Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. Today,
Speaker 1: we're going to pull back the curtain on something that
Speaker 1: has quietly infiltrated our lives, and that is microplastics. And
Speaker 1: we're not just talking about plastic.
Speaker 2: In the oceans or in fish.
Speaker 1: We're talking about it in our organs, our bloodstream.
Speaker 2: And even our brilliants.
Speaker 1: We know that microplastics have also been found in human placentis,
Speaker 1: but in a recent study in Nature Medicine, microplastics were
Speaker 1: found in a bunch of people who were recently deceased,
Speaker 1: and they found a spoonful of microplastics embedded in the brain.
Speaker 2: And here's the kicker.
Speaker 1: Those who had dementia and died with it had three
Speaker 1: to five times higher level of microplastics, particularly in the
Speaker 1: cerebral vascular walls and the immune cells in the brain.
Speaker 2: And even more worrying.
Speaker 1: The microplastics found in the brain were especially tiny, under
Speaker 1: two hundred nanometers and primarily made of polyetherne, which is
Speaker 1: commonly used in food packaging. And it turns out that
Speaker 1: the levels of microplastics in the brain weren't affected by sex,
Speaker 1: age or rais, but they were fifty percent higher in
Speaker 1: individuals who died in twenty twenty four compared to those
Speaker 1: who died in twenty sixteen, And that shows us just
Speaker 1: how rapidly this issue is escalating, tracking almost perfectly alongside
Speaker 1: the explosion in ultra processed food consumption and plastic packaging.
Speaker 1: So let's unpack how these particles are getting into us.
Speaker 1: So it turns out that there are three main pass ways,
Speaker 1: and that's ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact. But food really
Speaker 1: is the major vector here, and especially ultra processed foods.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm not a big fan of them,
Speaker 1: but those foods, things like chicken nuggets, instant noodle, snack cakes,
Speaker 1: these sorts of things, they're not just nutrient poor, they're
Speaker 1: microplastic rich. So one analysis find that chicken nuggets, the
Speaker 1: stuff that is in every restaurant for kids meals, contains
Speaker 1: thirty times more microplastic program than playing chicken breast. Why
Speaker 1: because ultra processed foods are handled more, they're package more,
Speaker 1: and they're often hated or stored in plastic containers. And
Speaker 1: if you're bunkers enough to use plastic containers in the micreatives,
Speaker 1: I still say Australians.
Speaker 2: Do when every breadth.
Speaker 1: Even when I was a kid, we knew you shouldent
Speaker 1: microwave plastics. But when you do do that, you could
Speaker 1: be releasing as many as four point two million microplastic
Speaker 1: and two point one billion nanoplastic particles from just one
Speaker 1: square centimeter of plastic within three minutes of heating. Even
Speaker 1: storing food in plastic without any heat results in measurable
Speaker 1: plastic leeching. It is everywhere, and over time these particles accumulate.
Speaker 1: Another big culprit is bottled water, and switching from bottle
Speaker 1: to top water can reduce microplastic ingestion from about ninety thousand
Speaker 1: to just four thousand particles per year, where some people
Speaker 1: are aren't a fan of top water, but you can
Speaker 1: filter it, and that for me is a big change
Speaker 1: that we've made in our household because it has a
Speaker 1: huge pay off. Now let's switch and talk about general health.
Speaker 1: Animal studies have shown that microplastics can imper memory, reduce
Speaker 1: levels of key synaptic proteins in the brain, and even
Speaker 1: shrink the hippocampus that's the area of the brain involved
Speaker 1: in learning and memory, and in humans were just beginning
Speaker 1: to scratch the surface, but the mechanisms out there, and
Speaker 1: they're known oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and disruption of neurotransmitters such
Speaker 1: as GABBA and glutamate, things that play central roles in
Speaker 1: conditions like anxiety, depression, and even psychosis. And there's also
Speaker 1: growing evidence linking microplastics with cardiovascular disease. One study found
Speaker 1: that people with microplastics in their carotid artery plaques had
Speaker 1: a significantly higher risk of stroke, heart attack, or death.
Speaker 1: And remember this isn't limited to food. We talk to
Speaker 1: start about inhalation. That's a major route of exposure to
Speaker 1: especially indoors, and studies have shown that an adult meal
Speaker 1: may inhale up to sixty two thousand microplastic particles a year. Now,
Speaker 1: hep of filters, which can remove particles as small as
Speaker 1: zero point three microns, are an excellent way to reduce
Speaker 1: indoor exposure. So, now that we've talked about all the
Speaker 1: scurry shit, and by the way, this is just a
Speaker 1: tip of the Iceberger microplastics.
Speaker 2: I have talked about.
Speaker 1: Them before, but given this new research, I thought it
Speaker 1: was useful to revisit it.
Speaker 2: So let's talk about what we can do.
Speaker 1: So let firstly, let's talk about reducing exposure. First of all,
Speaker 1: ditch the bottle water, or if you do have bottle water,
Speaker 1: make sure you're buying it out of glass bottles. Tapwater,
Speaker 1: especially when it's filtered, contains far fewer microplastics than bottled
Speaker 1: water that you get out of those crappy plastic bottles.
Speaker 1: And then switching from plastic to glass or stainless steel containers.
