Microplastic Testing and ‘Detox’ Claims: What We Know (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Can I make myself, ah, did I even do it? That's me overcoming my fear of stabbing myself for the sake of journalism. Come on, bleed. It's for a $150 test which claims it can tell me how many microplastics are in my blood. Products like this are popping up all over the internet as public concern grows.

[00:00:22] Speaker 2: It's really just feeding off of people like, oh my gosh, do I have plastics in me? I better test.

[00:00:27] Speaker 1: Scientists worry, but can't prove, that plastics and their chemicals may trigger inflammation, damage DNA, or lead to heart attacks, strokes, dementia, even infertility.

[00:00:39] Speaker 3: This was just pulled out of my body.

[00:00:41] Speaker 1: Some people are turning to plasmapheresis, popularized by anti-aging biohacker Brian Johnson, known for injecting his son's blood in his quest to live forever. The medical procedure, which can cost up to $10,000, replaced all of Johnson's plasma to remove toxins like microplastics. But for how long?

[00:01:02] Speaker 2: Because then the next time you take a breath of air, it's all coming back. The next time you drink some water, it's all coming back.

[00:01:11] Speaker 1: Scientists are discussing other options, such as vaccines, or engineering microbes to stop microplastic absorption in the gut.

[00:01:19] Speaker 4: I've heard people talk about Olestra again. We went through that and learned our lesson, I thought.

[00:01:24] Speaker 3: Pringles and these snacks, now marketed under the new brand name of Wow, are fat-free. They're cooked in a special soybean or cottonseed-based oil called Oleen, P&G's brand name for Olestra.

[00:01:36] Speaker 1: Olestra was a controversial fat substitute used in the 90s to make guilt-free potato chips. Customers soon discovered it caused cramping, diarrhea, and the infamous anal leakage. I guess that's one way of making sure microplastics don't linger in the body. It took a while, but my results finally came back. I'm going to look at them for the first time on this app. Oh my gosh. To my absolute shock, I have very few microplastics in my blood. That's crazy. Either these results aren't accurate, or I'm just lucky. Still, I do have microplastics, so until we live in a plastic-free world, how worried do I, or you, need to be?

[00:02:22] Speaker 4: There is a lack of data linking this to health effects, and I think that's really important for us to point out right now. It's really not helpful for people to individually be scared.

[00:02:32] Speaker 1: All right, here we go. I absolutely hate doing this.