People who have autism, Alzheimer's disease, or Parkinson's disease are often further trialed by anxiety. There are reasons for that.

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When I was growing up my mother had a single cutting board that she used for vegetables, meat, and the occasional finger. Although her cooking skills were limited, they were also quite conventional and her multi-purpose cutting board raised no eyebrows. These days, along with raised eyebrows such a practice could infect families with pathogenic Salmonella and E. coli bacteria. Not so many years back, chicken was not routinely overrun with unpleasant bacteria. What changed?

First the good news. Somewhere along our evolutionary path our bodies accepted and incorporated a host of bacterial colleagues now called the microbiome. The venture worked. Your biome houses as many tiny immigrants, weighing en masse between three and five pounds, as your body does cells. Accompanied by fungi, viruses, and certain microorganisms, this bacterial host is not hitching rides; it gives as well as gets, and over our shared trail has come to be essential for matters as apparently unrelated as digestion, immunity, and mood.

Despite the great 'weight' of the inhabitants of our biome, they respond flexibly--happily or not--to what gains entry. If you eat at that new Thai restaurant, the biome reacts to the unfamiliar input. Generally these changes are subtle and quickly return to whichever 'normal' you've established, but not always, and reasons for that are not well understood. The biome, which has been called a 'second brain', has major effects on digestion, weight, immunity--even your frame of mind. The role this plays in our mental and physical health is hard to overstate.

Bacteria are not created equal. We contain a mixture of 'good' and 'bad' bacteria and substances affect them differently. Bacteria compete for front-row seats and sustenance along the colon. When food is nutritious and adequate and no thumbs weight the scale, beneficial bacteria outnumber outlaws and order is maintained.

The bad news is that, over the planet but particularly in the US, a new venture has begun. For the most part it flies under the radar, but make no mistake it's pervasive. Every creature that lives, along with every square inch of land, air, and water, now accommodates a new partner. Unlike the one between us and our biomes, this partnership is not to the benefit of both.

Plants share the planet with us and require some of the same things we do--food and water come to mind. In addition, plants require three amino acids. Enzymes along what is known as the shikimate pathway produce the amino acids tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine, which bolster chlorophyll in plants for photosynthesis, without which most won't live.

Glyphosate, the star ingredient among a set of trade-secret so-called inert ingredients inhabiting the herbicide Roundup, kills by disrupting an enzyme known as EPSPS synthase (5-enolpyruvylshikimate 3-phosphate) along the plant's shikimate pathway. Glyphosate depletes these essential amino acids from plants not engineered (or resistant) to a state of "Roundup readiness". The EPSPS enzyme targeted by glyphosate resides in plants, not animals. Therefore, we are told, glyphosate has no effect on anything that is not a plant.

But the shikimate pathway is not confined solely to plants. The pathway occurs also in bacteria and fungi, including those that inhabit birds, mammals, aquatic life, insects, even soil. Of course our gut bacteria contain the shikimate pathway.

When our gut bacteria are functioning they provide from the food they help digest certain amino acids that our bodies can't produce. Coincidentally enough, those three amino acids are tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine. Here's some of what they do for us:

Tryptophan is a precursor to serotonin. Although you may associate serotonin with the brain and its lack with depression, the majority of serotonin--90% of it--is made in the digestive tract. As a gut neurotransmitter, serotonin affects nerves that power smooth-muscle function and blood flow; it's also involved in bone modeling and metabolic balance. When the gut is inflamed, serotonin is involved in immunity and angiogenesis. Low serotonin is associated with such gut disorders as inflammatory-bowel and celiac disease.

Made from phenylalanine, tyrosine is more or less a breeder of neurotransmitters that communicate within us. In addition to alertness, learning, and memory, tyrosine is necessary for thyroid function. Many people with autoimmune diseases also have thyroid problems.

Phenylalanine is used to produce proteins and other molecules, some of which enable signaling in the body. It comes in two slightly different molecular forms, one of which is used in the making of substances such as aspartame. More bad press arises from the inability of those who lack a certain enzyme to metabolize dietary phenylalanine.

When gut bacteria are exposed to glyphosate, they are unable to produce those amino acids.

It's been argued by industry proponents that bacteria in our biome are awash in tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine, presumably from our digestion of plants containing those substances (unless, of course, those plants had been desiccated prior to harvest with Roundup, as is increasingly the case). In other words, we are told that easy availability of those amino acids from digestion make it moot that our microbiome can no longer produce them. If that is so, that we don't need our gut bacteria to produce these three essential amino acids, then why do we house those bacteria? We would be providing them tenancy and getting nothing in return. While that may be a lofty sentiment, biology doesn't often work that way.

For the sake of argument consider that if Roundup's only fault was to deny us three amino acids, we might find ways (involving supplements) to live with that.

But despite the difficulty of looking into this with independent research, there are definite indications that the herbicide's effects are not so limited.

