Microplastics Could Be Weakening Your Bones, Research Suggests

A review of 62 scientific studies published in Osteoporosis International found that microplastics weaken bones by disrupting bone marrow stem cells and stimulating osteoclasts, cells that degrade bone tissue. Laboratory experiments found the particles reduce cell viability, induce premature cellular aging, modify gene expression, and trigger inflammatory responses. Animal studies found microplastic accumulation decreases white blood cell counts and deteriorates bone microstructure, creating irregular cell structures that increase fracture risk. Rodrigo Bueno de Oliveira from the State University of Campinas in Brazil said the effects interrupted skeletal growth in test animals.

OrangeGPT predicts White House response:

[Tablizer]

Fake news! Soros put microplastics into all the lab faucets to trick the woke America-Last scientists! There is no such thing as microplastics, nobody's ever seen them in the wild, bacteria eat it and it's just gone, faster than Haitians eat cats: bing bing, munch munch, gone gone!

Re:

[ArchieBunker]

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Malk?

[TwistedGreen]

But I've been drinking plenty of... Malk?

Plastics.

[kackle]

It just dawned on me that that famous line in "The Graduate" may have an entirely different, ominous meaning in the future.

Re:

[TwistedGreen]

I never understood why that line was famous... maybe it will become infamous.

Re:

[kackle]

Forgive me, "famous". I was born when the movie came out, only seeing much later. I took it as conceptually facing a weighty adulthood decision where one can choose a stable, profitable, comfortable life path, but a path that is also boring and perhaps even soul-sucking.

Funnily, I face this daily: I'm able to make good money in various technical jobs, but I don't... Instead, I chose a path where I like the people, the company, the goals, the short commute and the technical/non-technical freedoms. B

Re:

[TwistedGreen]

Thanks for your response. I should rewatch it. Perhaps I wasn't old enough to appreciate it at the time I saw it.

"It's like I was playing some kind of game, but the rules don't make any sense to me."

Lots of good quotes from that movie.

Via the mitochondria?

[buck-yar]

Looks like micro / nano plastics might cause mitochondria damage.

A recent study suggested that MNP exposure directly augments mitochondrial damage and dysfunction and that mitochondrial breakdown results in mtDNA release into the cytoplasm.

leading to kidney damage and protein leakage

MNPs cause endothelial cell dysfunction by diminishing mitochondrial function

MNPs are toxic to human lymphocytes, owing to excessive ROS formation, lysosomal/mitochondrial damage, lipid peroxidation, and glutathione depletion, ultimately resulting in cytotoxicity

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9612075/

Apparently somewhat easily damaged

Mitochondrial DNA acquires mutations at six to seven times the rate of nuclear DNA,

Postmitotic tissues such as those in the brain,muscles, nerves, retinas, and kidneys, are vul-nerable for several reasons. They all tend tohave a high demand for energy. Furthermore,their diseased cells cannot be replaced byhealthier neighbor cells, a process that wouldoccur in tissues with cellular turnover, such asthe skin or mucosa.In dividing tissues such as mucosal mem-branes, cell populations with healthy mitochondria would have a selective advantageover those with diseased mitochondria. Over time, cells with diseased mitochondria would disappear from the population, so the tissue tends to remain free of significant mitochon-drial abnormalities. However, in tissues that are postmitotic at birth, no selection process weeds out sick cells. In these tissues, mtDNA mutations accumulate and result in progressive dysfunction of individual cells and eventually of theorgan itself. https://www.ccjm.org/content/c... [ccjm.org]

The study above mentioned coQ10, along with b vitamins could help in some situations.

CoQ10 was the most studied mitochondrial enzyme, where reduced plasma levels of CoQ10 were found in the fatigued populations compared to healthy controls.

In clinical practice, vitamins such as riboflavin B2, niacin B3, vitamin E and other mitochondrial cofactors including levo-carnitine, lipoic acid, and acetyl-l-carnitine are used as supplemental treatment for mitochondrial disorders, in order to enhance ETC enzyme activity as an antioxidant defense

Also interestingly

The results presented in this study signify novel work and suggest that blue light may have a similar effect on mitochondria as UVR. Solar simulated blue light was shown to have significant effects on mtDNA damage in a dose dependent manner https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/a... [nih.gov]