Reverse Microplastic Toxicity NATURALLY (Heals Mitochondria, Gut, Brain) | Dr. Josh Axe

You are unknowingly consuming an entire credit card's worth of plastic every single week. It's hiding in your tea bags, your store receipts, and even your $130 workout clothes. And the biological consequences are absolutely terrifying: studies show microplastics are now found in 100% of human testicles, they reduce mitochondrial energy by 35%, and they literally punch holes through your gut lining within 14 days. FREE 7-Step Microplastic Detox Guide PDF: bit.ly/draxeplasticdetox Uncover what’s really going on in your body with advanced biomarker testing for hormones, thyroid, and metabolism— plus a 1-hour consultation with a Senior Health Advisor! → http://mybloodwork.com If you’re ready to start feeling like yourself again and balance your hormones, take my free class → http://DrAxeHormoneClass.com Thank you to our sponsors! Sunlighten Sauna: https://get.sunlighten.com/axepodcastManukora Manuka Honey: https://manukora.com/axeCaraway Home: carawayhome.com/drjoshaxe (Use code DRJOSHAXE) for an exclusive discount Watch The Dr. Josh Axe Show every Monday & Thursday on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@drjoshaxe?sub_confirmation=1 Pre-order my NEW BOOK, Heal Your Cells → https://bit.ly/3QJBcQ5 🎧 Early Access! Our listeners enjoy every episode before anyone else! Tune in below and join our exclusive group of listeners → Spotify: https://bit.ly/DrJoshAxeSpotifyApple Podcast: https://apple.co/3JDvWcS CONNECT WITH DR. JOSH AXEInstagram → https://www.instagram.com/drjoshaxe/Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/DrJoshAxe/TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@thedrjoshaxeshow/X → https://x.com/drjoshaxe/LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshaxeWebsite → http://thehealthinstitute.comSign up for my newsletter → https://bit.ly/4oE9Jf3Ask Dr. Axe → http://speakpipe.com/drjoshaxe Timestamps0:00 — The Microplastic Problem6:00 — How Plastics Destroy Hormones 12:15 — MNPs Link to Mortality18:25 — Stop Touching Store Receipts 25:15 — The 7-Step Plastic Detox Protocol 32:52 — Top 10 Foods to Flush Out Toxins 39:00 — Top 5 Plastic Detox Supplements Key Research Areas Discussed• The 450% Mortality Risk: Why combining systemic inflammation with microplastic accumulation inside your arteries drastically spikes your risk of sudden death. • Brain Accumulation: How a leaky blood-brain barrier has allowed the average person to accumulate an entire spoon's worth of plastic inside their brain—a 50% increase in just eight years. • The Hormone Crash: How phthalates act as xenoestrogens, driving up female estrogen levels and actively plummeting male testosterone. • The Clothing Danger: Why polyester athleisure brands (like Lululemon and Athleta) shed hundreds of thousands of microfibers that your skin absorbs directly during a workout. • The Plastic Detox Protocol: The exact foods (broccoli sprouts, pomegranate) and supplements (NAC, Modified Citrus Pectin) required to bind and eliminate synthetic chemicals. DISCLAIMERThis content is strictly the opinion of Dr. Josh Axe and is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice or to take the place of medical advice or treatment from a personal physician. All viewers of this content are advised to consult their doctors or qualified health professionals regarding specific health questions. Neither Dr. Axe nor the publisher of this content takes responsibility for possible health consequences of any person or persons reading or following the information in this educational content. All viewers of this content, especially those taking prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement or lifestyle program. MB01BZPPPEGQUZZ

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Josh Axe?

  The average person consumes one credit card a day in microplastics. The receipts you get, that ink on there is loaded with forever chemicals and microplastics. Teflon pants. I mean, these things are leaching. Microplastics, major, major chemicals, forever chemicals that damage your entire body. And that's disrupting your hormones. It's increasing your cancer risk. Almost every health condition you can think of.

• 0:38Josh Axe?

  A University of Newcastle study found the average person consumes 5 grams of plastic every 7 days. The exact weight of a credit card. And if you've watched the Plastic Detox on Netflix, maybe you've already seen this, but 6 couples were struggling with infertility. They did 90 days of removing plastics and doing a plastic detox. They repaired their bodies and the groups there got pregnant. That's not a coincidence. Here's a reality. Microplastics are destroying our bodies. And here are some other statistics that are somewhat shocking, okay? When we go and study a human brain, alright?

• 1:18Josh Axe?

  There is a spoon's worth, a full spoon, imagine that, worth of plastic in the brain. When they studied men, they found that every single human male had plastic, actually in their testicles, every single one. And microplastics are also found in our arteries. By the way, if you have higher levels of microplastics in your arteries and bloodstream, you have a 450% higher risk of a heart attack, a stroke, or early death. So getting microplastics out of your body and not being exposed to them is one of the key things you can do for longevity and curing any health problem.

• 2:00Josh Axe?

