Microplastics linked to stroke and dementia

Researchers note that the incidence is seven to thirty times higher in the brain compared to organs such as the liver and kidney.

Microplastics are everywhere. They crossed the threshold of merely being an environmental hazard long ago. Although predominantly said to pollute our digestive system, they are now linked to causing stroke and dementia, according to a recently released review article by the Genomic Press. 

Brain, a plastic reservoir

The brain appears to be a magnet for microplastic fragments. A plastic spoon’s worth of nanoplastic is lodged in the human brain. Researchers also note that the incidence is seven to thirty times higher in the brain compared to organs such as the liver and kidney. The data samples collected between 2016 and 2024 show that the donors dealing with dementia have the highest microplastic burden in their brains. The plastic burden among them has cumulatively increased by 50 per cent since 2016.

Microplastics in the brain are not an isolated incident; rather, they are part of a growing body of evidence showing how these particles have spread throughout the human body. Circulating through human blood, they can reach developing fetuses, and have also been found in the “plaque” that clogs heart and brain arteries.

The study highlights that the patients whose whole plaque tested positive for nanoplastics were likely to experience a fourfold increase in risk of heart attack, stroke, or death over the next 34 weeks of follow-up. 

This creates a high risk for heart issues like stroke, along with neurological conditions like stroke and dementia. 

Credits: Brain Health, a new peer-reviewed journal from Genomic Press

The blood-brain connection

Recent animal studies show that plastic nanoparticles can cross the blood-brain barrier within just two hours of oral exposure. As these particles travel through the body, they acquire a “biomolecular corona”—a coating of proteins—that essentially acts as a “passport,” tricking the brain’s defences into letting them in. 

Why is this concerning?

The consumption of ultra-processed food is the major factor driving these nanoparticles into our bodies. The same dietary exposure raises risk for not just one but multiple health conditions. 

"We are looking at an organ where the highest measured concentrations of microplastics meet the most consequential clinical endpoints [fatal health outcomes] in medicine,” says Dr Julio Licinio, lead author and CEO of Genomic Press. “Cognition, mood, stroke, dementia. Treating this as a peripheral environmental concern, when the relevant peripheral organs carry less of the contaminant than the central one, has become difficult to defend.”