Microplastics and Your Body
New Studies Uncover Health Risks
Recently, it has been said that microplastics entering the body could cause some adverse effects and scientific discoveries have provided increasing evidence supporting this.
Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic, which come from bigger pieces of plastic that break down. When they break down, however, they don’t disintegrate, they just get smaller and smaller, turning into microplastics. They can get in your food and in the air. However, they are also used in everyday products such as cosmetics and toothpaste. Microplastics can be dangerous and can contaminate the environment around us. Microplastics can even cause diabetes, inflammation, and damage to DNA!
A research group from Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine and Kyoto University published a study in an American scientific journal showing the danger of microplastics.
In the study, led by Professor Hirohisa Takano, an academic researcher from Kyoto University, wild-type mice were fed either a normal diet or a high-fat diet with or without polystyrene microplastics (mixed with drinking water) for four weeks. The results showed that in mice consuming a high-fat diet, conditions such as diabetes, dyslipidemia (abnormal lipid levels), and fatty liver worsened as a result of microplastic exposure. However, no significant metabolic disorders were observed in mice fed a normal diet.
A study led by Professor Raffaele Marfella from the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli in Naples, Italy studied plaque from the arteries of patients with atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is the buildup of fat blood cells, cholesterol, and other substances in the walls of your arteries. They found that around half of the patients had small plastic particles. Professor Marfella hypothesizes that the body recognizes plastic particles within arterial plaque as foreign substances.Immune cells attempt to eliminate these particles, leading to inflammation within the blood vessels.
There have been 8747 published studies on this topic so far, proving how harmful microplastics can be. To stop this danger from happening, we need to reduce the amount of microplastics that get into our food, water, air, and our environment. Then, we’ll have a more eco-friendly world and microplastics will not harm our bodies.