New Study Finds Big Increase In Microplastics Found In Human Brains – HuffPost
A new study found dramatic increases in microplastics in recent human brain samples compared to brains from just eight years ago.
The study, published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, analyzed 24 brains of people who died within a few months of January 2024. When researchers compared those results with 28 brains collected in 2016, they found that levels of micro- and nanoplastics had jumped about 50% in less than a decade.
The results were also shocking when researchers analyzed the brains of 12 people who were diagnosed with dementia before they died. Those brains had dramatically higher amounts of plastics, more than five times the levels from 2024 on average.
“Every time we scratch the surface, it uncovers a whole host of, ‘Oh, is this worse than we thought?’” Professor Matthew Campen, a lead author of the report from the University of New Mexico, told The Washington Post.
Researchers say it’s too early to link microplastics to diseases like dementia, as such patients have weaker blood-brain barriers that could lead to more plastics in the samples, the Post added.
“Atrophy of brain tissue, impaired blood–brain barrier integrity and poor clearance mechanisms are hallmarks of dementia and would be anticipated to increase [micro- and nanoplastic] concentrations,” the paper warns.” Thus, no causality is assumed from these findings.”
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