  Now, they're even finding microplastics in the umbilical cords of babies, in that blood being passed from a mother to a child. So there are so many toxins that we... are being exposed to, but microplastics might be the worst offender. And one area of your body that is heavily harmed by microplastics is your gut lining. Okay, microplastics essentially are punching holes through your gut lining, causing a condition called leaky gut or intestinal permeability. And a 2023 study published in Cell Reports Medicine found that nanoplastic exposure triggers leaky gut within 14 days.

• 2:41Josh Axe?

  And that's how plastic gets from your stomach, by the way, into your bloodstream. Is it actually punches a hole through your intestines, gets into your bloodstream, and then it causes inflammation throughout your entire body. Now, listen to this study. Babies are born pre-polluted. 100% of placentists tested in 2021 were contaminated with microplastics. Okay, and so we see this, as I mentioned before, we see babies being exposed very early on. There are 20 times more plastic in infant feces than adults. And 39% of breast milk samples contained microplastics. This is according to another medical study.

• 3:25Josh Axe?

  A 2025 Baylor Medicine study found significantly higher levels of microplastics in pre-term births as well. So it might be contributing to early births in children. And so this isn't just an adult and later on in life issue. A lot of us have been exposed since we were kids. I mean, I think back about all the plastic containers I've drank out of. You know, every soccer practice, you know, drinking the, first off, not even the artificial chemicals and the flavorings and the food dyes that I got in, you know, things like Gatorade. But I mean, I was drinking out of plastic bottles all day, every day, plastic spoons. I mean, constantly exposed to plastics. But most people don't realize how damaging it is to our bodies.

• 4:09Josh Axe?

  And I want to walk you through how plastics wreck the gut. Okay, one thing they do is they damage two types of species of probiotics called Akkermansia and Lactobacillus. Actibusilis and they deplete them in the body. This disrupts then your tight junctions and there's something called an LPS endotoxin spike. So then basically a lot of these plastics, it's almost like they're leaking toxins. They destroy good bacteria, they then damage the gut lining and then they make uh they make your gut more friendly to pathogens like parasites or or H. pylori or Candida to live there and take the place of the good bacteria that you need to have in order to absorb nutrients and to not have food sensitivities.

• 4:54Josh Axe?

  And to overall have a strong immune system. And so number one, plastics destroy your gut health. Here's another thing they destroy. They destroy your reproductive health. In a study, Dr. Shana Swan discovered male sperm count has dropped 50% in the last 50 years. And in a 2024 study, microplastics were found in 100% of human testicles tested, okay? Men with the highest phthalate exposure had 50% lower testosterone, they had the lowest testosterone. So if you are exposed to phthalates, microplastics, these chemicals, that means you will have lower testosterone.

• 5:33Josh Axe?

  According to the study, it's causing major toxicity issues and it will then cause testosterone to plummet in men. And also it's an issue for women. And the reason why this is such a big issue for hormonal health is is that these microplastics like DEHP and DBP and BBP, they act as xenoestrogens, okay? They act as sort of these fake estrogens in the body. And so what this does for women is it elevates your estrogen. So estrogen goes up, progesterone actually gets pushed down even further. So now there's this big gap here and when estrogen goes up, that then actually imbalances the conversion of T4 to T3.

• 6:13Josh Axe?

  So it throws off your thyroid hormones, but it also throws off your your estradiol and your progesterone, which greatly increases your risk of things like PCOS, endometriosis, fertility decline, early menopausal symptoms and early perimenopause and make sure. Metapausal symptoms, much worse, and it actually ages your body. You get moved into aging prematurely. And some of the places these hide, of course, we talked about the plastic containers, plastic bottles, but also the fragrances and perfumes. Vinyl flooring, plastic wrap, personal care products. Microplastics are not just in what you think of as plastic containers. They are hidden all over the place.

• 6:56Josh Axe?

  In fact, they're even found, you know, the receipts you get when you check out of the grocery store? That ink there on the little sheet of paper on your receipt? That has been shown, that's a form of BPA, and it's absorbed in the skin in 90 seconds. So if they ask you, do you want a receipt next time? You say pass or send me an email. That's a much better option because even that is greatly lowering testosterone in men, causing estrogen to go high in women, which is a big causative factor of estrogen-based cancers like breast cancer.

• 7:34Josh Axe?

  Cancer, dementia, heart disease, they're coming for so many people. And it's not just because of what most people think, which is that it's bad luck or bad genetics. The truth is, your daily choices are either creating health or setting the stage for disease, and your doctor is probably reading your blood work all wrong. They're missing the cellular issues behind the symptoms. I'm currently offering a simple at-home blood test that actually tests for the right things. And just as importantly, it comes with proper interpretation of the results. This new test flips the script. The future of interpreting test results is here. If you want to check it out and grab one before they're gone, just go to mybloodwork.com now.

• 8:20Josh Axe?

