Burning the iron in your body

[Knight of Iron]

I was just wondering if we think it is possible for a Lurcher to be able to burn the iron that is part of his body, the iron that helps to produce red blood cells. Maybe iron-deficiency anemia is more common with Lurchers. Like could they just burn all the iron in their body and die? Or if they don't necessarily know that iron is a part of their body, would they be able to feel it as a part of their reserve? If there is a WOB that answers this then please provide.

[Honorless]

Hmm... Metalborn use flakes of metal, Vin was able to burn trace amounts from her plate. Even if the latter is a corner case, the former indicates that amount wise, this should be viable as the human body contains around 3 grams of iron.

How difficult is burning metal that's in your body that isn't ingested (if there even is any difficulty)?

We know that Inquisitors can see these trace metals in bodies even if they can't affect it...

[Elsecaller_17.5]

I suspect its possible, but would require intent.

[+Oltux72]

47 minutes ago, Knight of Iron said:

I was just wondering if we think it is possible for a Lurcher to be able to burn the iron that is part of his body, the iron that helps to produce red blood cells.

Your body does not contain elementary iron. It contains some iron salts and many complexes of iron. (Incidentally it contains a whole load of zinc, too)

Alloys are different from the base metal. Yet the right duralmunium contains just 4% copper. The iron atoms in your blood are a lot more different to raw iron than steel is. All indications are that metals to burn must be in their elementary form.

 

[Knight of Iron]

4 minutes ago, Oltux72 said:

Your body does not contain elementary iron. It contains some iron salts and many complexes of iron. (Incidentally it contains a whole load of zinc, too)

Alloys are different from the base metal. Yet the right duralmunium contains just 4% copper. The iron atoms in your blood are a lot more different to raw iron than steel is. All indications are that metals to burn must be in their elementary form.

Ah, this seems to be what I was looking for. I knew I was missing something. Plus I also found this in the Final Empire concerning the Inquisitors seeing trace metals.

Quote

Almost everything had metal in it—water, stone, glass . . . even human bodies. These metals were too diffuse to be affected by Allomancy—indeed, most Allomancers couldn’t even sense them.

Key word being too diffuse. This seems interesting but I am not smart enough to know what to do with this information lol. Does this mean that if they were concentrated, they could be, theoretically, be affected by Allomancy?

[Karger]

34 minutes ago, Knight of Iron said:

Key word being too diffuse. This seems interesting but I am not smart enough to know what to do with this information lol. Does this mean that if they were concentrated, they could be, theoretically, be affected by Allomancy?

Any metal can theoretically be affected by allomancy.  However anything in the human body is super hard to effect.

[Pathfinder]

I thought there was a bunch of WoB on this. I will list what I recall and pull them up later when I have a chance for reference

1. affecting metal in a person's body is difficult due to the person's innate investiture. Though difficult, it is not impossible (as evidenced by the Lord Ruler pushing on Vin's metal flakes in her stomach)

2. Metal spikes (both hemalurgically charged, as well as normal) can be burned by the person it pierces. Just you have to consciously chose to burn them, and it is very painful. 

3. Affecting metal in a person's body is more dependent on the strength of the individual using the power, than the concentration, though it can help. Wax for instance was able to see the spikes in Tensoon via his steel sight, and push on Wayne's metal minds when they were not as full. 

[Shard of Reading]

I always thought that the iron had to be in your stomach to burn it.