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Erasing Autism - The Spectrum Balance Protocol, by Shauna K. Young, PhD, CTN and "The Stuff We All Have"
Please open your minds about what 'autism' is if you've found this topic. While this topic overall is about a brand new book focusing on children and the various symptoms and behaviors that end up being classified as "autism", creating this topic at this point in time in my process of unfolding information I relate at Lumigrate has to ultimately focus also about "the stuff" that is rampant in all of us.
Suffice it to say I have come a LONG WAY down different paths over the years with my work developing Lumigrate's content, and can reflect upon many things which hadn't 'jived' according to mainstream information, which I'd keep looking for information to resolve. "Aha" moments would occur, or 'aaah, got it now', and that would be 'the shift' for that time for me.
Ironically, it's very difficult to have people shift from seeing each specific disorder assigned from modern science and medicine (aka 'organized medicine', 'allopathic medicine', or 'conventional medicine', though that is not a great word choice because we're heading to the more natural and holistic as what will become the NEW convention, leaving a gray area once you get near 50/50 on that). This is similar to 'alternative', which is not a great word to be using because of what it implies, that holistic or natural medicine is beta to something that is alpha, essentially.
In the past, these words were grabbed onto like a ball being run in play, with people adopted them not really using them appropriately per their real meanings. My favorite example of that 'twisting' is 'occupation'. As a person with a degree and years of experience in occupational therapy, from my first day learning about it, I had to know the meaning of the word 'occupation'; it's how you occupy time. Vocation is how you "support yourself". So your vocational tasks are also occupations.
So ALL the times you see 'occupation' on forms or in conversation about someone, it's not the best word choice. This makes it very hard for people to know what an occupational therapist is, too, unfortunately. This hurts a lot of medical consumers in the public because they mis-presume they have no need for such a person on their team, when in fact a good OT can be invaluable to almost everyone! People -- children or adults, and those in between -- can all benefit from having qualified occupational therapists on their teams, in my opinion.
How many people would this be, who 'have autism'? The statistics out there and what I believe the reality is are two very different things. I believe almost everyone today has symptoms, to a lesser or greater extent, of 'this stuff', and that is why I have come to calling it one thing, 'this stuff'. You'll see in this topic a bit of the reasons why I and others are coming to this conclusion. And you'll also see why I appreciated the author of Erasing Autism , Dr Shauna Young, including her similar opinions about statistics being way low when citing official statistics 'the system' collects and provides.
In order to facilitate the mental shift from thinking of 'autism' separate from 'chronic fatigue' and 'fibromyalgia' (and then from Parkinson's, Lewy body disease, Alzheimer's and etc, etc., etc.) , I'm going to provide this link to a 2011 article at Psychology Today by Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, titled Is Autism Related to CFS and Fibromyalgia? www.psychologytoday.com/blog/complementary-medicine/201106/is-autism-related-cfs-and-fibromyalgia .
Dr Teitelbaum, the renowned author of the best selling From Fatigued to Fantastic, which I purchased in the late 1990s in it's second edition, registered at my invitation to be an expert provider at Lumigrate.com for one topic, which was our saying our goodbye's to Gary King, RPh and co-founder of ITC Compounding and Natural Wellness Pharmacy, which provided much content to Lumigrate and education to me privately by telephone in 2011 and into 2012 prior to Gary's being diagnosed and passing from pancreatic cancer. There were business/ professional connections more than initially met the eye between Dr T and ITC and others in the 'chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia community'.
One of my big thrills after starting Lumigrate was speaking at the same chronic pain conference as Dr Teitelbaum; I was the afternoon low point speaker slot because they though my presentation sounded fun to listen to, and he was the keynote at the end of the day. He actually arrived just before I spoke, so I was excited but also nervous thinking he'd see me present, and then he went to get a good meal so when he returned he'd be available to talk to people. And I watched Dr Teitelbaum stay until after every person at the closing reception had the opportunity to speak with him. He was talking with a woman about the typical foot pain and strategies to help it and I realized most PTs would do well to know half as much as he was relating all for no charge to a woman with chronic pain attending the conference in Berkeley that day.
And then he came and spoke with me, remembering that I'd been with a call into his marketing person when I was invited to the conference so I told the marketing person about it so he could get in on the action if they wanted. Since Dr T's one of the grand pooh bahs from the part of organized medicine's components that have infiltrated 'outside the box' of what insurance pays for, or as near as I can figure that is the case, it's interesting to see he's been publishing similar information to what I and others have been thinking and saying from way outside that box. I like to find those congruencies. It helps, particularly in light of when the 'official numbers' don't make any sense! So it seems many are thinking autism and chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia are similar or the same. I think that's just the tip of the iceberg.
On Diagnosing Or Realizing What You Have (or Someone You Advocate For)
Think about what goes into getting a "diagnosis" or "label" of autism spectrum disorder, same as getting a diagnosis of "adult autism" (a.k.a., per innovators today, "chronic fatigue and company"); it means a person has to
- recognize the problem,
- successfully (key word = successfully) seek out the right type of expert that has the ability and power to PROPERLY do a formal diagnosis and slap a label on the condition. Is 'the mainstream system' known for missing things lately? Yes. So do the math, so to speak. So many people try to get what they're seeking but come up empty handed/ unsucessful.
The first medical provider who told me I had the symptoms of fibromyalgia immediately said 'but what is that word? A made up diagnosis in order to do medical billing and track what symptoms people have in the databases and it can get you into trouble with obtaining insurance, so we're not going to write that down in your chart or anything and it's best you go forward from here teaching other providers that so you don't become "uninsurable".'
So I was not showing up in the statistics about that, same as I was always not getting into vaccine injury/ adverse events statistics, etc. (Though it wasn't long before someone coded the fibromyalgia and I was 'uninsurable', this was back before the wave of health care reform since 2008.)
Also, today increasing numbers of people are seeking out provider types who are not part of the system; learning about how your medical information in the databases are being used is one reason for this shift and another is that the public is simply 'over it' about mainstream medicine, or what one of my favorite teachers in 2009 called 'mangling medicine'.
I've found that the ideal word to call it is 'organized medicine'. So for a lot of reasons, the statistcs are not correct and are extremely low, in my estimation, for a LOT of conditions. And on others they'd be accurate. (Such as injuries from car crashes requiring EMS.)
Additionally, realizing that if a problem is identified in schools, they have to address it formally, and so "do the math" again: do they diagnose just the most pervasive disabilities or do they tease out EVERY one of them? Obviously the former, so again the statistics end up being thought of as 'how much autism there is' when there are many more cases than the system can accommodate.
You'll see, below, my personal experience gleaned through my mother's work in the 1970s looking at psycho-motor processing with every third grade student that was in the local elementary school; and even way back then virtually all students demonstrated some degree of neurologic system impairment.
And the system didn't like her doing it once they had a regime change in the mid 1970s, nor did they want her doing therapy in the classroom with her students to help with the processing problems which resulted in learning disabilities and incoordination for physical tasks, etc.
Once again, don't expect a sound bite type of topic at Lumigrate, take your time and work through this information if it's appealing to you, whether that means one sitting or more. "Rome wasn't built in a day" and people didn't get to having the symptoms we all have, 'the stuff', in a day either. So maybe take more than a day to consider what's presented here. This one's important. This is the most comprehensive book topic I've done so far at Lumigrate, and I believe you'll understand why as you get into it.
Forewarning: What Dr Shauna Young's work 'is about' is not about taking a tablet, capsule or drinking a solution, whether natural or patented, nor having someone else do the 'work' such as with therapies of the many sorts people seek out to help with 'the stuff'; our system that some teach about relative to the patriarchal 'daddy fix me' method that has made us a country of mostly impotent consumers is something I've included in the forum content at Lumigrate in recent years.
So if you're thinking 'nope, I don't want to hear about a diet protocol', sorry, you're going to hear about a diet protocol. BUT you'll also learn about other information later on that I'll link to that's presented by a different type of group of experts which is more about taking a few simple and inexpensive things but basically 'eating well', and I have included a wonderful new resource from Westin A Price Foundation 'land' that's more 'three square meals a day' plus snacks as the focus for the diet component.
Then YOU decide what YOU think works for YOU and go from there, including what type of provider of information to utilize, and then possibly utilizing them for 1:1 advisement, if they're set up to offer that! I try to present good options for what most people will want to see (of those who are ready to roll up their sleeves and study and be proactive / work!)
The Lumigrate YOU! Model
I've also covered the education reform of the United States per the whistleblower Charlotte Iserbyt. If you've not studied it, or if you wonder why you or others are not very effective at learning and DOing, then I suggest you also put that on your list. Lumigrate's search bar for keywords is something I remind people of all the time, so consider yourself reminded. So now that you've had the important foundational information to set up going on to really learn from what I see Erasing Autism provides, I'll get off my soap box about these premises and focus on THE BOOK, and then go on from there.
The Book and Dr Shauna Young's Foundation and Protocol
The work of Dr Young that is so entertaingly presented in Erasing Autism is unique information about nutrition which twists the highly regarded and well-known paleolithic information into a little different and unique direction.
Her method has proven successful in many, many cases of people with 'the stuff' (autism, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, Lyme disease was perhaps the working diagnosis in some, Alzheimer's, etc.... you know The Stuff!). Naturally she would no more be aware of successes that come off of the free information at her website if they didn't also consult with her or communicate to let her know of their participation than I would be from YOUsers of Lumigrate who are DIY (do it yourself). So I would imagine people have benefitted from her work far more than she is able to capture in statistics to cite in terms of how many people she's helped solve their medical maladies.
In "Chapter Four - New Science", Dr Young related how it became clear that they needed a catchy name for the imbalance of manganese and iron which is the cornerstone of her unique research and information. The periodic table of the elements was used to come up with MN for manganese and FE for iron and they referred to the condition as "Menefe Syndrome".
In order to give YOUsers an idea of what this is all about without having to purchase the book (which I recommend people purchase if they resonate with the information because of the case examples and overall information of the book, it's really impactful and interesting reading), here's the link to the tab at her foundation's website about Menefe Syndrome and the particulars in one complete page: www.noharmfoundation.org/
... and as I typically do to entice people to the websites I recommend, here's a portion of what you'll see, which also sets the stage for what Erasing Autism presents in terms of her work. I was going to make it a smaller snippet than this but I wanted to include the part about the unknown factors that have repressed this ground-breaking information from getting the 'reach' that she'd hoped, and which one would suspect if finding such a significant solution to 'this stuff that we all have to one degree or another today'.
(Sidenote: Someone I'd guided to a provider with good results in past years ran into me in late 2014 and heard what I was working on. "You need to talk to this lady doctor in Pagosa Springs my family is going to, my sister is going from Denver down there to her even". My gut told me he meant Shauna Young over the pass to the west in Durango, which was indeed the case. So I spoke with the sister at length by phone. Shauna's the 'real deal' in my opinion based on what I've come up with -- always good to know with so many providers out there with information these days.)
The Menefe Syndrome
Theory and Etiology of a Syndrome that Results in a Broad Range of Disorders Affecting Countless Children and Adults Worldwide
Manganese (Mn) + Iron (Fe) = “Menefe”
A definition: A highly-disruptive and pervasive condition resulting from a dietary pattern and/or other environmental factors and exposures, either very early in life or later in life, that overloads the body burden of the element manganese while at the same time provides levels of consumed anti-nutrients such as phytic acid/ phytate that act to block bioavailability of a number of essential minerals including iron, which action can defeat otherwise naturally-regulated homeostasis between manganese and iron within the body and especially within developing or adult brain tissues. This syndrome has the potential to contribute answers both for causation, remedies and prevention for a broad range of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD’s) as well as a diverse range of other potentially-related health challenging conditions that negatively impact massive and escalating numbers of children and adults worldwide.
Some brief background
Resulting from a series of clinically observed commonalities and intuitive deductions starting in 2005, Dr. Shauna Young began creating and refining a corrective dietary strategy that by all measures and observations showed dramatic promise in reversing and even eliminating the symptoms in clients who had received various prior diagnosises within the Autism Spectrum. Even though confirmation and refinement continued to build, she was at that time far more interested in advancing the work on the basis that her safe dietary intervention was resulting in consistent success, than in making the quest all about gaining “complete” understanding as to why this natural process was working so well.
With the goal of attracting help and support, Shauna began presenting her early but compelling hypothesis and findings to many practitioners individually as well as by invitation to international audiences of the Global Foundation for Integrative Medicine (GFIM) in both 2006 and 2007. Because of much expressed enthusiasm combined with her being awarded certificates of excellence at both speaking events, Shauna had reasonable expectations that her decision to freely share this fresh information in a time of near-total bewilderment around the subject matter, would produce a bloom of collaborative research and clinical application that would surely result in new and rapid advancement in the science around solving ASD’s.
For many unknown and still theorized reasons, that did not occur. So in as much as the frustrated world needed this unique and paradigm-breaking work to move forward, Dr. Young continued to attempt to balance the requirements of maintaining a busy clinical practice functioning almost exclusively on referrals from other practitioners and happy clients, with a virtual scavenger-hunt for greater and greater levels of foundational research that would hopefully address the seemingly endless extents of vetting and validation being imposed by most medical practitioners and virtually the rest of the approached “autism community”.
The NoHarm Foundation was formed in late 2008 with the primary goals of providing free public access to progressive refinements of the Spectrum Balance™ Dietary Protocol and of assisting with the research that would satisfy the unanticipated skepticism for a natural process that in very worst case would create superior nutrition for a child or adult for a few months, but in a growing number of cases was resulting in positive and rapid results and even re-diagnosis without any risk to the subject and at very minor financial cost.
The following outline summary along with our accompanying Supporting Research compilation are intended to present and support virtually all theorized and known factors as of this date about the nature and etiology of the Menefe Syndrome, which we believe manifests and presents as many of the disorders that are currently being classified and diagnosed within the Autism Spectrum, as well as those of a very broad range of other neurological, psychological and behavioral conditions plaguing both children and adults in greatly escalating numbers.
Nowhere in our research compilation do we point to a singular study that has concluded that the dietary and environmental factors we suggest have a proven connection to the explosion in “autism”. However, we are confident that we have supplied more than virtually any open-minded reader would require not only to acquire a very clear understanding of our hypothesis, but to be able to join us in “connecting the dots” so to speak, between the abundant but non-cohesive independent research that has been done over several decades by numerous prestigious institutions from all around the world. Major answers for superior world health are present within this data.
.... MORE at the link, so please take the trip on the link to see the sites as I say .... now, back to our topic...
So this is the unique perspective of the information related in Erasing Autism. And she elaborates on manganese in prenatal vitamins, IV fluids given to premature babies, and many other aspects that had me saying 'wow, wow, wow' as I read this very worthwhile book. Examples of cases show behavior problems that would be classified as 'personality disorders' improving from compliance with the protocol, to the more commonly recognized symptoms of ADD / ADHD, OCD, etc.
And chapter one, titled "Ground Zero: Jay's Story" begins like this:
"June 15, 2005 was a Wednesday much like any other, or so I thought. That afternoon, a harassed mom brought in her three-year-old son with the ill-defined hope that I could do "something" to help him. Eights months earlier, he had received the diagnosis or sentence as it felt to her, of "autism" and in keeping with the current paradigm of "no known cause, no known treatment, no known cure" had been given no hope of making any signficant changes for him.
The young family did not have a large income at its disposal and was feeling very adrift and without options. Since I had worked successfully with some oodd health issues recently with one of Jay's cousins, his mom had brought him in more on a basis of hope than of expectation." ... and so, as the saying goes, it began ....
She goes on to say that this was the first "autistic child" that she'd worked with but I wonder -- wasn't it the first one she realized was autistic? I'm sure she'd been treating children with "the stuff" as I call it now, who had the symptoms and had not yet realized it. That was the case for me, at least, and ironically it was in 2005 as well that I had my first referral from a pediatric child behaviorist of a teenager with autism spectrum disorder. Ironically that provider's last name is the same as Shauna's; Cheryl Young. Her husband is Dr. Chris Young whose brain I picked to brainstorm the YOU! Model in 2007 when he'd suggested we start a live education group in our building for people with "fibromyalgia". I know that Cheryl Young's worked on cases as far south as Montrose, I don't know if she is called onto cases that extend as far south as Durango, so I'm guessing these two Young women do not know of each other. I certaintly think it will benefit both of their teams to connect them. I certainly hope that I can help facilitate Dr Young coming to this area to present about her work.
Did we understand fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and autism being connected in 2005? No, but we sure figured a lot out in less than one calendar year in 2007 when Dr Young the neuropsyche-type psychologist asked me to collaborate with him about fibromyalgia education and by year's end Cheryl Young's "Adverse Childhood Trauma and Chronic Illness in Adulthood" presentation was the well-attended and ground-breaking presentation one week! Ironically, I was at a repeat performance of the presentation when I got the message that Lumigrate was finally live on the Internet. I stayed and talked to Dr Young after the presentation and attendees had left, as he had scheduled out two hours and was fired up about 'what to do about it'.
We walked to his office where he excitedly said to me "if a smart OT could figure out what to do about (affecting the neurological system that's insulted by the childhood trauma) ...." and in the back of my mind all I can think about is my new website that took 2 years from concept to being on the Internet is ON THE INTERNET and I'm not with "an occupational therapist hat on" anymore. Oh, this is so funny to reflect upon now.... So he saw me thinking and coming up with names of area occupational therpaists who work with children and then I looked at his face and he had this expression .... that made me say 'oh, you meant ME?'.
An image from video we made of seminar Dr Chris Young provided in 2008 about changing paradigms of health care (encouraging the collaborative care model be considered and showing the limitations of the allopathic model)
Well, Dr Chris Young, it maybe took almost exactly six years from that conversation to now for me to figure out what to do about it, but I think we're there now! And it has more to do with finding the root cause or the core issue and the other layers of the 'proverbial onion' which I believe have more to do with healing the gut, intestinal interlopers, and nutrition than anything else. And ironically, Colorado naturopath Dr Young's contributions are one of those near the core.
© 2012 Lumigrate, Mardy Ross
More about working with people who have not been labeled and you only see their abilities and limitations / symptoms versus similar person who's been identified, labeled, diagnosed. And more about how this is all 'the stuff', one thing that we 'all have' (or virtually everyone). I'd had two young men with Asperger's symptoms as clients back in the late 1990s when specializing in driving rehabilitation on the Front Range of Colorado (Denver and Colorado Springs). The first was undiagnosed and home schooled, the second was diagnosed and schooled institutionally and with a mother who was getting a PhD in Asperger's so I thankfully was brought up to speed by her as a resource.
I remember thinking in OT applied neurology class in 1995ish, that autism and sensory integration dysfunction were basically on the same continuum with a perfectly operating (yet rare) neurological system at the other end of the line from what the most profound, imaired case of autism would be.
I wondered also at that time what my contribution to the profession's fund of knowledge would be. I ultimately was very restricted when working in the mainstream, organized medical system as an occupational therapist. However, once working as a health information enterpreneur and concierge, networker of providers, and marketer of information and providers I've been able to make an impact. You see, I'd worked for eight years as the 'right hand woman' assistant/liaison for a now-famous research in air quality / visibility circles and naturally was hoping to do something similar once in my 'own profession'.
So far, my work with Lumigrate and advising people and providing connections and topics such as this one and the hundreds of others here is the answer to that question, but ultimately until the information I got into in 2015, it was all groundwork for the real deal -- 'this stuff' (the concept there's one thing causing the problems) and the recent resources I've been covering at Lumigrate (this, Erasing Autism by Shauna Young, being one). To use the onion analogy, I started the content on Lumigrate that was the outer layers of the onion and as time went on I kept getting layers more inward towards the core (where the root area is) and now we're finally to the center layers! Or so I strongly suspect.
And I'm proud to be in the trenches, so to speak, with comrades like Shauna Young, just as I was in 2005-2010 with all the interactions with Chris and Cheryl Young in Grand Junction 'live' (who both are seen in forum topics and he in video and podcast as well. Those are outdated and often just give an overview to people of what our content was in multi-media when I have the funding to create the more expensive types of information consumers seek. At the end of the day, readable in the forums seems to be a favorite and suffices for now. You'll see in this topic thread that the foundation Shawna Young heads up is also limited in resources. That's the life of us truth-tellers!).
