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Detoxing With Magnets for Fun and Profit
Ridgelift writes "Wired has an article on a new way to remove toxins from the bloodstream. The Argonne National Laboratory have designed nanoparticles which 'identify, and then latch onto, target molecules. The nanoparticles are injected into the bloodstream, where they circulate through the body, picking up their target toxins as they go. Once they have made their rounds, all that's needed to remove the particles from the body are a magnet housed in a handheld unit and a small, dual-channel shunt inserted into an arm or leg artery.'"
I was just thinking that - if you have an overabundance of iron in your diet, would this system pull out your red blood cells and just pump the empty plasma back into you? (In case you didn't know, iron is used by your body largely to make Hemoglobin, which is what red blood cells are made from. Other primary uses are to make Myoglobin, and within enzyme systems.)
The next morning, just insert the handy-dandy magetized needle, and lookie! Hangover-over!
Not quite.
Hangovers are caused by your body being dehydrated. To fix the worst of the effect, drink lots of water (preferably the night before) or, if you happen to be an EMT, stick some saline solution right into your blood.
I, too had similar thoughts, but in order to not appear redundant in my post I decided to find out the particle size of a typical virus.
I found this at drgreene.com
Viruses range in size from 20 to 250 nanometers
The average bacterium is 1,000 nanometers long.
If a bacterium were my size, a typical virus particle would look like a tiny mouse-robot. If an average virus were my size, a bacterium would be the size of a dinosaur over ten stories tall.
It could be a scale thing taht means this first generation of magnetic detox devices are too large to pick up virus particles. i don't know what sort of % you would need to remove of a viral infection compared to a bacterial infection to ensure a recovery by the casualty, but suspect it would be a lot higher for a virus.
Another problem could lie in the changing nature of viruses, making them a harder target to select for when designing your magnetised particles.
It would be a wonderful application if it works.
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!!
And Hemoglobin contains a Fe atom so that it can bind with O2, this allows red blood cells to transport a lot more oxygen. So the downside to this would be the same as CO-poisoning (the Fe binds with the CO, not with O. This binding lasts a long time, you die...).
I am a viral sig. Please help me spread.
The iron in hemoglobin isn't magnetic, so this won't have any more effect on blood cells than the "improve your circulation" magnets do.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
Uncle Sam wont let it pass though, as they make a ton of money on DUI's. I cant see the senators letting this "taxation" go away. In MN last year, we had over 200,000 DUI's (More than the population of Minneapolis!). Multiply this by $1500 (lucky average), and you'll see that it is not a small amount of bling-bling that our polititions can wear. I too thought the same thing, but then realized what kind of $$ is at stake. Not a snowballs chance in hell. In fact, we are now in the process of bringing the DUI limit down to .08 :-). I got stopped a while ago and blew a .096, the cop towed the car and gave me a careless driving ticket even though I was only stopped for a light that was out (and was below the legal limit). I still dont understand that one, but I'm not a cop, so I have no idea that the law was like that. Nonetheless, it still counts as a DUI on my insurance record (again, lobbying the senators from the insurance companies).
Money talks, bullshit (citizen) walks.
It can catch cancer cells in the bloodstream, but it won't catch those spreading by the lymph system.
And for future reference, it's "metastasized".
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
From the article: "Small crystals of magnetite are added to the particles..." . Magnetite (Fe3O4) is magnetic because the 2 Fe+3 ions arranged with the Fe+2 ion in that specific configuration make for "magnetic domains", regions in the magnetite crystals where all the unpaired electrons are spinning the same way[0]. The iron in the hemoglobin in your blood is either Fe+2 or +3, no magnetic domains can exist because the hemoglobin molecules are floating around in solution and don't line up at all--no ferromagnetism. Even if you had a crystal of pure hemoglobin, it'd be paramagnetic (very weakly magnetic, like pure oxygen) or diamagnetic (no magnetic effects at all). You can see this for yourself by trying to pick up a drop of your own blood with a really strong horseshoe magnet.
[0] Well, not really, but the real explanation involves a lot of math and I can't remember it anyway.
Give a monkey a brain and he'll swear he's the center of the universe.
The body would attack those things because they are foreign
Read the article, my friend - they're coated so they don't get recognised as antigens. Nor will they get stuck (they took care over this one, designed wuith reference to pore sizes), and in any case are biodegradable.