  So here's the reality. Your hormone imbalances, it might not be genetic. Your tiredness might not be related to your adrenal glands or even cortisol. It might be plastic poisoning your power plants, the mitochondria in your cells. In fact, nanoplastics reduce mitochondrial membrane potential by 35%. Okay, that's where your body creates ATP and cellular energy. This is also a major causative factor for anyone with hypothyroidism.

• 8:50Josh Axe?

  Chronic fatigue syndrome, or just general fatigue. If you're saying to yourself, you know what? I am more tired than I should be. Right? And you're in the afternoon and you're tired. You wake up tired, or you're just exhausted by the end of the day. Microplastics contribute, and it's causing a mitochondrial meltdown. Nanoplastics cross what we call your mitochondrial membrane. So they actually get inside, not only the cell. Okay, you've got a cell membrane. They actually pass into your cell membrane. Then they actually pass through the mitochondrial membrane and actually inside the mitochondria. And what this does is it causes oxidative stress. Imagine you go into a machine, and then it just starts wrecking and damaging things everywhere, throwing everything off.

• 9:33Josh Axe?

  So it literally is causing your mitochondria to crumble and fall apart. And again, this is a big causative factor. I mentioned hypothyroidism and chronic fatigue and general low energy. But also, this is going to contribute to brain fog, long COVID. You know, if you're exposed to long COVID, some people were exposed to COVID, and they felt awful for two weeks, and then they were fine. And had zero symptoms whatsoever. I was one of those people. Had no symptoms after COVID, felt just fine. There are some people now, years later, that are still exhausted. And if you were already had a 35%, 50% damage inside your mitochondria from excess plastic exposure, and then you have an issue like a virus come along,

• 10:17Josh Axe?

  well, now your body was so, it's just easy to break down your body. It's sort of like if you're lifting weights, and maybe you can handle, you know, a couple of plates on each side, but then somebody puts a couple more plates on, and your body just buckles and crashes. That's what's happening to your mitochondria. And this is where taking supplements like NAD+ CoQ10, PQQ, you know, certain B vitamins. I mean, these nutrients are critically important for mitochondrial function. But if you don't go and get rid of the plastics, exposures and detox the plastics, oftentimes, your body can never fully recover. Now, here's the most important thing of all. It's longevity, living a long, healthy life.

• 11:00Josh Axe?

  Life and a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world. They did a study on arterial health and the health of the heart and bloodstream and on mortality. This study was done on 257 patients over 34 months. This is a study done in 2024. Here's what they found. Microplastic exposure, when it's the highest in people increases your risk of dying by 450%. That's 5.4.5 times. It's a higher risk of a heart attack, a stroke and early death when they found microplastics specifically in your carotid artery plaque. So, so here's where it becomes really deadly. You expose yourself to microplastics.

• 11:45Josh Axe?

  You also have inflammation your diet in your, in your body, like high CRP levels. It could be you have an inflammatory diet or an autoimmune disease or some sort of issue, joint pain, but there's inflammation happening. Then you have plastic exposure that gets lodged in the arterial plaque. Your chance of mortality goes up dramatically. And so we know that microplastics, they damage your gut, they damage your cells in the area of the mitochondria. They also damage your brain. Researchers analyzed 91 human brains and found microplastic concentrations averaging a plastic spoons worth in that 91 people. Now here's a kicker. They did this study before in 2016.

• 12:30Josh Axe?

  Okay, they did it again in 2024. There, there's an eight year difference between two studies they did on the amount of plastics found in the average person's brain. In 2024, they found 50% more plastic on average than in 2016, just eight years earlier. Okay, 50% more. So this means that we are exposed to way more plastic now than we even were eight years ago. And what happens is our blood brain barriers, very similar to our gut lining. Okay, you can have a leaky gut. You can also have a leaky brain barrier. And it acts like a chain link fence, like keeping certain things out. But when you tear a hole in it, which is what happens, these microplastics, they actually go to the brain. Heavy metals do a very similar thing.

• 13:15Josh Axe?

  Heavy metals, microplastics, certain toxins, they go and they can damage that blood-brain barrier. And especially nanoplastic, some of these are so small, they're almost like bugs or a virus. They get through the blood-brain barrier. They start to cause and increase your symptoms. They can increase brain fog symptoms. I also believe they can be closely connected to issues like MS and dementia and any sort of neuroinflammatory illness. Microplastics could be at the root of it. All right, so I want to walk you through the biggest microplastic offenders that are in your kitchen right now, and a lot of them are really surprising. Here's a big one, tea bags. A lot of these tea bags, this one here in particular, this has microplastics in it.

• 14:00Josh Axe?

  Okay, so if you're doing a lot of these tea bags, if you're buying herbal tea, and I'm talking about peppermint or chamomile or ginger or any type of tea, and it doesn't say "microplastic-free, BPA-free, free of chemicals", this is leaching into your body at super high levels. So tea bags, one of the worst offenders of microplastics. Now, listen, I want to encourage you, drink lots of tea, but just make sure to drink loose-leaf tea or buy tea where they don't have these plastics in the actual tea bags themselves. And then another big one is water, right? We know bottled water leaches a lot of plastic chemicals into water supply. So switch to stainless steel, switch to glass. Cardboard is probably a better option as well. If you're traveling around, stay away from the plastic.