Wisely picking the niche to reach women and mothers of those identified with autism, author Dr. Shauna Young does relate within the book the more encompassing aspects of nutritional deficiencies wreaking havoc on our brains and thus function. Whether children or older. I take it the step further in this topic and others at Lumigrate recently and say we're all one, it's all one thing with one common underlying cause. I was streamlining and cleaning out things that I don't need nor want to take forward in life in recent months and went into the used book store in downtown Grand Junction to ask about what books they could use. Basically the things they have demand for was nothing I had to offer ... until right at the end when I told her the types of health authors I had to offer -- Chopra, Weil -- which fired the owner to think 'health' and say 'oh, and anything about autism! We have a huge demand for books about autism'.
For Parents, Guardians to Other Humans and Others
If you are a parent, I wish to start with what you'll also find in the wrap up, below, for this topic, which is a summary of information 'about' Shauna: I wrote there -
"Shauna ends with a powerful statement about the children entrusting the parents with their health and well-being. "Please always do your best to be worthy of that trust."
Wow did THAT resonate with me! I have literally said to parents, if I felt it was necessary to get them to take action, that I consider it willful ignorance to not learn about what is causing their children's issues, and hence willful neglect to not take action. Naturally, they're the legal guardian, and that's not the way the system looks at things currently. But in reality, I think there are millions of children who are hung up by their parents' lack of maturity and behavioral wellness to do what parents are supposed to 'do'. Because the parents have 'the stuff' too, it's all one thing causing the problems as varied as they are symptomatically! Which is very hard to wrap the heads around. Thank you for being here and trying or doing so!
It's a catch 22, and the whole system has to shift and do differently, which Shauna relates very well via some of the case examples she selected to include in Erasing Autism. And I'm a big fan of systems theory, which I credit Cheryl Young for, indirectly, as she connected me in 2008 to the local therapist whose foundational concept he used in his work was 'systems theory'. What was supposed to be couples counseling with me and my "other" (of questional 'significance' as we were talking about cohabitating so he was not technically a significant other) ended up with him not coming or calling in, so we'd sit and talk about systems theory and I'd pay him and be irritated at my now-ex. But it was all meant to be, as I've utilized what I learned almost daily since.
Same as with many things Cheryl or Chris or other members of their staff shared over the many interactions we shared. And now there's the new learning I just received from Erasing Autism by Shauna Young added to the mix. Just as a catch 22 is a spiral going in a negative direction, once you reverse things it works in the positive direction! And as we keep knowing more and more, there ARE solutions!
The other problem, as I have observed many situations and advised on some, is that the parents and children today have a very UNwell group of people to compare themselves to in terms of peers. "Everyone's crazy", "everyone's forgetful", "everyone has learning problems", "everyone has gut problems". In other words the bar for what 'well' versus unwell is sits very low today. So they 'cop out' because they don't have the vision that they can be well, healed, and so can their families and systems around them if they can learn what the problems are caused by and have influence on doing what it takes to reverse symptoms and solve the problem with enough time.
Again, I am saying 'we all have this stuff, to one degree or another, with symptoms manifesting in one way or another'. So then it boils down to if YOU are going to be one that becomes proactive, which is the cornerstone of Lumigrate naturally with our YOU! Model, or not. Again, the model:
The Statistics Shown on the Cover
The cover of Erasing Autism - The Spectrum Balance® Protocol by Shuana K Young, PhD, CTN is SO cool, I just loved it as I took it out of the envelope at the post office, where it arrived within a few days after it was put in the mail (media rate) to me from her office. I'd asked to be on the list to get a copy when it was published -- they'd hoped it would come out in December but had the inevitable delays.
Having had other authors of books on Lumigrate who I've been in close communication with around the time their books are published, I completely understood their situation. And I will say that knowing the overall about a lot of things has made me much less 'picky' about things related to books. I'll say that if I get a book published that is similar to this one, it will likely be similar to this one. There are a few inconsistencies in spelling and things like that which, with more time I would imagine they'd have had reviewers find, but functionally it's just fine. Anything like that is offset by the sincerity that is exhuded by the way Shauna relates the case stories and other information. And as I said, I loved the artwork!
What struck me about the artwork is that I'd just worked on information about autism in the Lumigrate forums that was MIT researcher Stephanie Seneff's 'connecting of dots' about what's causing 'this stuff', autism being one of the common labels affixed to the afflictions people have, and Dr Seneff has said that by 2025 with the direction we're going, with the reasons she's finding as contributing factors IF WE DON'T CHANGE THINGS, one in two children born will have 'this stuff', as I call it.
Unique Insights About This Via My Innovative Mother's Work with Learning Disabilities Circa 1970
I think we're already at that point (half of new births or more being affected/ afflicted with the 'stuff') and have been for a long time. My mother screened all third graders at our local elementary school located southwest of Denver, Colorado -- the show South Park is about the area, if anyone knows of the show.
Between the mid '70s to mid '80s, every student except one, approximately 1,000 students she screened, exhibited some degree of psycho-motor processing problem (neurological impairment) when screened; the girl was a student in my class -- she sat next to me the one year we took band, sang in the choirs I sang in, was also on the honor roll when I was, and was the teachers pet in art class due to her abilities with art. BUT she also excelled in anything PE-related, and was a cheerleader and popular, etc. She's given me permission to disclose who she was, she thinks it's so funny I knew that about her and about this overall that my mother was doing.
Then my mother would voluntarily take the 1/3 of the class that had the most need for doing sensory integration activities / exercises to be in her home room and initially was allowed by the school principal to do something outside the box, or curriculum in this case. Then in the mid 1970s a regime change occurred -- and the new principal, who I have been told people believe was the inspiration for the mayor character on South Park, disallowed it, and my mother refused to stop doing what she had known worked for her students. (There is a resemblance both in behavior and appearance, and there is at least one other teacher/counselor that I had, actually, who is clearly the inspiration for a character. I just find that interesting and many others do as well, due to the nature and popularity of the show.)
This lead to her having to end her career as a public school teacher early rather than be fired. It was ugly, and it was a major awful thing that kept my home and family in a very 'not good place' for a good portion of my teen years and ultimately changed the end of both of my parents lives and that of my family of origin greatly.
I hope this personal account from me helps others reading this to understand that for people born in the 1960s, this 'stuff' was going on with us too. It just has gotten progressively worse. I remind people of the foundational concept of Lumigrate which I present with two different analogies so far: "full barrel syndrome" and "load theory", which both serve to help people via a visual and analogy how this all fits together.
Erasing Autism focuses on children, but Dr Shauna Young does include referring to the same conditions and causes are found in adults. I've recently seen a resource state that 'chronic fatigue syndrome' is now being increasingly referred to as 'adult autism'. Again, I'm just referring to it globally as 'the stuff we all have to one degree or another anymore' or 'the stuff'.
On the cover of Erasing Autism, the artwork is of an old time classroom or presentation area with a brick wall, green chalkboard with chalk and an eraser, and wood floors.
This is what's on the chalkboard:
Autism
1980's: 1 in 10,000
1990's: 1 in 2,500
2014: 1 in 68
2024: (something that had been erased)
What I very much liked about the artwork on the cover is WE HAVE THE ABILITY TO MAKE THAT NUMBER THAT WAS ERASED BE ANYTHING! We could potentially make it be a big, fat ZERO (erased)! Or, it might end up being 1:2, the way Dr. Seneff has forewarned. I was eager to see if this information was included in the book and it was not, which means simply that there's a little room for me to be perhaps connecting some information for people and potentially connecting two professional women who have not yet become familiar with each others' work.
A year ago, I'd not heard of either Dr Seneff or Dr Young, and now I feel I know a little about them both from having either personal communication, as in Dr Seneff's case, or with members of their staff, as in Dr Young's case. (With a new book she was having to write at a time she was also busy with increasing demand for her speaking to medical providers, her staff does a great job of filtering requests to talk to her and they're adjusting her schedule to accommodate the increased inquiries to speak with her. Since her staff is highly qualified and I very much enjoyed talking with both I've spoken with so far, I considered that a really GOOD thing! I know that anyone who calls or emails there after learning of their nonprofit, book, protocol, provider expert will find someone responding to them.
And the major message from Dr Shauna Young is clearly stated in the book: she hopes that she makes a significant impact on the statistics by marketing her message of what she figured out works in many cases since treating the first child she identified as having 'autism' (or 'this stuff' as I call it) and which has since reversed symptoms in so many cases she had difficulty paring case examples down to fit into the 360 page book (which has zero recipes by the way, it's very case example and protocol dense). She says at one point, basically, with the sheer numbers involved today, what if her method worked in just 5% of cases.
I'd been extensively working since New Years on a new topic at Lumigrate which has gotten some of the most reads I've ever had for a new topic, related to another protocol which totally skips the diet aspect, though many using the protocol also follow diets they believe in IN ADDITION TO the protocol. That method was going to appeal to a whole different type of person than what The Spectrum Balance Protocol does, and I personally believe that doing BOTH is going to be synergistically beneficial. So I went to bed thinking 'what if we could get that 2014 number to be zero! And then I got up at the crack of dawn to start writing about Erasing Autism - The Spectrum Balance® Protocol by Shuana K Young, PhD, CTN.
How to Purchase
Erasing Autism is available on Amazon for $24.95, per the note that the staff member at Dr Young's office attached. In the past there are authors who I've gotten books from that I was considering adding to the Lumigrate Bookshelf of books I HIGHLY suggest people consider obtaining, which came with strings attached, so to speak. One went so far as to say "I expect from you to put a review on Amazon that says ______".
Well, guess what? I'm not going to be coerced like that, my YOUsers have come to rely upon me for honesty. Just this month in one 24 hour period I had one US consumer say 'you're the only medical provider on Facebook I trust anymore" and a provider outside the US said 'you're the only US provider I trust anymore". So let's keep this reputation of mine going! Truth and honesty! So I appreciated the integrity that Dr Shuana Young's group has.
Not knowing my work or me much at all, I'm sure they are thinking I might be like a 'book reviewer' that just gets books and reviews them and puts ALL good, bad, indifferent onto their pages. That's not how I work. I simply put a very limited number of books in the Lumigrate bookshelf forum, and they are ones that I REALLY want YOUsers to have on their bookshelves or nightstands, etc.
Therefore, by Erasing Autism having a topic in this forum, you know that I think it's a 'grate' book, which I highly recommend taking the time to read about, look into, and consider purchasing OR asking your library to purchase it so you and others in your community have the opportunity to learn from it as part of their resources to lend. Or both (what a nice way to do some community service, or perhaps purchase two and donate one for the community to use, which I talk about often in the Lumigrate Bookshelf forum.)
The diet featured in Erasing Autism is The Spectrum Balance® Protocol and on the page facing the Contents, where I always turn to get an overview of books when I get them in the hot little hands, readers see "The Basics of the "Paleo Diet" and right from the start get the message: it is a targeted protocol meant to correct a mineral imbalance in the brain (and I will add here that is part of the body so it's other tissues as well will experience the imbalance, presumably). "It is, however, by all definition, a paleo diet."
This area in the front of the book gives the overview of "paleo", short for paleolithic, blossoming from the dietary work of original work by Loren Cordain, PhD. Malnutrition and disease we see today, per the theories, are greatly contributed to by the different food mix and sources of "modern" nutrition. What societies have found to be most manageable, economical and convenient related to diet simply appears to not work for our human bodies.
With paleo practices, the basics are related in terms of eating meats of all types vegetables, fruit, good fats and a few nuts. No grains, legumes, processed foods and limited or no dairy (based on sensitive, it is specified here). Portion sizes and calories are far less important than the simple exlusion of certain foods. Paleo is a philosophy that in no way suggests short-term fix for weight loss alone that soon is discarded to return to old eating habits. "Once you go Paleo, you'll want to stay with it for life." she says.
Amazing increase cited: In 2012, "Paleo Diet", she states, was not in the top ten of dietary terms in Google searches; by 2013 it was the number one dietary term used there! And in 2014 .. still there! No surprise!
From the start when I sat down, eagerly, to read the book Erasing Autism that I'd been waiting for since I learned of it being written in 2014, I was learning new things, such as the Google search information, above. Some of them making my eyes tear up a bit -- an "Aha moment" about something I'd been baffled by that so far, nothing I'd encountered could explain, and I knew that I'd been right with my suspicion that Dr. Shauna Young's work and upcoming book was someone and something to follow up about.
Our Furry Family Members Too: My Spinach-Craving Feline "SpoildeyCat"
I could tell from initially looking through the overall of the information in Erasing Autism that it would likely answer THE baffling question from my years in 2009-2013 with "SpoildeyCat". Why she craved spinach when I got her hyperactive, sensory integration / processing problematic little sweet self! Considering I'd had her issues looked into by picking the brain of renowned homeopathic veterinary medicine expert Dr. Christina Chambord who said 'that's really unusual for a cat to crave spinach'.
I've chosen these two pictures to insert here. First, her 'baby picture' because of the sensory pressure she was getting from her brother in this photo. And I don't know but is it possible there were symptoms in the eyes being so dilated; I don't know. Next, the adult version of this, where she'd get the pressure of the recliner under her belly area to calm herself down after having one of her fits of self-play and self-therapy where she learned to RUN at the recliner in it's upright position and JUMP onto the shoulder area as HARD as she could so that it would DROP and the momentum would SPIN HER AROUND. SPINNING, BOUNCING, and SLOW LINEAR MOVEMENT are some of the basics of sensory integration therapy that I learned about in occupational therapy school in the mid 1990s. When they say cats chose their owners and it's fate meant to be, etc., I heard many professionals helping me try to figure out what was going on with her say 'wow' about how we came to be. Another story for another day for details, however.
(NOTE: Look up Temple Grandin, squeeze machine, autism if you're wondering more about deep pressure and calming the hyperactive nervous systems of people who have 'the stuff'. Inspired by Dr Grandin's time as a youngster with autism sent to her aunt's ranch and sensing how the machines used to hold cattle in place for invasive procudures calmed them, she invented one which was shown in great detail in the Academy Award winning movie about Dr Grandin).
To me the babies with skin whether they have more or less or no 'fur' (or feathers, scales possibly.... etc.... the boundaries on 'we all have the same thing at the core of our problems keeps expanding) represent to me the hope that the mothers and fathers do well considering genetics -- mother nature did provide this which is largely not part of modern, western human reproduction, AND they'd done their work to prepare to be their best before reproducing.. to be healthy and not be doing things to cause injury to the future newborns. (See our topic on "Load Theory" in the chronic illness section, the forum with Dr Spurlock's name included; genetic consideration is included there.)
Link: www.lumigrate.com/forum/are-you-loaded-what-i-see-causing-illnesses-soar-children-through-elderly
Clearly the load theory information meshes with what Shauna Young's work relates both on their website and in Erasing Autism. And you'll see in comment on this thread that within a week of the book being available, renowned MIT researcher Stephanie Seneff, PhD, published a paper which was focusing on manganese and autism and other neurological problems, etc.; it's a very comprehensive and beneficial document and it backs up what Shauna Young has found and teaches.
Again, I like to see when people's theories reinforce each other; don't we all? Essentially everything then is at whatever 'layer' of the onion analogy and strings together and allows people to 'peel the onion' and get from the outside to the core, eventually. And we are ALL somewhere in that process, providers and consumers alike! Hopefully and ideally able to shift and move with grace to let go of the old things we believed and learn and then embrace and promote the new as we collectively move forward with more solutions for 'the stuff'. Some of it addresses more symptoms, ultimately you look for the next layer and THE root cause. It takes a LOT of people to come up with all this stuff so that we are advancing! Again, I hope I am doing justice with my piece of that pie or puzzle.
I also see our incredibly important place in overall time in history right now as a similar timeframe; the solutions to 'the stuff' that 'we all have' are in their infancy period, and we have much to look forward to with the healing that can come for individual beings and the collective on Earth.
If interested, please see link about Dr Chambord's website on the vaccine thread at Lumigrate. At the time, I was aware her diet had been a factor because symptoms changed with diet changes, but I was also, naturally, strongly suspecting vaccines as a contributing factor. And I'll point out that many of the case examples in Erasing Autism had symptoms onsetting after vaccines. So I think as an animal guardian, I was on the right track at least.
I'll also summarize quickly that the veterinary office provided me with a phone consultant/ remote viewing animal expert they were aware of who made incredible statements that implied that what my cat had going on was similar or the same as what I had going on, and we all know I've had complex chronic conditions -- 'the stuff', my whole life. So that was a big step forward for me in understanding 'the stuff', once I had more time to digest, learn more, digest more, learn more. The stuff we all have that's from the same thing(s), just different manifestations as we're all uniquely individual, and don't usually look to our pets to compare in our families of what is a common factor in well-being.
Dr Chambord had graciously taken my calls during the crisis with the cat and after her euthanization by the only homeopathic veterinarian in my region on a heart breaking day in April 2013, my wheels were turning about The Spectrum Balance Protocol's application with nonhuman animals who have 'the stuff'.
You see, what started out in 2007 as something I was seeing as a need for providing information about people and 'fibromaylgia' in person in my clinic and community in western Colorado, then rapidly progressed to seeing the benefits of having a website for the information as well has continued to expand and evolve over the years of creating Lumigrate.
Our content since launching in 2009 has grown so much in all directions, really. The boundaries of age has seemed to expand from 'middle aged women' to younger women and then older men before we were even online, based on who was being referred to the live group in Grand Junction, Colorado in 2007 and 2008.
To include all ages of people with 'the stuff' became apparent, and all the overlapping conditions and what the underlying contributing factors / causes were AND the solutions was how we grew relative to people and then from there into information about our pets and livestock and overall environment! And so I'm really intrigued with how The Spectrum Balance® Protocol, as written out in the new book Erasing Autism by Dr Shauna Young will shift the 'fund of knowledge' for Lumigrate's users and the overall. Again, it's an important contribution to the fund of knowledge. And so I am doing my part to spread the word!
How I Learned of Dr Shauna Young
I'd initially learned of Dr. Young/Shauna via helping a Lumigrate YOUser who had called me and was considering making an appointment with me for a consultation. It turned out she had been diagnosed with Lyme when living in Utah, and she'd moved to Colorado because insurance and health care for what she wanted to access with health care was better in Colorado than Utah -- this was about a year ago.
The woman lived midway between Durango, where Dr Young/Shauna and her team is at, and Grand Junction, where I am at. She wanted an MD to diagnose her with MS so that she could get some treatment that insurance would pay for with that diagnosis. She was one of the more effective, studied, knowledgeable medical consumers I've talked with and considering she was relatively new to having 'the stuff', as I'm calling it lately to allow people to see the overlapping conditions are all the same thing basically -- with the same things reversing symptoms -- so I offered to help her find an MD in Durango.
Naturally, the way to find the MDs in a city or town that will do whatever, the natural healers such as naturopaths and compounding pharmacists are excellent resources. So of the list of choices of naturopaths in Durango that my search provided, I liked the looks of Dr Young's/Shauna's work, so that is who I called. Her receptionist was extremely helpful and knowledgeable and told me a LOT of great information beyond what I had originally called about.
It was that day looking at the website and talking with the front office that I learned of Ojibwa Tea of Life, for instance, which I've been interested in ever since. I'd not known previously of the Eissac detoxification remedy which was discovered by a woman named Cassie who investigated natural solutions of the indigenous people of Canada, the Ojibwa indians.
The brand I am referring to is actually sold at Natural Grocers which is a Denver-based health company that began the year my parents bought their property in the mountains southwest of Denver, and is manufactured in Denver. All these years shopping at the store and I learned of the product from Dr Young's efforts; my local naturopath never talked about it nor did any of the 'concierge' MDs, the acupuncturists, etc. Point being, we're always needing to keep learning and modifying what we believe to be the best information to practice and relate to others.
I was hoping to see something about Ojibwa Tea of Life being a key in Erasing Autism, but it was not even mentioned, though she does state that she uses some products in her work in conjunction with the diet. Too bad -- obviously a lot of people will take a tincture or some sort of relatively safe product, or make an herbal remedy rather than modifying their diets!
The Catch-22 of The Mind and Behaviors Affecting Actions
So, unfortunately for those of us with 'this stuff'', Erasing Autism and the Spectrum Balance Protocol is all about diet modification. And the good news is that it is congruent with what I've believed to be the 'ideal' diet for everyone --- paleo. Wellness is not an easy-to-achieve thing, it's not for the lazy or the addicted to attempt without a lot of frustrations, dedication, and hard work. Ironically, the reason a person might be incapable of making the changes is because of their diet. It's the proverbial 'catch 22', and Shauna has a wonderful case example of that in Erasing Autism.
