Magnets are widely used in our daily appliances and are also a part of children’s toys. There are many myths about the impact they have on our body and a popular one is that they can clot the blood in the portion of our body that comes in contact with its field.
Iron in the Blood
We would have heard the fact that human blood has iron in it, and if you had played with iron filings, you sure know how attractive they are to magnets. So having iron in our blood should make it attracted to magnets, right? But there is a catch. Firstly, the magnetic field that we come across in our everyday life, even those healer magnets that you would have bought expecting some health benefits, barely penetrates your skin. Even if some of them make it to your blood, it is less likely to magnetise the iron in it. It is because, just like people, magnetic materials come in different forms. Materials can be classified into different types based on magnetic properties and the most common ones are listed below:
- Ferromagnetic (highly attracted and retains its magnetising nature)
- Paramagnetic and (hard to attract unlike ferromagetic materials)
- Diamagnetic (Repels when placed in magnetic field)
Iron filings are ferromagnetic. Hence they are easily attracted to magnets whereas the iron present in our blood is not one of those. The iron content in our blood is found in the haemoglobin molecules, where it is bounded with oxygen. This leaves the iron with no free electrons, which is essential for it to be attracted by magnets. This makes oxygenated blood diamagnetic which is not affected significantly even when placed in a strong magnetic field.
So what about the deoxygenated blood that flows through the veins in our body? Aren’t they attracted by magnets? Yes, they are. But the blood in our veins is only relatively deoxygenated. Blood that flows through arteries contains around 97% oxygenated haemoglobin. Blood in our veins contains 60-80% of them and only the rest 40-20% is deoxygenated haemoglobin. So, both the arteries and veins contain a considerable amount of oxygenated blood and it is only when we compare both, that we say veins carry deoxygenated blood. Even this deoxygenated blood is only paramagnetic, which is not as attractive as ferromagnetic iron filings. Also when the pressurized environment in which they flow, and the warm temperature of blood, are taken into account, the effects of the magnetic field are negligible.
In a study published in 2011, red blood cells were taken in a small, narrow tube and kept aligned with a magnetic field as high as 1.3 tesla. Later, these cells grouped together under the magnetic field when observed. In contrary to the popular myth, the press reported the results of this study as a proof that a magnetic field can reduce the viscosity of blood and improve the blood flow, since aligned cells could avoid contact with walls of blood vessel. But noticing the same effect inside a human body isn’t possible as unlike a narrow tube, capillaries that carry blood has twists and turns in it. Thus aligning them with a magnetic field is not an easy task.
Placing your limbs between heavy magnets could make the blood clot in that region. This is only due to both masses squeezing your blood vessels and the magnetic field has nothing to do with it. We hope you’ve learnt how fake those magnet therapies are, and the next time someone tells you that you are standing near a huge magnet, just relax (only if you don’t have any implants in your body).
References
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