• 14:44Josh Axe?

  And I would say also getting a water filter, right? One of the most toxic things in your home is your water, that city water. And so getting a Berkey or Aurora or a reverse osmosis filter, a great idea. But I would say the biggest offenders, water and tea are two of the biggest that you want to stay away from. Next up are plastic cutting boards. Think about every time you are cutting an onion, cutting vegetables, doing anything on here, they're leaking microplastics into your food. Much better option. One of my favorites, bamboo cutting board. That's a great option here. So bamboo cutting board, much, much better option. It's what we use in the Axe household. This is a brand I really like, Caraway, so you could try them. Good option there. And then a few others. Teflon pants.

• 15:29Josh Axe?

  I mean, these things are leaching, microplastics, major, major chemicals, forever chemicals that damage your entire body, causing estrogen go high, testosterone low, damaging your hormones. So staying away from these. And of course, switching over to, come on my favorites, stainless steel. You can also do cast iron. That's a great option. You see, we've got the cast iron here. And if you don't like kind of the heaviness of the cast iron, I love that. But if you want something a little lighter, but also really effective, you can do ceramic. This is another, this is the brand Caraway again. These are great options here to use. And then, I want to go, here's a big one. And by the way, I'm guilty of this. I have used a Vitamix for over 20 years now. And I've used the plastic container up until two years ago,

• 16:15Josh Axe?

  almost two years ago, a little over a year and a half ago. I switched over to, there's now a stainless steel Vitamix top that you can buy and use with your Vitamix. Or if you have a blender at home, you could buy a glass top. Or if you don't have a blender, buy one that has stainless steel or glass as the top. But think about this, a lot of people have had these plastic containers for one, five, 10, 20 years. And I've had mine for over 10 years. My blender and these plastics is using them in the dishwashers. They blend, think on high speed. They're leaching microplastics. And every time you're trying to make a healthy smoothie, it's leaching into your smoothie, your superfood smoothie. It's now a super microplastic smoothie. That's one of the problems. So switching out for a stainless steel option

• 16:59Josh Axe?

  or a glass option is something you absolutely want to do. And then a few other things here. Here's some surprising ones around the house. Baby toys. Have a lot of microplastics in them, okay? And kids are putting in the mouth, they're chewing on them. So, and of course, you know, kids are eating all kinds of plastic stuff, right? Plastic baby balls. Anytime you can switch to glass, or BPA free, or stainless steel, better option, and wood toys. I mean, just trying to stay away from a lot of plastics, especially when you have infants that are putting it in their mouth. Those are the most important ages, okay? For your kids to be building with Legos, of course, those are plastic. It's not as big of a deal because they're just touching it with their hands and fingers, and that's it. But putting it in their mouth, that's where it really becomes an issue.

• 17:44Josh Axe?

  And there's a few other things I want to mention here. Of course, the containers you're using at home, right? The plastic containers. Switching over to glass is... Now, listen, the lid's not that important. Your food's not touching the lid. The lid can be plastic or rubber, whatever it is. But you do want this part to be glass, especially if you ever heat it up. That's where it becomes really important as well. And then a few others here, just kitchen utensils, right? All of these sort of things, switch out for wood. Much better options. I showed you here, these are great options here for these containers. So this is glass here. Now, it's plastic top, that's fine. Again, your food's not constantly touching that, or you're not heating up the plastic top. But glass here is a great option here. So that can be a good option there.

• 18:28Josh Axe?

  That's another great care-away product. Again, your cups, you know, measuring cups. Rather than plastic, using metal there, that's good. And oh, here's a big one. Here's one of the last ones I want to show. But I'm not even going to pick this up, it's so toxic. Okay, this is a receipt, all right? The receipts you get from the grocery store, from the convenience store, from whatever shop you're going to, department store, that ink on there is loaded with forever chemicals and microplastics, something called phthalates. This has been shown in clinical studies to greatly decrease testosterone in men. Throw off the estrogen in women. It's a major hormone disruptor. This is connected to that microplastic family when we look at this phthalates.

• 19:12Josh Axe?

  So you want to stay completely away from microplastics. This is one of the absolute worst offenders there. By the way, one of the big things these microplastics do is they leach into your cells. They damage your mitochondria. So do everything you can to get rid of the receipts and the chemicals and the microplastics in order to heal your cells. And if you want to learn more about how to heal your cells and detoxify your body at the cellular level. Hey, I recorded an advanced webinar where I walk you through exactly how to heal your cells, heal your hormones, detoxify your whole body using foods, herbs, and lifestyle medicine. So if you want to learn how to heal yourself in depth, don't miss this webinar training. You can click the link below to watch that advanced training on how to heal your cells,

• 19:58Josh Axe?

  heal your hormones through the power of cellular detoxification. When it comes to your kitchen items, just make some of the simple swaps. Here's the big ones, okay? Change out your water filter. Get a good water filter. Stop drinking out of plastic water bottles. Try and switch those over to glass or stainless steel. Switch over some of your cookware. I mean, if you could just do those things alone, it's going to make a major difference in you getting, reducing your exposure to microplastics. Because we talked about this, the average person consumes the average of one credit card a day in microplastics. And that's disrupting your hormones. It's increasing your cancer risk, almost every health condition you can think of.

