Plastic is everywhere and can be extremely hard to avoid. You may know plastic in many different forms... the bags that help you transport your groceries from the store to your home, portable water bottles, Tupperware, and children's toys.
But, plastic can also be located in not so common products like pesticides, your cosmetics, medications or cleaning supplies.
Plastic is also in your environment, which could be a contributing cause to many health and environmental issues. Plastic should be recycled, but the plastic used in water bottles, grocery bags or other plastic materials breaks down into smaller pieces over time. However, seeing plastic washed up on beaches and thrown on the ground at parks is inevitable.
If plastic has the ability to damage the environment, can it damage your body?
An article published by Functional Medicine University (FMU) lists seven ways that plastic can damage your body:
- Damages the chemistry of your fatty acids
- Creates a zinc deficiency
- Damages the pancreas
- Lower sulfation
- Damages hormone function (especially your thyroid & testosterone)
- Damages the chemistry of your cholesterol
- Damages your body's ability to make catalase
What else do you need to know about plastic, your environment, and your health?
Dr. Holly discusses how plastic has become unavoidable, the ways plastic can damage your body, and what you can do to try to avoid exposure.