A new study, published on 27^th January in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, conducted by an international team of scientists led by Dr Michael Antoniou of Kings College London, found that exposure to glyphosate and its commercial Roundup formulation, can disrupt the function of the gut microbiome (bacteria and fungi) and internal body systems with potentially serious effects on human health.

One’s “gut bacteria” is vital to good health, without it serious illnesses can occur.

In controlled laboratory animal experiments, glyphosate was found to alter the composition, and the biochemical function of the gut microbiome by the same mechanism through which the chemical acts to kill weeds (inhibition of the shikimate biochemical pathway), even at doses claimed to be safe by the regulators. Meaning glyphosate kills gut bacteria even at low levels.

Roundup was also shown to be more toxic than glyphosate alone, underpinning existing evidence that the additional substances present in commercial products are not ‘inert’ as claimed by its manufacturers and regulators but highly toxic in their own right.

Roundup has undergone lawsuits and is currently being sued for impairing and causing cancer in those with long term exposure.

In-depth biochemical analysis of both the gut and the blood of the test animals showed that they were put under ‘oxidative stress’, a highly damaging process, by glyphosate and to a greater degree by Roundup.

Mexico has banned the use of glyphosate. The question is will America?