Bryan Johnson got tested for microplastics in his blood and found his load lower than 76% of people he tracks. The average male testicle contains 8.2 mg of microplastics, and brain levels have risen over 50% in a decade. He outlines how to reduce exposure: ditch plastic bottles, use glass containers, install better water filters, and swap kitchen plastics for stainless steel and cast iron.
Welcome to the class of eternal youth. I am Professor Johnson. I'm so happy you are here with me. The discussion today is about microplastics, a topic that we have seen in the news lately. We are going to discuss where they're coming from, where they're at, and what we can do about it. So the average male testicle has 8.2 milligrams of microplastics. And the brain, the average brain has more than 50% more microplastics than than we did 10 years ago. So the problem is bad and it's getting worse. Interestingly, I just completed my first microplastics test and the entire blueprint team did that. And I had the lowest levels of microplastics than Anyone, lower than 76% of the people in the data set. Now, of course, I want to be in the 99th percentile for optimal. So we need to figure out how to get there and how you can get there too. So. So let's talk about how this is getting into our bodies. There's three ways we can ingest them. For example, you can drink them through bottles or tap water. You could eat them through food. Or for example, you can like, warm your food up in plastic. And that also is a way to get to your body. You can inhale them. So studies have shown that it gets to our brain. In autopsies. They found microplastics in the olfactory bulb showing that they get through. And the third way is through absorption through the skin. For example, with skin skin care products. Now, we could not find any evidence of anyone who had demonstrated they're getting through the skin. So we don't know. And I want to call that out because we try to be very clear with things we do know and things we don't know. It is reasonable to imagine this is the case, but we also want to call out, we couldn't directly find any evidence. Now, I will share with you what I'm doing. One is I've made this rule. I have stopped drinking water out of plastic. There may be a circumstance where it's either choose death or choose a plastic water bottle. And at that point, maybe, but until then, I don't think I'm going to do it. Having made that rule, it's just easy for me. Now I take my don't die stainless steel water container everywhere I go, and now it's just a habit. So try to form a habit. Don't drink water out of plastic. You can also put together a water filtration system at your Home. On my website I will include the link below. I have a reverse osmosis water system. Mine cost $1,300. You can buy them much cheaper. For example, a friend of mine just bought his for $300. So different ranges. But on my website the guy who I use to install mine is there. You can call him and he can help you install the system if you want. Also you can see the system specs and find your own. Be aware that if you have a system on your refrigerator, for example, it may only filter to like one micron. You need to get smaller to get the microplastics out. So we're also exploring excitingly trying to figure out how to measure microplastics in water so you can test that as well. Because again, blueprint is all about measurement. We need data to make these decisions. Water filtration system is good. Now for food, there's three things you want to consider is one is store your food in non plastic materials like glass, ceramics, stainless steel. If you receive something in plastic, just put it in those containers. Two is you want to take your own water container around with you, preferably stainless steel or something like that. And three is you want to avoid canned things. So we saw one study for example, that showed a 20 fold increase in levels of BPA from canned soup. So it's reasonable to imagine that these canned things have a similar process of plastics and you want to avoid them all. Right, now let's talk about your kitchen. Next, you want to scan your environment and remove plastic wherever you can. So that means cutting boards, kitchen tools like stirrers, any kind of storage container. You want to try to just identify what is plastic and replace it with ceramic, glass, stainless steel. Also avoid the non stick pans and instead use cast iron or stainless steel. For home and personal care, you want to seek out materials like cotton, bamboo, linen, hemp, wool and silk. That's also true for things like rugs. So try to have those materials in your home. And also you can have a HEPA filter as you vacuum. That will also capture microplastics. And then if you can switch to a plastic free laundry detergent. And then finally is to avoid handling receipts, they have high levels of bpa. Now if your job requires you to handle receipts, consider wearing gloves if you're receiving them, then opt for a digital version. We have the world's first microplastics test. We want to make meaningful progress on this topic and to date there's not been a way for people to just easily do a plastics test. At home. And that's what we have today, a metal lancet. You just prick your finger, a little spot of blood on a card, and you get results back. It shows you the different levels of microplastics at the various particle sizes. Now, the goal here is, as a community, we build the world's largest data set of microplastics, and then we figure out what things change. For example, if you install a filter at your home water, does that lower your microplastic levels? If you remove plastic containers in your environment, does that help, etc. So the goal really is to be quantified about how we're doing our measurement and what changes we're making in the real world, and then tie those two things together, and then we'll get our way to more sophisticated things where we can actually maybe remove microplastics from our body. Don't worry, we've got this. And it's been a mistake for us to just go with such gusto in producing these microplastics. And we haven't known the effects, but now we can take corrective actions. Thank you for attending class. You are now excused. Be well.
