Ok…kinda gross I know but the thread around here on MRIs reminded me of something I thought I read once of magnets powerful enough to strip the iron out of a person’s blood (I do not remember if they went so far as to say it pulled it through your skin too which would be really nasty). It may have been some sci-fi something or other but I think they were talking about the magnets used in running particle accelerators or for fusion reactors.
Possible?
The magnets in experimental MRI units are quite powerful, yet no such effect is observed in them.
The iron in your blood is incorporated into the protein hemoglobin. I’m not sure it’s an actual molecular bond, though. If it is a real-for-sure bond then no, I don’t think a magnet could pull the iron atoms out of the hemoglobin molecules. If it’s only being held there by positive/negative attraction, then it’s possible that it could happen–but I still sort of doubt it.
Because of the way the iron is bound up in the hemoglobin, magnetic fields have very little effect on it. It is weakly paramagnetic, like oxygen, aluminum and water, for example. It is therefore slightly affected by strong magnetic fields, but not to the extent that ferromagnetic materials, like free iron, are.
Damn, I really wanted Magneto’s scene in the X-Men to be potentially true. Was that cool or what…
Not that the X-Men scene is actually possible, but the point was that Mystique injected the guy with a bunch of iron in suspension (remember the bar bathroom scene?), and Magneto used that to escape…I think he even thanks her in absentia when he realizes what is different about hte gaurd (whats different is the iron in his body)…i am not really psyched that this is the only thread i cna contribute to…
ahem … since this is the SDMB I just thought we should keep our science facts as precise as possible.
The scene to which Johanna and friendlessboob refer is actually from X-Men 2 - X Men United:
Thank you. 
This article outlines how functional MRI (fMRI) makes use of the different magnetic properties of oxygenated (arterial) vs. deoxygenated (venous) blood allows diagnostic tests and aids brain surgeons.
If you’re wondering about the effects of wearing a magnetic bracelet for therapeutic reasons you will have to ask someone else. :rolleyes:
I see that you aren’t asking with an eye on magnet therapy so strike my last sentence. Sorry about that.
Slightly off topic but I remember seeing a T.V. show in the U.K. called Brainiac - Science Abuse where they showed someone using a horseshoe magnet to ‘drag’ cornflakes around a bowl of milk to demonstrate the high iron levels in the cereal. I couldn’t say 100% if it was real or not but I can’t see why they would make it up on a ‘scientific’ show.
This has to be bogus. HAS to be.
Then again, perhaps not. But this is talking about metallic iron…