Microplastics are everywhere. They’ve been found in our brains, algae in the Arctic ice, human placentas, beer, and breast milk—but now, according to one luxury clinic in London, they can be filtered out of your blood with a handy microplastic detox.
That’s the promise behind Clarify Clinics, which offers an expensive service to remove microplastics from your blood. The treatment involves drawing blood, filtering the plasma through a proprietary system that claims to trap microplastics and other “toxins,” like forever chemicals, and then returning the filtered plasma to the body. The whole process takes about two hours and starts at a hefty £9,750 (roughly $12,600 USD).
The clinic’s founder, Yael Cohen, says many of their patients report better sleep, more energy, and sharper focus in the weeks following treatment. Some are dealing with chronic fatigue or long Covid. Others are just curious—or worried about their long-term health in a world where plastic pollution is inescapable.
But despite the buzz around microplastic detox therapy, the science remains unsettled. Microplastics have been detected in human arteries, testicles, and other places in the body. One 2024 study linked their presence in arteries to a higher risk of heart disease, but it didn’t establish a direct causal link.
Most experts, including WHO, agree we still don’t fully understand how—or if—these particles actually affect human health. But this treatment taps into a growing wellness trend: hyper-personalized, high-dollar biohacking for people trying to stay a step ahead of aging, pollution, and disease.
From stem cell infusions in the Bahamas to total plasma exchange popularized by longevity influencers, the market for speculative health treatments is booming.
Even Cohen acknowledges that more research is needed to prove the microplastic detox actually makes a difference. However, she points to her patients’ personal experiences—and her own improved sleep data—as early signs that this kind of detox could be doing something beneficial.
For many of her clients, the test results showing fewer plastic particles after treatment feel like proof enough. Still, there’s a key problem: measuring the amount of microplastics anywhere is notoriously difficult.
Even in tightly controlled labs, contamination is hard to avoid. The particles are tiny, cling to everything, and float in the air. A stray fiber from clothing can skew all the results of your microplastic detox.
In the end, detoxing your blood of microplastics might offer some peace of mind. Just know that when you’re dropping almost $13K on the treatment, there’s no scientific certainty that it’s actually doing anything.
