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Oct. 28, 2022 — You eat a credit card’s worth of plastic in a week. That may bother you. But does it harm you?

The answer depends on who you ask. Awareness of microplastics in general is certainly increasing; the most recent news is the detection of microplastics in human breast milk. Other research has suggested that we may be consuming up to 5 grams of plastic each week from our food, water, and certain consumer products.

The World Health Organization has been releasing reports on microplastics and human health since 2019. Their most recent report was released in late August 2022. 

“Although the limited data provide little evidence that nano- and microplastic particles have adverse effects in humans, there is increasing public awareness and an overwhelming consensus among all stakeholders that plastics do not belong in the environment, and measures should be taken to mitigate exposure,” the WHO said at the time. 

The WHO can’t go beyond what the data shows, of course. If microplastics are wreaking long-term havoc in our bodies as we speak, science hasn’t connected the dots enough to definitively say “this is the problem.” 

But some researchers are willing to speculate — and, at the very least, the risks are becoming impossible to ignore. Dick Vethaak, PhD, a microplastics researcher and emeritus professor of ecotoxicology at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, Netherlands, is blunt, calling them “a plastic time bomb.”

The Plastic Problem 

Every piece of plastic that has ever been created is still on our planet today, apart from what has been burned. Past estimates show we only recycle about 9% of all plastic, leaving 9 billion tons in our landfills, oceans, and ecosystems. For context, that amount is 1,500 times heavier than the Great Pyramid of Khufu. 

New data is even more dire. A 2022 report from Greenpeace showed a 5% U.S. recycling rate in 2021, with a large portion of what consumers think of as “recycled” still winding up in garbage piles or bodies of water.

And this plastic doesn’t disappear. Instead, it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces known as microplastics and nanoplastics.

Microplastics have been confirmed in human blood, lung tissue, colons, placentas, stool, and breast milk. But how they impact our health is still unknown.

To assess risk, we must ask, “How hazardous is the material?” says Flemming Cassee, PhD, professor of inhalation toxicology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and co-author of the WHO’s recent microplastics report. 

There are three potential hazards of microplastics: their physical presence in our bodies, what they’re made of, and what they carry. To determine the extent of these risks, we need to know how much we’re exposed to, says Cassee. 

The first initiative to research the impact of microplastics on human health came from the European Union in 2018. Although microplastics were around before then, we were unable to detect them, says Cassee. 

That’s the real problem: Since the evidence is so new – and there hasn’t been enough of it — it’s not yet possible to draw definite conclusions.

“But looking into the future, I believe that we are likely facing a public health emergency,” warns Vethaak.

What, Exactly, are Microplastics?

Microplastics are plastic particles between 5 millimeters and 100 nanometers in diameter, or the width of a pencil eraser and something 10 times thinner than a human hair. Anything smaller than that is known as a nanoplastic.

“Microplastics include a wide range of different materials, different sizes, different shapes, different densities, and different colors,” says Evangelos Danopoulos, PhD, a microplastics researcher at Hull York Medical School in the United Kingdom. 

“Primary” microplastics are manufactured to be small and used in things like cosmetics and paints. “Secondary” microplastics result from the breaking down of larger plastic materials, like water bottles and plastic bags.

Secondary microplastics are more diverse than primary microplastics and can take forms ranging from fibers shed from synthetic clothing (like polyester) to pieces of a plastic spoon left in our rivers, lakes, and oceans. Any plastic in the environment will eventually become a secondary microplastic as natural forces such as wind, water currents, and UV radiation break it down into smaller and smaller pieces.

Plastic is a diverse material. Heather Leslie, PhD, senior researcher in Vrije Universiteit’s Department of Environment and Health, likens it to spaghetti with sauce. The noodles are the long polymer backbone that all plastic shares. The sauces are “the pigments, the antioxidants, the flame retardants, etc., that make it functional,” she says. 

What Makes Microplastics Dangerous?

