NEW YORK -- It's a pain many diabetics must live with -- peripheral neuropathy, or nerve damage of the feet. There are no specific treatments for it, but now there's something that could offer some hope.

Michael Montopoli has had diabetes for 22 years.

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He walks with a cane because diabetes causes peripheral neuropathy -- nerve damage of the feet that can cause pain and a variety of other problems.

"I get numbing, tingling, sharp pains, I get it all, sometimes all at once, sometimes individually. It just happens 24 hours a day, and never stops," Montopoli said.

"[The pains] almost take your breath away sometimes. It's just this sharp, stab pain that shoots up your foot," he continued.

It's estimated that as many as half of all diabetics have some degree of peripheral neuropathy. Drugs help some, but not enough for most diabetics.

"[The condition] reduces mobility, and it causes problems with injuries, ultimately leading to infections and amputation," said Dr. Michael Weintraub of New York Medical College.

However, Weintraub has heard stories from some patients about how magnets seemed to help.

"Since I see a lot of patients with peripheral neuropathy, specifically diabetic peripheral neuropathy, I wanted to do a scientific experiment to see if there was any substance to what they said," Weintraub said.

Weintraub designed an experiment where some diabetics got special magnetic insoles they wore 24 hours a day and others got nonmagnetic inserts. He followed 375 patients from 48 centers across the United States for four months.

"Patients who were in the real group, who had the magnets, had reduction in numbness and tingling, reduction in burning, and then when they were walking for 10 minutes, their foot felt better than when they started," Weintraub said.

Montopoli said he still has some pain, but that there is no way he'll give up the inserts.

"The magnets help tremendously with the numbing and the pain, and to some degree the burning," Montopoli said.