Microplastics Now, Alzheimer’s/Parkinson’s Later?

We’ve written about microplastics before, including:

• We Are Such Stuff As Bottles Are Made Of
• Mythbusting Cookware Materials
• Are You Inhaling Microplastics In Your House?
• Body Scrubs: Benefits, Risks, and Guidance

We also have the guest articles:

• Microplastics found in artery plaque linked with higher risk of heart attack, stroke and death
• Microplastics are in our brains. How worried should I be?

Now, that last-listed article there concluded:

❝We don’t yet know the effects of microplastics in the human brain. Some laboratory experiments suggest microplastics increase brain inflammation and cell damage, alter gene expression and change brain structure.

But microplastics and their effects are difficult to study. In addition to their small size, there are so many different types of plastics in the environment. More than 13,000 different chemicals have been identified in plastic products, with more being developed every year.❞

…but that was mid-2024, and science has marched on a bit from there. For example…

A (plastic) wrench in the (biological) works

More recently, links to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s pathogenesis have been found (pathogenesis = how a disease starts), via 5 main pathways, namely;

• Mitochondrial dysfunction
  • this is critical, because mitochondrial interference reduces ATP production, weakening neuron function and survival
• Blood–brain barrier disruption
  • in other words, microplastics can make this protective barrier “leaky,” allowing even more bad things to enter the brain and cause even more damage.
• Direct neuronal damage
  • because neurons are very delicate and have not evolved to have to deal with bits of plastic
• Neuroinflammation
  • this may sound like the previous item, but this is more the brain’s immune system’s “friendly fire” (see also: The Inflamed Mind – by Dr. Edward Bullmore), whereas the previous was because of the microplastics themselves
• Oxidative stress
  • this may sound trivial, but microplastic particles increase reactive oxygen species while weakening antioxidant defenses, leading to cellular damage

And, in particular, microplastics appear to promote beta-amyloid and tau buildup in Alzheimer’s, and α-synuclein aggregation plus dopaminergic neuron damage in Parkinson’s.

This is a problem, because adults ingest an average of around 250g (1 cup) of microplastics per year from sources like food, water, dust, plastic containers, and synthetic fabrics.

You can read the systematic review, here: Do microplastics play a role in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases? Shared pathophysiological pathways for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease

What to do about it?

If you want to reduce the aggregations of those unpleasantries, then there are avenues other the (the obvious) plastic reduction, such as: Spermine vs Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s!

Or for a much deeper dive into the broader topic of avoiding the microplastics the industrial world is keen to throw our way, you might like this book that we reviewed a little while back:

Healthy Living in a Contaminated World – by Dr. Donald Hoernschemeyer

You might also consider this simpler, practical guide: Unprocess Your Life – by Rob Hobson

…and lastly, do check out those articles we linked up top, as you can learn more about how to reduce microplastics in your life from avenues other than the obvious ones.

Take care!