Glyphosate book by Seneff & an IBS webinar help explain gut dysbiosis

Gut dysbiosis: a shift in microbiome species towards negative types and away from butyrate producing species.

The book by Stephanie Seneff is a page turner - very well written for lay readers but going into such depth on biochemistry and physiology that most academics will also find the explainers helpful. Biochemistry and health are such vast topics that no one can really master all of it, yet Seneff does a good job at bringing it all together into a cohesive picture of harm being done to humans and life across all levels of the ecosystem. Tears sprang to my eyes as I briefly reviewed what she covered, often in poignant visuals of our beautiful planet and its myriad of life forms. We are blessed to have bees and earthworms and even mosquitos to feed the frogs - and all are being harmed by human stupidity or malice disguised as a profit motive.

• Toxic Legacy - How the Weedkiller Glyphosate is Destroying Our Health and the Environment. One Scientist’s Determined Quest to Reveal the Truth. Stephanie Seneff, PhD, 2021, Chelsea Green Publishing. (ChelseaGreen.com)

• “Best book of the year” (Kirkus Review)

The silent spring that Rachel Carson warned us of decades ago is here. There are few buzzing mosquitoes or bees and not many fireflies in my area this year. Maybe the spill in Ohio had an affect, I am not that far away. Or maybe it was the rapid temperature shifts of the planet’s wobble this spring affecting insect hatching. I don’t know but it is sad and much worse this year than the last few years.

Toxic Legacy - How the Weedkiller Glyphosate is Destroying Our Health and the Environment. One Scientist’s Determined Quest to Reveal the Truth. Stephanie Seneff, PhD, 2021, Chelsea Green Publishing. (ChelseaGreen.com)

Wiping away the tears - on to gut microbes.

The nutshell story - the beneficial species mentioned in the last post are harmed by glyphosate and the negative histamine producing species tend to be promoted by or thrive with glyphosate.

Summary of the gut dysbiosis changes observed in patients with histamine intolerance:

• The histamine intolerance group in a study by Sánchez-Pérez, et al., had a reduced proportion of beneficial “Prevotellaceae, Ruminococcus, Faecalibacterium and Faecablibacterium prausnitzii.”

• And the histamine intolerance group had a higher proportion bacteria that produce histamine: “including the genera Staphylococcus and Proteus, several unidentified genera belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae and the species Clostridium perfringens and Enterococcus faecalis.” The excess production of histamine by microbes in the gut could cause increased histamine entry into the body and symptoms of histamine excess even in people who have a normal amount of functioning DAO enzyme to breakdown histamine. (Sánchez-Pérez, et al., 2022)

The beneficial species are all butyrate producing anaerobic species: Faecablibacterium prausnitzii is a butyrate producing beneficial species. (Parsaei, et al., 2021) Prevotellaceae is also a butyrate producing species. (Chen, et al., 2022) Ruminococcus is too. (Moraes, de Almeida-Pittito, Ferreira, 2019) Loss of these butyrate producing species is also seen in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBDs). (Moraes, de Almeida-Pittito, Ferreira, 2019)

We learn in Chapter 3, Glyphosate and the Microbiome, pp38-54, of Seneff’s book Toxic Legacy, that 54% of our gut microbiome species are susceptible to glyphosate (3) - it is an antibiotic and mineral chelator which was remarketed as an herbicide for genetically modified crops but also now is used on many more crops as a desiccant applied right before harvest to hasten ripening of seeds and to kill off the plant prior to harvest. That has left Cheerios and many other commonly used foods as glyphosate sources in addition to RoundUp Ready soy. Infant soy formula is a significant source of glyphosate residue.

As an antibiotic, glyphosate disrupts the shikimate pathway, which human cells don’t use - but 54% of our gut microbes do use it. (3) Why should we care about our gut microbes? Because the beneficial ones are playing on our team - they are our helper symbionts which participate in providing us an extra source of B vitamins. Beneficial microbes can make the whole team of B vitamin players: thiamin (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), pantothenate (B5), pyridoxine (B6), biotin (B7), folate (B9), and cobalamin (B12). (4) *Choline is not mentioned - it is similar to B vitamins and needed in methylation cycles but we can make it for ourselves in our liver. (DRI’s for B vitamins and Choline)

