#1

I just posted the results of a self-experiment that shows, for the first time, that a drug protocol can stimulate microplastics mobilization in a human. For anyone interested, the full write-up with background and details is here:

TL;DR:

When ingested, microplastics are engulfed by cells and delivered to lysosomes, where they sit indefinitely. This causes dysfunction and inflammation, and probably underlies the associations we’ve seen with dementia and cardiovascular events. Getting cells to eject them back into the bloodstream could allow them to be eliminated. Since sulforaphane has been shown to stimulate cells to dump the contents of their lysosomes, I wondered whether it could coax them into dumping microplastics.

I dosed 100 mg of sulforaphane on day 0. This mobilized millions of particles in the 10-70 micron range on day 2, the highest levels ever recorded by the testing company.

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I can’t say whether they were ultimately cleared from the body, but it’s possible that this mobilization drove a good fraction of them toward elimination in bile or urine. Alternatively, pushing them outside of cells could enable removal with plasma exchange.

This is the first evidence that microplastics can be actively removed from the body, even once they’ve been engulfed by cells.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

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#2

That is fascinating … but what if instead having them in the lysosomes, which might be your body’s method of minimizing harm, now that a whole lot has been mobilized and released, they all get lodged in small vessels in your heart, brain and periphery as they are now free in your blood stream?

Given that you are still typing and able to produce this report would indicate nothing bad happened - at least symptomatically.

I don’t know the answer to this but it could go either way or a bunch of other ways.

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#3

Great point. I especially wonder about the particles in the brain, which are likely harder to clear. Since some of the larger particles are larger than capillaries, there is definitely the potential to clog things up.

But having them in the lysosomes of your macrophages and endothelial cells is also a very, very bad thing.

The question is, which is worse? I don’t know the answer.

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#4

Enjoyed reading your substack on this.

It would be interesting to see how dose dependent this process is.

100mg Sulphoraphane is not terribly expensive but is that the optimal dose?

And what happens if used longer than 3 days?

Perhaps a lower dose for 3 days would allow the body a chance to remove and adapt. Short cycles every x months?

And the question of what happens to the mobilized particles is one that would be good to have an answer for.

Your project here is fascinating, well done, and offers significant hope for a serious problem.

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#5

@Jjazz

Will you be monitoring your “new” base line to see if your particle count changes in a week? month? etc?

Being able to measure a result like this quickly and easily is very handy.

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#6

Thanks Steve. Really glad you enjoyed the Substack.

Also, great points. Lower, commonly used doses of sulforaphane (e.g., 10 mg) definitely have biological effects and would likely activate something similar. And since a 10 mg dose has a broad track record in clinical studies and in the real world, I would feel confident in the safety, even without knowing more about what happens to the mobilized particles. I used 100 mg to drive a large effect that I could measure for the study—smaller doses may actually be better therapeutically.

And totally agree on both the need to follow the fate of the mobilized particles and to measure efficacy for decreasing baseline levels. I’m going to reach out to some labs that can run other biological fluids as I look into the next round of experiments.

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#7

Seems worthy of more testing.

If sulforaphane always results in such a sharp spike in blood microplastics then you could draw out blood or plasma and throw it away to remove it from the body.

It would be interesting to see the results after this is done multiple times. Is more of it in the blood or plasma?

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#8
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#9

Good for him! I’d certainly be doing it too, if I had millions of $ in spare cash.

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#10

Very cool. Plasma donation carries the benefit of removing things from the body and is free. Plasma exchange or filtration have their own benefits.

Bryan Johnson did state he didn’t really feel different after removing all of his blood plasma.

I could foresee a therapy where you dose super high levels of sulforaphane and filter or remove your plasma. Or maybe it requires full blood draw. Who knows? I’d want to see both tested. It would be good to see plasma filtration tested as well.

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#11

Sulforaphane is a natural plant compound (phytochemical) found in cruciferous vegetables. These vegetables include:

  • Broccoli (especially broccoli sprouts)
  • Brussels sprouts
  • Cabbage
  • Kale
  • Cauliflower
  • Bok choy
  • Watercress
  • Radish
  • Turnips
  • Arugula
  • Kohlrabi
#12

Just “Plasma exchange or filtration” may not remove plastic particles.

What size are the particles in the blood stream?

Review the following, posted as a separate thread.

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#13

So you’re saying the cheaper and more widely available plasma donation would probably be a better solution here?

But we don’t know that plasma removal would be effective, it might require discarding the blood all together.

If sulforaphane at high doses is really liberating microplastics into the blood this is worthy of a study determining different doses effects, and the benefit of blood and plasma removal.

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#14
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#15

I think the most accessible solution would be to donate plasma to a private company that is using the plasma to make fractionated drugs like IVIG or albumin. The processes used to make those generally include microfiltration steps that would remove microplastics, so you wouldn’t have to worry about contaminating the recipient patient.

A typical donation removes about 25% of your plasma, and thus an equal percentage of mobilized plastics.

I’m going to test this.

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#16

Please keep us updated. This is a huge discovery if it works.

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#17

I should also add that I was originally going to test this with rapamycin, but then the sulforaphane for NPC disease paper crossed my desk. Both of these drugs induce lysosomal exocytosis through TFEB. NPC also does it through a second mechanism (MCOLN1 activation).

I have a laundry list of things I need to test as follow ups, including whether rapamycin can also mobilize microplastics. If anyone reading this is about to start a round of rapa anyways, I would encourage you to measure your microplastic blood levels daily starting 1 day before and for 3 days after starting rapa. If you do, please share your results!

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#18

True but 55% of “blood” is plasma. 40% is red blood cells.

Since red blood cells have a very short lifespan of about 120 days, and they then get engulfed by macrophages. It is probably not a bad idea to do plasma “cleaning” or exchange after a sulphoraphane mobilization protocol.

Plasma is the food truck and the garbage truck, carries nutrients to where they are needed and carries waste away to be disposed of by the kidneys.

I’ve been wondering about a pseudo-osmotic potential. High concentration moving to a low concentration. If that may also apply to microplastics. Probably not but a lingering question in my little mind.

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#19

There are four basic processes in the formation of urine starting with plasma.

Filtration

Filtration is the mass movement of water and solutes from plasma to the renal tubule that occurs in the renal corpuscle. About 20% of the plasma volume passing through the glomerulus at any given time is filtered. This means that about 180 liters of fluid are filtered by the kidneys every day. Thus, the entire plasma volume (about 3 liters) is filtered 60 times a day! Filtration is primarily driven by hydraulic pressure (blood pressure) in the capillaries of the glomerulus.

Note that the kidneys filter much more fluid than the amount of urine that is actually excreted (about 1.5 liters per day). This is essential for the kidneys to rapidly remove waste and toxins from the plasma efficiently.

https://mcb.berkeley.edu/courses/mcb135e/kidneyprocess.html

#20

Thanks for sharing. I’m super fan of this molecule, so many studies and good results.
I wonder now which other molecule could be added to sulforaphane that can help to lead the toxin off the body… Sulforaphane per se for detox worries me a bit as it can cross the BBB.
…
In another note, have you added myrosinase to the sulforaphane formulation? Just curiosity as some studies say it helps conversion from glucoraphanin to sulforaphane (bioavailability). (Maybe vitamin C as well as a cofactor for myrosinase and for some antioxidant help.)

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