There are more than 10,000 different chemicals, or “sauces,”  used to alter a plastic’s physical characteristics—making it softer, more rigid, or more flexible, says Hanna Dusza, PhD, of the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences at Utrecht University.

As plastics degrade and become microplastics, these chemicals likely remain. Recent research has shown that microplastics leach these chemicals locally in human tissues, or other areas of accumulation, says Dusza. Some 2,400 of the 10,000 chemical additives were classified as substances of potential concern, meeting the European Union’s criteria for persistence, bioaccumulation, or toxicity.

Many of these chemicals also act as endocrine-disrupting compounds, or toxicants that imitate hormones when they enter the body. Hormones are active at very low concentrations in your bloodstream, explains Leslie. To your body, some chemical additives in plastic resemble hormones, so the body responds. 

“Sometimes even a low dose of some of these additives can cause unwanted effects,” says Leslie.

Bisphenol A (BPA), for example, is one of the more infamous endocrine disruptors. It is used as an additive to make plastics more rigid and can be found in any number of plastic products, though areas of concern have been plastic water bottles, baby bottles, and the protective coatings in canned foods. 

BPA may mimic estrogen, the female sex hormone essential for reproduction, neurodevelopment, and bone density. In men, estrogen regulates sperm count, sex drive, and erectile function. BPA exposure has been linked with – but not proven to cause – multiple cancer types, ADHD, obesity, and low sperm count. Most everyone has some amount of BPA circulating within their blood, but microplastics may retain BPA as they degrade, potentially increasing our exposure, leading to its unwanted consequences, says Dusza. 

And BPA is just one of those 2,400 substances of “potential concern.”

The Inflammation Problem

A potentially larger health issue emerges from our bodies yet again doing what they are supposed to do when encountering microplastics. Particles can trigger an immune response when they enter your bloodstream, explains Nienke Vrisekoop, PhD, assistant professor at UMC Utrecht in the Netherlands. 

White blood cells have no issue breaking down things like bacteria,  but microplastics cannot be degraded. When a white blood cell engulfs a certain mass of microplastics — either many small particles or a singular large one — it dies, releasing its enzymes and causing local inflammation.

Meanwhile, the plastic particle remains. So more white blood cells attack.

“This triggers continual activation that can result in various adverse effects, including oxidative stress and the release of cytokines that trigger inflammatory reactions, says Vethaak.  

And “chronic inflammation is the prelude to chronic diseases,” says Leslie. “Every chronic disease, like cancer, heart disease, and even neuropsychiatric diseases like Parkinson’s or major depression, begins with inflammation.” 

Meanwhile, inhaling microplastic particles can lead to respiratory diseases and cancer. 

“The smallest particles – less than one-tenth of a micrometer — penetrate deep into the lungs and even into the bloodstream, causing damage to the heart, blood vessels and brain,” says Vetaak. “The only direct evidence comes from workers in the textile and plastic industries that had been exposed to very high amounts of plastic fibrous dust.” 

Microplastics as Carriers

Microplastics can also pick up harmful substances and deliver them into your body.

“When they’re in an environment, they basically can suck up [chemicals] like a sponge,” says Dusza. “These chemicals are known environmental pollutants, like pesticides, fluorinated compounds, flame retardants, and so on.” 

Once in the body, these chemicals can be released, potentially leading to cancer, chronic inflammation, or other unknown effects. 

Particles can also act as a vector for microbes, bacteria, and viruses. A September 2022 study found that infectious viruses can survive for 3 days in fresh water by “hitchhiking” on microplastics. Their porous nature provides microbes with a perfect environment in which to live and reproduce, says Dusza. If you ingest the plastics, you ingest the microbes.

How to Minimize Exposure

There is no way to avoid microplastics. They’re in the air we breathe, the products we use, the water we drink, and the food we eat. 

Danopoulos reviewed 72 studies to quantify our consumption of microplastics in drinking water, salt, and seafood. 