The shikimate pathway is used to make three essential amino acids, tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine. The three are considered essential for us because we can’t make them, but would not be essential for the microbes that can produce those amino acids when glyphosate isn’t present. It helps us when we have beneficial symbionts making essential amino acids and B vitamins that we can absorb and use for our own needs. The amino acids may be made into our calming neurotransmitter serotonin, or melatonin, dopamine, and epinephrine, the skin pigment melanin, and thyroid hormone. (p 40)

Two beneficial groups of gut bacteria that are particularly susceptible to glyphosate include Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria. Beneficial species also help us by keeping growth of negative species like E. coli in check. (20) Increased glyphosate concentration also seems to disrupt microbial production of acetate which is acidic, leading to an increase in pH within the gut to a more alkaline level. We need acetate production for the Citric Acid Cycle to have acetyl Co-A so this may indicate that glyphosate is reducing the use of Citric Acid Cycle within gut microbes. The more alkaline pH disrupts digestive enzymes leaving undigested protein entering the colon which isn’t typical and leads to ammonia production by gut microbes. Ammonia is also alkaline so it adds to an increased pH and is a toxin. (24) There is a strong correlation between pH of feces and glyphosate concentration in the colon. (22) (pp 44-45)

Bifidobacterium infantis is typical infant health is predominant and digests the oligosaccharides found in breast milk. The presence of the important species in infant's from developed nations has been disappearing. (28, 29, 30) (pp 45-46) Russian babies have been found to have normal levels of Bifidobacterium infantis compared to Finnish babies. (68) Glyphosate and many other chemicals used in the Western nations have been banned in Russia. (p 54)

Bifidobacterium species are also important for colon health as they seem to support the butyrate producing species which help feed colon cells with butyrate and other short chain fatty acids (SCFAs). Bifidobacterium use inulin, an oligosaccharide, as a food substance. The indigestible starches may also be called fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS). (De Vuyst, Leroy, 2011; Rivière, et al., 2016)

I include food sources for promoting the Bifidobacterium and butyrate species in this post:

• Bifidobacterium, CoV, Sabine Hazan, and butyrate producing colon species. Feed them well and you are feeding yourself well too! Vitamin C, D, zinc, inulin, arabinoxylan, and pomegranate peel help support bifidobacterium and butyrate producing species of the microbiome. (Substack)

• And this post: More Butyrate-promoting microbiome menu ideas. (Substack)

Short chain fatty acids are produced from undigested resistant starches that made it through the small intestine still intact. Butyrate is a particularly important SCFA because it has anti-inflammatory effects as an additional ligand for the niacin activating GP109 receptor. The GP109 receptor when activated by niacin or butyrate can increase endolysosomal engulfment of cellular debris and increase removal of inflammation by mitochondria by transforming it into a little extra heat, similar to how brown fat can burn glucose to produce heat instead of ATP.

Negative species promoted by glyphosate or the change in intestinal pH.

The increased alkalinity associated with glyphosate reduces butyrate production as a low pH of 5.5 is ideal for the butyrate producing microbes. Higher pH levels promotes growth of the pathogenic strains of Bacteroides. The inflammatory bowel condition, Crohn’s disease, is associated with increased Bacteroides and reduced butyrate production in the colon. (48, 49) ( p 49)

Clostridia species have been associated with autism and a reduced level of Bacteroides fragilis (mouse-study). (17) Bacteroides fragilis at normal levels helps prevent viral infections. (18) (p 43) Clostridium botulinum is a species known to make the toxin botulin which causes paralysis and is why you aren’t supposed to eat food from a can that seems damaged. Glyphosate toxicity may be causing an overgrowth of the species in dairy cows in Denmark leading to chronic botulinism in the animals. (40) Treatment of the cows with charcoal, sauerkraut juice and humic acids led to a decrease in glyphosate levels in the animal’s urine and reduced levels of C. botulinum antibodies. (41) (p 179)

Negative species such as Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) (38) and Pseuodomonas aeruginosa that can tolerate or even feed on glyphosate are becoming more of a drug-resistant infection problem in hospitals. (40) (p 47)

Excess use of antibiotics as a treatment can then lead to Candida yeast overgrowth and glyphosate tends to promote fungal growth.

Acute excess of glyphosate can be a cause of constipation as it causes intestinal paralysis. (59) (p 51)

References (##) & page numbers from: Toxic Legacy, Stephanie Seneff, (ChelseaGreen.com)

Negative species are promoted by glyphosate in a study on poultry microbiota, more beneficial species were susceptible.

