Hey there. Welcome to paging Dr. Gupta. This is the place where I get to open the mailbag,

listen to your health questions, and hopefully give you some answers that can improve your life.

So if you've ever sort of found yourself scratching your head over a puzzling health problem,

you have come to the right

place. And I want to explain not just the what of things, but also the why. So Kira's back with us.

Who do we have first? All right. Hey, Sanjay. So first up today, we have a question about a certain

name brand water bottle that has been everywhere the last few

years and I'm actually drinking out of mine right now so I definitely need to know the answer to this.

Here is the listener's question.

Hi, this is Stephanie.

I am 50 years old and I was wondering about the straws on the families thinking don't the

microplastics still get into your system

from the straw. I'm just curious if I'm supposed to just lift off the top and drink out of the

Stanley without the straw. Anyway, I'd love to know the answer for that or how I could find out.

Thank you. Okay, well, this is something that I have thought about a lot as well, Stephanie.

So tell you what, go pour yourself a big tall glass of water.

Pay close attention to the material of the cup or the bottle or even the straw, and let's

meet back here with an answer.

Okay. an answer. So Stephanie is asking about the plastic straws on water bottles like the popular Stanley Cups. The question being, can they lead to ingestion of microplastics into your

system? It is a really good question, and those water

bottles are trendy right now. I think my daughters all have one. They are made with a variety

of materials, and I appreciate the idea that you're thinking about plastics, because this is a topic

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