Forever Chemicals Are in Your Blood Right Now
PFAS are chemicals with a nickname that comes from their carbon-fluorine bonds. These bonds are some of the strongest in chemistry. PFAS do not break down in nature. They do not break down in your body either. Over your lifetime, they build up in your liver, kidneys, and blood. It takes 2 to 8 years for your body to get rid of half of what you have, depending on which PFAS it is. Without help, your body gets rid of them very slowly.
PFAS are found in the blood of almost all Americans who have been tested. The question is not whether you have them. The question is how much you have and whether they are hurting your health. The EPA recently said that drinking water should have almost no PFAS in it. They did this because even a tiny bit can be risky. But these chemicals are already in nearly every American's blood.
The problem is huge. There are over 12,000 kinds of PFAS chemicals. Companies have made them since the 1940s. They use them in nonstick coatings, waterproof fabrics, food packaging, firefighting foam, and factories. Military bases are some of the most contaminated places because they used a lot of firefighting foam for training. Millions of Americans drink tap water that has PFAS levels that are too high.
This is not just a theory about the world around you. This is real and happening to your body right now. It is hurting your thyroid, your immune system, your liver, your reproductive organs, and your heart. The real question is whether the toxins you are exposed to have become strong enough to actually damage your health.
Where PFAS Come From
PFAS chemicals are everywhere because they are mixed into things we use every day. Most people touch PFAS without knowing it. Drinking water is how most Americans get PFAS in their bodies. People who live near military bases, airports, factories, or sewage plants get even more. Even water that looks clean can have PFAS in it. The water treatment plant has to use special filters to take PFAS out. Regular filters do not work.
Food packaging is a big source of harmful chemicals that people often forget about. Microwave popcorn bags, fast food wrappers, pizza boxes, and other containers that resist grease are treated with PFAS compounds. These chemicals move from the packaging into the food, especially when the food is heated. Studies show that people who eat fast food a lot have much higher PFAS levels in their bodies than people who mostly eat food made at home.
Nonstick pans have a coating that can release harmful chemicals when you heat them, especially if you turn up the heat high or scratch the coating. Waterproof clothes like rain jackets and outdoor gear get treated with these same chemicals during making. So do carpets and furniture. Dental floss, some makeup, and some contact lens solutions have these chemicals in them too.
Firefighters, factory workers, and soldiers get exposed to harmful chemicals much more than most people do. Some of these chemicals are in foam used to fight fires. Homes with treated carpets and furniture release dust into the air that people breathe in. When you breathe in small amounts of these chemicals every single day for years and years, they add up inside your body. That buildup is what Members are dealing with now.
What PFAS Do to Your Body
PFAS are chemicals that mess with your hormones and affect many parts of your body. They hurt your thyroid the most. PFAS stops your body from making thyroid hormone, moving it where it needs to go, and using it right. Members who feel tired or cold but have normal thyroid tests should think about whether PFAS might be the real problem.
Immune suppression from PFAS is real and well-studied. When you have high PFAS in your body, vaccines do not work as well. Your body makes fewer antibodies to fight disease. This means vaccinated Members with high PFAS may not have enough protection. PFAS also hurts the cells that kill germs and stops other immune cells from multiplying. People get sick more easily. Children with high PFAS levels do not respond well to their regular childhood shots.
Your liver makes cholesterol. When PFAS gets into your body, it can change how your liver does this job. Members with high cholesterol that does not go down with diet alone, or that seems too high for how they live, may have PFAS causing the problem. Statins can lower cholesterol numbers, but they work at the end of the chain. They do not stop PFAS from making your liver produce too much cholesterol in the first place.
PFAS are chemicals that probably cause cancer in people. They are linked to kidney cancer and testicular cancer. PFAS can harm reproduction. They can lower fertility, change menstrual cycles, raise the risk of high blood pressure during pregnancy, and harm babies before birth. PFAS do all this damage because they block hormone signals. These signals control almost every part of your body.
Testing Your PFAS Burden
Specialized PFAS blood tests measure how much of each toxic chemical is in your blood. They show your exact toxic load. The most common chemicals they test for are PFOS, PFOA, PFHxS, and GenX compounds. GenX chemicals replaced some older PFAS chemicals in factories.
Results show how many nanograms of the chemical are in each milliliter of blood. There is no single agreed-upon number that tells doctors when to act. But in 2022, the National Academies of Sciences published a report that sorted people into exposure groups. If PFOS is above 2 nanograms per milliliter or PFOA is above 2 nanograms per milliliter, health risk goes up. Many Americans are above these numbers. People who work around these chemicals or live in certain areas may have levels that are many times higher.
