Herbicide linked to human liver disease

Glyphosate, the primary ingredient in Monsanto's popular weed killer Roundup, has been linked to the disease in animal models. In a new study, the first of its kind, researchers at the University of California at the San Diego School of Medicine report the association between the herbicide and negative effects on the human liver.

In a study published in Clinical Gastroenterology and HepatologyDr. Paul J. Mills, Ph.D., Ph.D., Professor and Chief of the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health at UC San Diego School of Medicine, reviewed glyphosate excretion in the urine. of NASH (non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, a type of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease or NAFLD), and those without. The results were significant: Regardless of age, race, body mass index (BMI), ethnicity or diabetes status, glyphosate was significantly higher in patients with NASH than it was in patients with a healthier liver.

The findings, coupled with prior animal studies, said Mills, which has significantly increased over the past 25 years, and the prevalence of NAFLD in the United States, which has on the rise for two decades.

"There have been a handful of studies, where these animals have been or are not fed by Roundup or glyphosate directly, and they all point to the same thing: the development of liver pathology," said Mills . "So I thought, 'Well, could it be this herbicide that's driving liver disease in the U.S.'"

The examined urine samples of 93 patients. Forty-one percent were male; 42 percent were white or Caucasian; 35 percent were Hispanic or Latino. Average BMI was 31.8. Patients were originally recruited as part of a larger study at the UC San Diego NAFLD Research Center conducted between 2012 and 2018. Liver biopsies were used to determine the presence or absence of NAFLD while classifying the subjects by cohort.

Mills plans to next put a group of patients on an all-organic diet and track them over several months, looking at a herbicide-free diet might affect biomarkers of liver disease.

Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the United States; it was developed and patented by agrochemical giant Monsanto in the 1970s and its sales represent approximately 50 percent of the company's annual revenue.

"The rising levels [of glyphosate] In the United States, "These Mills," said Mills, "But Mills and Other Food Products," said Mills.

"There are many synthetic chemicals we are exposed to," he said. "We measured just one."