As I've related elsewhere here, the book teaches readers about how rapidly and recently the paleo diet went to the #1 Internet searched diet and has remained there. I'm always pleased to see another expert that I've connected with who seemingly has found innovation that leads to success with wellness recovery has a message overlapping and consistent with the things on Lumigrate so far. Whether that is people 'with this stuff' OR those who want to NOT HAVE THIS STUFF.
How To Integrate This With Other Information at Lumigrate
I'll be linking from here and back to the topic in the "food forum" in the nutrition section of the forums at Lumigrate which I prepared to give people the easiest diet I'd seen proposed by an autism/Lyme/'stuff' expert, Dr Marty Ross. Interestingly, I saw zero reference to "Lyme" in this book by Dr Shauna Young, which is interesting and I'll be asking about that (and giving the answers to YOUsers if possible). Autism and Lyme are considered basically interchangeable subjects / words 'in certain circles'.
I'd prepared the topic (www.lumigrate.com/forum/6-practical-diet-recommendations-marty-ross-md-whether-you-have-bug-borne-disease-or-know-it-o) about Dr Ross' short video diet suggestions with people in mind that I was advising about where to turn for educational information. These were parents who recognized there were problems with their children's behaviors and with their brain function too, but the parent (both times mothers) was having a real problem giving up the grains . Some were buying into the information out there about veganism, even -- turning to Netflix with their spouse rather than sticking with what I'd set up on Lumigrate. "That's probably the very worst information you could run with, so I hope you reconsider and study some other resources that you'll find at Lumigrate" was my response and NOW THIS is yet ANOTHER of the resources!
I was pleased to see the way that Dr. Shauna Young brought up the vegetarian and vegan issue into Erasing Autism's content. Naturally, you'll find I heavily link to and suggest as a resource the Westin A Price Foundation, which provides such a well established baseline of information with his/their research now encompassing about a century of time.
If I've encountered a couple of situations or more on any aspect of wellness that I'm working on with people where the people are "hitting the same / similar resistance", I presume that's where a LOT of people "are at" right now with information and create a topic in that niche if I had not already created on to have in the cache at Lumigrate. So the Dr Marty Ross topic thread will be 'progressing' in a comment that will link to the information here about Erasing Autism, by Dr. Shauna Young, PhD, CTN.
I was pleased to be seeing Dr Shauna Young saying many things that I'd also related to others in education regarding how common 'this stuff' is today. Dr Young/Shauna makes the point and backs it up with her volumes of cases with children to refer to which I've made from my years of personally and professionally dealing with children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly who have 'this stuff': the statistics we read are ONLY CAPTURING THE PEOPLE WHO GO TO PROVIDERS THAT USE THE CODES THAT GET PEOPLE INTO THE DATABASE THAT THE STATISTICS COME FROM. Health care system. Education system.
Today increasing numbers of people are not going to those types of providers and if they are, they're often underdiagnosed, misdiagnosed or 'missed-diagnosed'. Hence the statistics are not like you went out with informed and capable diagnostic tools and providers and did random sampling. So please keep that in mind when considering if you have 'the stuff' or not. Unless you're a very rarely healthy person, you have some aspect. SO I'm glad YOU are HERE!
About Shauna K Young, Ph.D., CTN, CBS, OSJ --
Highlights from the About the Author page which has a very nice photo of Shauna in a winter jacket (very Colorado / Durango / mountain-esque) relates that her Assertive Wellness Research Center of Durango, Colorado opened in 2001. To date the center has seen thousands of clients who had the confidence to travel from every US state and several countries based almost exclusively on referrals from other practitioners and satisfied clients.
In 2005, after four years of clinical observations and experience, she began specific research regarding her theorized netative effects of excess and stored manganese on the human neurological and sensory input systems and it's possible symptomatic connections to autism and other neurological, learning and behavioral disorders in both children and adults.
"The Popeye Protocol" was the original term they adopted due to the interrelationship with iron and hence spinach, as is elaborated upon in the book's contents. This then became The Spectrum Balance® Protocol, which lead to her receiving awares in 2006 and 2007 from the Global Foundation for Integrative Medicine.
Her education includes B.S in Natural Sciences and a PhD in same from the University of Natural Medicine in Santa Fe, New Mexico. "In February of 2008 she was also knighted into the international Sovereign Medical Order of the Knights Hospitaller in recognition of the unique impact of her work with autism and for positively advancing the field of natural medicine in general."
Additionally, she is the Chief Medical Advisor for the NoHarm Foundation (http://www.noharmfoundation.org),
"a Colorado not-for-profit organization formed with the primary goal of releasing this vastly important information with the intent of ushering in a new paradigm in research and providing real help for countless suffering children and adults. This information to date has been downloaded and utilized at no cost to families living in more than 67 countries". You'll see near the end of the book, Shauna makes an appeal for donations to the organization and others ways to help.First and foremost, she says, tell others! Circulate the information and your personal story to everyone you know in the ADD and autism communities, post entries on blogs of research and support groups, she specifies. I don't see any reference to Facebook and other social media, so I'll add that as I think that is a VERY powerful mechanism for getting the word out.
Providing your email information at their foundation's website adds you to the database to stay connected with things they release. Email them at results@noharmfoundation.org with any feedback, positive or not they even specify which I LOVE, so they can expand their knowledge and do better.
They're planning to have a blog on their website soon to serve as an open forum for people to share their experiences (which a blog and a forum are diferent things, look at Lumigrate, I have both but I'll just let that one be interpreted by YOUsers as you wish). And naturally, financial donation to the foundation and the usual about that is covered.
Having this program be no direct cost for people is important to them, and they wish to have people 'pay it foward" by contributing to the wellness of society because their missions are advancing the field of natural medicine, preserving health freedom and choice for the public, and broad dissemination of information about new hope for autism and other disorders ("the stuff" as I call it) to the general public and medical communities.
She relates how much they've tried to get this information to the public through mainstream media and autism organizations and accepted the realization that going direct to the general public is going to be what is needed to get the information into more hands and heads.
They will be making additional readable and viewable training materials as soon as possible to give more in depth explanation behind the dietary protocol, which will be available for modest donations to the Foundation. They continue to work to expand into training more practitioners as well to meet the demand for advisors.
"Sending the message of this work onto any affected families you know, to therapists and physicians, to any contacts in the media and anyone else who cares that these syndromes are now needlessly affecting a tragically growing number of our kids" is suggested and I have to say I'd work on social media before I'd spend time with contacts in mainstream media.
The monkeys, as I call them, and their monkeybusinesses just simply are censoring certain information to get out until they find it's to their advantage to broadcast it to the masses, hence the importance of social media's becoming so popular since the end of the first decade in the new century and millenium.
I've predicted much awareness about "Lyme" to come in 2015 from mainstream media and was concerned about that so added it to Lumigrate when I foresaw that occurring in 2014. I noticed that Lyme was not mentioned once in Erasing Autism and asked Dr Young's staff why that was, which apparently was simply that the first book was about her Lyme history and treating Lyme so this was to be solely about children and "autism". I hope my readers really 'get' the message that these are caused by the same things and essentially are the same disorder. I hope that the new information added days after creating this thread relating the new manganese research article by Dr. Seneff helps people to see why/ how that is, that 'this stuff' is basically one thing. As Dr Young writes:
"We need a great number of forward-thinking practitioners, organizations and media outlets who are unwilling to accept the hopeless confines of this prison, and who are willing to listen and join me outside this "box" that has been labeled "autism"."
"I also need you -- the Moms and Dads out there with affected children to open your minds and hearts and give this a try", she goes on to say. It is safe, and it could be as effective in your situation as it has been in the cases she's seen successfully helped.
She ends with a powerful statement about the children entrusting the parents with their health and well-being. "Please always do your best to be worthy of that trust." she writes before signing off with Be well, Shauna.
AND if you want to see another topic at another very different website about Dr Seneff's research, you can see a YouTube video of a presentation she provided and ANOTHER topic about it from the perspective of True Activist dot com.
www.trueactivist.com/half-of-all-children-will-be-autistic-by-2050-according-to-mit-scientist/
Thursday, April 9, 2015 Shauna Young is the guest on The Morning Show with Patrick Timpone, which I normally listen to the MP3 files that are available sometime later in the day after the show is over, but I tuned in as best I could (with other things going on) to hear Shauna as I was so thrilled to have seen that she was on the schedule with Patrick. I was pleased to hear him asking about sulfur, and he offered to send her some organic sulfur to have her trial with her patients and help them figure out if it was a helpful part of treating autism. They'd heard reports of it from a parent who only used it and one other thing and reversed autism symptoms in their child.
Here's what was posted about the show for Thursday, April 9: Shauna K. Young, Ph.D., CTN, CBS, OSJ
Erasing Autism: The Spectrum Balance Protocol
Shauna Young is the Medical Director of the Assertive Wellness Center of Durango, CO, which first opened its doors in 2001. Since its humble beginnings, her center has now had the distinct pleasure of seeing many thousands of clients who have had the confidence to travel from every U.S. State and even several foreign countries based almost exclusively on referrals from other practitioners and clients who have been pleased with the consultation, products and help.
Shauna holds a B.S. in Natural Sciences and based on the merits of her research, theories and doctoral thesis on dietary connections to both the formation and reversal of Autism Spectrum Disorders, was awarded a PhD in Natural Sciences from the University of Natural Medicine in Santa Fe, NM. In 2008 Shauna was also knighted into the international Sovereign Medical Order of the Knights Hospitaller.
She has been appointed to the faculty of the University of Natural Medicine in Santa Fe, NM and serves as the Chief Medical Advisor for the No Harm Foundation www.noharmfoundation.org, a Colorado not-for-profit organization. Shauna is an international lecturer on many aspects of natural medicine, nutrition, her Spectrum Balance® Dietary Protocol, Autism Spectrum Disorders and many other health related topics.
Show Highlights:
-How an article titled ‘Manganese Madness’ opened Dr. Young’s eyes about manganese overload; high manganese causes sensory over stimulation which results in rage, agitation and anxiety
-It all comes down to grains; the grains contain phytate which strips iron out of the body. Grains must be eliminated from the diet
-Question from a listener: I have an 11 year old Asperger’s girl, and she seems to be very sensitive to high-phenol foods (such as bell peppers and cherries, which are “Best Choices” on the Spectrum Balance Protocol). She doesn’t get the red ears and cheeks characteristic of a phenol sensitivity, but she gets highly irritable and emotionally volatile when she eats high-phenol foods. How have you seen this issue get resolved on your protocol?
-Dr. Young tells us about the tremendous success with this protocol
-The importance of strictly sticking to the protocol
-How to deal with children who are picky eaters
and so much more!
The link to the topic about this show/interview: oneradionetwork.com/health/dr-shauna-k-young-erasing-autism-the-spectrum-balance-protocol-april-9-2015/
And here's the YouTube video links they had included:
Spectrum Balance Protocol Training -- www.youtube.com/watch
To all those seeking real answers for Autism & related conditions:
This is just a 7 min. preview of the very first 100 min. professionally produced video training for best clinical or at-home use of Dr. Shauna Young's Spectrum Balance Dietary Protocol with both children and adults who are dealing with Autism Spectrum and many other disorders.
The full length DVD entitled "SBP Family Training Video 1.0" is not currently for sale, but is instead being mailed as a FREE thank you gift to all of our patrons in the U.S. and Canada who make a $50 or larger donation to advance the work of the NoHarm Foundation.
This can be done with any major credit card or PayPal account through our website www.noharmfoundation.org, or by your check mailed to our headquarters in Durango, Colorado. Either method will generate your tax deductible donation receipt for your contribution toward keeping our unique mission going and growing.
There is a free information download available through our website that provides plentiful background on our paradigm-breaking global educational project and please feel free to contact us for additional information and to help.
Thank you!
The NoHarm Foundation
Dr Shauna Young on Eco Balance -- www.youtube.com/watch
Meet Nick and his mother Betty. An amazing case study of a boy
with Autism and Bi-Polar disorder that was completely changed just
by eating The Spectrum Balance Protocol.
For more information and/or for your FREE copy of the Spectrum
Balance Protocol, go to www.noharmfoundation.org
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! ~ Mardy
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!
This forum is provided to allow members of Lumigrate to share information and ideas. Any recommendations made by forum members regarding medical treatments, medications, or procedures are not endorsed by Lumigrate or practitioners who serve as Lumigrate's medical experts.
My thoughts when I saw this morning on Facebook that Dr Stephanie Seneff, Senior Resarcher at MIT posted that she and her research partner "have become obsessed with the interplay of manganese with glyphosate" (the chemical in Roundup®) AND their new paper was published today in an international neurological journal were centered around the amazing 'coincidence of timing' that Dr Seneff's paper about manganese came out on the Internet just as I'd gotten this topic completed yesterday about by Dr Shauna Young's work on manganese and Erasing Autism. (Which we know is based about manganese excess and why that is, but mostly WHAT to do about it from a diet perspective.)
As you'll see in the topic, above if reading it thoroughly, I refer to the coincidence of timing that the long-awaited for 'go live' moment of Lumigrate.com occurred while I was listening to a presentation by Cheryl and Chris Young about the neurological system impairment found in children who had adverse childhood experiences and how that translates into chronic illness (and shortened lifespan) in adulthood. I had a text on my phone from my then-assistant Linda, saying "Lumigrate's live!" and then Dr Young had time to talk after the presentation and he basically requested that I help figure out WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT. Well, I finally got there, thanks to people like Dr Shauna Young and Dr Stephanie Seneff and those who helped connect me with these types of innovative thinkers, researchers who present in the various forms so that I can bring the information to Lumigrate's YOUsers.
It is a long, thorough article from Dr Seneff, which encompasses a wide path of information that I am not surprised to see come from Dr Seneff. She has a unique gift for seeing the big picture and seeing interplay and 'connecting the dots'.
Her degrees are in engineering, computer science and physics if I remember correctly -- it's an interesting mix, I know that. And she was working in artificial intelligence, including how marine mammals communicate, when she heard a well-known glyphosate researcher present about glyphoste, and she 'became obsessed with it', she has said. "I eat glyphosate information for breakfast, lunch and dinner' she said merrily in one interview I listened to.
Always sounding and looking upbeat and cheerful, rarely sounding or appearing nervous in video interviews I've seen, I believe that Dr Seneff is already going into the history books we'll be creating in the future as one of the major factors that created change to occur here on Earth relative to glyphosate. I encourage a thorough reading of this article by everyone.
SLOW DOWN here, please, for a minute. A reminder about priorities and the importance of truly studying the more important work out there about things affecting the environment and causing or contributing to environmental illness that is pervasive, literally affecting 'everyone' today. (People often don't know what envioronmental illness is nor associate the symptoms with anything but 'normal for this age'.)
Take a breath, get yourself centered, maybe take a sip of water (be sure it's SAFE water!). Think about what your priorities are for learning, what time you have to devote to the myriad of things out there competing for your time and energy. Are you treating your studies like STUDY TIME in a serious fashion, or are you bouncing around gleaning sound bites but not learning information to a level that FUNCTIONALLY you are proficient at it?
Proficiency for your own use is one thing; proficiency for being able to articulate to others you care about is another. The irony is that many people today who care to one degree or another, have such imparied bodies by now -- including their brains and therefore cognitive functioning -- that it's problematic in making headway. But we must do our best with what we go; I do. Here's the link:
www.surgicalneurologyint.com/article.asp
I know that many people are going to respond very well to Dr Shauna Young's book because it is written in a way that parents will find the cases enjoyable to read and pick out similarities to their children's symptoms, and it's not technical and filled with a bunch of references and big words that are hard to break down and know what they are. In what Dr Young looked into and presents as to HOW it is people's manganese levels become high, she presents her perspective from the research she did as a practitioner / investigator. And her focus, naturally, is on SOLUTIONS for people, which comes in the form of the protocol she provides. All which occurred from her spot in the southwest Colorado area known as Durango.
As you can see in the topic I created in the last days, above, I had talked about the research of Dr Stephanie Seneff in order to bring together on one topic, things that I think will help YOUsers of Lumigrate also bring together more information about WHY this is occurring. Dr Seneff's paper, ironically published within a week of Dr Young's book, clearly reinforces and supports what Dr Young's work has found from a more 'practical' (practitioner) standpoint.
I would hope that Dr Seneff manages to get a copy of Erasing Autism, just as I hope Dr Young sees this paper from Dr Seneff (and her research partner, who is the lead author, noting that Dr Seneff is the author for contacting and her email is provided as you'll see, below where I provide the initial information for you to see the overall about the article.
SYNERGY basically is 1+1 = something greater than 2. That's what just happened in the last week with these two manganese-based resources, both of which I ENCOURAGE OBTAINING and STUDYING/ READING. LOVE IT!
Live and learn. Learn and Live Better! ~ Mardy
Glyphosate, pathways to modern diseases III: Manganese, neurological diseases, and associated pathologies.
Anthony Samsel, Stephanie Seneff1
Research Scientist and Consultant, Deerfield, NH 03037, 1Spoken Language Systems Group, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, MIT,
Cambridge MA 02139, USA
E‑mail: Anthony Samsel ‑ anthonysamsel@acoustictracks.net; *Stephanie Seneff ‑ seneff@csail.mit.edu
*Corresponding author
Received: 22 September 14 Accepted: 21 January 15 Published: 24 March 15
INTRODUCTION
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup®, the most widely used herbicide on the planet.[314] Glyphosate enjoys widespread usage on core food crops, in large part because of its perceived nontoxicity to humans. The adoption of genetically engineered “Roundup®‑Ready” corn, soy, canola, cotton, alfalfa, and sugar beets has made it relatively easy to control weeds without killing the crop plant, but this means that glyphosate will be present as a residue in derived foods.
Unfortunately, weeds among GM Roundup®‑Ready crops are developing ever‑increasing resistance to Roundup®,[107,221] which requires an increased rate of herbicide application.[26]
Note: I created additional paragraph breaks for easier readability by brains which have difficulty with visual information. I was also the 2nd person to download the article, so I look forward to checking back and seeing how many views and downloads of the article have occurred. I hope Lumigrate's links and information lead to YOU possibly being ONE to VIEW and then also DOWNLOAD. It's OPEN ACCESS, let's help GET THE WORD OUT!
Abstract
Manganese (Mn) is an often overlooked but important nutrient, required in small amounts for multiple essential functions in the body. A recent study on cows fed genetically modified Roundup ® -Ready feed revealed a severe depletion of serum Mn. Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup ® , has also been shown to severely deplete Mn levels in plants. Here, we investigate the impact of Mn on physiology, and its association with gut dysbiosis as well as neuropathologies such as autism, Alzheimer's disease (AD), depression, anxiety syndrome, Parkinson's disease (PD), and prion diseases.
Glutamate overexpression in the brain in association with autism, AD, and other neurological diseases can be explained by Mn deficiency. Mn superoxide dismutase protects mitochondria from oxidative damage, and mitochondrial dysfunction is a key feature of autism and Alzheimer's. Chondroitin sulfate synthesis depends on Mn, and its deficiency leads to osteoporosis and osteomalacia.
Lactobacillus, depleted in autism, depend critically on Mn for antioxidant protection. Lactobacillus probiotics can treat anxiety, which is a comorbidity of autism and chronic fatigue syndrome. Reduced gut Lactobacillus leads to overgrowth of the pathogen, Salmonella, which is resistant to glyphosate toxicity, and Mn plays a role here as well.
Sperm motility depends on Mn, and this may partially explain increased rates of infertility and birth defects. We further reason that, under conditions of adequate Mn in the diet, glyphosate, through its disruption of bile acid homeostasis, ironically promotes toxic accumulation of Mn in the brainstem, leading to conditions such as PD and prion diseases.
Keywords: Autism, cholestasis, glyphosate, manganese, Parkinson′s disease
Samsel A, Seneff S. Glyphosate, pathways to modern diseases III: Manganese, neurological diseases, and associated pathologies. Surg Neurol Int 2015;6:45
Samsel A, Seneff S. Glyphosate, pathways to modern diseases III: Manganese, neurological diseases, and associated pathologies. Surg Neurol Int [serial online] 2015 [cited 2015 Mar 24];6:45. Available from: http://www.surgicalneurologyint.com/text.asp?2015/6/1/45/153876
Introduction
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup®, the most widely used herbicide on the planet. [314] Glyphosate enjoys widespread usage on core food crops, in large part because of its perceived nontoxicity to humans. The adoption of genetically engineered "Roundup ® -Ready" corn, soy, canola, cotton, alfalfa, and sugar beets has made it relatively easy to control weeds without killing the crop plant, but this means that glyphosate will be present as a residue in derived foods. Unfortunately, weeds among GM Roundup ® -Ready crops are developing ever-increasing resistance to Roundup ® , [107],[221]which requires an increased rate of herbicide application. [26]
In 1987, glyphosate was the 17 th most commonly used herbicide in the United States, but, in large part due to the introduction of glyphosate-resistant core crops, it became the number one herbicide by 2001. [146] Its usage has increased steadily since then, in step with the rise in autism rates. Glyphosate's perceived nontoxicity is predicated on the assumption that our cells do not possess the shikimate pathway, the biological pathway in plants, which is disrupted by glyphosate, and whose disruption is believed to be the most important factor in its toxicity.
