Huntington Health 50 ===

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Well, hello, hello, guys. You're listening to Beauty Bites with Dr. K, Secrets of a Plastic Surgeon, and it's time for a 5 Minute Friday. Today, let's talk about microplastics. This is such an ominous and scary topic because I've seen so much social media posting about it, and literally freaks me out to understand how much plastic we've ingested as a human species.

Um, It's more invisible than you might think, microplastics are things that we're exposed to every single day and you might be wondering how does this affect me, how is it relevant, but I'm going to tell you about it. It's very relevant to your skin, to your aging process, to every single organ in your body and to our longevity.

Um, in the simplest terms, [00:01:00] microplastics are small, tiny, tiny little plastic fragments, usually between one nanometer and up to five millimeters in size, but they come from broken down, bigger plastic materials. But just to give you an idea of how tiny they might be. If you look at a strand of human hair, it's about 80, 000 nanometers wide, and we're talking to one nanometer or even smaller.

Microplastics are very bad for the environment and the ecosystem, and They're also showing up in places like human tissues. in the brain, in the skeletal system, they're showing up in breast milk, they're showing up in particles floating in the air, floating in water, and the cosmetic products we're using every single day.

So, how do microplastics actually affect your skin? Will your skin, your body's largest organ, you know, it's also your first line of defense against environmental factors, whether it's pollution or ultraviolet rays or toxins. [00:02:00] And the skin is also your first defense against microplastics. When small particles get absorbed.

into your skin. They land on your skin. They may be in the pollution or the air around us. You may be touching these fabrics and particles and as they get absorbed over real time they cause damage. So if you're drinking out of plastic water bottles, if you're using Scrubs, creams, certain types of nylon fabrics or fabrics that are polyester or highly flammable plastic y products, the skin actually absorbs the microplastics on it and can penetrate the skin barrier.

And research suggests that when the barrier is compromised and damaged, for example, if you have eczema, if you have psoriasis, if you have bad acne, um, bad rashes, Your skin really is struggling to repair itself. So exposure to environmental microplastics makes it even worse. You definitely will become red, dry, and sensitive, feeling [00:03:00] like your skin is irritated or more inflamed.

And inflammation, of course, is a huge factor in skin aging. Inflammation is a normal bodily reaction, but if it's prolonged and if it's chronic over time, it can be very harmful. As this inflammation continues, you get free radical release. These unstable molecules attack your skin cells and free radicals cause oxidative stress.

And all of this stress can cause chronic degeneration of skin. So when we look at our skin, I think as a generation, we are aging worse than our parents did in some ways. And in some ways, our grandparents aged much better than us. Of course, we have more technology, better drugs, and more emergency services available to us now.

In the old days, maybe you died from lack of antibiotics, but currently, we have people who have every technology available to them, and they're still looking very weathered and very aged. I look at some of my patients that are [00:04:00] 90 years old, and I ask them, What's the secret to your amazing skin? And they're like, I don't know, I just use Pond's Cream.

I can't tell you how many people have told me Pond's Cream, um, that drugstore cream that's very emollient, that has like very limited ingredients, very few preservatives. And I have so many 80 to 90 year old patients who that was the mainstay of their beauty. And the fact is that they were not putting on multiple, multiple skincare products with so many different preservatives.

colorants and environmental toxins that are essentially in the microplastics of their bottles. So I kind of think that that simplistic skincare maybe should become a trend again, where we're using products with very simple ingredient profiles and just the critical amount. The most minuscule amount of preservatives and ingredients to have shelf life and stability and prevent bacteria from growing in them.

But ponds cream is generally one of the things that I was [00:05:00] like, I need to do a study on this because these 90 year old women have literally the best skin. They avoid the sun, they use their ponds, and that's about it. And then I'm looking at our skin, me at age 50, and then patients that come into the office.

And we look like, you know, lots of sun damage. We're getting that from the environment changing, of course. But I'm using so much sunscreen. I'm using daily antioxidants. I'm using, like, all of these products. I wonder if the microplastics that are penetrating our skin are not responsible for this new level of damage that we're seeing in the skin of this generation.

We have to work on things to preserve our collagen and elastin. The critical proteins that keep us firm and help prevent loss of youthful skin, these are the things that we need to work on. When microplastics penetrate the skin, they go way deeper than the surface. They disrupt cellular processes and lead to cellular inflammation that affect even the function of [00:06:00] the skin cells themselves.

One study, for example, showed that microplastics could lead to activation of a stress response in the skin cell, further impairing the skin's ability to regenerate and repair. And on top of that, these microplastics are often coated with chemicals or toxins, which can be released into the skin, causing even more irritation, and compromises the ability for skin to recover and age gracefully.

So, Now you're asking, well what can I do about it? Um, first take a look at the ingredients in your skin care products. If you see terms like polyethylene, polypropylene, you've got microplastics in those products. If there is a lot of dimethicone or silicon in your products, it does have a nice glide to it, but maybe there might be some microplastics in there.

