Could Magnets Help Prevent Heart Attacks?

If a person's blood becomes too thick it can damage blood vessels and increase the risk of heart attacks. But a Temple University physicist has discovered that he can thin the human blood by subjecting it to a magnetic field.

In our modern age of advanced medicine, heart attacks, unfortunately, are still not rare. They can happen to anyone, at any age. In fact, these days heart attacks have become the leading cause of death, especially in women.
If a person’s heart muscles are not supplied with enough oxygen-rich blood, it can increase the risk of a heart attack. And once the blood becomes too thick, it can also damage blood vessels. Aspirin aside, there are relatively few blood-thinning drugs available on the market. Sadly, they also have their side effects.

In a recent study, Professor Rongjia Tao from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA has invented a safer and repeatable technique for thinning human blood by subjecting it to a magnetic field. "This method of magneto-rheology provides an effective way to control the blood viscosity within a selected range," said Tao.

Aggregated red-cell clusters have a streamlined shape, leading to further viscosity reduction.

Professor Tao discovered that the magnetic field polarizes the red blood cells, causing them to link together in short chains. But how? “The hemoglobin in red blood cells is an iron-containing protein capable of binding oxygen molecules. Therefore, red cells have a higher magnetic susceptibility than the blood’s base liquid, plasma,” explained Rongjia Tao in an email. “In a strong magnetic field, red cells are thus polarized and aggregate into short chains,” he added.