People will always try and make money when they see an opportunity, it doesn't matter what the topic is.
However, I have done a lot of research on (and experimenting with) magnets and while I don't know whether they actually help or worsen health conditions, I really do beleive that they do have an effect on the body and the poles do have different effects. I have noticed different, repeatble, effects depending on the ways magnets are used. It definately doesn't seem to be a place-bo.
I have not seen any solid evidence (that can be 100% beleiveable) either way. Until there is solid evidence, no one can be totally sure whether they help or not.
There are many things that we don't know or understand and it is always possible that we think we know/understand something when we are actually totally wrong (which does happen). Magnetism, I beleive, is one of those things that we only have a very basic understanding of. Our theory works, but it probably doesn't include the hole picture.
There are many different possibilities in how magnets could effect the body. In order to get acurate results from scientific trials or experiments, every possibility would need to be tested, including using different strenghts, sizes, positions and poles. It could also be possible that users arn't able to notice the effects - I know I didn't when I first used them.
I originally used Alex Chiu's rings, which used both poles of the magnets which were positioned above & below the little fingers. I felt many effects from these including increase in body temperature and more energy, but I stopped using when I began to develop health problems (with may or may not be related).
Since then I have used the north pole only, in many different ways. They seem to help my health problems, but as I can't be sure, I don't use them very often. They definately seem to help me to relex and sleep though.
Here is some info about it from scientists, that's not directly related to selling products (although it could be):
http://www.keelynet.com/biology/biomag1.tx
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http://www.keelynet.com/biology/biomag2.ht
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Here is an interesting experiment that I've found, which I may try sometime:
http://www.biomagnetic.org/magnetic effe
cts.html