GMOs, GLYPHOSATE & THE HUMAN TERRAIN Are We Engineering Ourselves into Extinction?

GMOs, GLYPHOSATE & THE HUMAN TERRAIN

Are We Engineering Ourselves into Extinction?

When we talk about chronic illness, we tend to separate everything into different boxes. IBS belongs to the gut. Fibromyalgia belongs to pain. Diabetes belongs to blood sugar. Thyroid problems belong to the endocrine system. Brain fog belongs to the brain. Joint pain belongs to the joints.

But what if we are looking at the human body in completely the wrong way?

I have come to believe that we need to look much further back — to the environment in which our bodies are trying to function and, ultimately, to the environment in which our food is being grown.

Because we aren't separate collections of organs. We are extraordinarily complex living ecosystems, the most complex ecosystem on the planet, dependent upon communication between our cells, microorganisms, immune system, hormones, nervous system and the environment around us.

And just like every other ecosystem on this planet, we depend upon connection to thrive.

It Begins Beneath Our Feet

Healthy soil is alive. It contains an extraordinary network of bacteria, fungi, plant roots, minerals, insects and other organisms communicating and interacting with one another.

Plants don't simply sit in dirt waiting for us to add chemicals. Their roots exist within this enormous living community.

Yet modern intensive agriculture has increasingly treated the field as something to be controlled. We kill the weeds, kill the insects we don't want and engineer crops capable of tolerating chemicals that would normally compete with the plants around them.

Glyphosate is the active ingredient originally associated with Roundup and has become one of the most widely used herbicides in the world. Glyphosate is central to modern agriculture because its significance goes far beyond simply killing weeds. Its effects on microorganisms and biological barriers potentially connect what is happening to our soil with what is happening inside us.

And this is where the story becomes very personal.

The Ecosystem Outside Us Meets the Ecosystem Within Us

Our gut is alive too.

We carry trillions of microorganisms that interact with our food and with one another. They help process components of our diet and produce substances that communicate with the cells lining our intestine and with other systems throughout the body including the brain.

We need to mention glyphosate's interaction with the shikimate pathway — a pathway found in plants and microorganisms.

We don't have this pathway in our human cells but our microorganisms do.

That is the part I think gets forgotten when somebody says that a chemical can't affect us because its target isn't present in a human cell.

We aren't simply human cells.

We are an ecosystem.

About 30 trillion of our roughly 70 trillion cells are human; the remaining 40 trillion are microbes. That’s roughly 57% of cells, they include bacteria, archaea and fungi so we can see that microbes are deeply important to sustaining our life.

When we interfere with microbial communities outside us and expose the microbial communities within us to the same agricultural environment, we are potentially interfering with one of the fundamental relationships upon which human health depends.

Then We Come to the Barrier

This is one of the most eye-opening parts for me.

Our gut isn't simply a tube that food travels through. Its lining creates an intelligent boundary between what is passing through our digestive tract and what is allowed into our internal environment. The cells of this barrier are connected by structures known as tight junctions. I think of them a little like incredibly sophisticated gates. They need to open and close appropriately, allowing communication and movement while maintaining the integrity of the barrier.

When we look at what happens to these tight junctions when intestinal cells are exposed to glyphosate it has been shown that the junctions becoming disrupted, creating greater permeability within the barrier — what most people now recognise as “leaky gut”.

The common complaints due to leaky gut:

• Bloating and poor digestion

• Feeling tired

• Brain fog, poor concentration and headaches

• Poor sleep

• Low sex drive

• Joint discomfort or other inflammatory complaints

To name a few.

And this is where the implications become much bigger than digestive symptoms.

Your Gut Isn't the Only Place With These Barriers

Tight junctions aren't exclusive to the gut. Similar structures are involved in the integrity of our blood vessels, kidney tubules and the blood-brain barrier. The blood-brain barrier is particularly fascinating because its job is to carefully regulate the environment surrounding our brain and nervous system.

Common complaints related to this impairment of the blood brain barrier:

ADHD, autism, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, MS and ALS, as well as depression and anxiety.

Once we start interfering with these intelligent barrier systems, we aren't simply talking about whether somebody gets a bit bloated after dinner. We are talking about the biological boundaries that allow different organs and areas of the body to maintain the environments they require for optimal functioning.

