That’s assuming you could somehow stop new microplastic from entering the body
I mean, there is the argument that if they bioaccumulate in the blood, it’s worth removing periodically even if it doesn’t stop new intake
No because you’re making blood from nutrients with microplastics mixed in. That’s how it would hypothetically accumulate there in the first place. If it were being filtered out of the blood by another organ then I could see a case for scraping/removal but if it’s the blood then it’s coming directly from your food and drink and will be the same ratio even after bloodletting and/or regeneration.
Let’s say you keep dripping slightly muddy water into a bucket. Over time, the mud will settle and accumulate in the bucket, while the clearer water will overflow. Now suppose you cut a slit at the base of the bucket. Now the mud will flow out through it and the water in the bucket will become less muddy, even though new muddy water is still dripping in. Here the bucket is your bloodstream, the slightly muddy water is your food, and the mud is microplastic.
Just donate blood. Skip the infection risk.
Oh great, now I have to worry about DuPont and Dow coming to repo my blood.
i mean, as part of my job, i routinely take area hospitals medical grade leeches. it’s not like they ever stopped being used by doctors.
Why would you use a leech instead of a needle or something? What are they for
Amputation sites I think? The suction attracts blood flow to the area and supports healing/retention of blood vessels… I think. Neither one of us clearly can be bothered googling but that’s what I recall…
google makes things too easy. great thinks were thunked back in the day where people had nothing but their own minds to consult.
For skin grafts after burns; the leeches’ saliva has anticoagulants that helps blood flow through the microvasculature (tiny blood vessels) of the area. This helps promote growth of new blood vessels, as well as improve the health of the current blood vessels in the area.
TLDR: Helps tiny blood vessels in skin grafts (and other procedures), reduces failure of said skin grafts
Others have already mentioned limb reattachment and anticoagulants, but if you’re interested in learning more, I highly recommend a book called Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures. Leeches, mosquitoes, bedbugs, and vampire bats are fascinating!
Makes me genuinely wonder… I’ve donated blood for like 15 times now – does that make my current blood less saturated with microplastics than if I hadn’t?
Donate 100% of blood, then fast. You’ll be microplastic free for the rest of your life!
Live a little will ya.
Keep your blood, eat plastics raw, turn yourself into a 3D printer.
Probably not. Unless they build up in the body somewhere, the amount of microplastics in your blood is determined by how many you consume via inhaled dust, food, and drink compared with how many you flush put via urine and/or fecal material.
If they do build up in the body somewhere, it probably isn’t the blood, because blood is already filtered regularly.
I was thinking that a kidney dialysis machine might be able to filter out that stuff from your blood. I think the way those work is your blood goes out a tube into the machine and it filters it before sending it back to you. So you’d need filters in there that are fine enough to catch the microplastics.
I don’t think any filtering happens in dialysis, unwanted stuff just diffuses to another solution
Correct. If there are actually micro plastics in your blood, the plastic is likely relatively small compared to a blood cell. Otherwise we would be witnessing a lot more issues with stroke/heart attacks. Any kind of filter small enough to filter out something that small would also filter out blood cells.
Microplastics are the only guaranteed source of your daily dose of Vitamin P, as recommended by nobody and discouraged by the FDA.
