Basic MRI question

[thomsg]

Hi lovely people,

Not so long ago, I had an MRI in the groin and/or abdominal area. Retrospectively, I am somewhat concerned as I suffered from some side effects (anorexia, avolition and even unnatural heat in the entire genital area). I can only say that the procedure lasted almost one hour and included contrast agent.  

So first, can these side effects stem from the MRI, particularly the enduring heat? I can't imagine that heat there is healthy... I also guess it worsened my originally sclerosed varicocele. Is that thinkable? Can an MRI have an impact on veins or the blood flow?

Secondly, a very basic question: The big magnet aligns the body's protons in a definite way. If, say, such a procedure takes one hour, what does this unnatural alignment do to the human body? Is this really without any long-term effects? In this context, does an alignment also happend when, for instance, going through a body scanner at the airport? Most importantly, once out of the magnetic field, is the "order" of the protons again as it was before or are the hydrogen protons then just "randomly arranged" but quite definitely in a different way than before the MRI?

As I guess all the body's water is renewed every ~16 days, does this mean that, once one has an MRI after 16 days, all the protons used for creating the images the last time are very different/new ones anyway? With a naturally different original alignment?

I must be honest, the fact that all or most of my protons were aligned in an unnatural way concerns me to some extent.

Thank you so much for your help.

Regards,
Frank

[Ger57]

In your body, your hydrogen nuclei are constant on the move. They tumble and turn around, you take in new ones from food and drink and they leave your body again through urinating, sweating.
The ones that leave your body after you have been in the MRI machine are not different from the new ones you take in while drinking. But yes, after a couple of days (16?) most of the "old ones" will be replaced.

I do not know if a human being needs an own magnetic sense.

[Ger57]

Unlike some other medical imaging techniques, MRI does not involve radioactivity or ionising radiation. There are no adverse health effects.

Compare your body's hydrogen nuclei to compass needles. Once they are in a magnetic field they align, once the field is removed, the forces on them are gone and they take random positions again.

MRI scans do not normally produce heating in the vast majority of scans performed but that in very rare cases heating can occur either because of conductive implants or due to skin to skin contact or perhaps other circumstances.
Perhaps the heat you experienced was a allergic reaction from the contrast agent.

[thomsg]

Thank you very much for your reply. So in general all my compass needles are in random positions, probably also changing all the time. Do they also naturally cosiderably change their positions under certain circumstances, e.g. whilst doing sports? And is it also these nuclei that have left my body after about 16 days of "water-renewal" anyway? I assume that human beings to some extend need their own magnetic sense and that there may be problems once the order is massively disturbed for a little while. Thanks again.