Hey, everyone, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. Today, we're going to pull back the curtain on something that has quietly infiltrated our lives, and that is microplastics. And we're not just talking about plastic.
In the oceans or in fish.
We're talking about it in our organs, our bloodstream.
And even our brilliants.
We know that microplastics have also been found in human placentis, but in a recent study in Nature Medicine, microplastics were found in a bunch of people who were recently deceased, and they found a spoonful of microplastics embedded in the brain.
And here's the kicker.
Those who had dementia and died with it had three to five times higher level of microplastics, particularly in the cerebral vascular walls and the immune cells in the brain.
And even more worrying.
The microplastics found in the brain were especially tiny, under two hundred nanometers and primarily made of polyetherne, which is
commonly used in food packaging. And it turns out that the levels of microplastics in the brain weren't affected by sex, age or rais, but they were fifty percent higher in individuals who died in twenty twenty four compared to those who died in twenty sixteen, And that shows us just how rapidly this issue is escalating, tracking almost perfectly alongside the explosion in ultra processed food consumption and plastic packaging. So let's unpack how these particles are getting into us.
So it turns out that there are three main pass ways, and that's ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact. But food really is the major vector here, and especially ultra processed foods. And you know, I'm not a big fan of them, but those foods, things like chicken nuggets, instant noodle, snack cakes, these sorts of things, they're not just nutrient poor, they're microplastic rich. So one analysis find that chicken nuggets, the stuff that is in every restaurant for kids meals, contains
thirty times more microplastic program than playing chicken breast. Why because ultra processed foods are handled more, they're package more, and they're often hated or stored in plastic containers. And if you're bunkers enough to use plastic containers in the micreatives, I still say Australians.
Do when every breadth.
Even when I was a kid, we knew you shouldent microwave plastics. But when you do do that, you could be releasing as many as four point two million microplastic and two point one billion nanoplastic particles from just one square centimeter of plastic within three minutes of heating. Even storing food in plastic without any heat results in measurable plastic leeching. It is everywhere, and over time these particles accumulate.
Another big culprit is bottled water, and switching from bottle to top water can reduce microplastic ingestion from about ninety thousand to just four thousand particles per year, where some people are aren't a fan of top water, but you can filter it, and that for me is a big change that we've made in our household because it has a huge pay off. Now let's switch and talk about general health.
Animal studies have shown that microplastics can imper memory, reduce levels of key synaptic proteins in the brain, and even shrink the hippocampus that's the area of the brain involved in learning and memory, and in humans were just beginning to scratch the surface, but the mechanisms out there, and they're known oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and disruption of neurotransmitters such as GABBA and glutamate, things that play central roles in
conditions like anxiety, depression, and even psychosis. And there's also growing evidence linking microplastics with cardiovascular disease. One study found that people with microplastics in their carotid artery plaques had a significantly higher risk of stroke, heart attack, or death. And remember this isn't limited to food. We talk to start about inhalation. That's a major route of exposure to especially indoors, and studies have shown that an adult meal
may inhale up to sixty two thousand microplastic particles a year. Now, hep of filters, which can remove particles as small as zero point three microns, are an excellent way to reduce indoor exposure. So, now that we've talked about all the scurry shit, and by the way, this is just a tip of the Iceberger microplastics.
I have talked about.
Them before, but given this new research, I thought it was useful to revisit it.
So let's talk about what we can do.
So let firstly, let's talk about reducing exposure. First of all, ditch the bottle water, or if you do have bottle water, make sure you're buying it out of glass bottles. Tapwater, especially when it's filtered, contains far fewer microplastics than bottled water that you get out of those crappy plastic bottles. And then switching from plastic to glass or stainless steel containers. This is something that we've done for ourselves and our kids.
And this is not just for lunch boxes, but for storage, for cooking and for drinking as well. And it should be obvious from the comment earlier, never ever, ever microwave food in plastic, use ceramic or glass containers instead. And a big one is just eating less ultra processed food. As well as causing lots of chronic diseases, it is a big route for microplastics getting into your body and
your brain. And then it's avoiding canned foods or minimizing when possible, because many cans are lined with plastic that contains BPA, which then leaches into our food. And then if you've got the dosh, you can install a heap of filter at home, especially in the bedroom where you spend a third of your life. So you just got to think about where you're spending time and open the windows at home as well to just get some fresher in there, and then reading labels carefully. And we know
even tea bags actually contain plastic. And I've actually very recently made the switch to loose leaf tea and it is a pain in the arts, but I think it's worth it, given that I drink a fur bit of tea.
Just to make that little switch.
So let's know, I talk about once it's in there, which it is. It is definitely there are microplastics in your body for sure. Can we actually remove them? So that's the million dollar question and the short answer is we don't know for sure, but there are promising signs.
So for instance, to study looking at BPA, the chemical that is found in plastics, found that sweat was the only root of excretion in sixteen out of twenty people that they tested, and that suggests that induce sweating through exercise, saunas that sort of stuff can help eliminate some plastic derived compounds. And that's basically one of the best ways of getting rid of all toxins in your body. And why we don't yet have direct evidence that sweating removes
microplastics themselves. It is a logical starting point because it is a way that we eliminate toxins, and then if we combine that with good hydration and high fiber, they both support detoxification pathways via the liver and the bile.
So in short, to enhance your elimination, make sure.
You get hot and sweaty regularly, whether it's via sauna, hot yoga, or intense workouts. Sweating is the best way to get rid of all of your toxins in your body. Then it's about staying hydrated because that helps support your kidneys in your liver, and they are the body's natural detoxifiers, so we need to make sure they're working really well, and even plenty of fiber. It turns out that soluble fiber binds with toxins in the gut and helps eliminate them.
So think of things like oats, g seeds, peas, beans, lentils, legoons.
The stuff that makes you fart generally.
Does it because of the soluble fiber. And then it's about supporting your liver function. So we know that's vias two detox that's cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, Brussels sprouts ideally not boiled like my ma used to do, but.
They sorts.
Any of those cruciferous vegetables help with detox enzyme activity. And then you could consider using activated charcoal or bentonite clay. These are both binders with potential for toxin removal, and it's actually been shown in studies that it can actually increase the removal of toxins. So now, clearly microplasts are not something we can completely avoid. They're in our environment, they're in our food system, they're in the ere we breathe,
they're in the water we drink. But we can significantly reduce our burden and maybe even reverse some of the damage.
With smarter choices.
So, emerging data links high microplastic and BPA loads to depression, anxiety, and cognitive decline, and one clinical trial fund that cutting back on ultra processed food led to a greater than one point effect size reduction in depressive symptoms, which is pretty significant. Could part of that be due to lower microplastic exposure. I think it's certainly a hypothesis that we could explore. So to wrap up just a quick summary, avoid bottled water, Minimize ultra processed foods at all costs.
Avoid heating food and plastic in the microwave. Minimize your canned foods, minimize plastic tea bags and cutlery and those sorts of things and all sorts of plastics that you come across. And then embrace tapwater, ideally filtered glass containers, metal containers, whole foods, especially with lots of cruciferous vegetables. Embraces sonnas and sweating through exercise, fiber rich meals, heap
of filters, and clean indoors by opening the windows. So hopefully that gives you a little bit of information and a few tones.
That's it for this week, Folks, catch you next time.