Glyphosate Profile + Health Coaching Consult

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Recent studies have discovered glyphosate exposure to be a cause of many chronic health
problems. It can enter the body by direct absorption through the skin, by eating foods
treated with glyphosate, or by drinking water contaminated with glyphosate. A recent
study (2) stated that a coherent body of evidence indicates that glyphosate could be toxic
below the regulatory lowest observed adverse effect level for chronic toxic effects, and
that it has teratogenic, tumorigenic and hepatorenal effects that can be explained by
endocrine disruption and oxidative stress, causing metabolic alterations, depending on
dose and exposure time.

The World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer published a summary in March 2015 that classified glyphosate as a probable carcinogen in humans (3). Possible cancers linked to glyphosate exposure include non-Hodgkin lymphoma, renal tubule carcinoma, pancreatic islet-cell adenoma, and skin tumors. Studies have also indicated that glyphosate disrupts the microbiome in the intestine, causing a decrease in the ratio of beneficial to harmful bacteria (4).

Thus, highly pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella entritidis, Salmonellagallinarum,
Salmonella typhimurium, Clostridium perfringens, and Clostridium botulinum are highly
resistant to glyphosate but most beneficial bacteria such as Enterococcus faecalis,
Enterococcus faecium, Bacillus badius, Bifidobacterium adolescentis, and Lactobacillus
spp. were found to be moderately to highly susceptible. The relationship between the
microbiome of the intestine and overall human health is still unclear, but current research
indicates that disruption of the microbiome could cause diseases such as metabolic
disorder, diabetes, depression, autism, cardiovascular disease, and autoimmune disease.
Treatment of glyphosate toxicity should be centered on determining the route of
introduction and avoiding future exposure. More than 90% of corn and soy used are
now of the GMO type. In addition, non-GMO wheat is commonly treated with
glyphosate as a drying procedure. Glyphosate is somewhat volatile and a high percentage
of rain samples contained glyphosate (2). Eating non-GMO (genetically modified
organism) foods and drinking reverse osmosis water are two of the best ways to avoid
glyphosate. A recent study showed that people eating organic food had considerably
lower concentrations of glyphosate in the urine (2). Drinking extra water may also be beneficial since glyphosate is water soluble.

Another study found that glyphosate accumulated in bones. Considering the strong
chelating ability of glyphosate for calcium, accumulation in bones is not surprising. Other
results showed that glyphosate is detectable in intestine, liver, muscle, spleen and kidney
tissue (5). A 54-year-old man who accidentally sprayed himself with glyphosate
developed disseminated skin lesions six hours after the accident (6). One month later, he
developed a symmetrical parkinsonian syndrome.

The chelating ability of glyphosate also extends to toxic metals (7). The high incidence of
kidney disease of unknown etiology (renal tubular nephropathy) has reached epidemic
proportions among young male farm workers in sub-regions of the Pacific coasts of the
Central American countries of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, India, and Sri Lanka
(8). The researchers propose that glyphosate forms stable chelates with a variety of toxic
metals that are then ingested in the food and water or in the case of rice paddy workers,
may be absorbed through the skin. These glyphosate-heavy metal chelates reach the
kidney where the toxic metals damage the kidney. These authors propose that these
chelates accumulate in hard water and clay soils and persist for years, compared to much
shorter periods of persistence for non-chelated glyphosate. Furthermore, these chelates
may not be detected by common analytical chemistry methods which can only detect free
glyphosate, thus dramatically reducing estimates of glyphosate persistence in the
environment when metals are high (for example, in clay soil or hard water).
High correlations exist between glyphosate usage and numerous chronic illnesses,
including autism, which is shown in the figure on the first page (9).

Other disease incidences with high correlations include hypertension, stroke, diabetes , obesity,
lipoprotein metabolism disorder , Alzheimer’s, senile dementia, Parkinson’s, multiple
sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, intestinal infections, end stage renal disease, acute
kidney failure, cancers of the thyroid, liver, bladder, pancreas, kidney, and myeloid
leukemia (9). Correlations are not causations, yet they raise concern over the use of a
chemical to which all life on earth appears to be exposed.