259: Glyphosate

Glyphosate

Glyphosate was identified as the cause of a lot of diseases. But what is alarming about this is the fact that there are no definitive or apparent symptoms to warn us that our health is in danger. It's invisible, too. To explore the science behind this silent killer, I'm happy to have Dr. Stephanie Seneff, who's a returning guest on the show.

Concerns About Autism

The first time I had Dr. Stephanie Seneff on the show, we talked about the link between glyphosate and autism in episode 89. She researched on which vaccine stood out and linked to autism. Initially, she thought anything with aluminum or mercury was the culprit. But it turned out that MMR has an incredibly strong signal to autism. 

“I was concerned over ten years ago. When I saw the autism rate go up, I was concerned about the vaccines, like lead and mercury in the teeth fillings. But I didn't know how to explain the disruption of the gut that you see in association with autism,” said Dr. Stephanie Seneff.

It was about 5 and a half years ago that Dr. Stephanie Seneff heard a talk from Professor Don Huber, who is over 80 years old and still active, giving lectures all around the world about glyphosate. Dr. Stephanie Seneff recalls that the event was a total epiphany for her.

“I'm so convinced that this chemical is responsible for the autism epidemic. But also responsible for the epidemic of a long list of diseases and conditions that are tormenting us today. Glyphosate is a major player,” Dr. Stephanie Seneff declared.

The Truth About Glyphosate

Dr. Stephanie Seneff believes that chemical companies do an excellent job of deflecting. They usually blamed something else. Diving into what glyphosate is, Dr. Stephanie Seneff says it can mess up the protein in the kidneys that preserve the water used to concentrate the urine.

“So, when you're in the high heat and sweating, you lose water. You need to be able to retain water as much as you can,” said Dr. Stephanie Seneff. “And the critical proteins involved with retaining water is compromised by glyphosate. There are many other proteins as well but bottom line, the kidneys are affected.”

What Is Glycine

Glycine is a building block for protein. It's an amino acid. We can digest glycine through foods like fish, meat, dairy, and legumes. It can be used to treat several memory problems and metabolic disorders. Glycine also protects our kidneys from the effects of drugs and alcohol. 

“We wrote a complex paper looking at all these proteins that had critical dependencies on glycine to work properly. What I have been doing is picking a disease, deep dive into it, and look at the proteins involved in that disease,” said Dr. Stephanie Seneff. “I look at their dependencies on glycine. It is a beautiful story from a scientific standpoint.”

Dangers Of Glyphosate

Dr. Stephanie Seneff says studies have shown that glyphosate goes into the testes, causes damage and leads to cancers. It also disrupts the cells that protect the sperm. The cells get calcium overload, and they're exposed to glyphosate. Dr. Stephanie Seneff is also looking into the theory that glyphosate damages fertility.

But according to Dr. Stephanie Seneff, research papers have shown that glyphosate paralyzes the gut. She narrates that there was a woman who tried to commit suicide by drinking glyphosate. The woman had a massive dose of it in her stomach. And her gut froze because it could not contract. Fortunately, the woman survived.

Other studies have also shown that health conditions like obesity and depression are linked to glyphosate. Even serotonin deficiency is related to this harmful chemical.

Discovering Glyphosate

“Glyphosate has been in the market since the mid-70s. It strips metals off pipes. Because it's a very good metal chelator,” said Dr. Stephanie Seneff. “They didn't discover until later that glyphosate was so good at killing plants.”

Dr. Stephanie Seneff shares that the Europeans had a lot of resistance in the last few times they tried to renew glyphosate in their respective countries. And it's getting harder to renew it. But in the United States, it wasn't hard at all.

“In the late 1990s, they discovered they could put a bacterial gene into plants to give them a superman behavior. They protect the plant by putting this bacterial gene. That's the GMO roundup,” said Dr. Stephanie Seneff. “They do this successfully in some core crops that go into the processed food industry. For example, corn, soy, and canola oil are sugar-based. No wonder sugar is bad for you because it's covered in glyphosate.” 