Try to remove these products from your skincare routine and switch, switch to a better routine, switch to safer, better alternatives. A lot of brands now are moving forward with more [00:07:00] sustainable eco friendly formulas. So there's no shortage of microplastic free options. So look for scrubs, for example, that have microbeads that are non plastic, natural ingredients like sugar or salt or ground up seeds, and definitely switch to a cleaner routine.

Secondly, protect yourself from the environment by maintaining skin barrier. Hydration is key. Drinking plenty of water for internal body hydration. Don't forget topical hydration through moisturizing products that absorb and lock in protection like hyaluronic based serums and of course don't forget sunscreen.

Daily application of your broad spectrum sunscreen protects you from UV radiation. Once UV breaks down your skin barrier, you are going to be more vulnerable than ever to UV damage and microplastic damage. And then, thirdly, alter your lifestyle. Detoxify and get rid of microplastics. You might be surprised that things you're using every single [00:08:00] day are contributing to your microplastic consumption.

Your shopping bags, your food containers, your straws, your activewear, your cutting board. This is crazy, I'm like cutting up healthy vegetables on a plastic cutting board and yes, you see those little cuts in the cutting board? Those are microplastics getting on your knife and into your food. You really have to look carefully.

Look at your cheese. When you bring cheese home from the grocery store, it's wrapped in plastic. Don't you just throw it in the fridge and leave it in the plastic? I do. I have done that. Not anymore. I'm supposed to now unwrap it from the plastic and put it into a glass container. And please don't buy cheese slices wrapped like American cheese and individually wrapped in plastic that sit and fossilize in your fridge and just stay there preservative free wrapped in microplastics.

Full of microplastics! And I'm sure I ate a thousand of those cheese slices as a kid, and so did you guys. So remember, look at these sources of plastic you haven't thought about. Soda [00:09:00] cans, the inner lining is impregnated with microplastics. Tea bags often have microplastics. Maybe we need loose leaf tea.

Maybe I shouldn't drink soda anymore. I know, is life worth living if you can't have cheese and soda and tea and some of these things? Well, you can, but we're going to switch to better containers to store this. Avoid plastic bottles. Make sure you're not microwaving your fast food containers in the microwave. And you're not nuking your Starbucks cup that's lined with microplastics. Make sure that you're transferring food to a glass container when you microwave. Research suggests that heating food in plastic containers can release up to four million microplastic particles from just one square centimeter of plastic area.

Switching to a wood cutting board is excellent, and these things will make a big impact on you over time. They've done cadaver studies that show microplastics in the human brain, they penetrate the blood brain barrier [00:10:00] and we have therapies like ozone therapy, plasmapheresis, which can ultra filtrate your entire body blood volume and take out a liter or more of microplastics, toxins, molds, heavy metals, so you could definitely think about ozone as a treatment if you're someone who's suffering.

So guys, microplastics are a bigger threat to your skin than you might think. think, and the inflammation, speeding up of the aging process, reducing longevity, all of these things we have to think about for our daily lives. Next time you're applying a chemical to your skin. Remember, women can apply up to 12 products on their skin from the time they wake up to the time they exit the house.

And each of those products has chemicals, colorants, preservatives, and microplastics. So, in some ways, Simplifying your skincare routine from the 12 step to maybe the three step to maybe the most cleanest [00:11:00] ingredients you possibly can to maybe even more organic products, coconut oil, mineral oil, things that may not be so, so fancy, but sometimes simplicity, right?

I'm going to work on that this year. And for my skincare line, I'm a fanatic. I love to stick with the simple basics, the Deep Blue Hydration Hyaluronic Serum, the Vitamin C. Love it. A great sunscreen, mineral based of course, and then a really excellent moisturizer and always with a glycolic cleanser.

That's kind of like my five staple things. I try to not do everything all the time. I definitely will put on Stem Cell Growth Factor at night and a good eye cream and neck cream. So, You know, just something I'm looking at because I want to be like these 90 year olds who put ponds on their skin and have the most flawless, luminescent, pearly skin.

That's it for now, guys. I hope you learned something from today's episode. Do remember to make great choices for yourself and your skin and your family and think about microplastics. [00:12:00] Let's read and learn more together about it this year. Don't forget to find me on my Instagram. It's beauty by dr. K and our website beauty by dr. K calm That's dr. K a why that's where you can find my amazing skin care Very simple very great ingredient profile and I definitely encourage you to stay tuned to the podcast this year as we dive deeper into Things we can do to hack our beauty from the inside and out.

I want to work on inner beauty, longevity, and wellness, and talk more about things you can do to improve your health profile. So I'm going to interview some specialists on these kind of toxins, microplastics, and preservatives. Let's learn more together. That's it for now, guys. Stay beautiful.