Gut microbes may flush ‘forever chemicals’ from the body

Expelling toxic “forever chemicals” from the body may take guts — or at least, their microbes.

Some microbes found in the human gut can absorb some per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, researchers report July 1 in Nature Microbiology. Mice harboring those bacteria in their guts excreted PFAS in their feces, suggesting microbes are intestinal allies that flush forever chemicals from the body.

Bacteria often encounter many potentially stressful chemicals such as…