Your World and You: Tips to Improve Your Family’s Health – Issue 3 (Premium)

Environmental and Nutritional Tips to Improve Your Family’s Health

This feature highlights reports, studies, and feedback from families on efforts that can make a positive impact in our quest for health. We invite you to share material with us that you think would be of interest to our readers.

Topics featured in this article:

1. Is Roundup Behind the Rise in Celiac Disease and Gluten Intolerance?
2. Risk of psychotic symptoms in early adolescence increased by frequent school moves
3. Supplementation with Carnitine Improved Mood Disorder:  A Case Report
4. Does Your School District Need to Improve their Lunch Meals?
5. Poor Prenatal Diet Linked to Kids’ Behavioral Problems
6. FDA seks to determine safety and effectiveness of antibacterial soaps

1) Is Roundup Behind the Rise in Celiac Disease and Gluten Intolerance?

A controversial article suggests glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup is the cause of the rise in celiac disease and gluten intolerance. This is the summary by researchers Anthony Samsel and Stephanie Seneff:

Celiac disease is a complex and multifactorial condition associated with gluten intolerance and a higher risk to thyroid disease, cancer and kidney disease, and there is also an increased risk to infertility and birth defects in children born to celiac mothers. While the principal diagnostic is autoantibodies to tissue transglutaminase, celiac disease is associated with a spectrum of other pathologies such as deficiencies in iron, vitamin D3, molybdenum, selenium, and cobalamin, an overgrowth of pathogens in the gut at the expense of beneficial biota, impaired serotonin signaling, and increased synthesis of toxic  metabolites like p-Cresol and indole-3-acetic acid. In this paper, we have systematically shown how all of these features of celiac disease can be explained by glyphosate’s known properties.

These include (1) disrupting the shikimate pathway, (2) altering the balance between pathogens and beneficial biota in the gut, (3) chelating transition metals, as well as sulfur and selenium, and (4) inhibiting cytochrome P450 enzymes.

We argue that a key system-wide pathology in celiac disease is impaired sulfate supply to the tissues, and that this is also a key component of glyphosate’s toxicity to humans.

The monitoring of glyphosate levels in food and in human urine and blood has been inadequate. The common practice of desiccation and/or ripening with glyphosate right before the harvest ensures that glyphosate residues are present in our food supply. It is plausible that the recent sharp increase of kidney failure in agricultural workers is tied to glyphosate exposure. We urge governments globally to reexamine their policy towards glyphosate and to introduce new legislation that would restrict its usage.

See the full article (PDF) in Interdisciplinary Toxicology here.  Shared with permission; An open access document 

2) Risk of psychotic symptoms in early adolescence increased by frequent school moves