The iron is not magnetic (or at least only very slightly) while in hemoglobin.
Informative? Mod it informative when you know what the hell you're talking about.
It's been a few years since I had to think about this, but I think that's an electric dipole moment, not a magnetic moment you're thinking of.
As I remember it, the 'V' shaped arrangement (H-O-H) of the atoms in the H2O molecule result in a slight misalignment of the electron clouds of the atoms, causing a small electric dipole moment capable of bonding other nearby similarly configured molecules into chains. It's responsible for the hydrogen bonding that gives water its viscosity.
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
[I'm only about one or two Scientific American articles ahead of you, so let's hope that a real molecular biology geek shows up].
This is what antibodies are for. You need to make an antibody that has a very high specific affinity for the virus and a lower affinity for friendly cells. (Nature does this by generating large numbers of antibodies at random, then filtering out antibodies that show reactivity with your own cells. All the rest are let loose in the body).
Then you attach the magnetized tag on the other end of the antibody.
The antibody attaches to the virus in a death grip, and then the little black box can filter out the magnetized tag.
You don't have to remove 100% of the virus load to cure somebody. You just have to get a lot of the virus so that the body's natural immune system can fight the rest.
Indeed, other groups have tried the antibody idea with different payloads, such as a radioactive atom bonded onto the antibody. The antibody attaches to the virus or the cancer cell, then the radioactive atom decays right there next to the bad cell.
The sad thing is they'll use stories like this to hawk their snake oil.
Hangovers are caused by your body being dehydrated. To fix the worst of the effect, drink lots of water (preferably the night before) or, if you happen to be an EMT, stick some saline solution right into your blood.
Not quite.
Hangovers are caused by your body producing acetaldehyde as it metabolizes alcohol. Dehydration does play a role, but it is a supporting role.
A good description of what happens, and good advice on what to do about it can be found here.
Alternatively, you can pick up the RU-21 pill designed by the KGB to keep their agents from getting hangovers.
Second, if you have an overabundance of iron in your diet, you just poop more iron. Unlike most other nutrients, your body only absorbs what iron it needs. Iron is a dangerous thing to have too much of, for reasons unrelated to magnetism. The best way to get more iron in your blood is to move to a high altitude.
There is a reason for everything. Sometimes that reason just sucks.
Nice idea, but keep in mind that THC can be traced at other places in your body than just in your blood. Hair comes to mind, for instance. So for now, this technology, if it ever becomes practical, won't save you from the consequences of a drug test...
The short of it is that atoms spin on an axis, and if you put atoms in a strong magnetic field, their spin axes will mostly line up. Adding a strong RF pulse will "tip" them in one direction (like tipping a spinning top) and they will precess while going back to alignment with the field. This precession can be picked up as a seperate RF emission, and the nature of the emission from each atom will be affected by what atoms are around it. It's the same concept as NMR, just that medical MRI looks for the specific signature of water, finding differences in tissue density.
There is a reason for everything. Sometimes that reason just sucks.
yes, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging does not look for iron but he said fMRI
But I can talk out of my ass, so here goes. The reason free iron is dangerous is that it is required by bacteria; in their natural environment, it's often a limiting reagent in growth. Maybe the influx of iron induces a growth spurt in the gut flora. Or, maybe it's a chemical or osmotic thing, where the iron reduces or oxidizes the intestinal lining, or osmotically damages it, causing sepsis or some other massive inflammatory reaction. Like I said, though...just talking out of my ass there.
And, after that flatulence, here's the Google result. It is a chemical thing, free radical formation by the absorbtion regulation process.
There is a reason for everything. Sometimes that reason just sucks.
There are three types of magnetism in substances:
Ferromagnetism: This is what we'd call magnetic normally. things like iron or some advanced ceramics are this. It is a strongly magnetic material.
Dimagnetic: This is completely non-magnetic. Helium would be a good example. Most people think that everything that isn't ferromagnetic is in this category but it's not.
Paramagnetic: This is a very weak magnetic attraction. Much, much weaker than something that is ferromagnetic, but still influenced by magnets. Water would be an example of a paramagnetic substance.
So you can technically call water magnetic. I mean you can influence it, if you've got a strong enough magnet. It's got to be real, REAL strong though. No fridge magnets or anything.
De-oxygenated hemoglobin isn't magnetic, but oxygenated hemoglobic is paramagnetic.
