It appears that scientists have discovered that plastics leave the intestine and travel to other organs. Plastic slowly breaks down into very small particles that end up scattered everywhere. Researchers from the University of New Mexico stated that microplastics from our water, food, and the air we breathe travel from our intestines to other parts of the body such as the kidneys, liver, and brain, according to a university press release.
You Likely Have Plastics in Your Brain
Scientists have found microscopic plastics in practically every corner of the human body, including the brain. They aren’t visible to the naked eye, but they are everywhere, from the water we drink to the air we breathe. Their presence has been confirmed in the placenta, breast milk, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, blood, and now in the brain.
In other words, the human body, like that of many other living beings, is becoming a “repository” of these plastic microparticles, which due to their size have a great ability to invade organs and tissues, as apparently, each week about 5 grams of plastic, equivalent to a credit card (if we combine them), end up penetrating the body through what we ingest or the air we breathe.
These researchers made this discovery after multiple experiments with mice, in which they made them drink water with microplastics containing markers for three weeks. They found that these particles crossed the blood-brain barrier, causing inflammation similar to that seen in dementia, and exhibited alterations similar to those who suffer from it.
This situation raised alarms because if healthy mice exposed to small pieces of plastic showed signs of physical changes after a few weeks, humans exposed throughout their lives could see their health affected. This is because microplastics alter immune cells called macrophages, responsible for protecting the body from foreign particles, leading to inflammation in the body.
This story was written in Spanish by Perla Vallejo in Ecoosfera.