That completely changes the conversation for me.

Because suddenly the gut, immune system, circulation, kidneys and brain aren't separate stories anymore.

They are connected.

What Happens When the Immune System Starts Seeing Things It Shouldn't?

If the gut barrier loses some of its integrity, material from within the intestine has greater opportunity to interact with the immune system.

Connecting this loss of barrier integrity with inappropriate immune activation and chronic inflammation. Think about how many people now describe themselves as feeling inflamed.

They ache. Their joints hurt. Their digestion is unpredictable. They react to foods they used to tolerate. They're exhausted. They have allergies. Their skin changes. They can't concentrate properly. They wake up feeling as tired as when they went to bed.

We give all these experiences different names.

Can we consider whether some of them may share a deeper story involving loss of biological integrity and communication.

That is an idea I find incredibly powerful.

Then There Are Our Hormones

Having studied endocrinology it makes this part particularly interesting to me. The endocrine system is essentially a vast communication network. Thyroid hormones, insulin, cortisol, oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone are all chemical messengers. They affect energy, metabolism, blood sugar, reproduction, body temperature, mood, sleep, appetite and countless other functions.

Glyphosate is an endocrine disruptor and places endocrine dysfunction within the effects of agricultural chemicals and the breakdown of communication within biological systems.

And when I look around at the people I meet every day, this becomes very difficult for me to ignore.

Women tell me their periods have changed, their PMS is worsening, they are struggling through perimenopause or they simply don't feel hormonally balanced anymore.

Men describe losing energy, strength and vitality.

People are struggling with fertility.

Others have thyroid problems, weight changes or simply feel that their metabolism no longer works as it once did.

Again, instead of seeing each hormone as an isolated problem, I think we need to ask what is happening to the whole communication network.

What About the Thyroid?

Your thyroid is one of the great regulators of your metabolism.

When thyroid function isn't right, the effects can be felt throughout the body. Energy can disappear. Digestion can slow. Body temperature can change. Thinking can become foggy. Hair and skin can change. Weight can become difficult to manage.

The thyroid isn't living on an island.

It exists within an endocrine network that is communicating with the brain, gut, immune system, nutrients and wider environment. This is why I believe it makes little sense to discuss environmental disruption and then pretend our hormonal systems somehow exist separately from it.

If we are continually altering the biological environment surrounding us, I believe we should at least be asking what that means for the incredibly delicate communication systems within us.

Blood Sugar and Metabolism Are Part of the Same Picture

The same principle applies to blood sugar.

I see increasing numbers of people struggling with insulin resistance, rising blood glucose, weight gain and type 2 diabetes

We tend to reduce this conversation to sugar and calories, but metabolism is far more sophisticated than that. Insulin is a hormone. The liver is involved. Muscles are involved. The gut is involved. Our microorganisms produce metabolites that communicate with us. Sleep affects metabolism. Stress affects metabolism. Movement affects metabolism.

Everything is communicating.

If the terrain changes, the way those systems communicate can change too.

That is why I don't want to look at somebody's HbA1c and see only a blood-sugar problem. I want to understand the person and the environment in which that metabolic dysfunction developed.

And What About Our Energy?

One of the things I hear more than almost anything else is:

“I just don't have the energy I used to have.”

This can become chronic fatigue, a fibromyalgia diagnosis, constant exhaustion or simply a gradual loss of vitality that somebody has been told is part of getting older.

Glyphosate is a mitochondrial toxin. Mitochondria are central to the way our cells generate usable energy. They are fundamental to tissues with high energy demands, including our muscles, brain and heart

So when I meet somebody whose body seems to be running on empty, I don't simply want to ask how we can stimulate them into feeling more energetic. I want to ask why their energy production and resilience may have fallen in the first place.

This Is Why People Can Feel As Though Their Whole Body Is Going Wrong

This is the part I really want people to understand. Your gut isn't separate from your immune system. Your immune system isn't separate from your hormones. Your hormones aren't separate from your metabolism. Your metabolism isn't separate from your mitochondria. Your brain isn't separate from your gut.

It is one body.

One communicating ecosystem.

Perhaps this helps explain why somebody can start with digestive problems and several years later also be struggling with fatigue, aching joints, hormonal symptoms, poor sleep, brain fog and blood-sugar problems.

