fwiw kimchi-derived probiotic bacterium (Leuconostoc mesenteroides CBA3656) was shown to bind nanoplastics and help mice excrete more of them. But it’s not yet proven that eating kimchi removes microplastics from humans
What Do We Know About the Microplastics Inside Us?
41–50 of 124 posts
Re: What Do We Know About the Microplastics Inside Us?
#42Microplastics have always fascinated me, because I keep seeing article after article about how much microplastic exists around us, but far less strong evidence about its actual effects. That is not to say there are no effects, of course. Maybe we just have not found them yet. A friend of mine worked on her bachelor’s thesis about the effects of microplastics on the immune system, specifically T cells. Her result was…
Can microplastics never get small enough to interact with T cells?
Once microplastics fall apart futher, to nano-plastic, it will start to get absorbed by T cells because they want to destroy any invaders. Once absorbed, T-Cell start to produce H2O2 to destroy anything they absorbed. Unfortunately, plastics are mostly chemically neutral and so, it cannot be destroyed like that.
T-Cells produce more H2O2, eventually it leaks outside and start inflamation of surrunding tissue. There is research about it.
Re: What Do We Know About the Microplastics Inside Us?
#43fwiw kimchi-derived probiotic bacterium (Leuconostoc mesenteroides CBA3656) was shown to bind nanoplastics and help mice excrete more of them. But it’s not yet proven that eating kimchi removes microplastics from humans
It is proven that it tastes hella good though
Re: What Do We Know About the Microplastics Inside Us?
#44Would have loved to see the effects broken down by plastic, as the term "plastics" is as non-specific as "metals" and "organic"
Re: What Do We Know About the Microplastics Inside Us?
#45Microplastics have always fascinated me, because I keep seeing article after article about how much microplastic exists around us, but far less strong evidence about its actual effects. That is not to say there are no effects, of course. Maybe we just have not found them yet. A friend of mine worked on her bachelor’s thesis about the effects of microplastics on the immune system, specifically T cells. Her result was…
> ... too large to interact with T cells. Also, unfortunately, a result that industry and the anti-regulation crowd will use to say microplastics are harmless.
also, asbestos is too small to interact with T-cells, so it must be safe.
Re: What Do We Know About the Microplastics Inside Us?
#46I think hate of plastics is an emergent form of elitism. Upwardly mobile middle/upper class people who've sort of "maxed out" the amount of personal identity they can buy with regular plastic things can unlock a new level of identity by deciding that plastics are bad for them and eliminating plastics from their life, a process which conveniently requires buying a whole new set of things that distinguish them from the…
Health in general has always worked like this, from supplements, to organic food, to avoiding ultra-processed foods, to gluten-free diets, pretty much every popular health fad has no provable causative effect on health.
Most of human behavior is irrational. If we were all perfectly rational, we would have healthy diet and exercise habits from the get go, and we'd have plenty of time to prepare food and exercise, because we wouldn't waste any time on entertainment.
Re: What Do We Know About the Microplastics Inside Us?
#47>Even when you put a glass panel in the window, you have silicon holding the glass in. We tested all these different brands of silicon to try to find ones that had low levels of phthalates. It was a crazy amount of detail that we went to, but it was really worth it.
Silicone holds the glass panel. Silicon is the glass itself. Yale editors, do your job. She worked "a crazy amount of details", and so can you!
Re: What Do We Know About the Microplastics Inside Us?
#48Microplastics have always fascinated me, because I keep seeing article after article about how much microplastic exists around us, but far less strong evidence about its actual effects. That is not to say there are no effects, of course. Maybe we just have not found them yet. A friend of mine worked on her bachelor’s thesis about the effects of microplastics on the immune system, specifically T cells. Her result was…
I expect many researchers are using fresh lab-made microplastics, which are indeed mostly harmless. However part of the problem is that real-world plastics are chemical sponges that absorb toxins (heavy metals, PCBs, etc) from the environment and deliver them in a concentrated dose into the body. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/923529
>However part of the problem is that real-world plastics are chemical sponges that absorb toxins (heavy metals, PCBs, etc) from the environment and deliver them in a concentrated dose into the body.
>https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/923529
But your linked study only talks about biofilms and E.coli?
Re: What Do We Know About the Microplastics Inside Us?
#49" We tested about 30 different construction materials trying to find some that didn’t contain plastics, but also didn’t contain plastic [additives] such as phthalates, but we couldn’t find any. Everything had either plastics or phthalates in them."
Re: What Do We Know About the Microplastics Inside Us?
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can microplastics never get small enough to interact with T cells?
Once microplastics fall apart futher, to nano-plastic, it will start to get absorbed by T cells because they want to destroy any invaders. Once absorbed, T-Cell start to produce H2O2 to destroy anything they absorbed. Unfortunately, plastics are mostly chemically neutral and so, it cannot be destroyed like that. T-Cells produce more H2O2, eventually it leaks outside and start inflamation of surrunding tissue. There i…
Link to that research, please. It would add meaningfully to this discussion.