Microplastics and Forever Chemicals: Why Your Body Can't Detox Them — and What It Actually Needs — Why most detox protocols fail: the PFAS recirculation trap

Here&#8217;s the part that explains almost every failed detox attempt. PFAS aren&#8217;t metabolized. The liver doesn&#8217;t break them down. What the liver does is secrete them into bile &#8212; which seems like a win, until you understand what happens next. PFAS share structural features with bile acids. They&#8217;re amphipathic. They&#8217;re charged at physiological pH. They bind proteins similarly. And critically, they&#8217;re recognized as bile-acid-like substrates by the same transporters your body uses to recycle bile acids: NTCP in the liver, OATP1B1 and OATP2B1 in the enterocytes, ASBT at the apical membrane of the terminal ileum. In human studies, biliary clearance of PFOA and PFOS is dozens of times higher than urinary clearance &#8212; meaning the liver is actively trying to dump them. But 89&#8211;97% of what gets dumped into the intestine is reabsorbed right back into portal circulation. The kidneys reabsorb them too, via organic anion transporters in the proximal tubule. This is enterohepatic recirculation, and it&#8217;s why PFOS has a half-life of 2.7&#8211;5 years, why PFHxS approaches 8 years, and why virtually every American tested has detectable PFAS in serum. And it&#8217;s why sauna, sweating, generic &#8220;cleanses,&#8221; most binders, juice protocols, and supplement stacks don&#8217;t move the needle on PFAS. None of them address the recirculation