The expert's guide to what microplastics do to your body - and 22 ways to minimise your risk
When Orlando Bloom, 48, was pictured having a £10,000, two-hour treatment to remove microplastics from his blood, it thrust the subject back into the spotlight.
'Microplastics are the tiny plastic particles that you often can't see, as they're less than five millimetres, but they're everywhere,' explains Dr Liza Osagie-Clouard, a former surgeon and now founder of Solice, a preventative healthcare clinic.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
24 minutes ago
- The Sun
Why UK beaches have more jellyfish than ever – and how to spot the most dangerous ones
MORE jellyfish than ever are being spotted in waters around the UK, according to experts. In recent months, 1,000s of jellyfish have been spotted on beaches across the country. 2 Genevieve Watson, Biologist at KISTERS explained: "Rising sea temperatures are having a direct impact on marine life in all kinds of ways. "Warmer waters can expand the habitat of marine species such as stingrays and jellyfish, allowing them to thrive in our coastal regions - areas that would have previously been too cold for them. "Few of us will look back to our childhood and remember ever seeing a stingray or jellyfish in the water at the seaside, but actually, for our children and grandchildren, this could be an increasingly common sight." Some of the most dangerous ones are the Portuguese Man o' War, which are spotted by their blue, balloon-like floating tentacles which deliver a painful sting. Another jellyfish with a strong sting is the Mauve Stinger which has four frilled arms and eight tentacles, often purple in colour. Otherwise there is also the yellow Compass Jellyfish with brown markings that look like a compass. Lions Mane Jellyfish, with long tentacles in yellow, orange or brown, are also painful if stung. While less painful, the translucent Moon Jellyfish (with purple rings) and Barrel Jellyfish in pale pink, blue or white even have mild stings. Thankfully, none of the jellyfish are deadly that are at risk of being spotted in the UK. Only those with allergies or anyone who doesn't get the wound treated are likely to suffer more serious effects. Bizarre moment Brit hols hotspot beach turns BLUE as it's left totally covered by swarm of stinging jellyfish What to do if stung by a jellyfish Cornish Watersports issued the following advice on Facebook after thousands of the stinger jellyfish washed up: 1. Rinse the affected area with seawater (not freshwater) 2. Remove any spines from the skin using tweezers or the edge of a bank card. 3. Soak the area in very warm water (as hot as can be tolerated) for at least 30 minutes – use hot flannels or towels if you cannot soak it. 4. Take painkillers like paracetamol or ibuprofen. 5. Obviously, if you are prone to have an allergic reaction to any stingers go straight to A&E. Cornwall Watersports also advice that those who get stung call NHS 111 for further advice. Genevieve said it was even possible that stingrays could be next in the UK waters. She added: "We've seen increased reports over recent years of jellyfish blooms on the British and Irish coast as their population has exploded due to increasingly warm waters, it's highly possible that stingrays could be next.' Some have already been spotted in UK waters, such as the Common Stingray. While they currently don't come close to the shoreline, they still have a very painful sting from their tail. Last year, thousands of purple jellyfish washed up on the Isles of Scilly. Here's what you should do if you are ever stung by a jellyfish. 2
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
‘Extremely disturbing and unethical': new rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans
Doctors at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals nationwide could refuse to treat unmarried veterans and Democrats under new hospital guidelines imposed following an executive order by Donald Trump. The new rules, obtained by the Guardian, also apply to psychologists, dentists and a host of other occupations. They have already gone into effect in at least some VA medical centers. Medical staff are still required to treat veterans regardless of race, color, religion and sex, and all veterans remain entitled to treatment. But individual workers are now free to decline to care for patients based on personal characteristics not explicitly prohibited by federal law. Language requiring healthcare professionals to care for veterans regardless of their politics and marital status has been explicitly eliminated. Doctors and other medical staff can also be barred from working at VA hospitals based on their marital status, political party affiliation or union activity, documents reviewed by the Guardian show. The changes also affect chiropractors, certified nurse practitioners, optometrists, podiatrists, licensed clinical social workers and speech therapists. In making the changes, VA officials cite the president's 30 January executive order titled 'Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government'. The primary purpose of the executive order was to strip most government protections from transgender people. The VA has since ceased providing most gender-affirming care and forbidden a long list of words, including 'gender affirming' and 