Comparisons of Responses by Planarian to Micromolar to Attomolar Dosages of Morphine or Naloxone and/or Weak Pulsed Magnetic Fields: Revealing Receptor Subtype Affinities and Nonspecific Effects.
Murugan NJ, Persinger MA. · 2014
View Original AbstractMagnetic fields 10 times weaker than Earth's field produced drug-like effects on nervous system function in laboratory organisms.
Plain English Summary
Researchers exposed flatworms (planaria) to extremely weak magnetic fields (5 microTesla) for 2 hours and measured their movement speed. The magnetic field exposure reduced the worms' activity by about 50%, similar to the effects of morphine and other opioid drugs. This suggests that weak magnetic fields can affect nervous system function in ways that mimic drug effects.
Why This Matters
This study reveals something remarkable: magnetic fields at just 5 microTesla can produce neurological effects equivalent to opioid drugs. To put this in perspective, that's roughly 10 times weaker than Earth's natural magnetic field and hundreds of times weaker than typical household magnetic field exposures from appliances and power lines. What makes this particularly significant is that planaria have simple nervous systems that share fundamental similarities with human neural pathways, including opioid-like receptors. The researchers found that these ultra-weak magnetic fields essentially 'drugged' the worms, slowing their movement by half. While we can't directly extrapolate from flatworms to humans, this research adds to a growing body of evidence that even very low-level magnetic field exposures can influence biological systems in ways we're only beginning to understand.
Exposure Details
- Magnetic Field
- 0.005 mG
- Exposure Duration
- 2h
Exposure Context
This study used 0.005 mG for magnetic fields:
- 250x above the Building Biology guideline of 0.2 mG
- 50x above the BioInitiative Report recommendation of 1 mG
Building Biology guidelines are practitioner-based limits from real-world assessments. BioInitiative Report recommendations are based on peer-reviewed science. Check Your Exposure to compare your own measurements.
Where This Falls on the Concern Scale
Study Details
The behavioral responses of planaria to the exposures of a range of concentrations of morphine (μM to attoM) or the μ-opiate antagonist naloxone or to either of these compounds and a burst-firing magnetic field (5 μT) were studied.
The locomotor velocity (LMV) of planaria was measured after individual worms were exposed to increas...
Compared to spring water controls, the 2-hour exposure to the patterned magnetic field before measur...
The results support the presence of at least two receptor subtypes that mediate the diminished activity effects elicited by morphine specifically and suggests that exposure to the specifically patterned magnetic field produces a behavioral suppression whose magnitude is similar to the ‘dose independent’ effects from this opiate.
Show BibTeX
@article{nj_2014_comparisons_of_responses_by_281,
author = {Murugan NJ and Persinger MA.},
title = {Comparisons of Responses by Planarian to Micromolar to Attomolar Dosages of Morphine or Naloxone and/or Weak Pulsed Magnetic Fields: Revealing Receptor Subtype Affinities and Nonspecific Effects.},
year = {2014},
doi = {10.3109/09553002.2014.911421},
url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/09553002.2014.911421},
}