we do need to get the right amount of it in our diet.

However, there is a sweet spot (around 900μg/day, and please note that’s micrograms, not milligrams!), and getting too much is as bad as getting too little, just differently bad.

• Too much = you suffer and, in extreme, die, because of copper toxicity
• Too little = you suffer and, in extreme, die, because it was an essential mineral

Without getting too side-tracked into all the other things copper does for us when enjoyed in the correct amounts:

The double-edged sword role of copper in rheumatoid arthritis: Mechanisms, therapeutics, and challenges ← note that this is about dietary copper, not wearing jewelry!

Good dietary sources of copper include: almonds, cashews, brown rice, most beans/legumes, dark chocolate, and leafy green vegetables.

So what’s the deal with copper bracelets and magnets?

Scientifically, there isn’t one. They just don’t do anything in this regard. Aside from the placebo effect that we discussed above.

Pseudoscientifically, the ideas were:

• Copper bracelets: the copper is absorbed through the skin and treats a copper deficiency
• Magnets: increase blood flow to that area due to attracting the iron in the blood

But they were all of them deceived. Because, in reality:

• Copper bracelets: don’t work that way (similar to how you also cannot usefully wear an iron gauntlet to treat an iron deficiency, by the way) and even if they did, they’d require the root cause to be a copper deficiency, which it’s usually not
  • Technically yes it can be absorbed through the skin, but at a rate of about 0.03%, so if you really tried with high levels of skin exposure to copper, you could theoretically get about 0.6 µg/day, which is equivalent to 1/1500th of the recommended daily amount. For more details, see: Can Copper be Absorbed Through the Skin?
• Magnets: don’t work that way (iron in the blood is not ferromagnetic), and we can be thankful for that, because if it were otherwise, we’d explode into fine mist if placed into an MRI machine (which, mercifully, does not happen).
  • This one has even less wiggle-room. People just don’t explode in MRI machines. If you still need reassurance about this, here’s an explainer of what goes on (and what doesn’t): Is Blood Magnetic? MRI, Iron, & Hemoglobin Explained

But, my friend’s sister’s husband’s friend’s dog’s aunt used one, and…

Not only is anecdote a poor substitute for meaningful data from randomized controlled trials, but also…

There’s a fallacy that’s easy to fall into that if your symptoms are at their absolute worst and it makes you desperate enough to try something that has no clinical evidence for it working, and then your symptoms improve, it’s easy to ascribe it to “it worked” rather than “my symptoms were at rock bottom, so the only way was up”.

See also, for more on these kinds of fallacies to watch out for: How Science News Outlets Can Lie To You (Yes, Even If They Cite Studies!)

And, for that matter: How To Know Whom To Trust In The Health World

Take care!