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A DUP MP has asked if magnet-fitted metal rings that supposedly cure chronic snorers can be provided for free on the NHS.

Jim Shannon, whose right-wing party is keeping Theresa May in power in exchange for a £1bn "bung", made his request despite three experts saying they knew of no scientific evidence that the rings work.

Such rings are based on the Chinese tradition of acupressure, which relies on the belief that life energy flows through 'meridian' lines in the body.

They put pressure on a small area of the little finger on one of these lines to supposedly open up the wearer's airways.

But Colin Espie, Professor of Sleep Medicine in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, said: "This is nonsense".

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Dr Neil Stanley, a sleep researcher with 35 years' experience who worked for the RAF and University of Surrey, told the Mirror: "I am unsure that there is any scientific evidence that copper rings or bracelets have any beneficial effects on snoring.

"As there may be numerous causes of snoring it is unlikely that any 'device' would work in the majority of patients and even the websites promoting these devices admit they work in a limited number of people."

Sleep neuroscientist Professor Jim Horne, a former editor of the Journal of Sleep Research, said he was "very skeptical about this."

He added: "I doubt whether there is solid medical evidence to support it having any effect on obstructive sleep apnoea."

Alternative medicine shop Holland and Barrett sells the rings for £9.99 and says "heavy snorers often find wearing two rings work better than one".

But Holland and Barrett also tells customers not to wear the rings "if snoring is caused by a medical condition eg sleep apnoea".

Nasal and chin strips, implants, mouth guards, diet, exercise and giving up smoking and alcohol are all mentioned as potential snoring cures on the NHS website - copper rings are not.

One study supposedly showing the rings' effect in 2013 was paid for by a copper ring manufacturer and had only 20 subjects.

In a written Parliamentary question, Mr Shannon asked Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt "whether he plans to make magnetic copper rings available on the NHS to alleviate snoring."

Tory health minister Steve Brine replied confirming there are no current plans to introduce the rings on the NHS.

Mr Shannon has long been an advocate of alternative medicine.

In December 2016 he claimed "alternative treatments can be equally effective" in a statement about treating HIV, malaria and tuberculosis.

A month earlier he demanded to know if the Department of Health had held talked to experts about using cider vinegar to reduce strokes.

In 2012 he complained a "small but well co-ordinated group with an anti-homeopathy agenda must be resisted" and access to homeopathic medicines "must be retained and enshrined by government".

In March this year he added it was "perhaps now time for the government to look at homeopathy in a new light because of the demand that there is, and also to see what homeopathy can offer."

The Mirror has contacted Mr Shannon for comment.