It may seem implausible that glyphosate could be toxic to humans, given the fact that government regulators appear nonchalant about steadily increasing residue limits, and that the levels in food and water are rarely monitored by government agencies, presumably due to lack of concern. However, a paper by Antoniou et al. [12] provided a scathing indictment of the European regulatory process regarding glyphosate's toxicity, focusing on potential teratogenic effects.
They identified several key factors leading to a tendency to overlook potential toxic effects. These include using animal studies that are too short or have too few animals to achieve statistical significance, disregarding in vitro studies or studies with exposures that are higher than what is expected to be realistically present in food, and discarding studies that examine the effects of glyphosate formulations rather than pure glyphosate, even though formulations are a more realistic model of the natural setting and are often orders of magnitude more toxic than the active ingredient in pesticides. [189]
Regulators also seemed unaware that chemicals that act as endocrine disruptors (such as glyphosate [108] ) often have an inverted dose-response relationship, wherein very low doses can have more acute effects than higher doses. Teratogenic effects have been demonstrated in human cell lines. [212] An in vitro study showed that glyphosate in parts per trillion can induce human breast cancer cell proliferation. [289]
Adjuvants in pesticides are synergistically toxic with the active ingredient. Mesnage et al. [189] showed that Roundup ® was 125 times more toxic than glyphosate by itself. These authors wrote: "Despite its relatively benign reputation, Roundup ® was among the most toxic herbicides and insecticides tested." [189]
The industry dictates that 3 months is a sufficiently long time to test for toxicity in rodent studies, and as a consequence none of the industry studies have run for longer than 3 months. The only study we are aware of that was a realistic assessment of the long-term effects of GM Roundup ® -Ready corn and soy feed on mammals was the study by Séralini et al. that examined the effects on rats fed these foods for their entire life span. [261]
This study showed increased risk to mammary tumors in females, as well as kidney and liver damage in the males, and a shortened lifespan in both females and males. These effects occurred both in response to Roundup and to the GM food alone. These effects only began to be apparent after 4 months.
There are multiple pathways by which glyphosate could lead to pathology. [248] A major consideration is that our gut bacteria do have the shikimate pathway, and that we depend upon this pathway in our gut bacteria as well as in plants to supply us with the essential aromatic amino acids, tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine. Methionine, an essential sulfur-containing amino acid, and glycine, are also negatively impacted by glyphosate.
Furthermore, many other biologically active molecules, including serotonin, melatonin, melanin, epinephrine, dopamine, thyroid hormone, folate, coenzyme Q10, vitamin K, and vitamin E, depend on the shikimate pathway metabolites as precursors.
Gut bacteria and plants use exclusively the shikimate pathway to produce these amino acids. In part because of shikimate pathway disruption, our gut bacteria are harmed by glyphosate, as evidenced by the fact that it has been patented as an antimicrobial agent. [298]
Metal chelation and inactivation of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes (which contain heme) play important roles in the adverse effects of glyphosate on humans. A recent study on rats showed that both males and females exposed to Roundup ® had 50% reduction in hepatic CYP enzyme levels compared with controls. [156] CYP enzyme dysfunction impairs the liver's ability to detoxify xenobiotics.
A large number of chemicals have been identified as being porphyrinogenic. [77] Rossignol et al. [242]have reviewed the evidence for environmental toxicant exposure as a causative factor in autism, and they referenced several studies showing that urinary excretion of porphyrin precursors to heme is found in association with autism, suggesting impaired heme synthesis. Impaired biliary excretion leads to increased excretion of heme precursors in the urine, a biomarker of multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome. [77] We later discuss the ability of glyphosate to disrupt bile homeostasis, which we believe is a major source of its toxic effects on humans.
Glyphosate is a likely cause of the recent epidemic in celiac disease. [249] Glyphosate residues are found in wheat due to the increasingly widespread practice of staging and desiccation of wheat right before harvest. Many of the pathologies associated with celiac disease can be explained by disruption of CYP enzymes. [156]
Celiac patients have a shortened life span, mainly due to an increased risk to cancer, most especially non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which has also been linked to glyphosate.[85],[253] Celiac disease trends over time match well with the increase in glyphosate usage on wheat crops.
Glyphosate is also neurotoxic. [59] Its mammalian metabolism yields two products: Aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) and glyoxylate, with AMPA being at least as toxic as glyphosate. Glyoxylate is a highly reactive glycating agent, which will disrupt the function of multiple proteins in cells that are exposed. [90]
Glycation has been directly implicated in Parkinson's disease (PD). [57] Glyphosate has been detected in the brains of malformed piglets. [155] In a report produced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), over 36% of 271 incidences involving acute glyphosate poisoning involved neurological symptoms, indicative of glyphosate toxicity in the brain and nervous system. [122]
In the remainder of this paper, we first
The following section explains how Mn deficiency can lead to the overexpression of ammonia and glutamate in many neurological diseases. The next two sections show how Mn accumulation in the liver is linked to cholestasis and high serum low density lipoprotein (LDL), and how this can also induce increased susceptibility to Salmonella poisoning.
We then identify a role for Mn in chondroitin sulfate synthesis, and the implications for osteomalacia. The next two sections explain how glyphosate exposure can lead to Mn toxicity in the brain, and discuss two neurological diseases that are associated with excess Mn, PD and prion diseases. After a section on the link between male infertility and Mn deficiency in the testes, we discuss evidence of exposure to glyphosate and end with a short summary of our findings.
Supportive Evidence of Manganese Dysbiosis Due to Glyphosate
Glyphosate's disruption of the shikimate pathway is due in part to its chelation of Mn, which is a catalyst for enolpyruvylshikimate phosphate synthase (EPSPS), a critical early enzyme in the pathway. [63] A recent study on Danish dairy cattle investigated mineral composition in serum of cattle fed Roundup ® -Ready feed. [154] The study identified a marked deficiency in two minerals: Serum cobalt and serum Mn. All of the cattle on eight different farms had severe Mn deficiency, along with measurable amounts of glyphosate in their urine. In Australia, following two seasons of high levels of stillbirths in cattle, it was found that all dead calves were Mn deficient. [184] Furthermore, 63% of newborns with birth defects were found to be deficient in Mn.
Mn, named after the Greek word for "magic," is one of 14 essential trace elements. Mn plays essential roles in antioxidant protection, glutamine synthesis, bone development, and sperm motility, among other things. Although Mn is essential, it is only required in trace amounts. And an excess of Mn can be neurotoxic.
Remarkably, Mn deficiency can explain many of the pathologies associated with autism and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The incidence of both of these conditions has been increasing at an alarming rate in the past two decades, in step with the increased usage of glyphosate on corn and soy crops in the United States, as shown in [Figure 1] and [Figure 2]. Although correlation does not necessarily mean causation, from 1995 to 2010, the autism rates in first grade in the public school correlates almost perfectly (P = 0.997) with total glyphosate application on corn and soy crops over the previous 4 years (from age 2 to 6 for each child) [Figure 1].
Such remarkable correlation necessitates further experimental investigation. These neurological disorders are associated with mitochondrial impairment [197],[241],[243],[281],[316] and with excess glutamate and ammonia in the brain, [2],[109],[265] leading to a chronic low-grade encephalopathy. [256],[260] As we will show later, Mn deficiency is critically associated with these pathologies.
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Thyroid dysfunction can be predicted as well, and low maternal thyroid function predicts autism in the fetus. [238] Furthermore, increases in bone fractures in both children and the elderly can also be explained by Mn deficiency, due to its critical role in bone development. [276] Osteoporosis, which is a serious problem among the elderly today, is also likely promoted by Mn deficiency, [247] and osteoporosis leads to increased risk to fractures. [98],[139],[140]
Sprague-Dawley rats fed a Mn-deficient diet had significantly reduced concentrations of Mn in liver, kidney, heart, and pancreas, compared with controls. [18] Furthermore, pancreatic insulin content was only 63% of control levels, and insulin release following glucose administration was also reduced. Mn deficiency not only impairs insulin secretion in Sprague-Dawley rats, but it also causes reduced glucose uptake in adipose tissue, [19] so Mn deficiency could contribute to impaired glucose metabolism in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, which are a growing problem worldwide. [199]
Type 1 diabetes in children is associated with a decrease in Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, and an increase in Clostridium, in the gut. [195] These same pathologies are also found in gut bacteria from poultry fed Roundup ® -Ready feed. [263] The increased incidence of diabetes in the US is strongly correlated with glyphosate usage on corn and soy, as shown in [Figure 3].
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Much remains elusive about Mn's roles in cellular metabolism, but it is clear that it is very important. For instance, Target of Rapamycin Complex 1 (TORC1) accelerates the aging process in cells from yeast to mammals, [231] and Mn inhibits TORC1, but only if it is present in the Golgi. [86] Zinc (Zn) is essential for DNA and RNA replication and cell division. Zn deficiency leads to greatly enhanced Mn uptake by cells, and this induces modifications to messenger RNA such that the ratio of guanine and cytosine nucleotides (C + G) to adenine and thymine (A + T) is sharply increased. [100] Clearly, more research is needed to explain the significance of these phenomena.
We infer, paradoxically, that both Mn deficiency and Mn toxicity, attributable to glyphosate, can occur simultaneously. Because of glyphosate's disruption of CYP enzymes, the liver becomes impaired in its ability to dispose of Mn via the bile acids, and instead it transports the Mn via the vagus nerve to brainstem nuclei, where excess Mn leads to PD. Recently, PD has also increased dramatically, in step with glyphosate usage on corn and soy [Figure 4].
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Ironically, while the brainstem suffers from excess Mn, the rest of the brain incurs Mn deficiency due to the depressed serum levels of Mn. Mn is particularly important in the hippocampus, and deficiency there can lead to seizures. A high incidence of seizures is found in children with autism. [302] \
Seizures are also associated with reduced serum Mn, [54],[88],[269] and this is consistent with the liver's inability to distribute Mn to the body via the bile acids. Antibiotics have been found to induce seizures. [132]
Mn uptake in the brain is normally enhanced during the neonatal period in rats, and proper development of the hippocampus depends on Mn. [284] Soy formula increases the risk of seizures in autism, [310] hardly surprising when one considers that soybean crops are now 90% Roundup ® -Ready.
A recent paper has confirmed that alarmingly high glyphosate residues appear in Roundup ® -Ready soy. [35] The US Department of Agriculture analyzed glyphosate residues in soy in 2011, and reported that 91% of the 300 samples tested were positive for glyphosate, with 96% being positive for AMPA, an equally toxic by-product of glyphosate breakdown. [297]
Our own analysis confirms that glyphosate is present in infant formula. Out of several soy-based baby formulas we tested, only one contained glyphosate residues. We found levels of 170 ppb in Enfamil ProSobee liquid concentrate. Further testing is underway. Soybean product sourcing and residue testing should be required prior to product manufacturing and is necessary to prevent inadvertent infant exposure.
Another mechanism by which glyphosate in soy formula could cause seizures is through bilirubin production. Serum concentrations of bilirubin were elevated in catfish exposed to sublethal doses of Roundup®, in a dose-dependent relationship.[208] Neonates, due to an immature digestive system, are unable to metabolize bilirubin in the gut, and it can therefore build up in the blood and even penetrate their immature blood-brain barrier to cause seizures. [308]
Glyphosate and Microbial Antibiotic Intolerance
Clostridium difficile, [183] and Pseudomonas aeruguinosa[169] are all becoming major threats, especially in the hospital environment. A generic mechanism of upregulated efflux through membrane pores offers broad-domain resistance to multiple antibiotics. [169] Exposure to antibiotics early in life can even lead to obesity as a direct consequence of the resulting imbalance in gut bacteria. [73]
Studies have shown that increased mutation rates due to chronic low level exposure to one antibiotic can induce an accelerated rate of development of resistance to diverse other antibiotics. [151] Glyphosate, patented as an antimicrobial agent, [298] is present in steadily increasing amounts in the GM Roundup-Ready corn and soy feed of cows, pigs, chickens, farmed shrimp, and fish, and it is ubiquitous in the Western diet of humans. Pseudomonas aeruginosa can use glyphosate as a sole source of phosphorus, [192] and it is one of a small number of resistant bacterial species with the ability to metabolize glyphosate, a feature that might be exploited for soil remediation. [1]
However, DNA mutations due to exposure would enhance tolerance to glyphosate and other antibiotics, perhaps explaining the current epidemic in multiple antibiotic resistant P. aeruginosa infections, which have a 20% mortality rate. [190] Antibiotic resistance sequences engineered into GM crops may also play a role in the current crisis concerning antibiotic resistant pathogens.
Glyphosate has also been demonstrated as a remarkable antimicrobial synergist. It greatly increases the cidal effects of other antimicrobials, particularly when combined as salts of glyphosate. A concentration dependent synergy index (SI) ranging from 0.34 to 5.13 has been recorded for the Zn salt of glyphosate. [299] This has serious implications for glyphosate ingested with pharmaceuticals or residues of other widely used agricultural chemicals, such as the herbicides Diquat, Paraquat, 2,4 D and Glufosinate, the fungicide Chlorothalonil and the systemic neonicotinoid insecticides Acetamiprid, Imidacloprid, Thiacloprid, Thiamethoxam, and Clothianidin.
Glyphosate acts as a catalyst for the development of antibiotic resistance genes in pathogens. Since both poultry and cow manure are used as natural fertilizers in crops, it can be expected that a vector for microbial resistance to multiple drugs is through contamination of fruits and vegetables. Indeed, multiple resistance genes have been identified from diverse phyla found in cow manure, including Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria, that is, in phylogenetically diverse organisms. [311]
One of the ways in which glyphosate is toxic to plants is through disruption of chlorophyll synthesis, due to suppression of the activity of the first enzyme in pyrrole synthesis. [61],[69],[143],[319] Pyrrole is the core building block of both chlorophyll and the porphyrin rings, including corrin in cobalamin and heme in hemoglobin and cytochrome enzymes. Several cofactors containing a structurally complex tetrapyrrole-derived framework chelating a metal ion (cobalt (Co), magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), or nickel (Ni)) are synthesized by gut bacteria and supplied to the host organism, including heme and corrin. [236]
Thus, glyphosate can be expected to disrupt synthesis of these biologically essential molecules. Pseudomonas normally thrives in the small bowel and produces abundant cobalamin that may be a significant source for the human host. [6] P. aeruginosa's successful colonization may be due in part to its ability to produce cobalamin despite the presence of glyphosate. Only recently has it also been recognized that a Mn-porphyrin complex can protect from mitochondrial overproduction of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) in response to ionizing radiation. [274]
It can be predicted that homeostasis of all of these minerals in the gut (Co, Mn, Fe, Ni, and Mg) is impaired in the presence of glyphosate, and this will have serious consequences not only to the gut bacteria but also to the impaired regulation of these minerals. The implications of impaired heme and cobalamin synthesis will be further addressed in a future paper.
A key component of glyphosate's action is its ability to chelate minerals, particularly transition metals such as Mn. Glyphosate forms strong complexes with the transition metals via the amino, the carboxylic, and the phosphonic moieties in the molecule. Each of these can coordinate separately to metal ions or in combination as bidentate or tridentate ligands. [194],[296]
Analogy with Arsenic and Aluminum
A growing practice of spraying sugar cane with glyphosate as a ripener and desiccant right before the harvest has led to much greater exposure to the workers in the fields. The authors, who focused their studies on affected workers in rice paddies in Sri Lanka, identified a synergistic effect of arsenic, which contaminated the soil in the affected regions. This paper is highly significant, because it proposes a mechanism whereby glyphosate greatly increases the toxicity of arsenic through chelation, which promotes uptake by the gut.
Glyphosate also depletes glutathione (GSH) [60],[128] and glutathione S transferase (GST) is a critical enzyme for liver detoxification of arsenic. [295] As a consequence, excess arsenic in the kidney causes acute kidney failure, without evidence of other symptoms such as diabetes usually preceding kidney failure.
Arsenic is normally disposed of by the liver through biliary excretion. In rats exposed to arsenic, large amounts of GSH appeared in the bile simultaneously with biliary excretion of arsenic. [113] It was first hypothesized, and later confirmed, that arsenic is transported in bile acids in the form of unstable GSH complexes (monomethylarsonous acid), which release GSH upon decomposing. Since glyphosate disrupts CYP enzymes necessary for bile acid formation, [248],[249] as well as depleting GSH, [60],[128] it can be expected that glyphosate would disrupt the process of biliary excretion of arsenic, thus forcing arsenic to be redirected toward urinary excretion, leading ultimately to kidney failure.
Glyphosate also chelates aluminum, [230] and it has been reasoned that this enables aluminum to get past the gut barrier more readily through direct analogy with the situation with arsenic, which is also a 3+ cation. [193]
However, it has been demonstrated through experimentation that glyphosate prefers divalent cations. Thus, aluminum would enter the bloodstream via the digestive tract's portal vein to the organs traveling with albumin, which is known to attach and transport many xenobiotics. It is well established that citrate also binds aluminum and promotes its uptake past the gut barrier through a mechanism that parallels glyphosate's binding to aluminum. [68],[148] Both are small molecules that easily pass through a leaky gut barrier.
Considering these observations regarding aluminum and arsenic, it is reasonable to expect that something similar might happen with Mn. Unlike these other two, however, Mn plays many essential roles in the body, and so its chelation by glyphosate would interfere with its bioavailability in the general circulation. Just as for arsenic, bile acids play a critical role in Mn homeostasis. Bile is the major excretory route of injected Mn. [17] Malecki et al. wrote: "Biliary excretion may be a major homeostatic mechanism for preventing both deficiency and toxicity of Mn." [179],[ p. 489]
Glyphosate, a dipolar zwitterion, is toxic in part due to its bio-transformative properties as pH varies. We postulate that Mn, which is transported in the blood stream bound to glyphosate, is oxidized to Mn 3+ following its release in the localized acidic environment of sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) in the glycocalyx lining the capillary wall. [234] As we will later explain, Mn uniquely is able to travel along axons and across synapses, and this results in a novel path via the vagus nerve for brain toxicity following excess Mn accumulation in the liver.
Mn is a transition metal, and therefore it can catalyze oxidative reactions in neurons via the Fenton reaction. [305] While Mn 2+is the form of Mn that catalyzes enzyme reactions, Mn 3+ , similar to Al 3+ , is directly toxic to neuronal membranes. [13] In vitro studies have shown that Mn 3+ complexes auto-oxidize catecholamines, and therefore exposure to excess Mn leads to a decrease in the bioavailability of dopamine, serotonin, and noradrenaline in the striatum. [227]
It has been shown that glyphosate enhances the oxidation of Mn from a 2 + oxidation state to 3 + , both in solution and on an inert surface. [21] It can be inferred, therefore, that Mn 2+ oxidation to the toxic form, Mn 3+ , might occur in the artery wall following exposure to superoxide in the presence of glyphosate. Mn 3+ also enhances glyphosate degradation to AMPA, [21]which would produce the highly glycating by-product, glyoxylate. Glyoxylate and Mn 3+ would both cause significant arterial damage in association with the inflammatory response.
We suggest that another route for Mn transport is the vagus nerve, which delivers Mn from the liver to the brainstem nuclei. When bile acid synthesis is impaired, the brainstem nuclei can acquire neurotoxic levels of Mn, while serum levels are simultaneously depressed.
Gut Bacteria Dysbiosis and Anxiety
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Glyphosate has been shown to severely deplete Mn uptake by plants, both by the roots and by the shoots. [127] Experiments on plants demonstrated that Mn applied as fertilizer antagonizes glyphosate's effectiveness in weed control, [29] and this implied that Mn chelation was an important part of glyphosate's toxicity to plants. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy analyses conducted by these authors demonstrated that glyphosate's binding to Mn increased with pH as pH rose from 2.8 to 7.5. The pH of plant symplast is typically 7.5, a level at which glyphosate would be an effective chelator of Mn.
