if you have iron in your blood do you actually have microscopic metal in you blood

Question: if you have iron in your blood do you actually have microscopic metal in you blood
- Keywords:
  blood,
  iron,
  metal,
  microscopic
Asked by opolotjwh to David, Helen, Ian, rhysphillips, Sarah on 24 Jun 2011.
- Rhys Phillips answered on 14 Jun 2011:
  
  Yes the iron in your blood is the metal – in fact that’s part of the reason your blood is red, the same colour as rust. In both cases it’s the mixture of iron and oxygen that makes it go red.
- Sarah Cook answered on 15 Jun 2011:
  
  yep!
- Ian van der Linde answered on 15 Jun 2011:
  
  You do! There are lot’s of different metals needed in the human body, although there are lots of other metals that are very bad for us too!
- Helen Fletcher answered on 24 Jun 2011:
  
  Yes we do. All living organisms need iron as it binds oxygen which is essential to life. Have you ever seen X-men? In one of the films Magneto feeds a security guard an iron tablet and then kills him by sucking all the iron particles out. That is quite unrealistic though- tiny soluble iron particles (ions) are not magnetic in the same way as solid iron in which the particles are bound together in a network

Question: if you have iron in your blood do you actually have microscopic metal in you blood