In a new study, she found taking a fiber supplement with meals could reduce the levels of PFAS in the body. The results appear in Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology.
Schlezinger wanted to reduce her cholesterol, but didn’t want to take a drug, so she started researching dietary interventions and found that gel-forming dietary fibers might help. One such fiber is cholestyramine, which, when taken with food, binds to bile acid and leaves the body with it after digestion. The body then has to replace the bile acid lost, and draws cholesterol from the blood to do so, reducing cholesterol levels.
Schlezinger realized that PFAS, like bile acids, are surfactants, with a neutral end and a charged end, which is what makes the acids stick to the fibers. She wondered if gel-forming fibers could help us expel PFAS just as they do with bile acids.
“PFAS really easily enter the body, but the problem comes in that we can’t break them down, and we can’t get them out of the body,” Schlezinger says.
“Something I tell my toxicology students all the time is a key principle in toxicology: the longer something stays in the body, the more likely it is to cause toxicity. So, because PFAS can’t leave the body easily, they build up in concentration.”
With her colleague at University of Massachusetts Lowell, Dhimiter Bello, Schlezinger planned a couple of pilot studies, including in humans. Using samples from a clinical trial of an oat beta-glucan supplement—a gel-forming fiber—Schlezinger and Bello found a statistically significant effect on PFAS levels.
Since the Trump administration announced rollbacks on limits for PFAS in drinking water in March, they have been a hot topic. Schlezinger thinks the rollbacks are a mistake, but says the process is ongoing, so nothing has changed yet.
Read the full story:
An oat fiber intervention for reducing PFAS body burden: A pilot study in male C57Bl/6 J mice
Highlights
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In mice exposed to PFAS in a mixture, the rank order of serum:drinking water concentrations was PFHxS ≈ PFOA > PFOS ≈ PFNA > NBP2 >> > PFHpA.
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We observed lower serum concentration trends in β-glucan fed mice for PFHpA, PFOA and PFOS.
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Activation of PXR, but not CAR or PPARα, decreased significantly over a 4-week depuration period.
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β-glucan fed mice had lower adipose:body weight ratios and liver and jejunum triglyceride concentrations.
Paywalled paper:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0041008X24003879?via%3Dihub
