The popular weed killer Roundup might be linked to liver disease, a new study suggests.
A group of patients suffering from liver disease had elevated urine levels of glyphosate, the primary weed-killing ingredient in Roundup, according to researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).
"We found those patients who had more severe disease had higher levels of [glyphosate] excretion, which means they had higher levels of exposure, presumably through their diet," said lead researcher Paul Mills. He is director of UCSD's Center of Excellence for Research and Training in Integrative Health.
Until now, debate regarding the health effects of glyphosate has largely centered on fears that the chemical causes cancer.
Earlier this month, a California jury awarded $2 million to a couple who said long-term exposure to Roundup caused them to develop the same type of cancer -- non-Hodgkin lymphoma -- four years apart.
That happened days after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a draft conclusion that glyphosate poses "no risks to public health" and "is not likely to be carcinogenic for humans."
Dr. Kenneth Spaeth is chief of occupational and environmental medicine at Northwell Health in Great Neck, N.Y. He said that the UCSD study findings regarding liver disease raise "a whole other area of potential reason to have concern about this product and its widespread use globally."
Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the United States, the researchers said. The weed killer was developed and patented by Monsanto in the 1970s, and accounts for about half of the company's annual revenue.
Monsanto's parent company, Bayer, issued a statement noting that previous research required to bring the product to market has shown that glyphosate is safe.
"All pesticides, including glyphosate, are tested for their potential to harm liver function in tests that rely on internationally accepted protocols and are conducted according to good laboratory practices," Bayer said. "All of this testing demonstrates that glyphosate does not harm liver function."
Mills said he became interested in glyphosate's potential effects on the liver after studies showing that laboratory rats and mice fed the chemical tended to develop a form of fatty liver disease unrelated to alcohol consumption.
To see whether the weed killer might be linked to similar disease in humans, Mills and his colleagues examined urine samples from 93 patients who were suspected of having fatty liver disease.
Liver biopsies were taken to determine whether the patients had liver disease and the severity of their condition. Urine samples were taken to determine their exposure to glyphosate.
Glyphosate residue was significantly higher in patients with liver disease than in those with a healthier liver, the investigators found. There also appeared to be a dose-dependent relationship -- the more glyphosate in the urine, the worse a person's liver health.
In their statement, Bayer said: "While we are still examining this recently released study, the data indicates that the researchers failed to consider confounding factors including potential existing metabolic disorders in participants, which would make the results of the study unreliable."
While the study could not prove cause and effect, the researchers said the findings remained significant even after accounting for age, race/ethnicity, body fat and diabetes status.
Mills said, "Given there are these questions, I'd love for the EPA to say 'we're going to take another look at this.'"
Glyphosate might harm the liver in a couple of ways, he suggested.
The chemical might interfere with the liver's ability to process fats, causing them to accumulate in the organ. Or it might damage genes that regulate fat metabolism in the liver.
Glyphosate is used to improve commercial crop yields by killing weeds that would choke the plants, so much of a person's exposure to the chemical is likely due to diet, Mills said.
The best way to protect yourself would be to adopt an organic diet, eating only foods that have not been grown with herbicides or pesticides, he explained.
Noting that his study was small, Mills hopes other researchers will follow up with larger-scale efforts to examine effects of glyphosate on the liver.
"I'm hoping some other labs around the country that have either liver centers or other samples available will take a look at this also and see what kind of signal they find," he said. "That would help move us forward."
The new study was
ed online recently in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
A group of patients suffering from liver disease had elevated urine levels of glyphosate, the primary weed-killing ingredient in Roundup, according to researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).
"We found those patients who had more severe disease had higher levels of [glyphosate] excretion, which means they had higher levels of exposure, presumably through their diet," said lead researcher Paul Mills. He is director of UCSD's Center of Excellence for Research and Training in Integrative Health.
Until now, debate regarding the health effects of glyphosate has largely centered on fears that the chemical causes cancer.
Earlier this month, a California jury awarded $2 million to a couple who said long-term exposure to Roundup caused them to develop the same type of cancer -- non-Hodgkin lymphoma -- four years apart.
That happened days after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a draft conclusion that glyphosate poses "no risks to public health" and "is not likely to be carcinogenic for humans."
Dr. Kenneth Spaeth is chief of occupational and environmental medicine at Northwell Health in Great Neck, N.Y. He said that the UCSD study findings regarding liver disease raise "a whole other area of potential reason to have concern about this product and its widespread use globally."
Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the United States, the researchers said. The weed killer was developed and patented by Monsanto in the 1970s, and accounts for about half of the company's annual revenue.
Monsanto's parent company, Bayer, issued a statement noting that previous research required to bring the product to market has shown that glyphosate is safe.
"All pesticides, including glyphosate, are tested for their potential to harm liver function in tests that rely on internationally accepted protocols and are conducted according to good laboratory practices," Bayer said. "All of this testing demonstrates that glyphosate does not harm liver function."