She adds, “Then they started to get roundup resistance. Weeds were showing up. So they had to use more glyphosate each year to kill these weeds. Which is why the usage went up exponentially.”

Dr. Stephanie Seneff further explains that at this point, it reached a crisis point. There were very resistant weeds. There wasn't enough glyphosate on weeds enough to kill it. So, companies started introducing dual products containing glyphosate and 2,4-D, which is a component of Agent Orange.

Agent Orange

Agent Orange is a mixture of 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxy acetic acid and 2,4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid. It contains the chemical contaminant dioxin as an impurity, which in turn caused many deaths.

I know Agent Orange destroys nerves. It causes incredible pain. According to Dr. Stephanie Seneff, Agent Orange is even showing up as congenital disabilities. She says it is generational.

Be Careful Of What You Eat

Dr. Stephanie Seneff says it's quite feasible to switch to a 100% certified organic diet. Companies are spraying so much glyphosate on wheat, which is why Dr. Stephanie Seneff thinks it is the reason why we have an epidemic of gluten intolerance.

“Because the wheat is sprayed right before the harvest, it goes into the wheat germ which is the healthiest part of the wheat. It's the part that has the highest part of glyphosate contamination,” said Dr. Stephanie Seneff. “Wheat bread is going to be more highly contaminated than white bread. Levels are also high on samples of legumes, chickpeas, lentils, hummus, and garbanzos from Canada and the U.S.”

On the other hand, Europe has much lower levels of glyphosate. Dr. Stephanie Seneff also believes that some of the crops that are sprayed before the harvest end up with a higher concentration of glyphosate in the food products, as well as the ones that are GMO roundup ready.

Aside from being selective of foods when you eat out, Dr. Stephanie Seneff recommends the book Poison Foods of North America. The book educates us on what foods to avoid and identifies the most contaminated foods on the planet.

Symptoms

When you eat foods that are contaminated with glyphosate, Dr. Stephanie Seneff says you usually don't get like a bellyache or a headache that's very obvious. When you are exposed to it, most of it works its way through your body unchanged and goes out through urine or feces. But there's a small percentage of it—1 or 2%, that goes into the tissues.

“Because it has a whole glycine molecule there, the machinery that recognizes glycine. This is my theory. It recognizes glyphosate as glycine and puts it into the protein. And if that's true, it explains so many things,” said Dr. Stephanie Seneff.

Recommended Lifestyle

First and foremost, Dr. Stephanie Seneff recommends eating organic foods. We must also be wary of our environments like golf courses and even schoolyards because a lot of chemicals are used to maintain the grassy areas. Another way to adopt a healthier lifestyle is educating people not to choose glyphosate, especially when killing weeds.

“There are natural ways to kill weeds like vinegar and salt or pulling by hand. Dandelions are protective against glyphosate. Herbs are important to keep the gut healthy,” said Dr. Stephanie Seneff. “Consuming sulfur-containing foods like seafood, garlic, and onion is good. Eating preventive foods, whole foods and probiotics help. It's also healthy to get out in sunlight.”

Dr. Stephanie Seneff says even the use of cotton for clothing and use of tampons should be avoided.  Cotton is dirty if it's not organic.

For added resources on knowing how to avoid glyphosate, Dr. Stephanie Seneff recommends checking out the Organic Consumer Organization and Moms Across America websites.

Bio

Dr. Stephanie Seneff is a Senior Research Scientist at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. She has a BS degree from MIT in biology and a PhD from MIT in electrical engineering and computer science. 

Her recent interests have focused on the role of toxic chemicals and micronutrient deficiencies in health and disease, with a special emphasis on the pervasive herbicide, Roundup, and the mineral, sulfur. She has authored over two dozen peer-reviewed journal papers over the past few years on these topics.

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Recommended Reading by Dr. Stephanie Seneff

What's Making Our Children Sick?: How Industrial Food Is Causing an Epidemic of Chronic Illness, and What Parents (and Doctors) Can Do About It – by Michelle Perro and Vincanne Adams

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Episode 89 – Autism

Organic Consumer Organization

Moms Across America

Poison Foods of North America

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