Certain species of gut bacteria, such as members of the Lactobacillus family, utilize Mn in novel ways for protection from oxidation damage, and, as a consequence, their requirements for Mn are much higher than those of other species. [13],[14] Thus, Mn chelation by glyphosate would lead to reduced numbers of these essential bacteria in the gut. This leads directly to neurological symptoms such as anxiety, due to the influence of the gut-brain axis. [70],[75],[106] In the small intestine, the pH increases gradually from pH 6 to pH 7.4 in the terminal ileum. [101] At pH 7.4, Mn bioavailability can be expected to be reduced by 50% due to glyphosate chelation. [173]
The liver regulates the amount of Mn in the general vascular circulation, by incorporating any excess into bile acids, which gives the gut bacteria repeated chances to take it up. However, production of bile acids depends upon CYP enzymes, which are disrupted by glyphosate. [248],[249] Hence, glyphosate can be expected to lead to severe impairment of Mn bioavailability to the gut bacteria, while at the same time allowing too much Mn to accumulate in the liver.
Lactobacillus tends to reside in the foregut. [286] The pH of the foregut is higher than that of the cecum, [100] so Mn chelation by glyphosate is a bigger issue there, since glyphosate's chelation effects increase with increasing pH. Mn-SOD is an important enzyme in mitochondria for protection from oxidative damage. Most Lactobacillus species lack Mn-SOD, but they have devised a way to protect themselves from oxidation damage due to the superoxide radical by using active transport of Mn in the +2 oxidation state. Many Lactobacilli normally have high intracellular concentrations of Mn. [14] For example,Lactobacillus plantarum accumulates over 30 mM of intracellular Mn (II). [13]
A recent study demonstrated that Roundup® in concentrations lower than those recommended in agriculture inhibited microbial growth of three microorganisms that are widely used as starters in fermentation of milk products, [66] including a species of Lactobacillus. Research into genetically engineering an Mn-SOD-encoding gene derived from Streptococcus thermophilus into various Lactobacillus species has shown that they can produce Mn-SOD from these heterologous genes and use it to improve their resistance to oxidative stress. [48]
Bruno-Bárcena et al. [48] proposed that such genetically engineered Lactobacilli might provide benefit as probiotics to people suffering from colitis or peptic ulcers. Colitis is associated with increased inflammation in the gut, which may be due to impaired function of Mn-SOD. An experiment on a mouse model of colitis demonstrated that Lactobacilus gasseri treatment alleviated inflammation in the colon of Il-10 deficient mice. [55] Genetically modified forms of L. gasseri as described above, which overproduce Mn-SOD, showed enhanced therapeutic effects.
Several members of the Lactobacillus family are capable of producing the inhibitory neurotransmitter γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) via the enzyme glutamate decarboxylase, and this may be a reason for their ability to improve symptoms of anxiety. Experiments with Lactobacillus probiotics in mice demonstrated neurochemical and behavioral effects related to changes in GABAergic expression in regions of the brain that control mood. [165] These effects were absent in vagotomized mice, pointing to the vagus nerve as the bacterial communication pathway between gut and brain. Lactobacillus have been successfully cultivated to produce fermented food containing high levels of GABA, proposed to be a health benefit in probiotics. [40]
Patients suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) often have imbalances in microbial flora, [177] along with anxiety as a frequent comorbidity. [104] A pilot placebo-controlled study involved daily administration of Lactobacillus casei probiotics over a 2-month period to CFS patients. [232] The outcome was a significant rise in both Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria in the gut, along with a significant decrease in anxiety symptoms (P = 0.01). This study reinforces the gut-brain connection, specifically implicating Lactobacillus in the etiology of anxiety disorder.
MN-Superoxide Dismutase and Mitochondrial Dysfunction
There are three major classes of SOD, which are distinguished by the metal catalyst, which can be copper (Cu), Zn, Mn, iron, or nickel. Eukaryotes rely on a distinct form in the mitochondria, which depends on Mn, whereas Cu/Zn SOD is present in the cytoplasm and extracellularly. Many bacterial species including Escherichia coli use Fe-SOD as well as Mn-SOD. The adjuvants in Roundup ® may play an important role in enabling glyphosate to penetrate the mitochondrial membrane, [215] where it can interfere with the activities of Mn-SOD via chelation of Mn.
Recent experiments on goldfish involved exposing them for 96 h to Roundup ® at concentrations ranging from 2.5 to 20 mg/L.[174] Several metabolites were measured from the liver, kidney, and brain. Remarkably, Roundup® inhibited SOD activity in all three organs examined, by 51-68% in the brain, 58-67% in the liver, and 33-53% in the kidney, and this was the most striking effect that was observed. Unfortunately, they did not specify whether the cytoplasmic Cu/Zn SOD or the mitochondrial Mn-SOD was most affected. Regardless, a plausible explanation of this effect is the chelation of Mn, Cu, and Zn, which are essential cofactors for the two SODs.
A recent study on the fish species Anguilla anguilla exposed to environmentally realistic levels of glyphosate over a short time period revealed DNA strand breaks in both liver and gills, along with a suppression of SOD activity in the liver. [116] A plausible explanation is that the breakdown product of glyphosate, glyoxylate, which is a potent glycating agent, would cause DNA damage by attacking Cu, Zn-SOD. Experiments have shown that released Cu in combination with H 2 O 2 produced by glycated Cu, Zn-SOD triggers a Fenton reaction, resulting in nuclear DNA cleavage. [138]
Aconitase, an enzyme that converts citrate to isocitrate, is a crucial participant in Complex I of the citric acid cycle in the mitochondria. Many neurodegenerative diseases have been linked to decreased aconitase activity due to oxidative stress, including Friedreich ataxia, [245],[249] Huntington's disease, [282] progressive supranuclear palsy, [213] autism, [239] and epilepsy. [300]
The presence of a single unligated iron atom in the iron-sulfur cluster of aconitase makes it uniquely sensitive to oxidative inactivation by superoxide. [105] Aconitase inactivation has a cascade effect, because the released iron results in ferrous iron toxicity, further promoting cell death. [52] The pervasive herbicide Paraquat has been implicated in oxidative inactivation of aconitase, and this likely explains its known role in PD. [52]
A postmortem study of brains of autistic individuals showed a striking decrease in aconitase activity in the cerebellum associated with a similar decrease in glutathione redox antioxidant capacity (GSH/GSSG), with the plot producing a near 100% separation between cases and controls. [239] Inadequate clearance of superoxide due to Mn-SOD inactivation can easily account for this observation. Aconitase is a crucial participant in the citric acid cycle in the mitochondria, so this effect has catastrophic consequences on the renewal of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) as an energy source for the neurons.
In another study, cells from children with autism exhibited higher oxidative stress than control cells, including a 1.6-fold increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, 1.5-fold increase in mitochondrial DNA copy number per cell, and more deletions. [198] Furthermore, oxidative phosphorylation capacity of granulocytes from children with autism was 3-fold lower than in controls. These are all indicators of oxidative stress, which could be due to SOD inhibition by glyphosate, mediated by Mn deficiency.
Oxalate
The inert ingredients have undergone several changes over the years to include formula variations, which included the use of dual surfactants of siloxane copolymers and Polyoxyethylated tallow amine (POEA). As noted by Monsanto, "Promotion of stomatal infiltration of glyphosate by an organosilicone surfactant reduces the critical rainfall period," hence the rain-fastness of Roundup WeatherMax ® with Transorb ® 2 Technology.
In 1995, US Patent #5,464,806 was issued which reflected another product formulation improvement and move from the use of Silwet-77 siloxane surfactant due to phase separation problems, to the use of an acetylenic diol. [142] The new formula provides protection from herbicide loss due to rain within 30 min of application. Additional adjuvants, well known in the paper-making industry, were used to quickly break down cell walls and collapse the plant. These chemicals originally included sodium sulfite with a later change to oxalic acid (oxalate) as patented in 2006. [315] In this patent, it was noted that "it has been discovered that the addition of oxalic acid or salts thereof to glyphosate compositions increases the cell membrane permeability of plant cells or suppresses oxidative burst to increase cellular uptake of glyphosate."
This modification may be related to the recent increase in health issues concerning excess serum oxalate in the United States and elsewhere, linked to both autism and kidney stones. A study comparing children with autism with controls found a 3-fold increase in serum oxalate levels in the children with autism, [152] and it was suggested that this might be due to excess absorption through the gut barrier, and that oxalate crystals in the brain could potentially disrupt brain function. Calcium oxalate crystals are responsible for up to 80% of kidney stones, and there has been an increased incidence of kidney stones recently in the US. [250] In a study on prisoners in Illinois who complained of gastrointestinal distress following a change to a high-soy diet, it was proposed that the unusually high levels of oxalate in the processed soy protein might be responsible for the observed symptoms. [175]
Both the high oxalate content of the soy and the high serum oxalate in humans could be due to impaired oxalate metabolism. Oxalate metabolism by oxalate oxidase in plants and by oxalate decarboxylases in fungi and a few bacteria, such as Bacillus subtilis, are both dependent on Mn as a cofactor. [280] Bifidobacteria, which are highly sensitive to glyphosate, [263] possess an oxalate-metabolizing enzyme that depends on magnesium rather than Mn as a cofactor. [102] However, glyphosate decreases the content of both magnesium and Mn in plants. [50] Furthermore, gamma-glutamyl carboxylase, a liver enzyme that metabolizes oxalate, is catalyzed by vitamin K, which depends on the shikimate pathway. [51] It has been shown that patients with calcium oxalate urolithiasis have significantly reduced activity of this enzyme in the liver. [65]
The sulfate ion transporter, Sat-1, plays an important role not only in sulfate transport but also in oxalate transport, [273] as evidenced by the fact that mice with a disrupted Sat-1 gene develop urolithiasis. [252] Glyoxylate is not only a substrate of Sat-1 but it is also a key regulator. [252] The upregulation of SAT-1 by glyoxylate in hepatic cells likely serves to flush oxalate and glyoxylate from the liver, to avoid hepatotoxicity. However, this can lead to nephrotoxicity due to glyoxylate glycation damage and the formation of kidney stones. Due to competition between oxalate and sulfate for transport via Sat-1, glyoxylate, and oxalate, likely, also disrupt sulfate homeostasis in the liver. Sulfate is critical for bile acid formation and for detoxification of xenobiotics such as acetaminophen.
The conversion of glyoxylate to oxalate by the enzyme lactate dehydrogenase is inhibited by oxalate. [87] Hence gloxylate, derived from glyphosate breakdown, would accumulate in the presence of excess oxalate.
Aside from the obvious damaging effects of oxalate crystals on tissues, the oxalate, whose metabolism is impaired due to Mn deficiency, will also interfere with the metabolism of glyphosate, likely greatly increasing both its effectiveness as an herbicide and its toxicity to mammals. Under oxalate stress conditions, both superoxide and the hydroxyl radical are produced in excess amounts. [258] Obviously, the ineffectiveness of Mn-SOD due to Mn deficiency would further enhance the damage due to excess oxalate. SOD activity has been shown to be reduced in association with the urolithic kidney, and methionine supplementation can alleviate this problem. [257] As mentioned previously, methionine is depleted by glyphosate.
Ammonia, Glutamate, and Neurotoxicity
Blaylock and Strunecká [32] have proposed that immune-glutamatergic dysfunction may be the central mechanism of autism spectrum disorders. Ghanizadeh [109] reported that glutamate and homocysteine are elevated in the serum in association with autism, and that glutamine and tryptophan are depleted. Tryptophan, which depends upon the shikimate pathway in plants and microbes, is the precursor to serotonin and melatonin. An increase in glutamate and a corresponding decrease in glutamine can be entirely explained by an inactive glutamine synthase enzyme.
Another extensive study on children with autism compared with controls found low serum tryptophan, high serum glutamate and homocysteine, and significantly reduced free sulfate, as well as high levels of oxidative stress markers, [1] all of which are consistent with these assertions. High serum homocysteine is one associated consequence of folate deficiency: [76] Folate is produced by Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria from products of the shikimate pathway. [240]
The neurotransmitter glutamate has been implicated as an excitatory neurotoxin in the brain not only in autism but also in association with multiple neurological diseases, including AD, PD, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and multiple sclerosis.[93] Ordinarily, following glutamate release into the synaptic cleft, microglia in the brain take up excess glutamate and convert it to glutamine, using the enzyme glutamine synthase. [204] Glutamine is then released into the extracellular space, taken up by neurons, and converted in the cytoplasm to glutamate to be held within internal vesicles in anticipation of future activity. Conversion to glutamine for the transport stage from microglia to neurons renders the molecule inactive as a neurotransmitter, and therefore as a neurotoxin, when it is out of service.
TNF-α, secreted by activated microglia in the brain, is a major cytokine leading to neurotoxicity in association with multiple neurological diseases. A major component of the damaging effect of TNF-α is the autocrine induction of the release of glutamate from microglia. [285] Experiments exposing immature rats to Roundup ® , whether via exposure to the dam during pregnancy and lactation or via acute exposure to the pup for 30 min, demonstrated lipid peroxidation and NMDA receptor activation in the hippocampus, indicative of oxidative stress and glutamate excitotoxicity. [59] Acute exposure increased the release of glutamate into the synaptic cleft, and depleted GSH.
Glutamine synthase depends upon Mn as a cofactor, so depleted Mn supplies would lead to a build-up of glutamate that cannot be returned to the neurons using normal channels. Multiple sclerosis is associated with both depleted Mn in the cerebrospinal fluid [185] and depleted GSH synthase in the white matter lesions. [309] Cerebellar brain samples taken postmortem from 10 individuals with autism demonstrated an anomalous increase in mRNA expression of excitatory amino acid transporter 1 and glutamate receptor AMPA 1, both involved in the glutamate system. [226] Glutamate receptor binding proteins were also abnormally expressed, and AMPA-type glutamate receptor density was low. These effects could be explained as a response to the excess bioavailability of glutamate due to an inability to convert it to the inactive form, glutamine.
Further confirmation of glutamate dysbiosis in autism comes from a study on levels of 25 amino acids in the platelet-poor plasma of high-functioning autistic children compared with normal controls, which revealed that only glutamate and glutamine were abnormally expressed in the children with autism, with a highly significant (P < 0.002) excess of glutamate and a highly significant (P < 0.004) decrease in glutamine. [264] They linked these findings to glutamatergic abnormalities reported by others.
It is intriguing to us that Mn deficiency leads to a pair of complementary pathologies - excess glutamate along with aconitase deficiency, which together allow for the cells to generate ATP by metabolizing glutamate instead of glucose. Glutamate enters the citric acid cycle beyond Complex I, thus bypassing the step that is impaired by aconitase deficiency. This is a rather elegant regulatory system that provides energy even in the face of Complex I impairment.
The prevalence of epilepsy in the US is similar to that of diabetes, making it a common disorder affecting 2 million Americans.[47] Epilepsy is associated with increased T2 relaxation time in nagnetic resonance imaging (MRI) signaling analysis of the hippocampus, both in the ipsilateral sclerotic hippocampus as well as the contralateral hippocampus and anterior temporal lobe. [42] Following intracerebral injection of Mn, a large amount of Mn accumulates in the hippocampal fissure, which results in a reduction in T2 relaxation time. [78] Epilepsy may therefore be a consequence of insufficient Mn in the hippocampus, which could easily account for the associated increase in T2. Autism is associated with a high risk of epilepsy, [293],[162] and the hippocampus has been the focus of many studies on the neurological pathology of autism. [84],[95]
Ammonia is a well-established neurotoxin, which accumulates when the urea cycle is unable to keep up with ammonia released from protein breakdown. [290] Ammonia can induce tremor, ataxia, seizures, coma, and death. [49] Ammonia is a highly diffusible gas that readily crosses the blood-brain barrier, and its detoxification depends upon the conversion of glutamate to glutamine, which is catalyzed by glutamine synthase, the enzyme in microglia that relies upon Mn as a cofactor.[71] Thus, impaired function of glutamine synthase leads to the accumulation of both glutamate and ammonia in the brain, both of which are established neurotoxins.
Excess ammonia due to impaired ability to detoxify excess nitrogen via the urea cycle can lead to impaired memory, shortened attention span, sleep-wake cycle disruption, brain edema, intracranial hypertension, seizures, ataxia, and coma. [37]Arginase, the final enzyme of the urea cycle, is ubiquitous in living systems, and depends upon Mn as a cofactor. Therefore, Mn deficiency due to glyphosate's chelation of the metal would be expected to lead directly to impaired arginase function. The excess accumulation of ammonia due to inactive glutamine synthase combined with the decreased ability to metabolize ammonia to urea constitute a double-hit leading to ammonia toxicity in the brain.
A case study of a 4-year-old girl showed that a genetic defect in arginase could present as pervasive developmental delay not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) with many similarities to autism. [112] Its manifestations include brain edema and signs of epilepsy, as would be expected with ammonia toxicity in the brain. A Mn-deficient diet administered to rats induced a reduction in hepatic arginase activity (P < 0.01), along with a significant rise in plasma ammonia (P < 0.01). [43]
Seneff et al. [260] put forward the idea that excess ammonia due to disrupted gut bacteria could lead to a chronic low-grade encephalopathy that could explain much of the pathology associated with autism. Furthermore, glyphosate is known to induce excess ammonia production in plants, due to overactivity of the enzyme phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL). [86],[117],[125]This enzyme may also be overactive in gut bacteria exposed to glyphosate, further compounding the problem.
Cholestasis and Bilirubinemia
As a result, it can be anticipated that, when Mn supplies are plentiful, both the Mn and the cholesterol will accumulate to toxic levels in the liver, unless another method can be found for their redistribution. In the case of cholesterol, this may lead to a necessary increase in the synthesis and release of LDL particles. People with a defective CYP7A1 gene have significantly elevated total and LDL cholesterol levels, as well as substantial accumulation of cholesterol in the liver and a markedly decreased rate of bile acid excretion. [225]
Neonatal cholestasis and hypercholesterolemia (elevated LDL) were produced in mice with a defective CYP7A1 gene fed a normal chow diet. [96] The increased serum levels of LDL associated with heart disease risk may therefore be a consequence of the production of cholesterol that cannot be exported through the biliary ducts.
Studies with rats have shown that Lactobacillus plantarum probiotic supplements lower serum LDL levels. [166] Lactobacillus levels were reduced in chickens exposed to antimicrobial drugs, which resulted in reduced bile salt deconjugation in the gut.[114] Impaired bile salt deconjugation by gut bacteria results in significant weight gain along with elevated plasma cholesterol and liver triglycerides in mice. [136] Thus, glyphosate acting as an antibiotic that preferentially kills Lactobacillus can be expected to lead to elevated serum cholesterol and triglycerides through a similar mechanism.
Cholestasis is a blockage of bile acid flow, which often occurs as a side effect of various pharmaceutical drugs. [211] Glyphosate administration to rats over a period of 13 weeks induced increases in serum bile acids, indicative of cholestasis.[64] Severe cholestasis can induce bilirubinemia, [28] and glyphosate also independently induces bilirubinemia in catfish. [208] At least two other studies have shown bile stagnation in fish exposed to glyphosate. [80],[135]
Inflammatory bowel disease (colitis and Crohn's disease) has been increasing in frequency in the US over the past 20 years, in step with glyphosate usage on corn and soy crops, as shown in [Figure 6]. According to analyses by Cappello et al. in a hospital-based survey, [53] cholestasis is a common feature of inflammatory bowel disease. They observed a cholestatic pattern in 60% of patients studied, mainly related to older age, longer duration of disease, and hypertension. Gallstones were commonly found, often in association with abnormal bile salt absorption, especially in Crohn's disease patients.
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Ironically, while Mn-SOD depends upon Mn as a cofactor, excess exposure to Mn can inhibit SOD expression. Experiments exposing rats to excess Mn revealed several pathological effects on the liver, including inhibition of SOD and GSH peroxidase, as well as decreased levels of GSH and reduced levels of sodium-potassium ATPase activity. [126] It is striking that glyphosate has also been shown to have these very same effects in animal experiments, [60],[174],[89] and it is conceivable that these effects may be in part mediated by excess Mn accumulation in the liver.
