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

Exposome research in IBD highlights the importance of environmental factors, including microplastics and nanoplastics, for understanding disease risk and prevention strategies.

• Why it matters: Understanding the exposome is crucial because environmental influences are acknowledged as critical in IBD development, yet research remains limited, especially regarding lesser-explored exposures.
• What they did: The authors review recent exposome research in IBD, differentiate early and later exposures, discuss innovative exposomics methods like high-resolution mass spectrometry, and emphasize prevention frameworks including primary and primordial prevention.
• The result: This perspective suggests that implementing exposomics in IBD prevention could inform risk mitigation strategies at individual, community, and global levels, potentially benefiting other chronic health outcomes.