“We are exposed to millions of microplastics every year, and I was only looking at three food sources, so there are really a lot more,” he says. “Once plastic waste is mismanaged and it enters the environment, there is very little we can do to extract it.” 

That said, we can take steps to lower our exposure and keep the problem from getting worse.

Water filtration is one option, though it is not perfect. Research has shown that municipal water treatment can be effective.  An October 2021 study found that two methods — electrocoagulation-electroflotation and membrane filtration — can be 100% effective in removing microplastics from treated water. The problem? Not all municipal water treatment uses these methods – and you would have to investigate to find out if your locality does.

As for at-home filtration methods, they can be effective but can also be dicey. Some consumer brands claim they remove microplastics, but how well depends on not just the type of filter but the size of the particles in the water. Meanwhile, how do you know if a filter is working on your water without testing it, something few people will do? Best not to take a brand’s claims on face-value, but look for independent testing on at-home brands.

A longer-term project: Reduce our risk by reusing and recycling plastic waste. Limiting our consumption of plastic, especially single use plastic, decreases the amount available to become micro- and nanoplastics. 

We must all learn to not treat plastic as waste, but rather as a renewable material, says Cassee. But if that seems like a tall order, it’s because it is.

“You’re a human being and you have a voice and there are a lot of other humans out there with voices,” says Leslie. 

“You sign a petition in your community. You talk about it with your friends at the pub. If you’re a teacher, you discuss it in your class. You call your elected representatives and tell them what you think and how you want them to vote on bills.” 

When people start working together, you can really amplify that voice, says Leslie.

What’s the Bottom Line Right Now, Today?

Numerous sources have declared microplastics do not impact human health. But that’s largely because no direct evidence of this exists yet.

Even the WHO in its report suggests that progress must happen if we’re to fully understand the scope of the problem. 

“Strengthening of the evidence necessary for reliable characterization and quantification of the risks to human health posed by NMP (nano- and microplastics) will require active participation by all stakeholders,” it says.

All researchers interviewed for this article agree we don’t have enough evidence to draw any definite conclusions. But “if you look at the wrong endpoints, things will look safe, until you look at the endpoint where it’s really causing the problem,” says Leslie. 

We must research our blind spots and continually ask, where could we be wrong?

“It is a problem; it’s not going to go away,” says Danopoulos. “It’s going to get worse, and will continue to get worse, not by something that we are doing now but by something we did 5 years ago.”

Perhaps the question to be asked, then, is the hardest to answer: Are we willing to wait for the science?

If you’ve ever served Thanksgiving dinner at a  shelter, rung the bell for the Salvation Army, laced up your sneakers for a charity run/walk, or donated to a favorite nonprofit, you probably recall a moment of feeling like you’d done something good. Social scientists call that feeling of satisfaction the “helper’s high.” 

It’s good for your body, toosays Stephen G. Post, PhD, author of The Hidden Gifts of Helping. “We have begun to discover that there is something going on, physiologically, in this process of helping others that makes people not only feel happier but also report greater health,” Post says.

As far back as 1988, an analysis of 1,700 female volunteers found that 68% said they felt a sense of calm after volunteering, akin to what they got from exercise. Decades later, studies used MRI image scans to track brain activity to explain why. In one small study of 19 people, merely cutting a check to charity lit up the brain’s mesolimbic reward system, sending feel-good chemicals in the body. When that generosity is practiced face-to-face, levels of oxytocin (the calming hormone released when a mother nurses her baby) and pain-killing endorphins also rise, Post says.

When we shift our minds away from our own troubles to focus on others’ needs, levels of stress hormones like cortisol fall. One study tracked 1,654 older adults over 4 years. During that time, those who volunteered at least 200 hours per year were 40% less likely to get high blood pressure than non-volunteers.

An evolutionary reason may partly explain why our reward centers light up when we help someone else. Working in a team, Post says, could have helped us survive as a species. 

How to Choose a Volunteer Activity

You’d love to help out. But with so many great organizations and causes, how do you get started?