Mills said he became interested in glyphosate's potential effects on the liver after studies showing that laboratory rats and mice fed the chemical tended to develop a form of fatty liver disease unrelated to alcohol consumption.
To see whether the weed killer might be linked to similar disease in humans, Mills and his colleagues examined urine samples from 93 patients who were suspected of having fatty liver disease.
Liver biopsies were taken to determine whether the patients had liver disease and the severity of their condition. Urine samples were taken to determine their exposure to glyphosate.
Glyphosate residue was significantly higher in patients with liver disease than in those with a healthier liver, the investigators found. There also appeared to be a dose-dependent relationship -- the more glyphosate in the urine, the worse a person's liver health.
In their statement, Bayer said: "While we are still examining this recently released study, the data indicates that the researchers failed to consider confounding factors including potential existing metabolic disorders in participants, which would make the results of the study unreliable."
While the study could not prove cause and effect, the researchers said the findings remained significant even after accounting for age, race/ethnicity, body fat and diabetes status.
Mills said, "Given there are these questions, I'd love for the EPA to say 'we're going to take another look at this.'"
Glyphosate might harm the liver in a couple of ways, he suggested.
The chemical might interfere with the liver's ability to process fats, causing them to accumulate in the organ. Or it might damage genes that regulate fat metabolism in the liver.
Glyphosate is used to improve commercial crop yields by killing weeds that would choke the plants, so much of a person's exposure to the chemical is likely due to diet, Mills said.
The best way to protect yourself would be to adopt an organic diet, eating only foods that have not been grown with herbicides or pesticides, he explained.
Noting that his study was small, Mills hopes other researchers will follow up with larger-scale efforts to examine effects of glyphosate on the liver.
"I'm hoping some other labs around the country that have either liver centers or other samples available will take a look at this also and see what kind of signal they find," he said. "That would help move us forward."
The new study was
ed online recently in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
A flesh-eating bacteria has migrated into the Delaware Bay between Delaware and New Jersey, drawn north by the warmer waters of climate change, doctors say.
ReplyDeleteFive cases of infection with Vibrio vulnificus occurred in 2017 and 2018 along the Delaware Bay, compared to one infection with the devastating bacteria in the eight years prior, researchers said.
The infections resulted in one death and multiple rounds of surgery to save the other patients. One had all his limbs removed at the elbows and knees due to severe bacterial infection, said Dr. Katherine Doktor, an infectious disease specialist at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J.
"In order to stop the infection, the person needs antibiotics and they need to be taken to the OR [operating room] quickly so any infected tissue can be removed, so it doesn't spread further," she said.
But Doktor added that the bacteria tends to strike hardest at people with pre-existing health problems like liver disease, diabetes, kidney failure or a compromised immune system.
"Just going to the beach or going to the bay is not going to make you sick," she said. "These people usually have a cut and the infected water gets into the cut, or they eat raw seafood that's infected."
Vibrio bacteria cause an estimated 80,000 illnesses and 100 deaths in the United States each year, with most infections in May through October when water temperatures are warm, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
One in five people with this type of infection die, sometimes within days of becoming ill, the CDC warns.
Because the bacteria thrive in warmer, salty water, it's usually found mostly in southern waters, Doktor said.
But cases of Vibrio infection began showing up in emergency rooms along the Delaware Bay a few years back, Doktor and her colleagues reported June 18 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Four of the cases involved middle-aged or older men who had been crabbing in the bay or eating crabs taken from the bay, the doctors said. The fifth case involved a man who worked at a seafood restaurant in New Jersey.
Wound infections affecting a person's limbs occur through breaks in the skin, while eating tainted seafood can cause intestinal and bloodstream infections, the researchers said. Large blood blisters start popping up at sites where skin cells are dying off, Doktor explained.
"On average, people need to be taken back to the OR two to four times to remove any tissue that has died," she said.
It's not just in the United States that Vibrio is migrating northward, Doktor said. In Europe, infections with the bacteria have extended as far north as Norway.
Dr. Amesh Adalja is a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, in Baltimore. He said, "Vibrio vulnificus infections contracted in the Delaware Bay, an area not known to be endemic for the bacteria, should serve as an important reminder that infectious diseases can expand from their traditional areas so long as the environment is hospitable to them." Adalja was not involved with the new report.
"If certain bodies of water have had temperature changes that allow Vibrio vulnificus to flourish in a new region, it will be important that clinicians have heightened awareness of this serious, and sometimes fatal, infection in order to diagnose and treat it appropriately," Adalja added.
Doktor advised that shellfish lovers should exercise caution when having a seafood meal, especially if they have a health condition that compromises their body's ability to stave off infection.
"Some people, when they shuck the crabs, they use gloves," she said. "I would protect your skin by wearing gloves."
You might want to think twice about hitting the raw bar, too.
"As an infectious disease physician, I don't think people should be eating raw seafood," Doktor said. "But if you don't have any of these risk factors, the chance of infection is much, much lower."