Microplastics and Forever Chemicals: Why Your Body Can't Detox Them — and What It Actually Needs — The gut takes the first — and worst — hit

The gastrointestinal tract is where exposure concentrates, where the mucosal immune system meets the outside world, and where most of these chemicals either get neutralized or enter circulation. It&#8217;s also where the damage cascade starts. When microplastics enter the gut, several things happen simultaneously. The mucin layer &#8212; that protective gel coat separating your gut bacteria from your epithelial cells &#8212; gets thinned and disrupted. The loss of Akkermansia muciniphila , a keystone species that paradoxically maintains the mucus layer, is one of the most consistent findings across studies. Firmicutes-to-Bacteroidetes ratios shift. Pathogenic and opportunistic species expand into the vacated niches. Then the tight junctions between your intestinal cells &#8212; the proteins ZO-1, occludin, and claudin-3 that keep your gut wall sealed &#8212; get degraded. This is the real biology of &#8220;leaky gut.&#8221; Once that barrier is compromised, bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) translocates into circulation, activating TLR4 receptors system-wide and driving the low-grade chronic inflammation that underlies most of modern chronic disease. Short-chain fatty acid production collapses at the same time. Butyrate &#8212; the fuel your colonocytes require to stay alive &#8212; drops. And here&#8217;s where this becomes a compounding failure: colonocytes, unlike most cell