Bilirubinemia in neonates is a risk factor for autism, particularly when it is unbound and unconjugated. [10] Glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency can induce bilirubin toxicity in neonates, [176] due to the fact that G6PD enables conjugation of bilirubin. [141] Glyphosate was shown to induce a 2.67-fold reduction in G6PD expression in E. coli. [171] Studies on goldfish demonstrated that glyphosate significantly decreased G6PD activity in liver, kidney, and brain. [174]
G6PD is the main enzyme responsible for regeneration of NADPH, an essential requirement for GSH reductase activity. [174]Cholestasis is associated with a reduction in the supply of reduced GSH. [317] Furthermore, glyphosate has been shown to reduce the activity of GSH reductase in the liver. [174] Preeclampsia, affecting 4% of pregnancies, is associated with G6PD deficiency in red blood cells along with a reduction in reduced GSH. [3] The ratio of oxidized to reduced GSH is consistently high in association with autism, in plasma, immune cells, and the brain. [239]
A mouse model of cholestasis can be induced by exposing mice to Mn, followed shortly by exposure to bilirubin. [82] Mn induces cholesterol synthesis in the liver, and bilirubin disrupts 7-α oxidation of cholesterol, a crucial step in bile acid formation. [5] Cholesterol 7-α hydroxylase is the CYP enzyme CYP7A1 and is likely disrupted independently by glyphosate. Therefore, excess Mn in the liver works synergistically with glyphosate to induce cholestasis.
The incorporation of cholesterol products into exported bile acids is crucial for regulating cholesterol homeostasis. [205] Bile acid transport depends on ATP, [203] so mitochondrial disruption due to oxidation damage consequential to excess Mn could contribute to disturbed bile acid export, leading again to cholestasis. In vitro experiments exposing rat H9c2 cells to glyphosate plus the surfactant TN-20, which is a polyoxyethylene tallow amine commonly used in glyphosate herbicides, demonstrated that the surfactant in conjunction with glyphosate causes collapse of the mitochondrial membrane potential, leading to necrosis and apoptosis. [147]
Even in the absence of a catastrophic death cascade, a drop in mitochondrial membrane potential would obviously negatively impact ATP production. The effect could be due in part to polyoxyethylenealkylamine (POEA), which includes polyethoxylated tallow amine surfactants that enable glyphosate to penetrate the mitochondrial membrane. [188] But, in addition, excess Mn, which would accumulate due to the lack of bile flow, itself induces a collapse in mitochondrial membrane potential. [137]
Intracellular accumulation of bile acids, associated with cholestasis, is known to be toxic to hepatocytes. The accumulation of bile acids in the cholestatic liver induces oxidative stress and apoptosis, resulting in damage to the liver parenchyma, and, ultimately, extrahepatic tissues as well. [180] The lipophilic bile acids are much more damaging than the hydrophilic ones, [15]and they can induce proton leakage and the permeability transition pore (PTP), resulting in programmed cellular death. [237]Their toxic effect is directly due to their role as surfactants. [180] Therefore, they enhance the effects of the surfactants in Roundup ® , acting in a cascade reaction.
On the other hand, the hydrophilic bile acid, ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), is protective, and its protective effects have been proposed to be due to its ability to induce the expression of CYP3A4, a bile-metabolizing enzyme, in hepatocytes. [11]Hydroxylation, which depends on CYP enzymes, converts lipophilic compounds into hydrophilic products. So one can expect that, in the context of the CYP-enzyme suppressing effects of glyphosate, [248],[249] lipophilic bile acids would accumulate in hepatocytes, and their export would be impeded by the loss of ATP subsequent to mitochondrial damage, in a positive feedback loop.
Another enzyme class that was discovered to be downregulated in the liver by glyphosate in the goldfish study is GST, an important class of enzymes. The main function of the GST enzymes is the detoxification of electrophilic xenobiotics by GSH conjugation. [275] Beyond their important role in the detoxification of xenobiotics, gene variants where the enzyme is inactive are associated with increased risk to basal cell carcinoma, and a gain-of-function mutation leads to decreased risk to asthma.[275] Arsenic, whose toxicity is synergistically enhanced by glyphosate [132] is a risk factor for basal cell carcinoma. [62]
Asthma is reaching epidemic proportions today [91] and is associated with autism. [24],[25] GST is increasingly recognized as an important enzyme in gut bacteria, which allows them to assist in the detoxification of xenobiotics. [7]
One final factor in cholestasis is vitamin K deficiency, which is associated with cholestatic liver disease. [278] Chorismate, the intermediary in the shikimate pathway whose synthesis is blocked by glyphosate, is a precursor not only for the three aromatic amino acids but also for tetrahydrofolate and phylloquinone (vitamin K1) in plants. [294] Similarly, menaquinone (vitamin K2) is synthesized by bacteria from chorismate. [27] Thus, disruption of the shikimate pathway contributes to vitamin K deficiency, which can lead to cholestasis.
Salmonella Infection
Salmonella infections often originate from contamination of plant-based foods exposed to manure of chickens and pigs. A study on poultry showed that Salmonella entritidis, Salmonella galliarum, and Salmonella typhimurium were all highly resistant to glyphosate compared with other more benign species. [263]
Our research into the pathology of Salmonella has uncovered a complex interplay of many factors that may be responsible for the epidemic, which includes an important role for Mn, as well as a role for industrial processing of lecithin from soy, and bile acid disruption by glyphosate. Commercial lecithin is a mixture of phospholipids and various metabolites, often derived from soy.
In food processing, phospholipase A (PLA) is applied enzymatically to hydrolyze phospholipids in lecithin into lysophospholipids and fatty acids, in order to improve its emulsification, surfactant, and lubricant properties. [97] This may be a factor in inducing both increased virulence and an inflammatory response to Salmonella in the gut, contributing to inflammatory bowel disease.
Salmonella depend on cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) for flagella formation, and therefore for motility. [318]Salmonella possess a lysophospholipid sensing mechanism that triggers the synthesis of flagellin, mediated by cAMP, and this activates toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5) in macrophages, inducing an inflammatory response. [279] Experiments have shown, as might be expected, that flagella, produced from flagellin, not only enhance mobility but also protect S. typhimurium from internal death in macrophages and enhance their ability to multiply within an infected cell. [306]
Salmonella are remarkably resilient in an inflammatory environment, and, in a novel strategy for survival in a hostile environment, they take advantage of tetrathionate produced from oxidation of thiosulfate by ROS as a terminal electron acceptor in processing ethanolamine derived from host lysophospholipids as a source of energy not available to other microbes. [8],[313] They can also uniquely use a glycated L-asparagine (fructose-asparagine, F-asn) as a source of both carbon and nitrogen. [8] Concentrations of F-asn, an Amadori product, are surprisingly high in heated fruits and vegetables. [92]
It has only recently been appreciated that Mn plays an important role in the virulence of Salmonella. [144] Salmonella depend on Mn to resist the oxidative attack of macrophages via Mn-SOD. [292] Since glyphosate's chelation of Mn makes it unavailable to gut bacteria, a mystery arises as to how Salmonella might acquire adequate Mn for defense against oxidative damage. Salmonella possess a Mn uptake system based on a protein that is homologous to eukaryotic Nramp transporters. This protein, MntH, is a proton-dependent metal transporter that is highly selective for Mn 2+ over Fe 2+ , [144] or any other cation. Intracellular Mn 2+ can accumulate in millimolar amounts even when environmental Mn 2+ is scarce.
A feature unique to Salmonella is that they are especially adept at binding to cholesterol in the gall bladder, particularly in association with gallstones, and they also possess adaptive responses that allow them to survive the harsh environment of the bile acid milieu, as well as the highly acidic environment of the stomach. [9] In fact, studies have shown that they can survive a lower pH environment than either Shigella flexneri or E. coli. [167]
Several different species of Salmonella can form biofilms on human gallstones, which is dependent upon the presence of bile.[222],[74] Since bile is an excellent source of Mn, and glyphosate's chelation of Mn is dependent on a basic environment, they could accumulate Mn while resident in the bile acids present in the gallstones. Bile acids offer antibacterial defenses, but Salmonella have developed resistance genes to protect them from bile acids. [123] In association with gallstones, S. typhicolonize the human gallbladder and persist in an asymptomatic carrier state. [9],[187] Thus, impaired bile acid flow due to glyphosate would promote both gallstones and microbial growth.
Fibrates are hypolipidemic agents that are known to suppress bile acid synthesis via suppression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPAR-γ). [220] Studies on humans exposed to fibrates have shown reduced activity of cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase (CYP7A1), leading to reduced bile acid production, and concurrent increased risk of gallstones. [271],[31] Thus, it is plausible that Salmonella are able as well to gain a foothold on the gallstones caused by suppression of bile-acid production by glyphosate due to CYP enzyme inactivation, and they are able to take up Mn in the immobilized bile acids and utilize it for Mn-SOD production, protecting them from oxidative attack by macrophages.
The pathogen responsible for Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi, is also uniquely dependent on Mn, [4] and the disruption of Mn homeostasis by glyphosate may therefore play a role in its emergence.
Chondroitin Sulfate, Osteomalacia and Arthritis
Samsel and Seneff [248],[249] proposed that the current vitamin D deficiency epidemic is caused by glyphosate, due to glyphosate's interference with CYP enzymes. The metabolite that is usually measured, 25-hydroxy vitamin D, is the product of activation in the liver by a CYP enzyme that is also critical in bile acid formation. However, there is a larger problem with bone development due to impaired Mn homeostasis.
Bone mineralization depends critically on Mn, due to its essential role in chondroitin sulfate synthesis. [36],[158] Several enzymes in the osteoblasts needed for this crucial step in bone development require Mn as a cofactor, including the polymerase, which polymerizes uridine diphosphate N-acetyle-galactosamine (UDP-N-acetyl-galactosamine) and UDP-glucuronic acid to form the polysaccharide, and galactotransferase, which incorporates galactose from UDP-galactose into the trisaccharide that links the polysaccharide to the glycosylated protein. [157],[158]
Chondroitin sulfate, together with osteocalcin, forms the ground substance to which collagen adheres to maintain healthy bone, ligaments and cartilage. Sulfate uptake by GAGs in chicks fed a Mn deficient diet was only 50% of that in control chicks, and the deficient chicks suffered from growth retardation and skeletal abnormalities. [36]
Osteoarthritis is another pathology likely related to Mn deficiency, impaired chondroitin sulfate synthesis and impaired vitamin D activation. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with rheumatoid arthritis. [207] Mn is necessary for the synthesis of GAGs or mucopolysaccharides, [156],[254] which provide lubrication and protection for the joints.
Rheumatoid arthritis is associated with Mn accumulation in the liver, [72] which is consistent with impaired bile flow. Glucosamine sulfate has been demonstrated to be effective in treating osteoarthritis, and it may even delay disease progression. [259] A combination therapy of glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, and Mn ascorbate was shown to be effective in treating knee osteoarthritis in a placebo-controlled study conducted on US Navy specialists. [160]
A mysterious epidemic of a new disease, called "sea star wasting syndrome," is currently sweeping across the Pacific coast of North America, affecting at least 12 different species of sea stars. [307] We highly suspect that glyphosate plays an important role in this disease, and that it does so by chelating Mn, and therefore disrupting chondroitin sulfate synthesis. A likely source is Roundup ® applied to oyster beds to kill the invading sea grass, since oysters are a common food for sea stars. [118]
The state of Massachusetts was forced to close oyster beds in Edgartown on Cape Cod recently, due to infection with a pathogen, Vibrio parahaemolyticus. [214] This species synthesizes an N-acetyl transferase (NAT) protein, which is capable of detoxifying glyphosate by acetylating the nitrogen moiety, [58] and this could explain its overgrowth as being linked to glyphosate contamination. An analysis of the GAGs isolated from brittle stars showed exceptionally high proportions of di- and trisulfated chondroitin sulfate/dermatan sulfate disaccharides, [233] whose synthesis would be severely impaired by Mn deficiency due to chelation by glyphosate.
A protective layer of mucopolysaccharides called mucus is secreted by corals, and it has been characterized as containing sulfated glycoproteins similar to chondroitin sulfate, [44] which play an important role in controlling pH and the transepithelial movement of electrolytes and water, just as is the case in vertebrate mucosa. Mucus pathology is implicated in coral disease leading to mortality, particularly in the Caribbean. [219] Thus, an interesting hypothesis that should be considered is that glyphosate chelation of Mn is a crucial factor in the worldwide coral die-off.
Parkinson's Disease
Our investigations into the body's mechanisms for transporting Mn has revealed a likely pathway from the liver to the brain that would induce Mn toxicity in the brainstem nuclei whenever Mn is plentiful but glyphosate is also present.
A strong clue comes from the condition, "manganism," closely resembling PD, which develops following chronic occupational exposure to airborne nanoparticles containing Mn. [163],[172],[244] In addition to evidence from direct occupational exposure, geographical studies in the US have shown a higher incidence of PD in urban areas with higher industrial release of Mn. [312]
The fact that death from PD has increased in the past two decades in step with glyphosate usage on corn and soy suggests that there may be a role for glyphosate to play in Parkinson's pathology [Figure 4]. A case of accidental acute exposure to glyphosate through skin contact showed a remarkable development of Parkinsonian symptoms beginning just 1 month following exposure. [20] T2-weighted images revealed a hyperintense signal in the globus pallidus and substantia nigra. Another case study involved a 44-year-old female who developed PD after a 3-year period of job-related exposure at a chemical plant.[304]
Glyphosate has also been shown to induce Parkinsonian-like effects in the worm, Caenorhabditis elegans, characterized by damage to both GABAergic and dopaminergic neurons. [201] The mechanism behind this effect remains obscure. However, a Mn-containing fungicide, MANCOZEB, ethylene bisdithio-carbamate, also induced similar damage.
An experiment where rats were exposed to Mn via intranasal instillation demonstrated that the Mn could enter the brain through the olfactory bulbs by following major neuronal pathways. [291] Mn migrated via both secondary and tertiary olfactory pathways and beyond to ultimately reach most parts of the brain and the spinal cord. By contrast, cadmium was unable to pass through synaptic junctions and was therefore limited in its penetration.
These authors concluded that the olfactory nerve is the likely pathway by which Mn gains access to the brain in manganism, thus circumventing the blood-brain barrier. Autoradiographic studies tracking the distribution of radiolabeled Mn injected into rat brain verified that Mn is subject to widespread axonal transport in neuronal circuits. [283]
Elder et al. [94] reinforced this idea, in a study involving exposure of rats to ultrafine particles (UFPs) of inhaled Mn oxide. Their conclusion sums up the situation quite well: "We conclude from our studies that the olfactory neuronal pathway represents a significant exposure route of central nervous system (CNS) tissue to inhaled solid Mn oxide UFPs. In rats, which are obligatory nose breathers, translocation of inhaled nanosized particles along neurons seems to be a more efficient pathway to the CNS than via the blood circulation across the blood-brain barrier. Given that this neuronal translocation pathway was also demonstrated in nonhuman primates, it is likely to be operative in humans as well." [94],[ p. 1178]
Manganism is distinct from PD mainly in that it is the locus coeruleus that is preferentially damaged rather than the substantia nigra. [216] In the rat, at least 40% of all locus coeruleus neurons project to the olfactory bulb. [266] Since glyphosate likely interferes with the normal recycling of Mn via the bile acids, the liver will need to find an alternative route to dispose of excess Mn. Following the example of nerve-fiber migration from the olfactory bulb, [291] and the study on injected Mn, [283] a likely path is the vagus nerve, which has extensive innervation in the liver, with 10 times as many afferent nerves as efferent nerves, and particularly concentrated on the outer surface of the bile ducts. [30]
MRI abnormalities indicative of Mn toxicity in the globi pallidi and substantia nigra were noted in three cases of patients with liver disease. [120] PD is associated with nonmotor symptoms that often precede the movement impairment aspects. [320] These include depression and gastrointestinal disturbances.
Berthoud et al. [30] proposed that the onset of PD may be associated with impairment of the vagus nerve, and subsequent functional inhibition of the dopamine system. Clinical trials have revealed pathological alteration of the vagus nerve in PD patients. [218] The dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus is an early site of pathology. [38] Liver failure can lead to excessive build-up of Mn in the brainstem, particularly the globus pallidus in the basal ganglia, which regulates voluntary movement. This is due primarily to decreased billiary excretion from the liver, [99],[131] as bile acids recycle Mn back to the gut, where it is taken up by gut bacteria or disposed of.
Liver cirrhosis is associated with excess Mn in the brain and associated Parkinsonian symptoms. [99] Mn neurotoxicity in the basal ganglia causing Parkinsonian symptoms has also been identified in association with chronic liver failure. [150] Despite the fact that Mn is an essential cofactor for glutamine synthase, excess Mn actually downregulates expression and activity of the enzyme, causing neuropathology. Its toxicity is linked to disruption of the cycling between astrocytes and neurons of glutamine, glutamate, and GABA. [267]
Mn inhibits ATP-dependent calcium signaling in astrocytes, which likely contributes to the toxic effects of excess Mn on neurons. [277] Decreased bile flow associated with the birth defect, biliary atresia, leads to Mn accumulation in the liver [23] and in the globus pallidus. [130]
As discussed previously, bile acid synthesis and export are disrupted by glyphosate and by surfactants, which is also a common effect of many toxic chemicals whose detoxification would be impaired by glyphosate's disruption of CYP enzymes. [248]
A study using MRI technology to detect Mn distribution in the brain in marmosets and rats following Mn injections revealed an accumulation in the basal ganglia as well as other parts of the brain that were situated near the ventricles, suggesting redistribution via the cerebrospinal fluid. [33] There was also considerable liver damage, especially in the marmosets, including hemosiderosis, congestion, and hepatic necrosis. Marmosets were far more susceptible than rats to Mn toxicity.
Both the substantia nigra and the locus coeruleus are characterized by high concentrations of neuromelanin. While it is unclear what role neuromelanin plays, one hypothesis is that it carries a protective action through its unique ability to accumulate and retain various amines and metallic cations, especially Mn. [168] The neuromelanin produced by the substantia nigra is closely related to dopamine, and therefore derived from tyrosine.
The locus coeruleus' melanin is related to noradrenaline, and therefore derived from tryptophan. Both tyrosine and tryptophan are products of the shikimate pathway, and are therefore likely to be deficient in the context of glyphosate exposure to plants and microbes. This would result in a reduced ability to temporarily house excess Mn in the brainstem nuclei until it can be disposed of.
Glyphosate itself likely also contributes directly to PD. PD is caused by degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, attributed to mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, and protein aggregation. [79],[251] PC12 cells are a popular model cell line for investigating neurological disease, and they produce dopamine in vesicles, as is appropriate for cells from the substantia nigra. A study on PC12 cells exposed to glyphosate demonstrated that glyphosate induced cell death via autophagy pathways as well as apoptotic pathways. [115]
A study on serum Mn levels in infants and their association with neurodevelopment revealed a U-shaped curve, with both too little and too much Mn leading to impaired development. [67] This study was conducted on children born in Mexico City between 1997 and 2000. We hypothesize that extreme sensitivity to Mn levels can be expected in the context of glyphosate, because it would prevent the liver from disposing of Mn via the bile acids, and therefore cause a flooding of the brainstem nuclei with excess Mn delivered via the vagus nerve.
At the same time, Mn uptake into the blood stream from the gut is suppressed, both because of glyphosate's chelation of Mn at higher pH and the impaired recycling to the gut from the liver. This can lead to a paradoxical situation in which the brainstem nuclei are overwhelmed with Mn while the precortex and cortex are deprived because of the low bioavailability from the blood stream.
One might postulate that seizures play a role in enhancing Mn redistribution from the brainstem to the cortex by mobilizing Mn transport along axons, and this effect might therefore explain the benefit of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to depression. [16]
Dopamine suppresses thyroid stimulating hormone, and therefore dopamine insufficiency can lead to overactive thyroid and potential burnout of the thyroid gland. [270] This problem is compounded by the fact that thyroid hormone itself is derived from tyrosine, one of the three aromatic amino acids that are negatively impacted by glyphosate through disruption of the shikimate pathway. The thyroid gland also depends critically on selenoproteins as antioxidants. [249]
Glyphosate's depletion of both selenium and methionine will lead to reduced bioavailability of selenoproteins. It is conceivable that all of these factors working together can explain the strong correlation of glyphosate application to corn and soy with thyroid cancer [Figure 7], as well as the association between maternal thyroid disease and autism. [238]
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Prion Diseases and Manganese
Prion proteins have been shown to bind Cu in vivo, [46] and this is probably an important factor in their normal functioning. Cu protects against conversion of prions to the pathogenic form, and studies have shown that gene variants with extra octarepeat inserts exhibit decreased Cu binding in association with markedly increased disease risk. [272]
A theory first proposed by Purdey [228],[229] is that the prion protein misfolds following binding to Mn instead of Cu. The pathology is then explained by a high Mn to Cu ratio in the diet. Brown et al. [45] investigated metal binding properties of prion proteins, and demonstrated that prions only bind to Cu and Mn. Furthermore, Mn binding induces a resistance to protein degradation by protease, a characteristic feature of prion diseases. Aging of the Mn-bound version of prion proteins leads to loss of function. A later experiment demonstrated that Mn promotes prion protein aggregation. [161] Thus, Mn is causal in the formation of fibrils characteristic of the scrapie isoform of the protein in prion diseases.