Let's clarify this for all the non chemist/physicist-readers here..
Simplified, there are three forms of magnetism, ferromagnetism, paramagnetism and diamagnetism.
Ferromagnetism is what we ususally mean when we speak of something being 'magnetic'.
The other two are mainly molecular phenomena, and are very weak.
Molecular oxygen is paramagnetic. This doesn't mean there is more air near your refrigerator. At least not under normal circumstances.
In case you are caught unprepared without your Ultimate Hangover Cure (nice link btw), chugging several Big Gulps full of water before hitting the sack is a tremendous help. Most of the hangover symptoms (headaches, nausea, dry mouth, aching joints) are either caused or exacerbated by the dehydration that results from drinking. Even if you're lacking B-complex vitamins and a way to neutralize the acetaldehyde, 40 oz of water will go a long, long way toward making the next day as pleasant as possible.
People may not believe this, since drinking water on the day after does very little to make the hangover go away. Trust me, chug water before going to bed.
Oh, and since your web link didn't have this piece of advice, I add it here: Avoid tequila like the demon-spawned liquor of evil that it is.
Or at least don't mix it with beer.
The enemies of Democracy are
This is a new and surprising application of an old technology. We routinely use a similar technique in the lab to precipitate proteins. You basically immobilize antibodies that recognize a specific protein on magnetic beads, then suspend the beads in a cell extract. The antibodies bind the targeted protein to the beads, and when you apply a magnetic field, the beads stick to the side of the tube, and you can suck off the crap you don't want, washing multiple times.
The beads we use are very human-unfriendly, but the basic concept is the same. It also means that anything you can raise antibodies against can be pulled out of solution with this technique. Only one problem: antibodies are EXPENSIVE. Using enough to pull all of a given toxin out of a human would cost hundreds of dollars, if not more.
I don't know. The Representative from South Dakota was convicted of manslaughter after hitting someone on a motorcycle today and faces 10 years in prison.
The Glass is Too Big: My Take on Things
Anyway, since I already checked my notes for that last bit, here's a bit from a toxicology book:
"There are essentially five stages of iron poisoning:
Stage I (30 min to 6 hours): GI irritation, primarily due to the corrosive effect of iron. Drowsiness, epigastric pain, GI bleeding, hypotention, and nausea/vomiting may occur. Hyperglycemia, leukocytosis, or metabolic acidosis may be present (due to vasodilation).
Stage II: (6 to 24 hours): A latent period of symptom quiescence during which symptomatic improvement may be noted. In severe poisonings, there may be not latent period.
Stage III (6 to 48 hours): Metabolic and systemic derangement occur with cardiovascular collapse, coagulopathy (inhibition of thrombin and fibrinogen), coma, and seizures. Pulmonary edema may occur due to cardiac failure.
Stage IV (2 to 7 days): Hepatotoxicity (jaundice) and coagulopathy occur. Metabolic acidosis is present, and renal insufficiency may occur.
Stage V (1 to 8 weeks): Primarily delated GI complications, including gastric/duodenal fibrosis resulting in obstructive pattern. Achlorhydria may develop."
Er, that was longer to type than I thought. Oh, well. There's a lot of terminology that I can translate if you want.
The toxicity of acute iron poisoning is due to local effects on GI mucosa, and systemic effects due to excessive iron in the body. Iron is irritating to the gastric and duodenal mucosa, which may result in hemorrage and occasionally perforations. Once absorbed, iron is taken up by tissues, particularly the liver, and acts as a mitochondrial poison. It occasionally causes hepatic injury. Iron may significantly inhibit aerobic glycolysis and perturb the electron transport system (that means it screws up the burning of glucose). Further, iron may shnt electrons away from the electron transport system, thereby reducing the efficiency of oxidative phosphorylation (ditto). These biochemical factors, along with the cardiovascular effects of iron, lead to metabolic acidosis. The pathogenesis of shock is not well understood but may include developmen of hypovolemia and lactic acidosis, release of endogenous vasodilators, and direct vasodepressant effects of iron and ferritin on the circulation (see fig 9-8, a really cool flow chart that probably makes more sense than this but would take forever to format properly).
Oh, and there's also iron overload, a condition caused by the (relatively slow) deposition of iron in organs which can result due to frequent transfusions (eg, needed by patients with thalassemia), which is prevented/treated with iron chelating agents.