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The heart itself is kind of an electromagnetic device - are there any studies on the health implications in healthy people of having powerful magnets placed nex

The heart itself is kind of an electromagnetic device - are there any studies on the health implications in healthy people of having powerful magnets placed next to it?

joezydeco 5y ago
Decades of MRI research and clinical use have probably proven this to be safe.
- argvargc 5y ago
  Where are the boundaries though? Are they established? There must be a point at which a magnet of power n causes a negative effect that increases along with n, time, and exponentially with proximity?
  - shadowgovt 5y ago
    As far as we can tell... Yes, such a magnet exists. But it costs the power of a small city to maintain its field, and the patient would experience all kinds of strange effects, including levitating in it as it induced magnetic forces across their water molecules... (Seriously though, there are research magnets powerful enough to levitate plastic that people have jammed their hands into with no ill effects. It seems that across a wide range of intensities at least, the human body just does not care. This is, perhaps, surprising given how much electrochemical activity is necessary for continued homeostasis, but it appears to be observationally true).
    - lvncelot 5y ago
      There actually have been experiments with levitating animals[1] via a very strong magnetic field - they've been fine afterwards. [1] https://www.ru.nl/hfml/research/levitation/diamagnetic-levitation/ https://www.ru.nl/hfml/research/levitation/diamagnetic-levit...
      - argvargc 5y ago
        Well worth the click, the article (1997) starts with a great explainer, and has photos. Deserves its own post.
    - tgv 5y ago
      I know of an 11T MRI (in Paris, IIRC) which knocks people unconscious when they move too fast. Apparently, the field across your skull inhibits (some) spike propagation. Doesn't require that much power.
      - xondono 5y ago
        It's not unique to MRIs, but it's one of the niche applications where this happens. Working in certain environments (IIRC >2T) requires special training, that include things like "slow walking", since moving too fast would induce currents in the brain that could knock you out. For a product that I worked in we had to find a cheap way to create a 2T static field for validation, the complications of each of the possibilities were amazing.
    - argvargc 5y ago
      Wow, thank you. In a brief search, I found this strange and interesting article from 1983, regarding experiments conducted at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory of the University of California: https://www.nytimes.com/1983/02/22/science/do-enormous-magnets-affect-the-human-body.html https://www.nytimes.com/1983/02/22/science/do-enormous-magne... TL;DR - there were detectable effects on heart function, eye function and possibly sense of direction. The effects were deemed safe at the levels studied. Here is the study the article appears to be about (on page 86, as numbered in the scan): https://inis.iaea.org/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/17/068/17068452.pdf https://inis.iaea.org/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/... Going by its closing remarks, it appears this was an active field of research at the time.
nabla9 5y ago
No effects has been found. It's considered pseudoscience. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnet_therapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnet_therapy

The heart itself is kind of an electromagnetic device - are there any studies on the health implications in healthy people of having powerful magnets placed next to it?

joezydeco 5y ago

Decades of MRI research and clinical use have probably proven this to be safe.

argvargc 5y ago
Where are the boundaries though? Are they established? There must be a point at which a magnet of power n causes a negative effect that increases along with n, time, and exponentially with proximity?
- shadowgovt 5y ago
  As far as we can tell... Yes, such a magnet exists. But it costs the power of a small city to maintain its field, and the patient would experience all kinds of strange effects, including levitating in it as it induced magnetic forces across their water molecules... (Seriously though, there are research magnets powerful enough to levitate plastic that people have jammed their hands into with no ill effects. It seems that across a wide range of intensities at least, the human body just does not care. This is, perhaps, surprising given how much electrochemical activity is necessary for continued homeostasis, but it appears to be observationally true).
  - lvncelot 5y ago
    There actually have been experiments with levitating animals[1] via a very strong magnetic field - they've been fine afterwards. [1] https://www.ru.nl/hfml/research/levitation/diamagnetic-levitation/ https://www.ru.nl/hfml/research/levitation/diamagnetic-levit...
    - argvargc 5y ago
      Well worth the click, the article (1997) starts with a great explainer, and has photos. Deserves its own post.
  - tgv 5y ago
    I know of an 11T MRI (in Paris, IIRC) which knocks people unconscious when they move too fast. Apparently, the field across your skull inhibits (some) spike propagation. Doesn't require that much power.
    - xondono 5y ago
      It's not unique to MRIs, but it's one of the niche applications where this happens. Working in certain environments (IIRC >2T) requires special training, that include things like "slow walking", since moving too fast would induce currents in the brain that could knock you out. For a product that I worked in we had to find a cheap way to create a 2T static field for validation, the complications of each of the possibilities were amazing.
  - argvargc 5y ago
    Wow, thank you. In a brief search, I found this strange and interesting article from 1983, regarding experiments conducted at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory of the University of California: https://www.nytimes.com/1983/02/22/science/do-enormous-magnets-affect-the-human-body.html https://www.nytimes.com/1983/02/22/science/do-enormous-magne... TL;DR - there were detectable effects on heart function, eye function and possibly sense of direction. The effects were deemed safe at the levels studied. Here is the study the article appears to be about (on page 86, as numbered in the scan): https://inis.iaea.org/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/17/068/17068452.pdf https://inis.iaea.org/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/... Going by its closing remarks, it appears this was an active field of research at the time.

nabla9 5y ago

No effects has been found. It's considered pseudoscience. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnet_therapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnet_therapy