RELEASE ON RECEIPT




Ann Gill Taylor to Head Two-Year Study of Pain
MAGNETIC THERAPY RESEARCH RECEIVES $500,000 BOOST	

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Oct.  9 -- "My concern is whether it works," 
says Ann Gill Taylor who has devoted much of the past two years to the study 
of pain.
	Thanks to a $500,000 grant from a private Canadian foundation, the 
University of Virginia researcher may soon know whether magnetic therapy can 
alleviate some painful conditions.
	The funding supplements a three-year $1.3 million grant from the 
National Institutes of Health's Office of Alternative Medicine.  It 
established the infrastructure for U.Va.'s Center for the Study of 
Alternative and Complementary Therapies in 1996 to test the effectiveness of 
selected therapies for pain relief.
	The additional funding will support multiple two-year research 
projects coordinated by Taylor, professor of nursing and director of U.Va.'s 
center.   Her research,"Electromagnetic and Magnetic Field Interactions with 
Body Systems," involves collaborating with physicians and scientists to test 
the effects of static/permanent magnets and pulsed electromagnetic fields to 
determine if and how these fields interact with biological systems to reduce 
pain and suffering.  
	The research will follow patients suffering with back pain, arthritis, 
migraine headaches and fibromyalgia (a syndrome of pain, sleep disturbance 
and depression). Conventionaltherapies have met with some success, yet are 
often accompanied by unpleasant side effects, Taylor said. 
	"In clinical practice, magnetic and bioelectromagnetic applications 
offer the possibility of economic and effective diagnostic and non-invasive 
therapies for disease and pain-related problems, especially those considered 
nonresponsive to conventional treatment," Taylor says.	
	Under Taylor's direction the center expects to collaborate in 
pain-related research using complementary therapies, such as chiropractic, 
massage, and binaural beat stimulation, as well as biomagnetic therapies.
           U.Va.'s center, co-funded by the National Institute of Dental 
Research,is one of 10 federally-funded centers in the nation, and is the 
only one based at a nursing school.
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                                                            October 8, 1997

            For more information, call Ann Gill Taylor at (804) 924-0113.  
Television reporters should contact our TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.