You already have iron in your blood. If the iron in the food you ate that morning could be pulled out by the machine, there would probably be no safe way of ever using such a machine period.
So, I googled it. Apparently, magnetism involves the interaction between the magnetic field and an unpaired electron. The iron in our blood is bound to the heme molecule, so the magnetism is so low that is nearly undetectable. However, when we have a blood clot, there is an unbound molecule, so blood clots are very weakly magnetic (meaning, you can detect the blood clot with a big enough magnet, like in an MRI).
So the question is, what happens to iron when we digest it? And this is the point where I go “Ok you need an actual scientist to answer this”, because I didn’t study science in school. apparently, iron starts in an oxidized ferric state (Fe3+) and our body needs to turn it into a ferrous state or bind it to a heme molecule. The + means it is in a positive state, not a neutral state, so, before it is paired, it has an unpaired electron.
But does that mean it’s so strongly magnetic it’s gonna hurt you, or is it weakly magnetic like blood clots? HOW THE FUCK DO I KNOW? How many iron videos do you expect me to watch on a Friday night?
Well, you’ve come this far, you might as well go all the way, and get your PhD in Irony. We’re here to support you.
Not financially, I want to make that clear for legal purposes. We will support you emotionally. Probably not a lot, you’re on you’re own really. But we would think it was interesting if you went on to study Irony, full time.
Just check in with your progress from time to time.
How many iron videos do you expect me to watch on a Friday night?
Just one more video, bro.
But first, let me tell you about today’s sponsors; Factor and SquareSpace…
A whole package of Quaker Quick Oats with iron, which are the most iron-rich cereals i could find in a quick search, has about 20mg iron per serving * 13 servings = 290 mg iron. So no, there’s no risk of injury at 4 boxes of cereals per gram of iron. We humans don’t need to replenish iron that much (if we don’t suffer from major blood loss), we are pretty good at internal recycling.
I don’t think so.
The size of something does affect how much magentic force it can exert.
I know someone who accidentally underwent MRI with their phone still in their pocket. It didn’t go flying across the room or anything, despite containing permanent magnets.
The phone was VERY dead after, but no injury occurred.
It does depend on the machine, I think. More sensitive and powerful MRI machines can have orders of magnitude more powerful fields.
Some continuous glucose monitors are MRI-safe, and they keep working after it. Just adding another data point.
no. somethin about the iron not being crystalline or in a metal state.
I don’t think it would cause any problems. I’ve taken iron supplements of 1000 mg and had MRIs done and nobody ever gave me a warning about anything wrong with it. Surely iron in even lower and more distributed amounts does nothing too.
I saw this exact scenario play out in a documentary about enhanced humans. There was a guy who was magnetic or something. He called himself The Magnet Guy. He didn’t seem like a nice chap. Even so, he is fabulous.
Is that the one where the guard gets seduced by the lizard lady?
No, but if you eat 3-5 bananas before a radiation measuring, you’ll read high exposure.
3-5 hits will do that, too
I took 75mg of iron or so 48 hours before an mri and couldn’t feel anything. Not right before, but I take it your body does absorb it fairly quickly.
Most compounds aren’t magnetic, some but not all alloys are, and there are a few advanced materials that aren’t really metallic but are still magnetic. As a general rule, non-metallic compounds aren’t magnetic, and our bodies can’t absorb most metals in their elemental state.
If you’d had those iron pills in your pocket, there’s a very good chance nothing would have happened. I wouldn’t try this on the sly for the sake of science, though. Those iron supplements would have been some iron compounds and would have as much in common with metallic iron as table salt does with metallic sodium.
I mean, surely not, but I’ve seen videos of people blending up cereal and using a magnet to pull out the iron. I’m really curious now
