Some say it sounds too good to be true. Some say it sounds crazy.

No pills, no shots, no magnets, appliances or batteries. If a new innovation proves effective, sufferers of chronic ailments may just need sleep to help ease the pain in their personal battles.

An ISU professor is at the forefront of a clinical trial for a sleeping mat designed to enhance peoples’ physical well-being.

Marian Kohut, ISU assistant professor of health and human performance and immunobiology, is the immune system principal investigator for the trial that the mat’s inventor hopes will change the field of medicine and help provide treatment for more than 100 chronic diseases.

The HealthMat is being tested at the University of Connecticut Health Center. Kohut is analyzing the blood work and basic immune cell functions from participants in the study.

“The immune system serves as the body’s defense system against infection,” Kohut said. “It has also has been shown to modulate or regulate the severity of numerous chronic disease states. We hypothesize that regular use of the HealthMat will enhance some parameters of immune function.”

The HealthMat is made of hundreds of layers of aluminum and conductor-coated polyester, enclosed in a protective blue cover. The clinical trial will test whether sleeping on the mat, which causes the layers to rub against each other to create a natural non-linear energy field, will enhance cellular activity, bone density and participants’ overall well-being.

“The effects of electromagnetic fields on specific immune patterns have not been widely studied,” Kohut said. “It is possible that HealthMat use reduces the severity of symptoms associated with inflammatory diseases by decreasing the production of proinflammatory cytokines and this possibility is worthy of further investigation.”

Seventy postmenopausal Connecticut women age 60 and older who are suffering from osteoporosis will test the mat for a six-month period, Kohut said.

Kohut will not participate in any aspect of recruitment, treatment, contact with the subjects or selection of participants. Karen Prestwood, assistant professor of clinical medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center, will head a team of Connecticut scientists who will contact the participants, perform the tests and provide the treatment.

Half the women will use a HealthMat and the other 30 subjects will use an identical fake mat. The mat is placed between the mattress and the fitted bottom sheet.

Each woman will have blood samples taken for biochemical markers of bone turnover and immune system function, at the beginning of the study, after 12 weeks and again after 24 weeks. Prestwood’s team mails the blood work from Farmington, Conn. to Ames for Kohut’s analysis.

Prestwood has been recruiting the women who have refused traditional treatment for osteoporosis since last summer. The final participants were scheduled to start their six-month trial in June, and results are expected next winter.

“It’s not the way we have traditionally looked at medicine, but rather an alternative therapy,” Prestwood said. “I’ve always been interested in alternative medicine, and it looks like there is really something to this.”

HealthMat inventor John Ledbetter, an oil proprietor from Billings, Mont., contacted Prestwood to conduct the study in fall of 2000. She started sleeping on the mat and said she slept better at night, and chronic aches in her leg seemed to subside.

Ledbetter, president, CEO and chief scientist at Nyvatex Oil Corporation, discovered a connection between geology and health when he was searching for oil more than 25 years ago.

“I was traveling around looking for oil when I realized there were people in certain parts of the country and the world are simply healthier than normal,” Ledbetter said. “Because of my work with the Earth, I came to realize that where you live has a lot to do with your health and well being.”

Ledbetter started reading books about people traveling to certain parts of the world to be “healed.” There are about 600 places throughout the world with certain radiation patterns that are similar to those produced by the health mat, he said.

People are exposed to non-linear electromagnetic fields when they are outside. The energy fields created by the mat are not like those created by television or computer screens, nor does his product use electric plugs, batteries or magnets, said Ledbetter.

“Whenever I talk to another person who is interested in the HealthMat, I get the usual comments about how crazy and loony it sounds,” he said. “We have testimonials from thousands of clients who say it has helped them with one of over 100 chronic diseases, including arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis and even chemotherapy patients with cancer.”

Ledbetter started studying the human body and the more than one trillion cells where something can go wrong.

“Everyone responds to the mat differently because there is so much cellular activity going on in the human body at any one time,” Ledbetter said. “It would be great if this is clinically proven to help not only the 50 million currently at risk or suffering from osteoporosis, but also the immune systems of everyone.”

Ledbetter is so confident in his research and the numerous testimonials he has published in a book and online that he is funding the $150,000 cost of the study.

“There is about $1.2 trillion spent on chronic diseases each year in the United States, and the cost of the HealthMat is just a fraction of that,” he said. “If this is found to work in the clinical trials as it has for our thousands of customers so far, it could redirect the course of medicine.”

Most medicine on the market today masks symptoms, but does not provide a cure, increase bone density or strengthen the immune system, Ledbetter said.

“Most medicine is palliative. It simply eases the pain,” he said. “The HealthMat, though, seems to cure. Other medicines also have extreme side effects that are sometimes worse than the chronic disease or ailment itself.”

Ledbetter said the only side effect he has heard from customers are night sweats during the first few days that they use it. Nyvatex has sold more than 10,000 HealthMats the last 15 years. The company relies on word of mouth instead of advertising to sell the product, Ledbetter said.

“The basic concept behind the mat has been the same the last 20 years, it has just been redesigned a few times over the years,” Ledbetter said.

The HealthMat currently costs about $200 and lasts for two to three years. Ledbetter said his company would like to some day profit off the mat, but they currently are selling it at cost.

“Ideally, you would want to expose yourself to the mat 24 hours a day so you could get the full benefits, but we designed it so it could give people the most benefits in a regular night’s sleep,” he said. “It sounds like it’s too good to be true, but you really get more than you’re paying for.”

More information about the HealthMat is available at http://www.health-mat.com.