Researcher Claims Magnets Can Affect Blood Viscosity

BuzzSkyline writes "A few minutes in a high magnetic field (1.3 Tesla) is enough to thin blood by 30%, potentially leading to a new drug-free therapy to prevent heart attacks. The powerful field causes blood cells to line up in chains that flow much more easily than randomly-scattered individual cells, according to research scheduled to appear this month in the journal Physical Review E." I can't help thinking of Penn & Teller's look at magnets-as-medicine, though at least the idea here described sounds testable and doesn't rely on the power of suggestion.

Comments

Re:subtle issues

[Cosgrach]

I work with field mapping in NMR magnets. I've had to pass most of the work to others. 3T fields now give me migraines. Even the silver and gold dental work in your teeth are affected - the magnetic fields generate eddy currents in the metal. Nothing better than the weird taste of metal in you mouth. Once or twice, I've been in 7T research magnets - what a trip (not the fun type) - woozy and dizzy for hours after even a few minutes in one of them.