• 20:38Josh Axe?

  And so if you can eliminate your exposure, number one, and then follow a diet to get rid of the microplastics as well, you're going to be so much healthier and happier for it. And by the way, one of the questions I always get is, Dr. Axe, hey, what are brands and products I can trust or I should buy that I can replace the plastic with? Listen, there are quite a few good brands out there, but one I personally use and really like is Caraway. I mentioned them earlier. I mean, they've got all kinds of great products. They literally have cutting boards. Those are Caraway. The utensils, the storage containers, the cutting board, all of it is Caraway. So Caraway is They're a great brand. They do stainless steel, they do ceramic, they do wood, they do natural, non-toxic ingredients. They specialize in organic, non-toxic products.

• 21:23Josh Axe?

  And you can go on their website, because I've purchased from them and because I like to support them, you can go and get 10% off. I think if you enter my full name, it's Dr. Josh Axe. If you enter that on their site, you'll get, I believe, an extra 10% discount. And when you bundle their products together, I think it's 20% discount. So you can get a really big discount on their products when you go to caraway.com and enter the code Dr. Josh Axe on checkout there for a discount there. But again, there's a lot of great brands, but this is one I personally love and recommend and use. If you want to know one of the best brands here to help you go microplastic-free and toxin-free in your kitchen. Now, in addition to the kitchen, there are some really hidden sources that I think even

• 22:05Josh Axe?

  when I heard them surprised me. Number one, I mentioned this, receipts. Number two is this. Cheap HVAC filters. Think about this. The air in your home can be filled with microplastics with just regular HVAC filters. That you have, that's supposed to be cleansing your air, can be releasing microplastics. The third one is this. Personal protective equipment. Masks, like the N95s, they actually will shed microplastics early on in using them. And here's the fourth one. Synthetic clothing, especially athletic clothing. You know those, you know those skin tight, you know, joggers that people are wearing today? Those contain microplastics. So like your

• 22:49Josh Axe?

  $128 yoga pants, they are shedding plastic into your skin every time you exercise and sweat. In fact, Dr. Shannon Swan in the Plastic Detox said that your skin absorbs about 60% of what you put on. So polyester... Athleisure releases up to 700,000 microfibers per wash. So you're not just wearing plastic, you are absorbing it. And again, polyester is one of the biggest offenders. And listen to some of these brands. Lululemon is like 86% nylon and polyester. Okay, so when you're wearing those skin tight leggings from Lululemon, that can be leeching plastic into your body.

• 23:34Josh Axe?

  Athleta, okay, or Nike, their dry fit products, or Underarm, or even Aloe Yoga, right? So here's what happens. You sweat, you have heat and you have friction. Okay, that can drive those microplastics even deeper into your body. And here's what you want to change to. Actually, this is what I'm wearing now is I am wearing wool. Okay, every time I wear underwear, pants, socks, everything I wear for the most part is wool or organic cotton. Now, listen, I think bamboo can be okay. Linen, there are some other good materials, but for myself, merino wool, organic cotton are the things I personally use the most. A little bamboo here and there, but the organic cotton and wool

• 24:19Josh Axe?

  is really what you want to look into and switch over to.

• 24:25Josh Axe?

  Hey guys, I'm here with my good friend, Dr. Dave Jockers. In fact, we've been friends for more than 20 years. He runs the podcast, The Dr. Dave Jockers Functional Nutrition Podcast. Dr. Dave, tell us a little bit about what your podcast is about.

• 24:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. We dive deep on functional nutrition, really how to personalize your nutrition plan for better energy, mental clarity, better hormone balance. And we talk a lot about cellular health, mitochondrial function, cell membrane. We do a deep dive on every major nutrition topic and natural health topic. So everything you need right there at your fingertips. Dr. Jockers Functional Nutrition Podcast.

• 25:01Josh Axe?

  I want to encourage you, run out and listen to the Dr. Jockers Show. Again, I'm a big fan of it. I think you will be as well.

• 25:08Josh Axe?

  Now, I know something that a lot of doctors talk about is how toxic our environment is. And obviously, I spent some time doing that, talking about microplastics. But now I want to get into the details of how do you actually detox? If you've been exposed to microplastics, if you have low testosterone, if your estrogen's too high, if you know that toxicity is part of your issue, if you have any of the symptoms we've talked about related to toxicity, what can you start to do? Well, I want to walk you through my seven-step detox protocol of what to do in order to get these toxins out of your system. And so the seven-step protocol is this: eliminate, filter, sweat, bind, use glutathione, support your bile, use fiber.

• 25:51Josh Axe?

