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Microplastics Now Clog Our Bodies and Brains
Dementia is added to the suspected health risks, which include cancer, heart disease and premature births. Learn what you can do to help curb the output and lower your intake.
Tiny bits of plastic too small to see, originating in everything from nylon clothing and single-use water bottles to facial scrubs and farm fertilizers, are found in all corners of the environment and throughout the human body, even in fetal placentas and the first poops of newborns.
The so-called microplastics, created entirely by human manufacturing, have been linked to or are suspected of causing heart disease, cancer, fertility problems and premature births. The latest research has found alarming levels of these microscopic particles in human brains, where evidence indicates they clog up the works and reduce brain function and contribute to dementia.
The new study, published last month in the journal Nature Medicine, found microplastics in the postmortem brains of people who died in 2016 and in 2024. The levels were higher — weighing about 7 grams, roughly equal to a plastic spoon — in people who’d had dementia. Levels were also roughly 50% higher on average in the 2024 brains compared to those from 2016, indicating people…
