Microplastics are invading your brain at an increasing rate. Here's what that means for your health
A new study found microplastics in the liver and kidneys of 52 people who had died – but the brain had the highest proportion of microplastics of all organs studied.
The amount of tiny shards of plastic in the brain had also increased by 50% compared to studies done in 2016.
Researchers found levels of microplastics almost 10 times higher in the brains of the 12 people who died with dementia. They said the microplastics were not a cause of dementia, however, saying: 'Atrophy of brain tissue, impaired blood-brain barrier integrity and poor clearance mechanisms are hallmarks of dementia and would be anticipated to increase MNP concentrations; thus, no causality is assumed from these findings.'
Toxologist Matthew Campen PhD, who led the research team from the University of New Mexico, said that the rate of accumulation in our bodies mirrors the increasing amounts of plastic waste on the planet. 'This really changes the landscape. It makes it so much more personal,' he adds.
Previous research by his team has found microplastics in human placenta and testes.
What's the health impact of microplastics in the body?
The researchers said that we don't yet know the real health effects of microplastics in the body. Campen says that the impact may be due to the physical instruction of plastics, rather than just a side effect of the toxic chemicals.
'We start thinking that maybe these plastics obstruct blood flow in capillaries,' he said. 'There’s the potential that these nanomaterials interfere with the connections between axons [a part of the nerve] in the brain. They could also be a seed for the aggregation of proteins involved in dementia. We just don’t know.'
There have been alarm bells around microplastics' impact on our planet and bodies for a while. It's thought we ingest them from the air and our food, as well as via skincare. As such, avoiding microplastics is nearly impossible.
However, for Campen, this new study should make people even more motivated to create change. He says it can unfortunately be hard to motivate consumers to care about microplastics when it is framed as an environmental issue 'measured in parts per billion'. However, 'I have yet to encounter a single human being who says, "There’s a bunch of plastic in my brain and I’m totally cool with that."'
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