The exposome and inflammatory bowel disease: a framework for primary and primordial prevention.

Exposome research reveals that environmental factors, including microplastics and food contaminants, significantly influence inflammatory bowel disease risk and prevention strategies.

• Why it matters: Understanding the exposome is crucial because environmental influences are key but underexplored in IBD, limiting effective prevention and intervention efforts for this immune-mediated disease.
• What they did: The authors review recent exposome studies in IBD, highlighting innovative methods like high-resolution mass spectrometry and the importance of early and later life exposures, including emerging pollutants like microplastics.
• The result: Implementing exposomics in IBD prevention offers a pathway for targeted risk mitigation and broad population strategies, potentially reducing disease incidence and informing prevention of other chronic conditions.