K, so, for whatever reason, this decade has been popular for articles from seemingly scientific sources saying that geomagnetic storms are causing negative health effects on the body, through magnetic field fluctuations. I looked it up…and during the most extreme geomagnetic storms, Earth’s magnetic field fluctuates at a rate of about 500 nanotesla per minute. Is that rate of change enough to induce enough of a current that it acts as a cellular stressor?
edit: I was reading through a Reddit thread earlier where ER staff mentioned how during geomagnetic storms the ER is unusually busy and how their hospital is considering installing magnetic field detecting devices so they can plan accordingly…?
Earths magnetic field isn’t even powerful enough to make naturally occurring magnets (lodestones) with. So no, it’s not anywhere near powerful enough to mess with your cells. There maybe some biological functions are an influenced or can sense the magnetic field (one theory why birds seemingly know which direction north is) but as far as I know these are all theories or myth (men have metal in their nose which they use to sense north which is why they never get lost.)
Naturally occurring magnetic rocks, for anyone who is curious, are created by lightning striking iron-rich deposits in the ground. You can make a ferrous metal magnetic in a similar way (quick bursts of electricity.)
Is this how I find out I’m not a man lol
The narrative isn’t so much the static magnetic field but fluctuating/time varying magnetic fields induced on Earth during magnetic storms. When a magnetic field changes it can induce currents in tissues. It’s proportional to both the strength of the field and the rate of change. During an extreme geomagnetic storm, the rate of change can be up to 500 nanoteslas per minute.
It’s being argued that these tiny (less than 1% of Earth’s static field strength) fluctuations in Earth’s magnetic field are stressing cells and the body, resulting in the correlations between geomagnetic storms and heart attacks, strokes, autonomic dysfunction, and other serious illnesses.
Still insignificant. Solar storms and fluctuating magnetic fields have been happening for longer than humans have been here and have been happening while humans were here. Theres tons of pseudo-science gaining popularity online, can’t believe astrology is still so popular with people, and this sounds like one of them to be honest.
That means humans developed in an environment where these changes wee happening - so if it could affect us, natural selection would’ve compensated.
Just like how our lungs and cardio system is adapted to our nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere.
This study accounted for weather, and found an increased rate of nearly 30 percent in heart attacks (MI) during geomagnetic storms. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-013-0660-0 That is massive, akin to the increase you’d expect during an environmental catastrophe, such as a severe heatwave or something.
Those methods are prone to false positives, a large US study found it more like 0.31% increase in MI deaths, which is more than 24 hour PM2.5 but less than the effect the cold season
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12940-019-0516-0.pdf
Sample size and demographic makeup could skew things like that.