  That's really supporting more of your liver and your gallbladder there, and then potentially fasting. So number one, of course, is eliminate your exposure. I mean, that is the first thing that we need to do, is eliminate and filter. So again, what I would just do, listen, go into your kitchen and take all the plastic containers, the plastic water bottles, the plastic everything, and just swap it out for stainless steel and glass and ceramic and bamboo cutting boards. I mean, just make those natural holistic switches, okay? Similar thing, I mean, maybe look at, listen, I'm not telling you you've got to change all your clothes right away, but maybe next time you buy clothes, just be more conscious of, hey, can I get this in cotton or can I do merino wool? Those are better options. Number two is filter your water.

• 26:35Josh Axe?

  Listen, you don't have to go and get a whole house filter. Just your drinking water, get a reverse osmosis or a solid carbon block filter, like, you know, or something like a Berkey or a Rohr. But get a good quality water filter for your drinking water that removes, you know, most of the time, these are going to remove 90% or 99% of microplastics, okay? So that's what I would encourage you to do for step number two, because the studies show, listen, you're constantly drinking water, constantly, you're using it in everything, and there are microplastics and other toxins we didn't even mention in there as well. Number three, try and sweat a couple of days a week. This is why infrared sauna, one of the reasons why I'm such a big fan. And there are so many benefits.

• 27:19Josh Axe?

  Infrared saunas help you sweat, help you detox, getting rid of some of these chemicals. In fact, the Mayo Clinic has said sweat is confirmed for the elimination of phthalates and BPA. So we know that actually sweating does help your body detox. Now, you can also go and cycle or run or work out to the point where you're sweating and that's fantastic too. But infrared sauna, laying out in the sun, those are also wonderful. And then when you're doing this, of course, rehydrate with water and maybe some electrolytes and water that's filtered. Okay, number four is this, if you're going to do a detox, use a binder. But on a regular basis, use light binders.

• 28:01Josh Axe?

  What light binders are, you know, activated charcoal is a very strong binder. You typically don't want to do that for more than a month because it is so strong. And for a lot of people, it will cause constipation over time. Clay is a step down from it, it's a strong binder, not quite as strong, but that can cause some issues. You can take clay a little bit longer, but you can take mild binders. Fiber would be in that category, upping your fiber intake. Specific types of fiber like modified citrus pectin. This is often used as well in cancer protocols. Major benefits because it will detox and bind and pull things out of your body while not causing constipation. Chlorrella, zeolites, fulvic and humic acid, found in things like shellagene.

• 28:43Josh Axe?

  These natural organic binders are great options. And they're often best taken between meals, though some of these more natural ones, you could take it with a meal. But I would do it either right before bed, first thing in the morning, or between meals. If you're going to take one of these natural binders I mentioned. And then the number five would be this, support glutathione in your body. Glutathione is your master antioxidant. It is what's going to support your detoxification system. Think about it like this, in order to support your muscles, you want to eat muscle meat, right? So you want to eat a chicken breast or. Or, or, or, you know, a filet mignon beef.

• 29:26Josh Axe?

  You, you want to support that organ. In order to support the liver and your cellular detoxification system, you really want to boost your glutathione levels. And this is where taking the precursor to glutathione, N-acetylcysteine, NAC, is fantastic. You can do 600 to 900 milligrams, two to three times daily. Sulfurane from broccoli sprouts or just eating sprouts. Major benefits, you know, the sprouts that you put in sandwiches or on a salad. Those have compounds that are tremendously beneficial. Herbs like milk thistle, really great for glutathione support. And then liposomal glutathione is also great. But you want to support glutathione if you were going to do a microplastic detox or any type of detox.

• 30:10Josh Axe?

  Number six is up your fiber and your bioflow. Now I mentioned modified citrus pectin. In addition, eat flax and chia seeds. You could take some psyllium husk fiber. Acacia fiber is also great. And then herbs, herbs that are bitter tend to support bioflow. So drinking dandelion tea, doing some artichoke as a, as a tincture or burdock. I mean, these have major, major benefits there, of course, along with, with the milk thistle of supporting bioflow in the body. And then you can do some fasting, even if it's one day a week, like skipping breakfast and lunches, the early church did, that's a great option. But doing a fast periodically can be beneficial.

• 30:54Josh Axe?

  Now, listen, if you are weak and you're tired and you don't have great health, doing intense fast is not, not a good idea. You really want to stick to those three meals a day. Getting a lot of fruits, vegetables, organic meat, bone broth, those types of foods. But if you are generally healthy and not weak or, or you're, and you're not depleted with a condition like hypothyroidism or chronic fatigue, then doing some fasting can support autophagy and have great benefits as well. Now, one of my single favorite supplements for supporting microplastic detox are targeted probiotics. And there are strains like AB22. This is a soil-based organism. If you ever see SBO soil-based probiotics, Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus coagulans,

• 31:39Josh Axe?

  these are great for getting rid of microplastics. They're my favorites. Also, though, lactobacillus plantarum, this is what's found in sauerkraut. Tremendous benefits as well. Lactobacillus parcasei, that's also great. So, but getting a soil-based probiotic and eating sauerkraut, but getting more probiotics in your diet, absolutely will help rid your body of microplastics. Now, there is a very advanced therapy that's not yet legal in the United States, but it should be sometime next year. In fact, this is something that we're going to offer, and I have a clinic in Nashville called the Longevity Clinic. And in that clinic, we will be the first to offer this therapy, we think, in January of next year. But right now, you can't do this advanced therapy in the United States.