The possible link between excess Mn and prion diseases was also supported in a later study by Masánová et al., [181] who compared different regions of the Slovak republic and found a correlation between an elevated Mn/Cu ratio in core food items such as potato and bread, as well as in the soil, and a higher incidence of CJD.
Mn-SOD-/- mice die between days 3 and 13 following birth. They exhibit a marked dilated cardiomyopathy, neurodegeneration and fatty liver disease. [159],[164] Mn 5, 10, 15, 20-tetrakis (4-benzoic acid) porphyrin (MnTBAP) rescues mice from this pathology and dramatically improves their lifespan. It operates at 10% of the efficiency of Mn-SOD to oxidize superoxide to H2 O 2 . However, these supplemented mice develop a spongiform encephalopathy very similar to CJD. [186] This is most likely caused by excess delivery of Mn to the brain by the MnTBAP.
Purdey [227] has noted that madcow disease epidemiology aligned with the regulatory requirement to apply the organo phthalimido-phosphorus insecticide, phosmet, on the backs of cattle, for the control of warble fly during the 1980s. He maintained that phosmet chelated Cu in the CNS, but also caused oxidation of Mn to Mn 3+ , leading to its toxicity. Like glyphosate, phosmet also disrupts CYP enzyme function, [262] which would lead to a similar disabling of bile acids.
New experimental data support the idea that the class of prion diseases should be expanded to include AD, PD, and related tauopathies. [224] Indeed, it has been proposed that Cu deficiency may be a factor in AD. [149] Glyphosate chelates Cu down to much lower pH values than those at which it chelates Mn [173],[296] [Figure 8], and it has also been shown to oxidize Mn to the +3 oxidation state. [21] Thus, one can surmise that glyphosate might behave similarly to both phosmet and MnTBAP to be causal in prion diseases.
In the pH 4 environment adjacent to the sulfates in the glycocalyx, Mn, but not Cu, would be released by glyphosate. Abundant bioavailability of Mn 3+ alongside Cu deficiency further aggravated by glyphosate could set up a situation whereby excess Mn supplied to the neurons in the cortex, bound to glyphosate, over-competes with Cu in binding to prion protein. One can predict that glyphosate's tenacious binding to Cu will render Cu systemically unavailable, which argues for a role for glyphosate in prion diseases through Cu binding. [45],[228],[229]
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MN and Infertility
Acute treatment of 60-day-old male Sprague-Dawley rats to Roundup ® caused a marked increase in aromatase mRNA in testicular tissue, [56]likely reflecting an increase in production due to suppression of the activity of aromatase (CYP 19), accompanied by abnormal sperm morphology. Aromatase participates in both hormone synthesis and metabolism. It is an important enzyme in testes that converts testosterone to estrogen, thus regulating the balance of sex hormones.
In vitro studies on Sertoli cells from mouse testis demonstrated that glyphosate opens L-type voltage-dependent calcium channels, leading to calcium-overload cell death. [83] However, glyphosate's disruption of the supply of Mn to sperm may be a more important factor leading to infertility, due to immobilization of the sperm. Sperm are critically dependent on Mn for their motility.
Mammalian sperm contain a distinctive form of Mn-dependent adenylate cyclase, which first appears during development in seminiferous tubules simultaneously with the appearance of spermatid cells. [39] It is expressed at the highest levels following sexual maturity. Adenylate cyclase catalyzes the synthesis of cAMP. Bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella typhimurium depend on cAMP for flagella formation, and therefore for motility. [318] cAMP-dependent phosphorylation has been linked to activation of motility in sperm flagella from sea squirts [209] and from dogs. [287] Human sperm also depend on cAMP for increased flagellar motility. [210],[303]
A study on zebrafish demonstrated that glyphosate exposure at concentrations of 5 and 10 mg/L over a 24-h time period reduced sperm motility. [170] Mn stimulated the progressive motility of human sperm in a time- and dose-dependent manner, and this was linked to adenyl cyclase activity. [178] The decrease in male fertility levels today in the industrialized world [111] may therefore be explained by Mn deficiency.
Evidence of Exposure
A recently published study by Shehata et al. [264] showed that glyphosate residues can be found in the organs and muscles of chickens that consume glyphosate in their feed, including the liver, spleen, lung, intestine, heart, and kidney. All animals fed a diet contaminated by glyphosate would be subject to such bioaccumulation due to the molecule's ability to act as an attaching ligand. Feed supplementation with humic acid was able to significantly reduce the glyphosate burden in tissues.
A recent paper by Nevison [202] investigated temporal trends in autism since 1988 to assess to what degree the recent observed rate increases are due to increased diagnosis versus increased incidence. She concluded that increased incidence accounts for 75-80% of the tracked increase.
She also investigated trend lines for a variety of environmental toxicants potentially implicated in autism. She wrote in the abstract: "Among the suspected toxins surveyed, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, aluminum adjuvants, and the herbicide glyphosate have increasing trends that correlate positively to the rise in autism." As we have stated earlier, glyphosate and aluminum are synergistically toxic.
There has been very little testing of glyphosate levels in either humans or other mammals. Glyphosate is passed in both the urine and the feces. Recent research from Europe has shown that glyphosate is consistently present in significant amounts in the urine of cows consuming Roundup®-Ready feed, as well as in the organs and meat of cattle. [153]
Furthermore, they also detected glyphosate in the urine of humans, and the generally healthy population had significantly lower levels than the sick population. Those consuming a predominantly organic diet also had a significantly lower glyphosate burden. Another study found detectable levels of glyphosate in lungs, liver, kidney, brain, gut wall, and heart of malformed euthanized 1-day-old Danish piglets, and the authors proposed that glyphosate could be the cause of the deformities. [155]
Conclusion
We have shown that glyphosate's disruption of Mn homeostasis can lead to extreme sensitivity to variations in Mn bioavailability: While Mn deficiency in the blood leads to impairment of several Mn dependent enzymes, in contrast, excess Mn readily accumulates in the liver and in the brainstem due to the liver's impaired ability to export it in the bile acids. This pathology can lead to liver damage and PD.
Mn depletion in the gut due to chelation by glyphosate selectively affects Lactobacillus, leading to increased anxiety via the gut-brain access. Both low Lactobacillus levels in the gut and anxiety syndrome are known features of autism, and Lactobacillus probiotic treatments have been shown to alleviate anxiety.
Increased incidence of Salmonella poisoning can also be attributed to glyphosate, through its impairment of bile acid synthesis. Low Mn bioavailability from the blood supply to the brain leads to impaired function of glutamine synthase and a build-up of glutamate and ammonia in the brain, both of which are neurotoxic.
Excess brain glutamate and ammonia are associated with many neurological diseases. At the same time, impaired function of Mn-SOD in the mitochondria results in mitochondrial damage, also a hallmark of many neurological diseases.
Mn deficiency can account for poor sperm motility and therefore low fertilization rates, as well as poor bone development leading to osteoporosis and osteomalacia.
Sea star wasting syndrome and the collapse of coral reefs may in fact be an ecological consequence of the environmental pervasiveness of the herbicide.
Many diseases and conditions are currently on the rise in step with glyphosate usage in agriculture, particularly on GM crops of corn and soy. These include autism, AD, PD, anxiety disorder, osteoporosis, inflammatory bowel disease, renal lithiasis, osteomalacia, cholestasis, thyroid dysfunction, and infertility. All of these conditions can be substantially explained by the dysregulation of Mn utilization in the body due to glyphosate.
Acknowledgments
This work was funded in part by Quanta Computers, Taipei, Taiwan, under the auspices of the Qmulus Project. The authors thank Dr. Nancy Swanson for providing the plots showing correlations over time of multiple diseases and conditions with glyphosate usage on corn and soy in the US.
Commentary
Glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH) are the major pesticides used worldwide. Initially patented as a metal ion chelator, glyphosate rapidly jumped to a leading position as an active ingredient of commercial pesticides from the 1970s when Monsanto discovered its herbicidal activities.
The herbicidal mode of action of glyphosate is primarily to inhibit the shikimic acid pathway, [322] causing a shortage of aromatic amino acids. Since this biochemical pathway does not exist in vertebrates, it is generally assumed that glyphosate is safe for mammals, including humans. [328]
As a consequence, GBH are used in private gardens, city parks and along roads and railway lines, as well as within an agricultural context on food and feed crops. All these diverse applications of GBH have resulted in escalating levels of human exposure and thus body burden.
Glyphosate is an aminophosphonic analog of glycine. The fact that glycine and other amino acids like glutamate function as neurotransmitters and play a crucial role in brain function, makes the potential neurotoxic effects of glyphosate a matter of concern. [325] The potential of glyphosate to act as a neurotoxin is further supported by its structural similarity to the glutamate receptor agonist 2-amino-3-phosphonopropionic acid.
Indeed, GBH exposure induces glutamate excitotoxicity through L-VDCC and NMDA receptor activation in immature rat hippocampus, by reducing glutamate uptake and metabolism within glial cells, and by increasing glutamate release in the synaptic cleft. [323] However, the lack of esterase inhibition by glyphosate (the neurotoxic mechanism of most organophosphate compounds), was considered by regulatory authorities as sufficient grounds to avoid having to undertake a complete assessment of glyphosate's neurological effects. [326]
The most recent reevaluation of the acceptable daily intake (ADI) for glyphosate within the European Union (EU) conducted by the German regulatory agency (BfR), states that this has been determined by scrutiny of approximately 450 regulatory toxicological studies and 900 publications from the scientific literature. [324]
Based on the review of all these investigations, the BfR concluded that the "no observed adverse effect level" of glyphosate was in the region of 30-50 mg/kg body weight (bw) per day in rats and the ADI was thus calculated at 0.5 mg/kg bw/day, which constitutes a recommended increase from the current 0.3 mg/kg bw/day. However, these glyphosate ADI values have previously been challenged as review of the same studies and especially extending to feeding studies in animals other than rats, suggested that the current ADI of 0.3 mg/kg bw/day was at least three times higher than what the data suggest should be the case. [321]
Nevertheless, with a review of such a relatively large number of studies by the official regulatory authorities, the assessment of the toxicological effects of glyphosate is being considered as complete. The notional strength of glyphosate's safety profile has also resulted in it being neglected in some national wide-scale toxicity testing schemes such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ToxCast program.
However, a debate continues as to the soundness of this BfR-led assessment as the studies taken into account were performed with an experimental design adapted to the study of poisoning effects based on the principle of "the dose makes the poison"; that is, the higher the dose the greater the poisoning effect. Of major concern is that none of the studies referred to incorporated testing principles derived from a contemporary understanding of (neuro) endocrinology or developmental epigenetics.
In the classic theory of toxicology, as applied for the study of glyphosate toxicity at a regulatory level, a nontoxic threshold is evidenced by decreasing the level of exposure and assuming that toxic effects observed are a linear response to the dose. Lower doses corresponding to environmental exposures are assumed to be safe and are not tested.
However, in contrast to a classical poison, an endocrine disruptive chemical (EDC) will alter the functioning of hormonal systems and induce adverse effects at various dosage levels. Such EDC effects will, in some cases, occur in a nonlinear (non-monotonic) manner at environmentally relevant levels of exposure and will not be observed at higher doses.
In addition and not surprisingly, EDC effects can be sex-specific in nature. Such nonmonotonic and sex-specific EDC effects have been extensively described for common pollutants. [327] Although nonmonotonic and sex-specific effects have been reported in many cases with GBH, the regulatory authorities considered these as false positive outcomes rather than a suggestion of potential EDC effects. [324]
Major endpoints of toxicity such as neurodevelopmental, reproductive, and transgenerational effects in humans still needs to be investigated at the glyphosate ADI and other concentrations reflective of human levels of exposure.
Given its increasing wide-scale use and consequent rise in exposure, we urgently call for greater research efforts on the toxicology of glyphosate and its commercial herbicide formulations, as well as pesticide neurodevelopmental effects in general.
Furthermore, pesticide combinatorial (additive or synergistic) effects remain a poorly investigated subject and area of concern that needs to be addressed. Such studies are particularly relevant to the brain since it is physiologically dependent on neurosteroids, making it potentially very sensitive to endocrine disruptive compounds.
Robin Mesnage, Michael N. Antoniou
Gene Expression and Therapy Group, King's College London, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, 8 th Floor, Tower Wing, Guy's Hospital, Great Maze Pond, London, SE1 9RT, UK. E-mail: *Michael N. Antoniou - michael.antoniou@kcl.ac.uk
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!
I wanted to add this onto this thread because I'd initially learned of Ojibwa Tea of Life from the work of Shuana Young. I guess most people had learned about it in cancer circles, and autism circles seem very familiar with Essiac -- a native herbal mix that groundbreaking nurse Rene Caisse learned of in Canada, then used with people with cancer successfully. She endured all kinds of what I call monkeybusiness related to trying to get the information to the public at large; it's a great story.
So I was curious about the use of Ojibwa Tea of Life with detoxification for those with 'the stuff', such as 'autism' in children is often diagnosed. There was information at the OToL website indicating they've been collaborating with people in the autism organizations to study its application with this type of symptom of 'the stuff' we all have. Here's a link: www.ojibwatea.com/resources/autism-resources/ . Naturally there are many ways of obtaining or making the Essiac, and the Internet has quite a few resources. I got to read a book about Essiac this week, it was the third time in as many months someone had brought it up and thankfully this time the person had a book which was interesting reading.
I learned at this link a little different version of the history of Rene Caisse (and the pronunciation of her name, which is 'reen case'' by the way, see below). I'm so glad that I looked for information about it, because I'd presumed that Dr Young might say something about using Ojibwa Tea of Life with her patients with 'the stuff' commonly called 'autism'.
Here's a bit of what you'll find there, so you know why I'm suggesting taking the trip to go see what they say. I suggest you also take the link there to see what they say is different about their version :
Essiac. What a funny-looking word! Who made that up, and what in the world is “essiac” tea anyway?
This blend of tea has its origins in a mining community in Canada. A nurse by the name of Rene Caisse (pronounced reen case) was working there in the early 1900s. She found that a miner’s wife, who had been suffering from a serious illness, was seemingly cured after taking an old Native American herbal recipe given by an “old Indian medicine man.”
Caisse experimented with this herbal blend, and she soon found that it seemed to promote wellness in her patients. Many of her patients reported feeling more healthy, and some living with terminal illness reported that the tea made their condition more bearable.
Nurse Caisse gave the formula the name essiac (pronounced ess-ee-ack), which is her own last name spelled backward.
So what’s in essiac tea?
Many companies out there include all sorts of herbs in their blend. We at Ojibwa Tea of Life use the original, 4-herb recipe. Some of you may have heard that Nurse Caisse used more herbs than that; and while it’s true that she experimented with adding other herbs, she kept coming back to the same 4-herb formula as the most efficacious.
These herbs are:
Each herb by itself has many wonderful health-enhancing properties. We’ll look at each one in detail in future posts.
Herbology 101 tells us that when herbs are brought together into a formula, they become something more than the sum of their parts. They enhance each other and work together, providing more health benefit than if they were taken separately.
Essiac tea is our foundational product. While we offer several other herbal and natural products to promote your health, essiac is our crown jewel. Our company name, Ojibwa Tea of Life, comes from the Ojibwa (or Ojibwe, also known as Chippewa) – a nation of several Native American tribes who lived in the region of the great lakes, and the source of the essiac recipe.
Next time, we’ll take a look at the properties of Sheep Sorrel, and we’ll find out why our essiac stands apart from other blends in the market.
Essiac - A Native Herbal Cancer Remedy, by Cynthia Olsen (Winner of Small Press Book Award in Health, Medicine and Nutrition. Published by Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin. Copyright 1996. Revised 1998.
... the first words you have available to read when you open the cover is:
Then after more endorsement statements, it goes onto the requisite caution and disclaimer, which related that unquestionably, many have been helped by Essiac, and crediting Rene Caisse (again, pronounced Rene Case per a website resource I referred to before related to a brand of Essiac called Ojibwa Tea of Life). It relates that almost 400 people were ready to testify at a Cancer Commission hearing in Toronto in 1939 that they had been restored to health by Essiac. "Often those who were helped by this simple herbal tea tried it as a last resulrt afer little or no success with conventional methods. And, unlike mainstream therapies, the mixture seems totally harmless and non-toxic. Each of the herbs in Essiac has been used as food.
It must be emphasized, however, that Essiac may not help you, your friend, or your loved one with cancer. We live in complicated, challenging times and an increasingly toxic environment. We are also learning that stress, along with mental and emotional imbalance, may be the real cause of much dis-ease.
Our task was simply to compile and present some of the available information about the basic herbal forumula called Essiac. The name Essiac is simply Caisse spelled backwards."
They go on to say they're not endorsing anything, it's for education, consult your providers, etc. ... the usual forewarnings necessary with such information anymore. Then they cite the cancer rates for the US starting in 1900 (63 per 100,000 people), 103:100,000 in 1926, then by 1993 half a million in the US died from cancer (but how many was that per 100,000, why not do the math for us?). The American Cancer Society cited statistics for 1996 with 1.5M diagnosed that year -- prostate for men and breast for women being leaders of the list. "Although there are a multitude of factors that may create cancer, there isn't a magic bullet that can deal with cancer .... Essiac is to be viewed as not a universal cure but a recognized historic use of herbs."
I want to provide what is said in the acknowledgements as well, because I think it says a lot about the book's author and the process that she relates in the book to how she came to learn of this herbal remedy and got involved, leading to the book which I now hold in my hands (until I return it to the person who loaned it to me with a big THANK YOU!). Bolding added by me...
The contents reveals covering the history of Essiac, testimonials, herbs and healing, The Essiac Herbs, The Essiac formula, cancer and lifestyle, the nuts and bolts of cancer and essiac therapy (by Dr Jim chan), the possible missing ingredient (by Christopher Gussa), afterword -- Essiac and the Hopi, glossary, bibliography, resources, index.
Chapter 5 is Essiac Tea Formula and Directions.
Dry Ingredients: Burdock Root (cut) 6.5 cups (52 measuring cup ounces)
Sheep Sorrel (powder) 16.0 ounces (scale weight)
Slippery Elm Bark (powder) 4.0 ounces (scale weight)
Turkey Rhubarb Root (powder) 1.0 ounces (scale weight)
Wet Ingredients: distilled, soldium-free distilled, spring, or thoroughly filtered water
Ingredients' Yields"
Supplies Needed
Note 1 - the sizes of the pots and the number or size of storage containers depends on the amount of tea prepared. Note 2 - Storage containers must be sterilized. Sterilization options (principally for glass bottles and caps): a) Boil for 10 minutes with a little food grade peroxide or Clorox b) Boil bottle caps: put bottles in 250 degree oven for 10 minutes. c) Soak for 5 minutes in 1 ounce 35% food grade hydrogen peroxide and 11 ounces distilled water. d) Soak for 5 minutes in 1/2 teaspoon Clorox and 1 gallon distilled water.
Preparation
Note 1: Essiac contains no preservative agents. If mold should develop, discard immediately. An argument can be made for regrigerating a storage container only when it has been opened, storing the remainder in a cool, dark cupboard.
Directions for Use as a Preventative
Take at bedtime on an empty stomach (at least two hours after eating): 4 tablespoons (2 ounces), warm or cold.
Directions for Use
Take 2 ounces twice a day, two hours before or after eating. Ideally, take in the morning on an empty stomach and wait two hours before eating, and take at bedtime, two hours after eating. Tea can also be diluted with equal parts of water.
Before pouring tea from container, shake gently to mix any sediment that has settled.
Do not microwave.
Notes on Use
If stomach cancer, dilute with equal parts of water.
Though side effects are rare when taking Essiac, there are three general ones...