Look for opportunities that are meaningful for you and fit your interests and personality. Would you like to use your job skills? Would you prefer to do something active and outdoors, like cleaning up a park or helping build a trail, or a quieter indoor activity such as helping with a literacy organization? Would you rather volunteer with a big group of people or focus on smaller projects? 

Also, consider your schedule. You can decide if you want to volunteer on a regular basis or just now and then.  
These are the best ways to get the most out of volunteering, according to Post:

Help others dealing with something you’ve faced yourself. Studies show people recovering from alcohol use disorders are more likely to stay sober when they help others in recovery from problem drinking. Likewise, some people with chronic pain reported less pain when, as a trained volunteer, they helped someone with a similar condition.

Do what you’re good at. When volunteers feel like they’re just in the way, the experience can backfire and boost their stress. Choose a volunteer opportunity where you can make a real contribution.

Mean it. Those who contribute to organizations they’re passionate about tend to see stronger physical responses. “Motivation matters,” Post says. “When people are genuinely altruistic in their actions, they have a better response.”

As much as we look forward to holiday parties and dinners, many of us suspect we’ll overindulge and gain weight.  

Indeed, the average American eats and drinks 4,500 calories and 229 grams fat (as much as in 3 sticks of butter) on a traditional Thanksgiving day? Studies show that the average American gains 1 pound during the winter holiday season. Year after year, they  can add up, and contribute to overweight or obesity later in life.

Although we may not all gain weight over the holidays, there is no question we tend to eat and drink more — and exercise less. With the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping, parties and festive traditions, healthy eating and exercise are usually the first things to go.

No one wants to be on a strict diet during the holidays. We want to enjoy the bounty of traditional favorite foods. How can you enjoy the holidays without gaining weight? Dietitians say it’s not so hard, with a little planning.

• First,  change your mindset. If you’ve been trying to lose weight, when mid-November rolls around, shift your focus from weight loss to weight maintenance. “The holiday season is tough enough to just maintain your weight let alone try to lose weight. So do yourself a favor,” says Joan Salge Blake, MS, RD, Boston University clinical assistant professor. “Allow yourself a few treats and set your goal on weight maintenance so you can enjoy the holiday foods and wait until the New Year to get back on your weight loss plan.”
• Second, get strategic with calories. If  you are the host of dinners and parties, trim calories wherever you can without compromising tradition or flavor. You’ll help everyone enjoy the bountiful food without unneeded calories. Keep in mind that it is much harder to lose weight than it is not to gain it in the first place.

Here are 10 tips to lighten up your holiday meals.

1. Shop Smart for Healthy Holidays

Plan your menu to include plenty of fruits, vegetables, lean meats, seafood, whole grains, and low-fat dairy.

Consult the nutrition label to choose foods rich in nutrients but lower in fat, calories, and sugar.

To shave calories, go easy when adding nuts, cheese, cream sauces, gravy, butter, and whipped cream.

2. Start the Party Light

Most appetizers tend to be loaded with calories. And it is so easy to overeat them before the meal.

Make it easier on your guests by offering light and satisfying appetizers. For delicious yet healthy appetizers, serve shrimp cocktails, whole-grain crackers with reduced-fat cheese, vegetables with a low-fat yogurt dip, or fresh fruit skewers.

3. Harness the Diet Power of Produce

Add more simple vegetable and fruit dishes to your menu instead of heavy dishes with sauces. Your guests will fill up on healthy fiber without lots of extra calories.

For example, green bean almandine with a squeeze of lemon is healthier than traditional green bean casserole. Simple peas or corn are healthier than creamed peas or corn. But if you must have casserole, use low-fat soup, increase the veggies, and top it with a crunchy whole-grain cereal instead of fried onions.

4. Go Frozen in Winter

Fresh is usually the best when fruits and vegetables are in season. But when prices are higher in winter, head to the frozen food aisle.

