What Do Microplastics in Our Brains Mean for Metabolic Health?

When neuroscientists coined the phrase brain plasticity, they were certainly not thinking about microplastics accumulating in our brains. But unfortunately, it seems this is a phenomenon with implications we need to study. New NIH-funded research, published as a preprint, suggests these tiny particles are building up at an alarming rate. But it does not tell us anything about the implications of microplastics in our brains for metabolic health.

Toxicologist Matthew Campen was the lead author of this research. He expressed concern about these findings:

“Somehow these nanoplastics hijack their way through the body and get to the brain, crossing the blood-brain barrier. Plastics love fats, or lipids, so one theory is that plastics are hijacking their way with the fats we eat which are then delivered to the organs that really like lipids – the brain is top among those.

“It’s pretty alarming. There’s much more plastic in our brains than I ever would have imagined or been comfortable with.”

Sparse Data on Effects

It has been plain for some time that we are filling the world with plastics. But now it is becoming plain that we are filling our bodies with them, too. The accumulation of microplastics in the brain may be startling, but it is only the most recent example of tissues where there particles may be found. Unfortunately, though, we know little about the health effects.

Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician and epidemiologist, tells us we have many questions to answer:

“The biggest question is, ‘OK, what are these particles doing to us?’ Honestly there’s a lot we still don’t know. What we do know with real certainty is that these microplastic particles are like Trojan horses. They carry with them all the thousands of chemicals that are in plastics and some are very bad actors.”

Good Reasons for Caution

Among the effects of those bad actors is endocrine disruption, which means that the accumulation of microplastics in our brains could have important implications for metabolic health. Exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals is one of the factors contributing to the relentless rise in obesity prevalence.

So it is good news indeed that the U.S. will support a global treaty to reduce the amount of plastics we are pumping into the environment. We have good reason for caution and much to learn.

Click here for the paper by Campen et al, here, here, and here for further perspective.

Drawing XIII, painting by Georgia O’Keeffe / WikiArt

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August 25, 2024