A brief talk by Aaron Hartman, MD explaining principles to reduce exposure to microplastics and to promote excretion. Key recommendations: avoid drinking from plastic bottles and canned/plastic-lined foods, use glass or stainless steel containers, filter household water (reverse osmosis best for micro/nanoplastics), use HEPA/MERV13 air filtration, and promote sweating (sauna) to enhance lymphatic excretion. Mentions specific brands/products tested for microplastics.
Questions this video answers
Mountain Valley Spring (glass container) was said to have been tested and not have microplastics.
Gehl Steiner (a German product) was said to have been tested and found to have microplastics.
At least MERV 13 (and HEPA filters/Austin Air or similar were recommended).
Reverse osmosis (noting it also removes minerals).
Approximately 700 nanometers (referred to as very small 'nanoplast' ~700 nm).
Chapters
So the rules of Toxicology of Environmental medicine are first to minimize exposure and then to maximize excretion, getting things out of your body. So how does this apply to microplastics or nanoparticle plastics? The first thing is to minimize exposure. The single biggest one is drinking out of plastic water bottles. Just gotta stop doing it. There are, you can't get stainless steel containers, water containers get non BPA type tops. Bpa, not just BPA free, but bisphenol free. Which is kind of tricky because you might have something that has a BPA top but has bps or BPP or other bisphenols. And so you're just replacing one plastic particle for another, you know, neuroendocrine plastic particles. So getting drinking out of stainless steel or glass, making sure the tops are not just BPA free but bisphenol free, is a place to start. The next thing is a water supply. So let's stop drinking bodily water. Great. Awesome. There is one water source, Mountain Valley Spring, that actually is a glass container and they actually have had their water tested and it does not have microplastics. And you can actually get that your local Whole Foods Wegmans kind of type place or buy it online. Of note, we used to drink Gehl Steiner, which is a German product. I really, really like it because has a lot of minerals in it, but it was tested in the factory and it does actually have microplastics. So the one that glass, the one bottled glass on water in the Mountain Valley that actually been tested does not have microplastics in it. The next thing is to water your house. Did you know, did you know that the water coming from your city municipality also has microplastics in it? So it's not just not drinking bottled water, which is the biggest, biggest exposure, but also making sure you're filtering your water at your house. Now this is where it's tricky because the best thing to remove these is actually reverse osmos filtration system, which as some of you know me and see me know that I'm not a super big fan because it removes all the minerals as well. But as far as microplastics, that's the best thing to remove them. You can use other filtration products like activated charcoal, but you just have to realize the very, very, very small nanoplast 700 nanometers, you know, nothing's really going to filter those things out. To get all those at 100%, you really need to do reverse osmosis. The next thing is having some kind of HEPA filtration in your house as well as on your air, your air handler having something at least a MERV 13. We've actually talked about this before on our Healthy Home guide on our website, which is available to people to talk about how you can actually set your indoor air system up using an air iq, any kind of HEPA filter, Austin air whatnot, to make sure the air you're breathing does not have these plastic particles. These you can actually absorb through your lungs. The other thing is that in containers, tin cans and containers actually have a plastic lining in them. So you really want to stop eating things out of plastic containers. Tin cans have a BPA lining or plastic lining. That's the white lining you see in canned foods. You want to try to avoid those as well. And last but not least, sweating. Actually, because of the way microplastics get in your lymphatics, sweating actually through sauna might actually help get these out of your body. That's the one biggest way to get it out of your body so far we've seen is actually through sweating and that's your lymphatic flow. So avoidance, detoxification, excretion, these are important concepts with microplastics. Hope this information was helpful. Be well. If you have questions, drop them below. Talk to you all soon.