“Frozen fruits and vegetables are usually less expensive and can be more nutritious because they are picked at their peak ripeness and frozen immediately” says  Sarah Krieger, RD. Buy frozen produce in bags, use only what you need, and save more by not wasting spoiled produce.

Canned foods can also be a healthy option. Read the nutrition labels to find fruits and vegetables with less added sodium and sugar, Krieger says. Reduce the sodium and sugar solutions even more by rinsing the vegetable or fruit under cold water before you cook.

5. Respect Special Requests

As you plan your holiday menu, ask if guests have any food preferences or intolerances. For example, a dear friend may be lactose intolerant. A favorite cousin may have cut red meat from his diet.

You can’t please everyone. But you can include a wide variety of healthy foods. Then, your guests can pick and choose, filling their plate with a satisfying meal no matter their food issue.

6. Shave Calories With Simple Swaps

Create healthier versions of your holiday favorites by shaving calories wherever you can.

“Simple swaps of lower-fat ingredients are easy ways to save calories — and no one will even notice the difference” says Cheryl Forberg, RD.

Use chicken stock, fat-free yogurt, light cream cheese, and low-fat milk in place of high-fat ingredients. Substitute non-fat yogurt or applesauce for oil in baked goods.

7. Roast or Grill for Rich Flavor With Fewer Calories

Roasting or grilling meat, seafood, vegetables, and potatoes, is a simple, low-calorie cooking style that brings out the natural sweetness and flavor in foods.

Roasted sweet potatoes with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar and a spritz of butter spray are delicious substitutes for the traditional calorie-laden casserole.

Grilled pork chops served with a mango salsa are great to replace pork chops slathered in mushroom cream.

8. Serve Healthier Desserts

For dessert, try chocolate-dipped strawberries for a colorful and delicious finale.

If you want to offer pie, choose the healthier pumpkin pie. Make it with non-fat evaporated milk. Top it with fat-free whipped topping.

9. Spritz Your Drinks

Eggnog and other holiday beverages can add a huge number of calories. Offer your guests plenty of low-cal beverages such as diet soda, sparkling water, or a low-calorie punch.

Alcohol releases inhibitions and can increase hunger. That’s a combination that can lead to eating more than you planned. So do yourself and guests a favor: Offer simple alcohol choices such as wine and beer without the heavy cocktail mixers. And make sure you have mocktails or other no-alcohol options for those who don’t drink.

10. Plan and Scan to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain

“In anticipation that you will be eating and drinking more than usual, try to trim your calories and make sure you fit in fitness everyday so you can enjoy a ‘controlled’ feast without the guilt” says Joan Salge Blake, MS, RD, clinical assistant professor at Boston University.

“Scan the buffet and fill your plate with foods that are simply prepared, without sauces or fried, sit down and take your time to taste and savor every bite,” she says. Resist the urge to go back for more by waiting at least 20 minutes for your brain to register that you are comfortably full. If you are still hungry, eat more vegetables and drink water.

Remember, the holidays are marked with many traditions, but the real meaning is about spending time with family and friends.

If you keep these tips in mind, you’ll get through the holidays without gaining a pound. And if you do splurge, just  get right back to normal eating and exercising, and try to do make better choices at the next party.

Oct. 28, 2022 – When Michele Greenfield reflects on her mother Joan’s decline into dementia, the warning signs were there for years: At an awards dinner, where her mother pulled out dental floss and began flossing at the table. Forgetting longtime family friends when her children mentioned them in conversation. The fact that she stopped cooking, something she had long loved. Yet it was several years later before the family could get Joan to the doctor for a diagnosis.

“We couldn’t get her on board for any testing,” says Greenfield, “and when we finally did, and the doctor suggested she might have dementia, she was furious with him. This was a doctor she had loved and seen for years, but now she was angry with him.” 

The family’s journey with Greenfield’s mother is common in that receiving a diagnosis of dementia often takes years. In fact, new research out of the U.K. suggests that in most cases, the symptoms of dementia begin as many as 9 years before the actual diagnosis. 