• 32:24Josh Axe?

  You can go to Europe for it. But it's called innisphoresis or therapeutic aphoresis, and it's blood filtration that physically removes plastic from circulation in your body. In a 2025 pilot study on 21 patients, some with ME and some with chronic fatigue syndrome, they did a double, they used a double filtration plasmaphoresis. Up to 70% of patients reported measurable symptom improvement. And this is the first direct clinical evidence that plastic can mechanically be removed from the human blood with these advanced types of therapies. And so in January of 2027, I believe that this will be available as well

• 33:09Josh Axe?

  in the United States in really advanced cellular and functional medicine clinics like the Longevity Clinic. Now, I want to walk you through the foods that are going to have the greatest detoxification benefits. By the way, if you go into the show notes, you can download our guide, our PDF, on how to detox microplastics. And you'll get the exact supplements, the whole food list, everything, the exact protocol on how to detox microplastics. Just go to the show notes and you can download the PDF there. So let's dive into the top 10 foods to detox microplastics. Number one here is broccoli sprouts. Broccoli sprouts upregulate phase two liver detoxification.

• 33:52Josh Axe?

  And according to Johns Hopkins University, it increases liver detoxification by 200%. Next up here, number two are cilantro and chlorella. Now, these are a really great pair because cilantro helps detoxify and chlorella binds to toxins. So these are even more powerful together. Number three, wild-caught small fish like anchovies, sardines, mackerel. And salmon can be on this list as well. Omega 3s reduce inflammation and overall also support detoxification. Number four is bone broth. Now, here's why bone broth is so powerful. Bone broth contains a compound called glycine. And glycine is one of the necessary building blocks for your body to make glutathione.

• 34:37Josh Axe?

  Now, glutathione is your body's master antioxidant. It's what supports detoxification, especially of the liver, gallbladder, and lymphatic system. And so getting more glutathione is great. Glycine helps support that and overall supports liver detoxification. Now, when most of the time when people think of bone broth, they don't think of liver detoxification, but it helps with that. It also has proline, which helps rebuild and heal from the damage that microplastics can do to your body. Number five are bitter greens. Remember bitter is better. They stimulate bile flow. And bile flow is what helps bind to and causes your body to detoxify, especially via your gallbladder, your liver.

• 35:21Josh Axe?

  But really, it's what amplifies your body's detoxification process. Bitter supports bile release, and that's also going to help bind to the toxins and get them out of your body. Number six, wild blueberries. Now, here's why blueberries, especially wild, are so powerful. When you buy those smaller blueberries that are sweet, but also they've got a strong sour flavor. That sour flavor comes from a compound called anthocyanins, which is very similar to or the same compound that you're going to taste in things like cranberries. So when you taste a berry that's a little bit sour, that sourness is coming from anthocyanins. That's been shown in studies to support liver detoxification there. And then in addition to the wild blueberries, we have pomegranate, okay?

• 36:06Josh Axe?

  Now, pomegranate is one of the things that happens with microplastic consumption is it damages your mitochondria. Your mitochondria are your power plants. They're the batteries of your body. When those are damaged, you get tired, fatigue. Not only do you feel physically tired, your organs get tired, they can't work as well. And so when you consume pomegranate, if they're high in alicic acid, that can be converted into something called uralithin A, and that is a compound that helps you recycle and rebuild and heal your mitochondria. So doing several tablespoons a day of pomegranates, really powerful. So think about, hey, what's a great breakfast for you? Sitting down and having some wild blueberries. Pomegranate's a great way to go. Number eight here, a really great combination of garlic and onions.

• 36:51Josh Axe?

  Now garlic and onions contain sulforate. These are compounds that detoxify microplastics. They also have antimicrobial properties. So they can help kill off viruses, bad bacteria. They have anti-candida properties. Here's something else that makes them unique. They have a unique type of fiber. They're a prebiotic fiber that helps good bacteria grow. So lots of benefits there with garlic and onions. And then avocado, they contain, avocados contain compounds that are precursors to building glutathione again. And they're also really high in fiber. They're also high in magnesium and potassium, two minerals required for cellular detoxification. And number 10 here, one of my all-time favorites. In fact, I had this for breakfast this morning. Matcha green tea. Matcha contains a compound called EGCG

• 37:36Josh Axe?

  that stands for epigalactocanakin. These canakin's have very similar to antioxidant properties to the wild blueberries, which also support healing your blood-brain barrier as well as your mitochondria and your cells. And so again, matcha green tea for breakfast, really great for filtering out any toxins out of the body. So that's the top 10. And so maybe think about your plate like this. You know, starting off your morning with You know, doing some, you know, a bone broth protein powder. So you're doing some protein that's collagen based or bone broth based. That's going to get you your glycine. And then for breakfast as well, start doing some wild blueberries and pomegranates. That's a great meal.

