How can magnets affect blood flow? emerges

Science often presents mysteries that defy our initial expectations. One of these mysteries is the intriguing dance between blood and magnetic fields.. This interaction occurs in the iron-rich protein hemoglobin in our blood.

Iron, a highly magnetized element, exhibits surprisingly complex behavior when part of the hemoglobin molecule, requiring further study of this topic.

Hemoglobin is responsible for the vital task of transporting oxygen in our body. It is responsible for the composition of blood and stands out for its complexity compared to the simpler water molecules that make up the rest.

Human body It contains approximately 4 grams of iron, of which 2½ grams circulates in the bloodstream.. However, this significant amount of iron does not give our blood magnetic properties.

iron puzzle

It is possible to understand the complexity and subtlety of magnetic behavior by examining material samples with different iron concentrations. Even objects such as matches that contain only small amounts of ferric oxide exhibit a slight magnetic response.

This observation reveals a very important observation: The magnetic properties of iron are not constant, they are affected by the molecular structure that contains it..

Blood and magnets interact, causing repulsion. This is called diamagnetism. This phenomenon raises an interesting question: How does blood composed of iron-rich hemoglobin have such a repulsive reaction?

quantum mystery

The answer lies in the quantum field, which involves the differentiated behavior of electrons in atoms and molecules. Magnetism is the result of the dance between unpaired electrons. Paired electrons in materials cause magnetic attraction towards each other, while unpaired electrons contribute to the overall magnetic force.

Unpaired electrons play a very important role in the history of hemoglobin and magnetism. The iron in deoxygenated hemoglobin, which has four unpaired electrons, shows paramagnetism, indicating a slight attraction to magnetic fields.

On the other hand, oxygenated hemoglobin, which has perfectly matched atoms, has diamagnetic tendencies repelled by magnetic forces.

This repulsive or diamagnetic property is dominant because Most of the hemoglobin in our blood is rich in oxygen and hence is repelled by magnets.

It is clear that a significant amount of water in the body is also affected by this diamagnetic nature. Thus, unlike the magnetic attraction of iron, blood responds subtly to the magnet.

Always stay up to date with more scientific curiosities at TecMundo and take the opportunity to discover why you shouldn’t use magnets to search for meteors.