Using data from the UK Biobank, researchers compared cognitive and functional measures in people who later developed a form of dementia with those who did not. The Biobank is a collection of medical and genetic data from half a million volunteers that’s used to help researchers prevent, diagnose, and treat of a wide range of illnesses.

“We wanted to see how early we could pick up some of the signs of the diseases,” says lead author Timothy Rittman, PhD, a senior clinical research fellow in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge. 

“We suspected that subtle signs show up long before they are really noticed.”

The study involved 500,000 people between the ages of 45 and 69 and looked at their day-to-day functions. 

“We wanted to look for the meaningful differences between the groups,” explains Rittman. “Once we found them, we wanted to know if they’d always had these symptoms, and whether or not they were getting worse. The closer to diagnosis, the worse they got.” 

This checks with Greenfield’s experience. As her mother’s disease worsened, other symptoms began to appear. 

“She’d talk to the television or stick her spoon directly into a container of ice cream, which she never would have done,” says Greenfield. “Then she had some fender benders while driving, and we had to work to get her license revoked.”

While symptoms become more obvious as dementia progresses, early signs can be easy to reason away – or, in the case of the patients themselves, deny away. But knowing what the early signs might be and acting on them can be important for early intervention. 

What to Watch For

Heidi Roth, MD, an associate professor of sleep medicine, memory, and cognitive disorders and a leader at the Duke-UNC Alzheimer’s Disease Collaborative, says that often, people wait until they’re quite impaired before seeking an evaluation for dementia. 

“This could be a breakdown in their ability to function,” she says. “They struggle to take care of finances, go shopping, are consistently forgetting appointments, and obvious signs like that.”

Roth says that the U.K. research pointing to a full 9 years from early symptoms to diagnosis makes sense, for a variety of reasons. 

“There might be slight changes early on, but they probably don’t react,” she says. “Or family members might not want to accept that their loved one is showing signs of impairment, because it can be a big adjustment for everyone.”

There’s also the fact that everyone has some minor cognitive declines with aging – walking into a room and forgetting why you were there, for instance. Or forgetting the occasional appointment. Even in our 30s and 40s, we might worry about these instances. “But it’s when the behaviors become more consistent, or when people begin to comment on your ‘little misses,’ that you should pay attention,” Roth says.

Rittman suggests that if you or a family member has concerns about subtle changes, see a doctor for an evaluation. 

“They can test for logic, fluid intelligence, memory, and thinking,” he says. “There are general signs that will turn up with dementia.”

Screening can first determine if you are headed toward dementia or if there are other causes for symptoms. In some cases, especially with elderly patients, the issue might be polypharmacy, or using multiple drugs to treat a single condition. Removing one or more drugs from the mix could be all that is needed to clear up some of the symptoms. Screening for – and treating if needed – anxiety and depression can also sometimes lessen dementia symptoms early on. 

If dementia is indeed the diagnosis, the value in early screening is that there are some lifestyle changes a patient can make that might help. 

“There’s a lot of evidence that diet and exercise can reduce dementia risks,” says Roth. “There’s also evidence that sleep can play a role in cognitive function. For instance, people with untreated sleep apnea begin to show cognitive decline a full 10 years before others.”

As clinical drug trials advance, there’s also hope that if the disease is caught early enough, meaningful therapeutics might stop it from progressing as well. 

“We’re making progress on that front, but we’re not there, yet” says Roth. 

Rittman agrees and sees his research as a contribution to dementia research and treatment. 

“The medications are coming along, but we also need to think more creatively on the mechanisms of these diseases, potentially combining medications to attack them,” he says. “I’m hopeful that this trial contributes to the awareness that we need to be looking early on when symptoms appear.”

After her experience with her mother, Greenfield advises others to act early when they suspect dementia in a loved one. 

“Don’t wait too long, until the situation gets dangerous,” she says. “It’s helpful to plan for the inevitable, especially if people live on their own.”