The toxic effects of glyphosate
RootCause Dispatch #2
At the RootCause Journal, we often talk about removing processed food as the first step to reclaiming your health and reversing disease. The unholy triad of refined sugar, carbohydrates and seed oils have undoubtedly done the ‘heavy lifting’ to cause the modern chronic disease epidemic.
But they haven’t acted alone. Industrial herbicides like glyphosate, the active ingredient in RoundUp, are emerging as significant disease-causing agents in their own right. Ingesting these poisons alongside the processed foods appear to be greatly amplifying the harm.
Our guy Brian Sanders of Peak Human Podcast has once again come through with the goods in his recent interview with Stephanie Seneff. Stephanie is a senior research scientist and galaxy brain who has been investigating the negative health effects of glyphosate. Brian and Stephanie cover a wide range of fascinating ideas:
Glyphosate has known anti-microbial effects and wreaks havoc on your intestinal microbiota. It kills health commensal organisms like Lactobaccillus and Bifidobacterium (which babies require to adequately digest breastmilk). Instead, glyphosate exposure favors the overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria like Salmonella and Clostridium. These organisms are highly resistant to the effects of glyphosate, and are therefore able to grow and thrive despite continuous exposure. Clostridium then produces metabolites in the gut which are directly neurotoxic, disrupting dopamine synthesis in the brain.
Glyphosate appears to substitute in the place of glycine during protein synthesis by acting as a glycine analogue. Glyphosate become integrated into the protein structure, interfering with normal protein function and playing a role in the pathogenesis of autism and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
In addition to being directly cytotoxic (kills your cells directly) and carcinogenic (promotes cancer growth), glyphosate also has endocrine-disrupting effects. Meaning it interferes with hormonal signalling pathways at doses much lower than required to actually kill cells, which has implications for any purported ‘safe exposure dose’.
Stephanie raises the fascinating possbility that aerosolized glyphosate released by the combustion of biodiesel made from RoundUp-ready GMO crops could be increasing the susceptibility and severity of COVID infection by weakening the innate immune response in the lung.
These are just some of the fascniating topics they discussed. I highly recommend listening to the entire podcast in full, and checking out Stephanie's upcoming book Toxic Legacy for elaboration of these ideas. I haven’t read it yet, but definitely will be grabbing a copy.
Where to from here?
Whether or not you lend credence to all of Stephanie Seneff’s links on the causal role of glyphosate and disease, it stands to reason that this chemical was not present in our evolutionary past and should be completely avoided (despite any government agency’s declared ‘safe expsoure limit’).
The lengths you must take to protect yourself and your family from this agro-industrial herbicide depends on where you live and the amount glyphosate usage in your area. In the US the vast majority of corn, soy and cotton is genetically modified for glyphosate resistance. Here are the gold-standard measures that may or may not all be applicable to you:
stop eating all grains (especially corn/soy/wheat)
stop eating all processed foods (especially containing high fructose corn syrup, soy emulsifiers)
stop eating all seed oils (especially soy, corn and canola)
aim to eat organic
aim to eat grass-fed, grass finished beef over grain-fed beef
filter your water with activated charcoal
stop using RoundUp in your yard
Thankfully, cutting out the unholy triad of processed foods will lead to a concurrent reduction in glyphosate ingestion because these foods are most likely to be contaminated. Removing all plants from the diet is the next step for those suffering from unexplained or non-resolving symptoms. I suspect that many of the drastic improvements seen on a plant elimination/strictly animal-foods-only diet are attributable to the removal of industrial herbicide contamination.
As consumers, we can vote with our dollars and stop purchasing food grown by industrial, monocropped, glyphosate-soaked methods. This means supporting local farmers, ranchers and shops that use herbicide-free organic and regenerative methods.
As family members, we can do our best to spread the message about the health effects of glyphosate, especially for those who are unwell, pregnant, or raising young children.
The Rest Is Up to You…
-RCMD
July 15th 2021
P.S.
Glyphosate, RoundUp, Monsanto and the sordid saga of regulatory capture surrounding its ongoing use could fill tomes. Read this and this if you are interested. Read Stephanies blog and link to scientific papers here. I will be writing more on this topic in the future.
Forget aerosolized glyphosate from biodiesel. Glyphosate is water soluble. Try 75% of our rainwater being contaminated with glyphosate. Try raising organic crops with glyphosate rain.