In the US today, cattle are increasingly afflicted by the disease of botulism. Researchers found that glyphosate and Roundup are more destructive to certain gut bacteria that hamper growth of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which unsurprisingly fosters botulism. In chickens, pathogenic bacteria are highly resistant to Roundup--in effect they're Roundup Ready--while most beneficial gut bacteria range from somewhat to highly susceptible. Very low concentrations of Roundup kill or incapacitate good bacteria, which fuels overgrowth of bad bacteria. As everyone knows, when outlaws gain the upper hand there's trouble.

Enzymes instigate or accelerate the rate of reactions occurring within cells. Specific enzymes help cut large molecules into manageable pieces for easier absorption; others stitch molecules together to form new ones. Each enzyme may play but a small part in a constrained reaction, but the range of bodily functions enzymes affect is wide and vital to life. One family of enzymes disrupted by glyphosate, the CYP enzymes, detoxifies harmful substances--alcohol or rotted food or toxic mushrooms--that we consume. Other functions include activating vitamin D for bones and immunity and producing bile for digestion.

Our bodies need certain minerals but cannot produce them, so they must come from elsewhere, usually diet. Manganese may be the most important mineral you've never heard of, involved as it is in bones and connective tissue, blood and sex hormones, fat and carbohydrate metabolism, blood-sugar control, brain and neural function--even feeding your biome. We get manganese from food (food that has not been exposed to glyphosate, which binds manganese at the pH of typical plant cells). Once we've met our needs for manganese the liver diverts the excess into bile acids, from which our gut bacteria derive their share. But making manganese-flavored bile acids hinges on CYP enzymes, which are incapacitated by glyphosate. Thus gut bacteria that require it are deprived of manganese while a surfeit of it swamps the liver.

Certain species of gut bacteria such as beneficial Lactobacillus use manganese to protect against oxidative damage, which ups their need for it; well-functioning Lactobacilli retain generous helpings of the mineral within their cells. Lactobacilli prefer the portion of the small intestine where pH is higher and acidity lower, which happens to be where glyphosate's chelation of manganese is greatest. In the presence of glyphosate, manganese availability in the small intestine may be reduced by half. Deprived of manganese most Lactobacilli do not survive. Thus, glyphosate's chelation of manganese reduces the population of these beneficial bacteria. The gut-brain axis translates this reduction of good bacteria into anxiety.

Why anxiety? Some Lactobacilli produce the inhibitory neurotransmitter γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), thought to relieve anxiety. Mice given Lactobacillus probiotics show changes in GABAergic expression in brain regions involved with mood. These effects are absent in mice whose body-to-brain vagus nerve is severed.

A major part of the gut's proper functioning is to act as a barrier between what passes through the gut and what remains without. Roundup changes the microbiome, hampering its proper function. When unhealthy bacteria start to predominate the stage is set for leaky gut, which allows substances into places they should not be. These incursions alert the immune system, which declares war.

Glyphosate prevents enzymes from doing their work; it renders unavailable essential minerals; it inhibits and kills good bacteria while sparing bad--certain pathogenic bacteria thrive in the presence of glyphosate. Celiac disease, allergies, irritable-bowel syndrome, autism, obesity, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, and a host of other debilitating chronic conditions are on the rise. So is our exposure to Roundup. This correlation invites consideration.

According to the World Health Organization, glyphosate is a probable carcinogen, and it is everywhere. Our unthinking embrace of imbalance is reflected on our cutting boards.

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Three years ago scientists published a paper revealing ways in which glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup(R), impacts physiology through its effects on manganese, an important but often overlooked nutrient. We are told that humans are not affected by glyphosate. In fact we are, in a multitude of ways. The paper from which much of this summary was derived was published in the journal Surgery Neurology International.

Sources:

This article primarily summarizes this paper:

Samsel, A, and Seneff, S: "Glyphosate, pathways to modern diseases III: Manganese, neurological diseases, and associated pathologies." Surg Neurol Int. 2015; 6:45. .ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4392553/#

Other references include:

Birch, Jenna. "5 Facts That Will Convince You to Actually Care About Your Gut Bacteria." Self Health, 2016. click here

Culotta, VC; Yang, Mei; and O-Halloran, TV. "Activation of superoxide dismutases: Putting the metal to the pedal." Biochimica et Biophysica Acta -- Molecular Cell Research 2006; 1763:7, 747-758. click here

Detox Project. "Glyphosate and Roundup Negative Affect Gut Bacteria." click here

Mir, MA. "Porphyria Overview." Medscape 2017. dicine.medscape.com/article/1389981-overview

Samsel, A, and SEneff, S. "Glyphosate, pathways to modern diseases II: Celiac sprue and gluten intolerance." Interdiscip Toxicol 2013 6(4): 159-184. .ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3945755/

Saplakoglu, Y. "Your Gut Remembers Where You Had a Good Meal." LifeScience, 2018. https://www.livescience.com/62825-brain-gut-connection-helps-form-memories.html?utm_source=notification

Seneff, S. "Glyphosate Pretending to be Glycine: Devastating Consequences." Seneff_Stephanie_052516.pptx.

Authors Website: http://medicalink.com

Authors Bio:

Schooled in psychology and biomedical illustration, of course I became a medical writer!

In 2014 my husband and I and our kitty moved from Colorado, where Jerry had been born, to Canada, where I had been. (Born.)