'transgender', from clinical settings. Medical experts said the implications of rule changes uncovered by the Guardian could be far-reaching. They 'seem to open the door to discrimination on the basis of anything that is not legally protected', said Dr Kenneth Kizer, the VA's top healthcare official during the Clinton administration. He said the changes open up the possibility that doctors could refuse to treat veterans based on their 'reason for seeking care – including allegations of rape and sexual assault – current or past political party affiliation or political activity, and personal behavior such as alcohol or marijuana use'. The Department of Veterans Affairs is the nation's largest integrated hospital system, with more than 170 hospitals and more than 1,000 clinics. It employs 26,000 doctors and serves 9 million patients annually. In an emailed response to questions, the VA press secretary, Peter Kasperowicz, did not dispute that the new rules allowed doctors to refuse to treat veteran patients based on their beliefs or that physicians could be dismissed based on their marital status or political affiliation, but said 'all eligible veterans will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they've earned under the law'. He said the rule changes were nothing more than 'a formality', but confirmed that they were made to comply with Trump's executive order. Kasperowicz also said the revisions were necessary to 'ensure VA policy comports with federal law'. He did not say which federal law or laws required these changes. Until the recent changes, VA hospitals' bylaws said that medical staff could not discriminate against patients 'on the basis of race, age, color, sex, religion, national origin, politics, marital status or disability in any employment matter'. Now, several of those items – including 'national origin,' 'politics' and 'marital status' – have been removed from that list. Similarly, the bylaw on 'decisions regarding medical staff membership' no longer forbids VA hospitals from discriminating against candidates for staff positions based on national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, membership in a labor organization or 'lawful political party affiliation'. Dr Arthur Caplan, founding head of the division of medical ethics at New York University's Grossman School of Medicine, called the new rules 'extremely disturbing and unethical'. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion 'It seems on its face an effort to exert political control over the VA medical staff,' he said. 'What we typically tell people in healthcare is: 'You keep your politics at home and take care of your patients.'' Caplan said the rules opened the door to doctors questioning patients about whether they attended a Trump rally or declining to provide healthcare to a veteran because they wore a button critical of JD Vance or voiced support for gay rights. 'Those views aren't relevant to caring for patients. So why would we put anyone at risk of losing care that way?' Caplan said. During the 2024 presidential campaign and throughout the early months of his second term, Trump repeatedly made threats against a host of people whom he saw as his political antagonists, including senators, judges and then president Joe Biden. He called journalists and Democrats 'the enemy within'. In interviews, veterans said the impact of the new policy would probably fall hardest on female veterans, LGBTQ+ veterans and those who live in rural areas where there are fewer doctors overall. 'I'm lucky. I have my choice of three clinics,' said Tia Christopher, a navy veteran who reported being raped in service in 2000. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Christopher advocates on behalf of military sexual trauma survivors throughout the country. Under the new policy, some may have to register at a hospital in another region and travel more than a hundred miles to see a doctor. It 'could have a huge ripple effect', she said. As concerned as they were about the new policies themselves, medical experts were equally worried about the way they came about. Sources at multiple VA hospitals, speaking on condition of anonymity because of fear of retaliation, told the Guardian that the rule changes were imposed without consultation with the system's doctors – a characterization the VA's Kasperowicz did not dispute. Such a move would run counter to standards established by the Joint Commission, a non-profit organization that accredits hospitals. Kasperowicz said the agency worked with the Joint Commission 'to ensure these changes would have no impact on VA's accreditation'. At its annual convention in Chicago this week, the American Medical Association's 733-member policymaking body passed a resolution reaffirming 'its commitment to medical staff self-governance … and urges all healthcare institutions, including the US Department of Veterans Affairs, to ensure that any amendments to medical staff bylaws are subject to approval by medical staff in accordance with Joint Commission standards'. The changes are part of a larger attack on the independence of medicine and science by the Trump administration, Caplan said, which has included restrictions and cuts at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F Kennedy Jr, last week fired every member of a key panel that advises the government on vaccines. The Guardian has earlier reported on a VA edict forbidding agency researchers from publishing in scientific journals without clearance from the agency's political appointees.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Doctors dismissed my pregnant daughter, 19, when she complained of dizziness. Days later she collapsed and died - and then the unimaginable happened
