Here’s another reason to donate blood: it reduces ‘forever chemicals’ in your body | Adrienne Matei

While the $4tn global wellness industry bends over backwards to sell us dubious detox products, there is an accessible, easy, and free way to genuinely rid our bloodstreams of toxins

Among all the toxins in the Pandora's Box of chemical pollutants that humans have released upon the world, PFAS are particularly disturbing.

PFAS - per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances - are nicknamed forever chemicals" for their ubiquity, persistence and toxicity. They are used in household items including non-stick pans, waterproof fabrics, and microwave popcorn bags, and can contaminate water, air, soil, crops and animal products. They accumulate in the blood, bones and tissues of living things and do not degrade. PFAS impair human immune systems, making us more susceptible to diseases - even those we've been vaccinated against. Researchers associate the chemicals with liver disease, obesity, thyroid disorders, and certain cancers, among other health problems. These observations generally pertain to the relatively few PFAS we have researched, including PFOA and PFOS; PFAS belong to a massive family of chemicals, thousands of them unstudied and potentially harmful.

Adrienne Matei is a freelance journalist