• 38:19Josh Axe?

  Maybe for lunch, you have a grass fed burger and you do sauteed garlic and onions there. Maybe you do an avocado on that burger as well. And then for dinner, wild caught salmon. Maybe that's as part of a salad with some broccoli sprouts there, some micro, you know, some bitter greens and have some matcha green tea there, you know, and for breakfast as well. But if you follow the meal plan like this, it is a perfect plate for detoxifying microplastics. Now I want to dive into the top five supplements for detoxifying microplastics. Now listen, there's a lot that you can take, a lot of things are beneficial, but the most beneficial here are number one, targeted probiotics. Soil based organisms, lactobacillus plantarum, which is found in sauerkraut,

• 39:03Josh Axe?

  other species of lactobacillus that you're going to find in things like yogurt, greatly beneficial. So you can get this as a food, but also take it as a supplement. I personally, with my patients and myself, take a very high dose of soil based organisms. You could take up to one trillion probiotics or at least 100 billion probiotics for the ultimate benefits of detoxification. But very ultra high dose probiotics are the best for detoxification. Number two, sulforate, this is broccoli sprout extracts. We talked about the sprouts earlier, eat those, those are great. You can also take a more concentrated supplement form. Number three, high capacity antioxidants.

• 39:44Josh Axe?

  These protect your cells from the damage that microplastics do. Number four, natural binders like chlorella, modified citrus pectin and other forms of fiber are great detoxifiers. And then number five, this is probably my favorite. I would say number one and number five are the two must haves. Number five is NAC, N A C, that stands for enacetylcysteine. Enacetylcysteine is a precursor to glutathione. So it's the number one supplement that's going to help drive and build up your glutathione levels. And again, glutathione is your body's master antioxidant that supports and really runs detoxification of your liver. Your gallbladder also impacts the lymphatic system.

• 40:29Josh Axe?

  So for your body to actually be strong enough to get rid of the microplastics, N-acetylcysteine, the most important on the list. So really think about it like this. N-acetylcysteine, this is going to support liver detoxification. The probiotics and the fiber, those are going to support your detoxification of your digestive system and your intestines and colon to get microplastics out of your body. So if you can follow this plan of consuming those top 10 foods and these top five supplements as part of your microplastic detox protocol, it's going to go a long way to helping rid your body of the toxic effects of microplastics. And so here's your assignment. For the next 30 days, swap one plastic exposure at a time.

• 41:13Josh Axe?

  Week one, change your water, right? Get a water filter. Number two, change some of your food storage. Number three, start changing some of your clothing. And number four, get rid of the toxic personal care products. Start using things that are essential, oil-based, using natural ingredients like coconut oil. Those are so much better and they're toxin-free. And here's something I truly believe. I believe that you're going to start noticing a difference in 30 days. And I want you to mark, how do you feel now on a scale of 1 to 10? Make these changes and then let me know how you feel 30 days from now. And by the way, tag me online. I'd love to hear from you on Instagram or YouTube, anywhere on social media, on Facebook and tag me and let me know, you know what, Dr. X, I did your detox. I noticed this improvement. I feel better.

• 41:55Josh Axe?

  So make sure to tag me because I would love to hear from you to hear the changes you're seeing in your body as you do this microplastic detox. And remember, if you want the full protocol, you can download the microplastic detox PDF there as well. Also, I want to encourage you, if you want to have a full program on how to fully detoxify, not just microplastics, but everything out of your body, you can pick up my new book. It's going to release here in just a few months. It's called Heal Yourself. And I co-wrote this book with Dr. Dr. Will Cole, and you can find a link to that in the show notes as well. Again, the book is called Heal Your Cells. It really goes through how to heal anything, reverse the irreversible.

• 42:37Josh Axe?

  You can go to amazon.com as well and just search Heal Your Cells Dr. Axe. It's the best book I've ever written, and it really walks you through how to promote longevity, reverse and heal anything you can imagine. I want to say thanks so much for watching the Dr. Josh Axe Show. Thanks for listening here to the Dr. Josh Axe Show. And I just want to say also, thank you for subscribing here to the podcast. You know, I feel like many of you are family and we're on a mission together. And I know, listen, I know I'm not the only one educating. I know a lot of you are sharing this information. You're learning, you're growing by watching and subscribing. So I want to say thanks for subscribing. If you're not subscribed, by the way, make sure to do that. That way you don't miss a single thing. I've got some great guests coming up.

• 43:20Josh Axe?

  I'm going to be doing a lot of more deep dives into detoxification and healing and cellular medicine. So don't forget to subscribe. And also, thank you for sharing this and being on mission with me. I can't wait to see you on the next episode of the Dr. Axe Show.