A mother has revealed her devastation after her daughter and her newborn granddaughter died just hours apart. Justine Ryan, from Atherton, Greater Manchester, had been so excited when her daughter, Mellodie-Ocean Jarman, announced she was having a baby. But 33 weeks into the pregnancy, Mellodie, who was just 19 and had no prior health issues, collapsed on her way to a 4D scan and later passed away on February 2. It was later revealed she'd suffered a pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis. Mellodie's baby daughter, Athena-Pearl, was delivered seven weeks early and survived on life-support for just 16 hours before being laid in her mother's arms. The tragedy came little more than a day after 'fit and healthy' Mellodie complained of feeling faint and dizzy during a routine pregnancy scan on January 31 and was sent home with medication and antibiotics. But by the following evening at 11.20pm, Mellodie began to complain she was having difficulties breathing and struggling to see and an ambulance was called. Shortly after the call was made, the teenager fell unconscious and stopped breathing, collapsing into her mother's arms. Paramedics desperately tried to revive her by performing CPR and she was rushed to the Royal Bolton Hospital. Doctors there carried out an emergency C-section and Mellodie gave birth to baby Athena-Pearl seven weeks early, at 12.32am on Sunday. Tragically Mellodie died around 80 minutes after the operation while tiny Athena-Pearl died hours later. Now, Mellodie's mother, Justine, 52, has spoken for the first time of her family's devastation and says she cannot bear to move anything in Mellodie's room, which was ready to welcome their new arrival. Mother-of-five Justine says: 'Mellodie was my only daughter, and I am lost without her. We were so looking forward to the birth of her little girl. It still does not feel real that they are gone. 'My only comfort is that they are together. That image of Mellodie cradling her baby in her coffin will live with me forever.' Mellodie was nicknamed 'Boo' by her family, because she wore her hair in little pigtails like the character from Monsters Inc. when she was little. Justine says: 'Mellodie was kind-hearted and loving. She loved singing and dancing and baking. She was sassy and had a great sense of humour. With four brothers, she loved to boss everyone about and keep them all in line. We called her our Queen. 'She was like an extra arm for me, she was a great help with the little ones, and she took responsibility for all the technology like the apps for school and the ring doorbell. She was especially close to her uncles Steven and Conor.' Mellodie met her boyfriend Daniel Darbyshire in high school and, for three years, had admired him from afar. In June 2022, she wrote in her diary: 'Happy news!....after three years, he finally asked me to be his.' Justine says: 'Mellodie skipped home from school that day, she was so happy when Daniel asked her out and they were very much in love.' After leaving school, Mellodie and Daniel both worked at a local Wetherspoons and in August 2024, Mellodie discovered she was pregnant. Justine says: 'Mellodie had problems with irregular periods, so we'd made an appointment with the doctor. Beforehand, I told her to do a pregnancy test. I just had a feeling, a mother's intuition. 'Mellodie didn't for a minute think she was pregnant, and she was shocked. She and Daniel were only young, but they soon got used to the idea. They lived with me and began planning for the baby. 'Again, I had a feeling she was carrying a little girl, and I was right. They chose the name Athena-Pearl, we started buying baby girl clothes and we got all the equipment she needed. Our whole family was excited.' The pregnancy went well until, in January 2025, Mellodie began feeling breathless. Justine says: 'We told the midwife who said she was low on iron and needed to have more snacks. Another time they said the extra weight would be affecting her breathing. 'But on the way home from the surgery we had to stop several times for her to get her breath, and it didn't seem right to me.' On January 31, at 33 weeks, Mellodie had booked a 4D scan. But on her way there, she collapsed. Justine says: 'Daniel and I managed to catch her as she fell on the platform, and we got an ambulance. In the hospital, they thought her breathlessness was due to panic, along with low iron levels. 'They got her to breathe in and out slowly and have a glass of water and discharged her with antibiotics and liquid iron supplements. She had been complaining of pain in her groin, but the checks on the baby were fine which was a relief.' The following evening, Daniel was planning a last night out with his friends before the baby came. The family enjoyed a Chinese takeaway, and Justine went to bed around 10.30pm. She says: 'I was woken after 11pm by Mellodie shouting that she'd fallen. I got her into the bathroom, and I realised she was disorientated. I called an ambulance and tried to get her to breathe slowly, as the hospital had advised. 