A REVOLUTIONARY treatment for back and joint pain has found a home in Ongar.

The cutting-edge technology is only found in a handful of locations across the UK, but one of them is in the High Street.

Eva Stibe, the consultant orthopaedic surgeon who runs Opcure, said she encountered the technology, called Magnetic Resonance Therapy, at a conference and knew it could work for her patients.

She said: "The technology was first developed in Germany by a couple of scientists, who noticed that their patients who received MRI [Magnetic Resonance Imaging] scans were feeling some relief from their joint pains."

MRI scans use magnets to take pictures of the human body, to discover internal damage such as tumours.

Miss Stibe said: "It works by using the body's own magnetism to align water molecules in the cells.

"At first, they couldn't work out why the MRI was making the patients feel better.

"So they ran tests in a laboratory using petri dishes, and discovered that if they used the right frequency, it actually warmed their samples up.

"This stimulated it to grow new cells, which was what was causing people to feel better."

The revelation that by using the magnetic technology they could help patients re-grow bone and cartilage was a breakthrough that allowed them to create the new machines.

Miss Stibe, who has been a doctor since 1987, said: "I was really impressed by the results it was creating.

"So far, all of my patients who have found it have had some benefit from it.

"People have told me that it is like magic."

The treatment consists of using the machine for an hour at a time over five or nine sessions, which take place over consecutive days.

Miss Stibe says: "The way the treatment works best is if patients have sessions on sequential days, because it encourages their damaged tissue to keep re-growing.

"There's no pain, no drugs, nothing invasive. People just say they feel it makes the area a bit warmer."

She says the treatment, which costs £70 for a session, can be used for sports injuries, arthritis, osteoporosis and similar conditions.

She said: "I think if this took off it would reduce the need for expensive and difficult hip and knee replacement operations."

To find out more about the treatment, e-mail opcure@aol.com or call 01277 366 975.