The Potential Impact of Microplastics on Organs, Including the Brain
Early research shows reason for concern, finding microplastics can cause inflammation and oxidative stress in mice and accumulate in animal organs
That delicious slice of pizza that you’re eating may come with an invisible side of plastic.
Every day, microplastics—tiny plastic fragments smaller than a grain of rice—are making their way into our food supply, our water, and, subsequently, our bodies.
Early research shows reason for concern, finding microplastics can cause inflammation and oxidative stress in mice and accumulate in animal organs.
You’re Likely Ingesting Microplastics Every Day, Studies Warn
Larger plastics such as shopping bags and water bottles degrade into microplastics over time. Elements such as sunlight and water break down plastics that evade waste management, reducing them to microscopic size.
Everyday products such as cosmetics, synthetic fabrics, and single-use plastic bags also shed plastic particles. These tiny plastic fragments travel through water, air, and the food chain until they ultimately enter our bodies.
Plastic production has climbed exponentially to more than 460 million metric tons in 2019. It’s estimated that people ingest approximately 5 grams of plastic per week, an amount equal to the weight of a credit card, according to a 2019 analysis published by the World Wildlife Federation, an independent conservation organization.
Because many people consume bottled water daily, microplastic exposure is far-reaching.
In the past year, researchers tested 22 people and found that most had detectable microplastics in their blood, according to a 2022 study published in Environment International.
Research links plastic chemicals, such as phthalates and bisphenols, to conditions such as obesity and diabetes, potentially caused by inflammation and hormone disruption.
Surgery may also introduce microplastics into the bloodstream and organs.
Researchers collected and analyzed blood samples from 15 patients before and after cardiovascular surgery. Nine types of microplastics were found across five tissue types.
After surgery, the plastic particles were smaller and more varied in composition. The invasive procedures appeared to introduce additional microplastics into the bloodstream. From there, the particles made their way into the innermost tissues of the heart.
How Do Microplastics Affect Health?
These tiny particles contain harmful chemicals such as flame retardants, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and plasticizers such as BPA, which can disrupt hormones and cause chronic inflammation.
Scientists are finding that over time, microplastics accumulate in vital organs. This buildup of plastic fragments in the body may lead to potentially long-term health consequences.
Microplastics Can Quickly Infiltrate Cells and Tissues
Microplastics can infiltrate cells within 24 hours of exposure and accumulate near the cell’s nucleus in mice, according to a 2023 International Journal of Molecular Sciences study. The authors discovered that the longer the cells were exposed to microplastics, the more the cells’ viability was reduced.
The researchers examined major tissues including the brain, liver, kidney, gastrointestinal tract, heart, spleen, and lungs to see where microplastics accumulate. “Surprisingly,” they wrote, they detected microplastics “in every tissue examined,” as well as in urine and feces.
The study also showed increased inflammatory immune markers such as cytokines and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) in mice exposed to microplastics.
When these tiny particles enter the body, immune cells recognize them as foreign invaders and initiate an inflammatory reaction to remove them. Prolonged exposure to microplastics can lead to chronic inflammation.
The Brain’s Battle Against Microplastics
Microplastics can rapidly infiltrate even the most protected organ—the brain—according to a 2023 Austrian study published in Nanomaterials. Researchers gave mice drinking water containing microplastics.
The plastic particles migrated into the mice’s brains within just two hours.
The microplastics then became enveloped in cholesterol molecules on the brain’s surface. This enabled them to cross the blood-brain barrier, which normally protects the brain from toxins and chemicals.
“The studies in mice are alarming,” Dr. Palmer said. “They have demonstrated widespread distribution of microplastics throughout the body, including the brain, within two hours of consumption.
“This new research suggests what researchers have feared: Microplastics can cause brain inflammation quickly and produce behavior changes within three weeks in mice. However, we need more research to evaluate their impact in humans.”
Microplastics Fuel Dementia in Mice
Older mice exhibited more impaired behaviors than younger ones.
GFAP serves as a biomarker indicating Alzheimer’s disease-related issues before the onset of dementia.
Reducing Microplastics in Our Lives
These include:
- Stainless steel water bottles can serve as a sustainable replacement for plastic water bottles.
- Bring canvas or cotton bags to the grocery store.
- Instead of grabbing a coffee in a paper cup at the local café, customers can present their reusable mugs to baristas.
- Because animals, livestock, and some farmed fish are fed feed pellets often containing microplastics, consumers should choose organically raised meat whenever possible.
“You do everything you can to limit your toxic exposure,” Christopher Kelley, a Wisconsin-based physician assistant and founder of North Star Integrative Health, told The Epoch Times.
“You know that you’ll never get it all, but every little bit that you do helps your overall health.”
See more here theepochtimes
Header image: chayanuphol / Shutterstock
About the author: Michelle Standlee, R.N., is a health reporter for The Epoch Times. She has a background as a registered nurse and medical writer, covering topics including mental and behavioral health, women’s and children’s health, traditional health care, complementary medicine, and alternative medicine.
Please Donate Below To Support Our Ongoing Work To Defend The Scientific Method
PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company 
incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX.
Trackback from your site.
Anapat
| #
In France they put chlorine in the tap water, so they can sell ist. The taste is awful. This pushes people to consume water bottles.
Reply
Wisenox
| #
PEGylation is also a concern, but most are unaware of why. Polyethylene glycol is chemically inert. This means that it does not possess surface charge capabilities. For example, when a pathogen interacts with a macrophage, there is an electrical transfer on the cell surfaces and this will activate effector functions, such as phagocytosis, enzyme release or the complement cascade.
PEG has no charge and elicits no immune response, so it’s up to the liver and spleen to filter them out. There are, however, limitations for the organs; the spleen handles 100um sizes and the liver 200um. If the PEGylation is longer than 200um, then the body is not able to remove it and it will simply accumulate over the person’s lifetime, like aluminum.
Lipid nanoparticles are PEGylated. Picture a ball with small squiggly lines all over it. Those lines are ligands, and will only dock with certain receptors on certain cells. They target cells this way.
Now picture more squiggly lines. These ones are PEG, and as the lipid nanoparticle bumps into immune cells it is ignored because the PEG is inert. So, it can avoid immune responses until it reaches it’s destination.
The PEG is usually connected using disulfude linkers, but there are other ways. When the disulfide linkers encounter thiol conatining compounds, such as glutathione, the PEG is released.
These same disulfide linkers are used to connect the lipid nanoparticles to monkey-human chimeric antibodies. The antibodies are then able to crosslink macrophages, which is a process by which 2 or more receptors are connected at the same time. The macrophage assumes that the pathogen is too big, and it is left alone. This is how the HIV glycoprotein works, and is like also why they tell you they found HIV in the vaccines.
Did they put HIV in it, or are they deactivating immune cells using crosslinkinkg and PEGylation in the liver?
Why liver? It houses 90% of your macrophages, and are the only macrophages in the body that release extracellular glutathione. Meaning, they reach the liver, shut down the immune system, glutathione is called out and the PEGylated lipid shit balls are free to reach other parts of the body.
Which is more logical, HIV or immune deactivation?
Reply
Howdy
| #
Hmm, what about rubber particles, oil spray, metal fragments, paper fragments etc…
Reply