Our planet has been polluted by a number of things. One of them is microplastics – small particles of plastic found in the vast majority of our food and water supply. These have been dubbed as one of the most harmful substances for humans, affecting our health adversely. Now, a study published in the journal Microplastics has found that drinking from plastic bottles may increase blood pressure as a result of microplastics entering the bloodstream, according to New York Post. These have already been linked to heart health, hormone imbalance and even cancer.
The new study has been carried out by the Department of Medicine at Danube Private University in Austria, and published in the journal Microplastics. The team of researchers there a group of participants fluid that was not in a plastic bottle and found that their blood pressure decreases significantly.
“Remarkable trends were observed. The results of the study suggest, for the first time, that a reduction in plastic use could potentially lower blood pressure, probably due to the reduced volume of plastic particles in the bloodstream,” the team wrote in the study, as per the Post report.
“Based on the findings, indicating a reduction in blood pressure with decreased plastic consumption, we hypothesize that plastic particles present in the bloodstream might contribute to elevated blood pressure,” they further said.
They concluded that beverages packed in plastic bottles should be avoided.
A few years ago, scientists found that 5 grams of microplastics enters the blood stream of humans every week through fluids packaged in bottles.
Among the ways described to prevent microplastics from entering the body are boiling and filtering the tap water. These ways can reduce the presence of microplastics (and nanoplastics) by nearly 90 per cent.