Testing does two things. First, it shows whether your burden is at a level that can hurt your health. This tells you how fast and hard you need to act. Second, it gives you a starting point. You can measure your burden again later to see if it went down. Without that first test, you cannot know if your detoxification efforts are really working or just making you feel better.
At Kure Health, we test for PFAS as part of a full check for toxins in your environment. This test works with tests for heavy metals, mold toxins, and chemicals in the air. We also look at your genes to see how well your body can clean out toxins. This complete picture shows not just what toxins are around you but how fast your body can get rid of them.
Detoxification Protocols That Actually Work
PFAS chemicals stick to proteins in your blood. Your body tries to get rid of them through bile, but then your intestines suck them back in. They go right back into your bloodstream. It is like a door that keeps swinging the same chemicals back inside. To help your body clear out PFAS, you have to break that cycle.
A medicine called cholestyramine was first used to help lower cholesterol. It works by grabbing onto harmful chemicals called PFAS in your gut and stopping your body from taking them back in. This is the best medicine doctors know about for getting rid of PFAS. Activated charcoal and fiber can also grab onto PFAS in your gut. But you have to take these binders at different times than your other medicines and vitamins. If you don't, they will stop your body from using the good stuff you need.
Blood donation can help lower PFAS in your blood. When you give blood, your body makes new blood to replace it. The new blood has less PFAS in it. Plasma donation might work even better because PFAS sticks to the proteins in plasma. Anyone who can be a blood donor can try this approach.
Your liver needs help because it is the main place your body breaks down PFAS. You can help your liver by taking NAC and getting IV glutathione. These help your liver clean out toxins. Eating broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower also helps your liver work better. KureO2 Oxygen Immersion Therapy gives your cells more oxygen. Your body needs oxygen to clean out toxins. But cleaning up what comes in is just as important. Use a water filter with activated carbon or reverse osmosis. Throw out nonstick pans. Stay away from fast food packaging. Pick personal care products without PFAS. Filter the air in your home. Test your PFAS levels every 6 to 12 months to see if the amount is going down.
Veterans and PFAS: Elevated Exposure
Military veterans are one of the groups most exposed to PFAS in America. The military has used a special firefighting foam called AFFF at bases for many years during training. This foam has very high amounts of two harmful chemicals in it. The foam has leaked into the ground water at hundreds of military bases across the country.
Firefighters and crash crew workers who touched AFFF had the most exposure. But base workers, families living on base, and people in towns near military bases were also hurt. The problem came from drinking water that had AFFF in it. Scientists tested military firefighters and found PFAS in their blood. The amounts were 5 to 10 times higher than in regular people.
The health problems for veterans get worse because of other dangerous things in the military. Burn pit smoke, depleted uranium, tactical herbicides, and industrial chemicals all hurt the body. PFAS adds another layer of poison on top of these. When you stack all these toxins together, your body cannot clean them out fast enough. It is like filling a cup with water from many different sources at once. The cup overflows because there is too much coming in.
PFAS harms the thyroid. Burn pit smoke also harms the thyroid. Together, they make thyroid damage worse. PFAS weakens the immune system. Other toxic exposures also weaken the immune system. Together, they make immune problems worse.
Operation Kure, Kure Health's program for veterans, includes testing for PFAS chemicals as part of checking what toxins are in the body. These PFAS reduction plans work together with other detox programs that help with all the toxic chemicals veterans were exposed to during service. No veteran should have these chemicals in their blood without knowing about them and having a plan to get them out.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if I have PFAS in my blood? Special blood tests can measure PFAS in your body. PFAS are found in most people's blood, so what matters most is how much you have and whether it could hurt your health.
Can you get rid of PFAS?
Yes. You can lower the amount of PFAS in your body. Ways to do this include binding PFAS in your gut so your body can't use it, giving blood, taking activated charcoal, helping your liver work better, and staying away from things that have PFAS in them. These steps really do work.
What are symptoms of PFAS exposure?
Often there are no sudden symptoms. But PFAS can hurt your thyroid. It can throw off your hormones. It can raise your cholesterol even when you eat right. It can weaken your immune system. It can cause trouble with having babies. And it can raise your risk of cancer.
How do I reduce PFAS exposure?
Use a water filter with activated carbon or reverse osmosis. Throw out nonstick cookware. Stay away from fast-food packaging. Pick products that say they are PFAS-free. Filter the air inside your home.
About the author
Kenton Gray is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kure Health. He built Kure Health around one idea: Members should be able to see what their own body is doing, in plain terms. He writes here in that role, not as a clinician.
