Bryan Johnson breaks down a study where male mice fed microplastics for nine weeks developed 63% more plaque in their aortas and over 600% more in their brachiocephalic arteries, while females showed no change. The microplastics triggered inflammation and stress in male arterial cells, suggesting estrogen may protect females from this cardiovascular damage.
Should men or women worry more about microplastics? Scientists fed male and female mice microplastics over nine weeks. That's kind of mean Their goal was to assess the effect microplastics have on plaque buildup and cardiovascular risk. But what they found was surprising. After nine weeks, only the male mice showed major increases in plaque. Their plaque area increased by 63% in the aortic root and over 600% in the brachiocephalic artery. But that wasn't all. When the scientists looked at the arterial cell cells in the male mice, they saw that microplastics changed the way that these cells behaved, making them more inflamed, stressed, and likely to form plaque. Microplastics also turned on genes linked to inflammation and heart disease, but not just in mice, in human cells, too. So why weren't the female mice affected in the same way? This study doesn't give a final answer, but it may be because estrogen helps protect the heart and blood vessels in females. One thing is clear. Microplastics are everywhere, whether you're male or female. Reducing exposure to microplastics is a good idea.