Abstract: “The use of glyphosate modifies the environment which stresses the living microorganisms. The aim of the present study was to determine the real impact of glyphosate on potential pathogens and beneficial members of poultry microbiota in vitro. The presented results evidence that the highly pathogenic bacteria as Salmonella Entritidis, Salmonella Gallinarum, Salmonella Typhimurium, Clostridium perfringens and Clostridium botulinum are highly resistant to glyphosate. However, most of beneficial bacteria as Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium, Bacillus badius, Bifidobacterium adolescentis and Lactobacillus spp. were found to be moderate to highly susceptible. Also Campylobacter spp. were found to be susceptible to glyphosate. A reduction of beneficial bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract microbiota by ingestion of glyphosate could disturb the normal gut bacterial community. Also, the toxicity of glyphosate to the most prevalent Enterococcus spp. could be a significant predisposing factor that is associated with the increase in C. botulinum-mediated diseases by suppressing the antagonistic effect of these bacteria on clostridia.” (Shehata, et al., 2013)

Pomegranate pitch

It is always a good time to pitch pomegranate peel products - the hydrolyzable tannins in the pith form a humic acid like effect in soup broth - creamy, brown, thickened. Pomegranate also consistently has been shown to promote butyrate species and reduce negative microbiome species of many types, including Candida yeast.

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This is a good webinar, sponsored by Fullscript: The Art and Science of Applying Functional Medicine to Counter IBS, hosted by Tracy Harrison, (Youtube), (*Irritable Bowel Syndrome). Tracy Harrison is founder and lead educator of the School of Applied Functional Medicine (schoolafm.com/our-story).

I watched it and then my new book arrived and it was on topic so I waited to post. Stress itself adds to gut dysbiosis and trying to change one’s attitude about life is important. Being reactive and upset adds to inflammation, taking one’s time, resting when needed, pausing to think, all can help slow down emotional reactiveness and build calmer responses to life. Your gut appreciates that too.

The webinar includes many informative slides which Tracy said are part of course work for their School of Applied Functional Medicine.

It is a hard to read in this copy but glyphosate is listed as a contributor to excessive permeability of the intestinal membrane. The slides are clear in the video.

Toxic Legacy, closing remarks

Stephanie Seneff’s book Toxic Legacy, (ChelseaGreen.com) goes into a lot more detail about the many ways glyphosate interferes with our methylation cycles and other important pathways and reduces our innate immune function. It has helpful charts in an Appendix section and is fully cited and has an Index to look up stuff like, Which pages were about Clostridia species? This book is useful for lay readers and is a thorough academic work useful for any researcher interested in better health for humans, other life, and our ecosystem as an interconnected system.

Stephanie includes only a brief mention of glyphosate likely playing a role in CoVid19 risks and that it deserves more research. I went into a lot of detail, expanding on her research paper on the topic, in this post: Glyphosate and COVID19 (Substack)

A take home point from that post: Consider testing the urine output for presences of glyphosate residue, test kits can be ordered by clinicians or through a health company, example (greatplains.mymedlab.com/great-plains-tests/glyphosate--2);

Disclaimer: This information is being provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use and is not intended to provide individual health guidance.

Reference List

(De Vuyst, Leroy, 2011) De Vuyst, L., Leroy, F., (2011), Cross-feeding between bifidobacteria and butyrate-producing colon bacteria explains bifdobacterial competitiveness, butyrate production, and gas production, Int J of Food Microbiology, 149(1);73-80, ISSN 0168-1605, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2011.03.003. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168160511001395

(Rivière, et al., 2016) Rivière A, Selak M, Lantin D, Leroy F, De Vuyst L. Bifidobacteria and Butyrate-Producing Colon Bacteria: Importance and Strategies for Their Stimulation in the Human Gut. Front Microbiol. 2016 Jun 28;7:979. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.00979. PMID: 27446020; PMCID: PMC4923077. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4923077/

(Shehata, et al., 2013) Shehata, A.A., Schrödl, W., Aldin, A. A., Hafez, H.M., Krüger, M., (2013). The Effect of Glyphosate on Potential Pathogens and Beneficial Members of Poultry Microbiota In Vitro. Current Microbiology, 66, 350-358. doi: 10.1007/s00284-012-0277-2 https://pubag.nal.usda.gov/catalog/547247