Autism And Roundup : Is There a Connection?
Wide spread usage of Roundup pesticide could be major contributor to rising epidemic of Autism in the U.S. (photo by Yann Avril)
As a mother of 5 children, I struggle daily with the dilemma of how to feed my family safely and healthily. It seems the more I learn the more complicated this gets. Unfortunately, the realities of our American food growing system are not simple. We are poisoning ourselves and the soil our food grows upon with the same chemicals meant to sustain our food supply. Signs of distress are becoming steadily apparent throughout our populations in the form of increased disease rates for Autism, Alzheimer’s, kidney failure, food allergies, and obesity just to name a few. Yet, there is little being done or even acknowledged by our health care system regarding the rise of these diseases and the possible connections to our food sources.
Recently, I stumbled upon the research of Dr. Stephanie Seneff from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Seneff has presented her findings suggesting a strong connection between the Monsanto pesticide Roundup and the increased rates of some of our most prominent neurological diseases, mainly autism and Alzheimer’s. Based on Dr. Seneff’s research we have a lot to be concerned about summarized in this alarming statement from her research presentation, “At today’s rate, by 2025, one in two children will be autistic.”
In order to put the relevance of her findings in perspective, it’s important to understand how a chemical deemed “safe” to humans could be harming us on such a large scale. Roundup contains a chemical compound called glyphosate which does it’s job by interrupting the metabolic functions in plants that allow them to produce crucial amino acids. Without these particular amino acids the plants quickly die making glyphosate a powerful weed killer. With the rise of GMO’s, bio-engineered plants such as soy, corn, and wheat have been designed to tolerate the glyphosate. This combination of Roundup ready GMO agriculture has made glyphosate usage in our farming industry skyrocket with these widely consumed crops. From 2001 to 2007, use of the glyphosate rich Roundup pesticide doubled, reaching 180 to 185 million pounds in the U.S. alone in 2007.
Since our bodies don’t function like plants glyphosate has not been considered harmful to humans, seems simple enough. However, Dr. Seneff explains that although glyphosate may not affect us directly the bacteria that live in our gastrointestinal tracts (GI) produce amino acids in the same way as plants. This means that the glyphosate we ingest through our food disrupts the healthy functioning of the beneficial bacteria in our GI tracts resulting in the depletion of essential amino acids necessary to our bodies. Lack of these amino acids have been marked as contributors to obesity, depression, inflammatory bowel disease, Autism, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Interestingly, side effects of Autism have been found to closely resemble the same symptoms of glyphosate toxicity making the high usage of Roundup a likely factor in the alarming rise of autism and other neurological diseases.
roundup
In addition, glyphosate levels in the breast milk of American moms has been shown to be 760 to 1600 times higher than allowable limits in European drinking water. Overall, Americans showed 10 times higher levels of glyphosate accumulation in urine tests than in Europeans.
According to Seneff’s research, the increased usage of Roundup on our food precisely shadows the increase in instances of autism in our population. Although some may argue that correlation doesn’t equal causation, in my opinion we should at least be seeing this as a red flag and all the more reason to investigate further into these connections. If a good investigator discovers a solid lead they don’t just chalk it up to coincidence and abandon the case! Additional research (not funded by Monsanto) is the reasonable course of action to confirm Dr. Seneff’s evidence.
Currently most of the existing 100 studies presented to the EPA to date have been submitted by the chemical companies themselves and consist of research that was too short and so unable to show the accumulative affects of glyphosate on our bodies or the environment.
In the meantime, as parents, parents to, or even those at risk of accumulative age related diseases like Alzheimer’s, consider staying on the side of caution as it’s not likely that Monsanto has your best interest at heart over their own profits. Here’s a few suggestions from the heart:
- Look for non-GMO products especially, when it comes to corn, soy, and wheat.
- Don’t forget that anything containing corn syrup contains a fair share of glyphosate as well (dump the sodas).
- Because wheat is sprayed with Roundup before harvesting it’s best to opt for organic wheat products.
- Don’t spray Roundup on your lawns! Look for alternatives like non-toxic weed killers, hand weeding, wild flower gardens, mulching, etc.
Click here to read Dr. Seneff’s reseach presentations for yourself
Link to Dr. Seneff’s full slideshow
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