'But then she suddenly fell forwards into my arms. Her eyes rolled back, and I went into panic. I realised she wasn't breathing. I screamed for my son to ring the ambulance back, to come quickly. 'The paramedics arrived but it was 45 minutes before they moved her, and I was hysterical. I followed the ambulance to hospital, and I met Daniel and Steven there.' Baby Athena was delivered within a few moments of arrival and placed on life-support. Tragically, at 1.52am, Mellodie was declared deceased. Justine says: 'She was only 19 years old, she was perfectly fit and healthy. I couldn't take it in. But Athena was on life support, and so I had to focus on her. That was what Mellodie would have wanted. 'We were allowed to see Mellodie and, when the tubes and wires were removed, I could give her a proper cuddle.' Baby Athena clung to life but as the hours passed, the doctors warned she wasn't going to make it. Justine says: 'The nurses lifted her into a portable incubator, and we took her to the mortuary so she could be laid with her mummy. 'We took photos, handprints, and had cuddles and Athena's life-support was terminated there, in her mother's arms, at 6.24pm. Afterwards, Daniel pushed Athena in her pram back to the neo-natal unit. 'Steven bathed and dressed her, ready for our final goodbye. Mellodie had been really looking forward to doing all those firsts with her baby daughter and now, she would never get the chance. 'Leaving the hospital was surreal; I could never in my worst nightmares have imagined I would lose my daughter and granddaughter together. 'In the days afterwards, the NHS appointments kept coming for Mellodie, another scan, another blood test. It felt very cruel. 'I couldn't bear to move a thing from her bedroom, all the baby clothes are still there, waiting. It was horrendous for Daniel; he'd been about to start a new family, and it had been snatched away from him. 'Mellodie had been planning to book a football tour for Daniel for Valentine's and so we arranged it and Steven and her older brother, Devon, took him.' Mellodie and Athena-Pearl were cremated together, and Justine chose Paloma Faith's 'Only Love Can Hurt Like This' which was special to them. Mother and daughter were carried in a white horse and carriage, in a white coffin, and Steven prepared a 10 page 'Celebration of Life' containing photos and memories. The family have since learned, according to a pathologist's report provided to them, that Mellodie-Ocean died of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis and third trimester pregnancy. Her daughter, who was due in seven weeks, passed away from severe hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy with multiorgan dysfunction, prematurity, and maternal cardiac arrest. Justine says: 'Her left leg was not red or noticeably swollen or painful. But she was breathless and unwell. Nothing will bring Mellodie back, but we hope other pregnant mothers, and health professionals, will learn from our story. 'If Mellodie had been kept in hospital after that first collapse, perhaps she could have been saved. If Athena-Pearl had been delivered earlier, maybe she'd have made it. We will never know the answers. 'But I am speaking out so that other lives can be saved, in Mellodie's memory. My only comfort is that they are together, and Athena-Pearl is in her mother's arms, where she belongs.' Mellodie's grief-stricken partner Daniel, 18, said he has been left 'lost and heartbroken' by his partner and daughter's deaths. He said: 'We were both excited to become partners and had our whole lives to look forward to. I haven't just lost my partner and daughter. I have lost my world, my dreams, and my safety blanket.' Health bosses overseeing The Royal Bolton Hospital said in February that an investigation into the double death tragedy had been launched. Dr Francis Andrews, Medical Director at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, said: 'Our heartfelt condolences are with the family and friends of Mellodie-Ocean and Athena-Pearl at this incredibly difficult time, and we are doing everything we can to support them. 'As with any unexpected death we will be carrying out a full and thorough investigation and will keep the family informed as that progresses.' The heartbroken family have since thanked medical staff at the Royal Bolton Hospital for their efforts in trying to save the lives of both Mellodie and baby Athena-Pearl. 'We would like to express our gratitude to the team at Bolton from the emergency department for working so very hard to save Mellodie, and to the neonatal unit and all the team on shift that Saturday night and Sunday for trying to save Athena,' they said in a statement. 'Your love, caring, and kind support were very much needed, and you made every effort to make us feel safe. 'The team at the mortuary and our bereavement key worker have been so understanding and caring toward the whole family. 'It was paramount to see that this event has touched everyone involved, and as much as we are struggling to come to terms with this whole situation, we can see that all involved are very much affected. 'So, from the bottom of my heart, we would like to say thank you for being kind and caring at a moment in life that is really needed.'