I am not interested in simply finding another name for each symptom.

I want to know what happened to the terrain.

We Have Been Killing the Weeds Without Asking Why They Grew

This is why I love the analogy of the garden.

If weeds suddenly take over a garden, we can spray them and congratulate ourselves when they disappear but what have we actually learned?

Why did those weeds flourish?

What happened to the soil?

What was missing?

What changed within the ecosystem?

Perhaps the weeds weren't simply the problem.

Perhaps they were telling us something about the environment.

And this is exactly how I have come to look at many symptoms. The bloating, exhaustion, aching joints, headaches, hormonal changes or rising blood sugar may be the thing that finally kicks us up the bum and says:

Something has changed. Pay attention.

Instead of continually asking, “How do I get rid of this symptom?”, perhaps we should sometimes ask:

“Why has my body started producing it?”

And Yet We Continue Spraying

This is the extraordinary contradiction. We know our food begins in an ecosystem, yet we continually introduce chemicals into that ecosystem to control it. Our chemical exposure is far broader than one herbicide and these chemicals don't necessarily exist in some distant field that has nothing to do with us.

Agriculture produces our food.

That is the connection.

The condition of the soil influences the plant. The plant becomes food. The food enters another ecosystem — our gut.

For me, once you see that chain, it becomes impossible to keep pretending these are completely unrelated worlds.

This Is Why Organic Matters to Me

This is one of the reasons I choose organic where I can.

Organic agriculture isn't simply conventional agriculture with a prettier label. The farming system operates under different restrictions, and herbicides such as glyphosate aren't permitted in certified organic production.

That matters to me.

I don't want people becoming terrified of eating an apple because they can't afford organic food. That isn't what I'm saying.

I want people to know how their food is being produced and then make their own choices.

Perhaps buy organic for some of the foods you eat most frequently. Grow herbs or vegetables yourself. Find a local farmer. Ask questions. Eat seasonally. Wash your produce.

Cook more food from scratch.

Reconnect with where food actually comes from.

Because food doesn't begin in Tesco.

It begins in an ecosystem.

Perhaps Our Loss of Vitality Is Trying to Tell Us Something

I meet too many people who feel as though they are slowly deteriorating.

They aren't necessarily collapsing with one dramatic illness.

They are gradually losing themselves.

Their digestion deteriorates. Their joints start hurting. Their energy disappears. Their blood sugar climbs. Their hormones change. Their sleep deteriorates. Their brain feels foggy. They become less resilient and eventually say something I hear far too often:

“I just don't feel like me anymore.”

I don't believe we should accept this simply as normal life.

I believe we need to look at what has changed around us as well as what has changed within us.

We have changed our soil. We have changed agriculture. We have changed our food. We have changed our relationship with microorganisms. We have changed our sleep, movement, light exposure and contact with the natural world.

Then we act surprised when the human ecosystem changes too.

We Are Not Separate From Nature

For me, this is the most important message of all.

We cannot spend generations disconnecting ourselves from nature and expect to remain untouched by that disconnection.

We need microorganisms. We need plants. We need healthy soil. We need real food. We need sunlight, movement, sleep and human connection.

We need diversity.

We need relationship.

We need nature because we are nature.

So perhaps instead of constantly declaring war on weeds, insects, bacteria, fungi and eventually our own symptoms, we need to become much more interested in restoring the environment in which health can flourish.

Feed the soil.

Feed the microbiome.

Eat real food.

Increase plant diversity.

Reduce unnecessary chemical exposure where you can.

Choose organic where it is accessible to you.

Grow something.

Know where your food comes from.

Get outside.

And start listening to your body before a whisper becomes a scream.

I truly believe that our increasing disconnection from nature is playing an important part in the loss of health, resilience and vitality that I see around me.

I don't expect you to believe that simply because I do.

I want you to think about it.

Look at how dramatically our environment has changed and ask yourself whether it really makes sense to believe that the human body would remain completely unaffected.

Because we aren't separate from the ecosystem.

We are standing right in the middle of it.

And we always have been.

I believe we urgently need to rebuild our relationship with the natural systems that sustain us.

I believe we need to stop seeing ourselves as separate from nature.

Because, quite simply, we aren't.