Speaker 1: This is something that we've done for ourselves and our kids.
Speaker 1: And this is not just for lunch boxes, but for storage,
Speaker 1: for cooking and for drinking as well. And it should
Speaker 1: be obvious from the comment earlier, never ever, ever microwave
Speaker 1: food in plastic, use ceramic or glass containers instead. And
Speaker 1: a big one is just eating less ultra processed food.
Speaker 1: As well as causing lots of chronic diseases, it is
Speaker 1: a big route for microplastics getting into your body and
Speaker 1: your brain. And then it's avoiding canned foods or minimizing
Speaker 1: when possible, because many cans are lined with plastic that
Speaker 1: contains BPA, which then leaches into our food. And then
Speaker 1: if you've got the dosh, you can install a heap
Speaker 1: of filter at home, especially in the bedroom where you
Speaker 1: spend a third of your life. So you just got
Speaker 1: to think about where you're spending time and open the
Speaker 1: windows at home as well to just get some fresher
Speaker 1: in there, and then reading labels carefully. And we know
Speaker 1: even tea bags actually contain plastic. And I've actually very
Speaker 1: recently made the switch to loose leaf tea and it
Speaker 1: is a pain in the arts, but I think it's
Speaker 1: worth it, given that I drink a fur bit of tea.
Speaker 2: Just to make that little switch.
Speaker 1: So let's know, I talk about once it's in there,
Speaker 1: which it is. It is definitely there are microplastics in
Speaker 1: your body for sure. Can we actually remove them? So
Speaker 1: that's the million dollar question and the short answer is
Speaker 1: we don't know for sure, but there are promising signs.
Speaker 1: So for instance, to study looking at BPA, the chemical
Speaker 1: that is found in plastics, found that sweat was the
Speaker 1: only root of excretion in sixteen out of twenty people
Speaker 1: that they tested, and that suggests that induce sweating through exercise,
Speaker 1: saunas that sort of stuff can help eliminate some plastic
Speaker 1: derived compounds. And that's basically one of the best ways
Speaker 1: of getting rid of all toxins in your body. And
Speaker 1: why we don't yet have direct evidence that sweating removes
Speaker 1: microplastics themselves. It is a logical starting point because it
Speaker 1: is a way that we eliminate toxins, and then if
Speaker 1: we combine that with good hydration and high fiber, they
Speaker 1: both support detoxification pathways via the liver and the bile.
Speaker 2: So in short, to enhance your elimination, make sure.
Speaker 1: You get hot and sweaty regularly, whether it's via sauna,
Speaker 1: hot yoga, or intense workouts. Sweating is the best way
Speaker 1: to get rid of all of your toxins in your body.
Speaker 1: Then it's about staying hydrated because that helps support your
Speaker 1: kidneys in your liver, and they are the body's natural detoxifiers,
Speaker 1: so we need to make sure they're working really well,
Speaker 1: and even plenty of fiber. It turns out that soluble
Speaker 1: fiber binds with toxins in the gut and helps eliminate them.
Speaker 1: So think of things like oats, g seeds, peas, beans, lentils, legoons.
Speaker 2: The stuff that makes you fart generally.
Speaker 1: Does it because of the soluble fiber. And then it's
Speaker 1: about supporting your liver function. So we know that's vias
Speaker 1: two detox that's cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, Brussels sprouts ideally
Speaker 1: not boiled like my ma used to do, but.
Speaker 2: They sorts.
Speaker 1: Any of those cruciferous vegetables help with detox enzyme activity.
Speaker 1: And then you could consider using activated charcoal or bentonite clay.
Speaker 1: These are both binders with potential for toxin removal, and
Speaker 1: it's actually been shown in studies that it can actually
Speaker 1: increase the removal of toxins. So now, clearly microplasts are
Speaker 1: not something we can completely avoid. They're in our environment,
Speaker 1: they're in our food system, they're in the ere we breathe,
Speaker 1: they're in the water we drink. But we can significantly
Speaker 1: reduce our burden and maybe even reverse some of the damage.
Speaker 2: With smarter choices.
Speaker 1: So, emerging data links high microplastic and BPA loads to depression, anxiety,
Speaker 1: and cognitive decline, and one clinical trial fund that cutting
Speaker 1: back on ultra processed food led to a greater than
Speaker 1: one point effect size reduction in depressive symptoms, which is
Speaker 1: pretty significant. Could part of that be due to lower
Speaker 1: microplastic exposure. I think it's certainly a hypothesis that we
Speaker 1: could explore. So to wrap up just a quick summary,
Speaker 1: avoid bottled water, Minimize ultra processed foods at all costs.
Speaker 1: Avoid heating food and plastic in the microwave. Minimize your
Speaker 1: canned foods, minimize plastic tea bags and cutlery and those
Speaker 1: sorts of things and all sorts of plastics that you
Speaker 1: come across. And then embrace tapwater, ideally filtered glass containers,
Speaker 1: metal containers, whole foods, especially with lots of cruciferous vegetables.
Speaker 1: Embraces sonnas and sweating through exercise, fiber rich meals, heap
Speaker 1: of filters, and clean indoors by opening the windows. So
Speaker 1: hopefully that gives you a little bit of information and
Speaker 1: a few tones.
Speaker 2: That's it for this week, Folks, catch you next time.