Microplastics and Forever Chemicals: Why Your Body Can't Detox Them — and What It Actually Needs — What the body actually needs: capacity

This is the reframe. The body already has the machinery. What it needs is the capacity to run it. Human detoxification is a three-phase system, and it only works if all three phases &#8212; plus supporting infrastructure &#8212; are running simultaneously. Phase I (cytochrome P450 enzymes) oxidizes the parent compound. This step produces reactive intermediates and requires NADPH &#8212; a reducing cofactor whose availability is entirely dependent on mitochondrial and pentose phosphate pathway function. Phase II conjugation attaches a water-soluble handle to those reactive intermediates: glucuronide (via UGTs), sulfate (via SULTs), glutathione (via GSTs), acetyl groups (via NATs), or methyl groups (via methylation pathways that depend on SAMe, MTHFR, B12, and folate). Every one of these reactions consumes ATP and specific cofactors that the body has to manufacture continuously. Phase III transport uses ATP-dependent pumps &#8212; MRP2, BCRP, P-glycoprotein &#8212; to move the conjugated molecules out of cells and into bile or urine. Without functional phase III, phase II conjugates accumulate inside cells and cause damage instead of leaving. Bile flow requires taurine or glycine conjugation of bile acids, adequate phosphatidylcholine secretion, and unobstructed flow from canaliculi to duodenum. Any degree of cholestasis closes the elimination route for fat-soluble toxins. Gut ba