1) nausea and/or indigestion, generally caused by eating or drinking too soon before or after drinking the tea
2) severe intestinal or digestive discomfort, caused principally because as toxins dissolve, the body tries to eliminate them quickly.
3) an increase in the size of an existing tumor, caused by the metastasized cells gathering at the original site, before the tumor softens and reduces in size.
If discomfort occurs, stop taking the tea for several days until feeling better. Then begin taking it again in half-ounce doses every other day, and gradually increase the interval and dosage to the desired levels.
Then the most interesting (and last page) of the chapter, which is noted to be a contribution from Kendra Whittaker, Clinical Herbalist -- Other herbs that may be added
Dandelion root, which has the capacity to clear obstructions and stimulate the liver to detoxify poisons. It also clears obstructions of the spleen, pancreas, gallbladder, bladder and kidney. The author considers it a specific for high blood pressure, hypglycemia, hyperlipidemia (high blood lipids), sodium retention, elimination of uric acid and diabetes. Considered a blood purifier with high, assailable mineral content. Good for those individuals with a diet high in poor quality fats and proteins with a tendency toward arteriosclerosis in males and gallstones in females.
Mullein flowers - for respiratory ailments, as an expectorant and demulcent for the lungs, urinary irritability, diuretic, lymphatic congestion and as a nervine, astringent and antispasmodic.
Funagreek seeds as a tonic, astringent, demulcent, emollient and expectorant. Useful for all mucus conditions and lung congestion. It helps eliminate excess mucus, is useful for ulcers and inflamed conditions of the stomach and intestines. It is used as a treatment for both gout and diabetes, and the author (Kendra Whittaker) considers it a rejuvenator for the digestion.
Red root -- ability to strengthen intestinal tissues, and many other things I will be directing you to the book as a resource since you've seen what the first two were in more detail, above. Same for the last item:
Ocotillo
Naturally, I'll refer you to www.lotuspress.com as well. I highly encourage finding a copy of this book or the information online from these resources, Cynthia B. Olsen created a really intriguing book which I value and wish to encourage people look to as the wonderful resource I found it to be.
The link to the part of their website that's specifically about this book (which as of April 1, 2015 -- no foolin' -- is still available for $12.50 no less!), is www.lotuspress.com/item.php
~ Mardy
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup®, the most widely used herbicide on the planet.[314] Glyphosate enjoys widespread usage on core food crops, in large part because of its perceived nontoxicity to humans. The adoption of genetically engineered “Roundup®-Ready” corn, soy, canola, cotton, alfalfa, and sugar beets has made it relatively easy to control weeds without killing the crop plant, but this means that glyphosate will be present as a residue in derived foods.
Unfortunately, weeds among GM Roundup®-Ready crops are developing ever-increasing resistance to Roundup®,[107,221] which requires an increased rate of herbicide application.[26] In 1987, glyphosate was the 17th most commonly used herbicide in the United States, but, in large part due to the introduction of glyphosate-resistant core crops, it became the number one herbicide by 2001.[146] Its usage has increased steadily since then, in step with the rise in autism rates. Glyphosate's perceived nontoxicity is predicated on the assumption that our cells do not possess the shikimate pathway, the biological pathway in plants, which is disrupted by glyphosate, and whose disruption is believed to be the most important factor in its toxicity.
It may seem implausible that glyphosate could be toxic to humans, given the fact that government regulators appear nonchalant about steadily increasing residue limits, and that the levels in food and water are rarely monitored by government agencies, presumably due to lack of concern. However, a paper by Antoniou et al.[12] provided a scathing indictment of the European regulatory process regarding glyphosate's toxicity, focusing on potential teratogenic effects. They identified several key factors leading to a tendency to overlook potential toxic effects.
These include using animal studies that are too short or have too few animals to achieve statistical significance, disregarding in vitro studies or studies with exposures that are higher than what is expected to be realistically present in food, and discarding studies that examine the effects of glyphosate formulations rather than pure glyphosate, even though formulations are a more realistic model of the natural setting and are often orders of magnitude more toxic than the active ingredient in pesticides.[189] Regulators also seemed unaware that chemicals that act as endocrine disruptors (such as glyphosate[108]) often have an inverted dose–response relationship, wherein very low doses can have more acute effects than higher doses. Teratogenic effects have been demonstrated in human cell lines.[212] An in vitro study showed that glyphosate in parts per trillion can induce human breast cancer cell proliferation.[289]
Adjuvants in pesticides are synergistically toxic with the active ingredient. Mesnage et al.[189] showed that Roundup® was 125 times more toxic than glyphosate by itself. These authors wrote: “Despite its relatively benign reputation, Roundup® was among the most toxic herbicides and insecticides tested.”[189]
The industry dictates that 3 months is a sufficiently long time to test for toxicity in rodent studies, and as a consequence none of the industry studies have run for longer than 3 months. The only study we are aware of that was a realistic assessment of the long-term effects of GM Roundup®-Ready corn and soy feed on mammals was the study by Séralini et al. that examined the effects on rats fed these foods for their entire life span.[261] This study showed increased risk to mammary tumors in females, as well as kidney and liver damage in the males, and a shortened lifespan in both females and males. These effects occurred both in response to Roundup and to the GM food alone. These effects only began to be apparent after 4 months.
There are multiple pathways by which glyphosate could lead to pathology.[248] A major consideration is that our gut bacteria do have the shikimate pathway, and that we depend upon this pathway in our gut bacteria as well as in plants to supply us with the essential aromatic amino acids, tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine.
Methionine, an essential sulfur-containing amino acid, and glycine, are also negatively impacted by glyphosate. Furthermore, many other biologically active molecules, including serotonin, melatonin, melanin, epinephrine, dopamine, thyroid hormone, folate, coenzyme Q10, vitamin K, and vitamin E, depend on the shikimate pathway metabolites as precursors.
Gut bacteria and plants use exclusively the shikimate pathway to produce these amino acids. In part because of shikimate pathway disruption, our gut bacteria are harmed by glyphosate, as evidenced by the fact that it has been patented as an antimicrobial agent.[298]
Metal chelation and inactivation of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes (which contain heme) play important roles in the adverse effects of glyphosate on humans. A recent study on rats showed that both males and females exposed to Roundup® had 50% reduction in hepatic CYP enzyme levels compared with controls.[156] CYP enzyme dysfunction impairs the liver's ability to detoxify xenobiotics.
A large number of chemicals have been identified as being porphyrinogenic.[77] Rossignol et al.[242] have reviewed the evidence for environmental toxicant exposure as a causative factor in autism, and they referenced several studies showing that urinary excretion of porphyrin precursors to heme is found in association with autism, suggesting impaired heme synthesis. Impaired biliary excretion leads to increased excretion of heme precursors in the urine, a biomarker of multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome.[77] We later discuss the ability of glyphosate to disrupt bile homeostasis, which we believe is a major source of its toxic effects on humans.
Glyphosate is a likely cause of the recent epidemic in celiac disease.[249] Glyphosate residues are found in wheat due to the increasingly widespread practice of staging and desiccation of wheat right before harvest. Many of the pathologies associated with celiac disease can be explained by disruption of CYP enzymes.[156] Celiac patients have a shortened life span, mainly due to an increased risk to cancer, most especially non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which has also been linked to glyphosate.[85,253] Celiac disease trends over time match well with the increase in glyphosate usage on wheat crops.
Glyphosate is also neurotoxic.[59] Its mammalian metabolism yields two products: Aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) and glyoxylate, with AMPA being at least as toxic as glyphosate. Glyoxylate is a highly reactive glycating agent, which will disrupt the function of multiple proteins in cells that are exposed.[90] Glycation has been directly implicated in Parkinson's disease (PD).[57] Glyphosate has been detected in the brains of malformed piglets.[155] In a report produced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), over 36% of 271 incidences involving acute glyphosate poisoning involved neurological symptoms, indicative of glyphosate toxicity in the brain and nervous system.[122]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4392553/
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!
I bring this up so often that I want to have a comment thread with a link to provide to people.
I grew up in a mountain community southwest of Denver which would have, ten years behind my class, one of the two co-creators of the now infamous show South Park . For those who have watched the show enough to know the overall about the overall wellness or lack thereof of the people shown via the cartoon characters, this is a great starting point for me to relate something I personally think is very important information I alone held until I was seeing it's relevance and share it as often as I think appropriate.
My mother became a teacher in the local elementary school when I was of age to be going to school, as I was the youngest. 'Fran' or 'Frannie' depending upon which a person felt like calling her, always 'Mom' to me (never 'Mother' or 'Mommy'), had gotten an art education degree as a young woman and then returned in her early 40s to get a general elementary education degree and certification. She did this through Loretto Heights College SW of Denver in the suburbs 'down in town' from us up in the mountains, in about 1966-68. She substitute taught selectively (she did not like driving), and got a sixth grade teaching job at our school the year I was in third.
A position to teach fourth grade came open for the year I was going to be in fourth grade, but we were 'ability grouped' in those days and she was going to be taking the lowest of the groups, those with the most learning challenges (aside from the students in special education). She'd somehow learned, very early on, about sensory integration, or psych-motor processing problems. Today it's called sensory processing problem or dysfunction, etc., back then and when I would go to occupational therapy school in the mid 1990s, it was still called 'sensory integration disorder'.
So Mom/Fran screened all the third graders in my class and every class after that, until she retired. She'd take the 1/3 of the class that she thought could most benefit from having activities for integrating the senory / psycho-motor system 2-3 times a week in home room. I was a participant in this in terms of helping her build or otherwise obtain when shopping or finding around the house the equipment she paid for out of her own money. She'd have me do the activities, I'm sure she was needing someone to practice on.
There was one girl in all those years of students she screened, who showed no evidence of impairment; otherwise we ALL had more or less a degree of impairment that she could see from the screening, or then with the students she worked with for their fourth grade year. My mother told me it was Shellie, who was in my class, and I've been in more contact with her in recent years than ever due to Facebook. She gave me permission to tell people she was the student, which I have been doing for a long time now.
But it always intrigued me to figure out why Shellie was the stand out with no evidence on a screening of impairment. As I learned more about functional medicine and all the various things which contribute to our wellness or lack thereof, I'd ask her why she thought she was unique back in the 1960s. Today, she is part of a community organization where they're getting more into teaching health recently, and selling products which they utilize around their community. Iodine, colloidal silver, things that I've had on Lumigrate for a while now. I find it so interesting that the 'high group' of students in my elementary has at least two of us rabel rousing in our fifties, spreading the words we are spreading in similar but also very different ways.
So she'd posted something recently about nurses who are unifying to push back about required vaccines in order to be employed in the medical system. I asked Shellie about her vaccine history, and she had the usual vaccines for our day, similar to me. So I asked about other lifestyle things, because I remembered her mother and sibling at least being in the newspaper as being part of 'Grange', which teaches homesteading skills.
My mother had been the canine 4H leader in the community in those years, and I was asking to grow a garden, but she was a big city girl from the south side of Chicago, it took until the 1970s for the wonderful garden to become a reality, which my mother took in the organic direction relatively rapidly. She put in a second garden when I was in college, and sadly died not long after being forced into an early retirement simply because she was doing something outside the mandated curriculum the administration provided.
Rather than be fired, she retired earlier than desired, and had to sell a large self-sustaining property in Belen, New Mexico she'd obtained when I was in high school (her intention was that I'd be given that upon her and my father's passing). And I am told the blond, "Nazi-like" woman Mayor of South Park on the show is a character modeled after the principal who was brought in who replaced the wonderful principal who'd allowed professional teachers to teach what THEY felt was right in combination with the more crucial parts of the curriculum. For many years I had people approach me in the community to ask if I was her daughter and to commend her teaching methods as it helped them. One sibling said 'he was a tough nut to crack' about her brother, who is the last person who tackled me in the community when I'd returned for a reunion about thirteen years after her death. Eventually, even the great teachers get forgotten, and I don't go back to the community much anymore.
So this is what Shellie said in May of 2016 about what might account for her 'being different in a wellness state way'.
The attitidue of gratitude, and state of mind is so important (also taught in topics at Lumigrate if you look in the Forums or use the Search bar). If you'd like to connect with Shellie Smith of Dallas, Texas, she's on my Facebook friends list, and you can find their community's page Garden of Eden on Facebook as well, or go to their website which is www.intothegardenofeden.com/ .
I really appreciate Shellie's willingness to discuss what made her exceptional in terms of what her psycho-motor / sensory motor processing was doing as a girl in elementary school.
I think this is so important for people to hear, that with a few exceptions, we were all afflicted and affected by these environmental illness symptoms, even FIFTY YEARS AGO. And this seemed like the appropriate place to include this separate comment.
Live and learn. Learn and live better! ~ Gratefully, Mardy
(as I've signed off from writing at Lumigrate since near the beginning (which was 2009). We ARE really in this together, and more connected than people typically realize! I think Shellie and my life paths and current moment overlap of education, outreach, and empowering change in people is evidence of that.)
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!
I'm having a wonderful time reviewing this topic, mid November 2016. The spiritual aspect of how things unfolded for me in 2015, and bringing the concept into the mix here about our pets (and livestock) having symptoms of what is called by mainstream human medicine "autism", and increasing similarly to human statistics / rates is at the forefront as I review the topic, above. Naturally, YOUsers of Lumigrate would not know of what was going on beyond what I'd written on Lumigrate topic threads and shared, if they'd found that information.
Around the middle of May 2015, or just after, I'd made a phone call on behalf of people in a Facebook group who had continued to not act upon my suggestion to 'call a compounding pharmacist and see what they might suggest'. The first call I made, of two compounding pharmacists I have been in the most contact with in recent years, was to one who I knew had not been working at the time, because what I was going to ask was unfamiliar to most compounding pharmacists and take some study time before they could potentially come up with any ideas of what to suggest back to the people suffering, who I was taking initiative to call on behalf of that day. Why I picked up the phone to do that call on that topic that day is, well, perhaps 'divine intervention' and 'meant to be'.
In our chit chat to catch up, as we'd not communicated in almost six months, she was able to be a resource to me in something I was needing at that time, and in early June I got a text from the owner of the dog I've since added to the information at Lumigrate (so far on my blog tab), who I named 'O'Rio Grande'. I was told by the owner of the dog he was a good dog, allowed in the house but he stayed out in the garage for whatever reason, in his crate.
I was given instructions on how to get to the house, and was not surprised that it was on a road I'd been guided -- literally suddenly pulled to drive along when out running errands one day about three months prior. I'd even come to a stop at the intersection where the property is located, despite not having a stop sign, realizing that someone I'd met the weekend before was waiting at the stop sign they had going when 'crossing my path'.
That had been a phase I'd gone through in the summer of 2014, running into people I'd just met in very unique ways -- as an example, I'd aided someone who fell and hit her head and was transported to the hospital and then would encounter her with some walking buddies by the river where I walked all the time, shortly thereafter when the river was peaked and people were driving to my usual walking path to see the debris and wildlife that was unique to the 'high tide' of Colorado River snowmelt season.
O'Rio was 8, so as I drove in I expected a dog that looked 8. What I noticed was he was confused -- he seemed aggressive but was also wagging his tail. He didn't 'drop' the aggression totally when we established I was not a threat to his property he was guarding.
I'll include this photo at this point, which shows why I named him O'Rio Grande -- like a steam locomotive chugging away ahead of me when the air got cold in winter (not shown in this photo as it was thankfully not that cold out)....
He was VERY large, and looked at least 12, having what seemed to me to be a mix of chronic disease symptoms -- stiff joints, weakness, incoordination, lumps in his muscles (besides what mainstream calls 'fatty tumors', more like what you'll see in people that were the means put forth by mainstream of how to determine if someone met the criteria for 'fibromyalgia' in the past). OCD, anxiety, depression. Intelligence - his father was border collie, mother laborador retriever.... AND when I arrived at his/their property / home the first time, there on what I call the 'tarmac' of the garage / driveway area was the older, unique RV that had been in my mind's eye beginning a year before! Wowsers!
The property and things that had lived on it, primarily O'Rio, became my central 'experiment station' and 'proving grounds', and the owner graciously allowed me to use the story and photographs, selectively, to teach concepts about wellness and illness reversal / recovery. O'Rio's symptoms, I'm pleased and proud to say, reversed very rapidly and dramatically. I would think this would have some influence on the humans who knew him, and it was my opinion that everyone in the house since it was built had likely experienced environmental illness without realizing that was what their issues, if they had them, could be attributed to.
By summer of this year, 2016, the owner took O'Rio to the Front Range, where their primary residence is now, but were going to be busy traveling for most of July. It overlapped perfectly with when someone I was connected to in the Denver suburbs was going to travel and had a very special dog needing taken care of; their home was located where I had first been an occupational therapist 20 years ago, in a nursing home similar to the one nearby where my grandmother had lived the last of her life, and died a couple of decades prior to that.
This 'new-to-me' dog's owner used to be a provider in Durango where Shawna Young, author of Erasing Autism, is located, and yet they'd never known of each other. Which showed me how, even in a very small city like Durango, Colorado, in the subculture of 'outside the box' medicine, providers might get connected through me, through Lumigrate, etc., and the value of my work (and website). When O'Rio's owner came to pick him up when she returned from her travels at the end of July, she so appropriately sat down with me and said 'I have something to share....' and told me of her realization that month of her reality related to environmental illness, and she already had a plan for going about starting to reverse the effects.
Within a week or two after that, I was lead to Fort Collins, on a Thursday. On Friday, in August before the campus would start feeling 'active' with returning staff and students, I'd think 'maybe Temple Grandin's with some time to meet with me', and I contacted her through her website. The administrative assistant sounded intrigued with my story of who I was and why I wanted to talk to Dr. Grandin, and said she'd give her my information. But after two days I'd not gotten a call back, so I left to return and get underway with what I needed to in Western Colorado, as O'Rio's owner had requested that I return to manage and caretake her property -- and dog, O'Rio.
We'd meet for me to get O'Rio in Evergreen, at a coffee shop on the land that had been the Dedisse ranch / homestead before it was taken by emenent domain to create Evergreen Lake, across the road, where fifty years before one summer day I'd have had my only time on a boat in my childhood, and where I'd learned to ice skate and spent hundreds of hours for fifteen year -- then one hour not being able to skate at all when I was 34 and had symptoms of neuropathy and incoordination coming on I'd not realized had occurred.
I'd wanted to stop in at the pet supply company's 'corporate home base store' with O'Rio, which is in Evergreen / Bergen Park area, where I have gotten the afore-mentioned cat's food and good advise at in 2012/13, and since with O'Rio. I did that, and they strongly suggested I come back the next day as the owner would be there in the early afternoon -- it turns out it's almost unheard of they know for sure when he'll be there! So that was, perhaps, meant to be.
This meant I had to find a place for the two of us to stay, and we had been scheduled to stay up in the mountains midway back to the Grand Valley, so in order to postpone that I needed to hop on Wifi. The only place that had it was McDonalds. And I don't feel right not purchasing something if I use a free service at a business so I was waiting for my order at the counter -- of what I hoped was a lesser harmful thing to consume -- and watching them just bungling orders left and right and thinking about how everything was just so different -- falling apart from how it used to be.
As a child, around the same time as I'd been out on the lake once with my father, he'd take me to the McDonald's down in town near where my sibling's music lessons were, and it was efficient and correct. My phone rang and it was not someone I knew, and I'd had these irons in the fire from my trip, but not suspecting at this point it was Dr Grandin calling me back. But it was! The irony of it, that I was purchasing a burger at McDonalds when Dr Grandin called .... wow!
So I stepped outside to talk with her, and then the manager were trying to figure out where I'd gone when my order was finally done. I went inside and moved it over to the table where I'd set my things and stood outside to continue the conversation and set up that I would interview her when I was back to my 'routine' and ready to do so. Believe it or not, I'm only now getting 'back to the saddle' of working on Lumigrate, it's been a lot to whittle away at that had felt to me to have priority.
In the mean time, HBO just last week ran their Academy Award winning movie Temple Grandin ! Wow again! I'd seen it at least one before but not recently, I believe it was made in 2009/ 2010 -- so it was great to review it. I put it on the recorder at O'Rio's house, I hope his family watches it, and I hope my pushing a button that said it was to be saved was going to make it so it doesn't get erased when the recorder fills up with whatever else it's being asked to record for the many people coming and going through the house.
The house which I've done as much as I can to rehabilitate, for all who enter and live a moment there, or more. I've written here at Lumigrate as I started back to work after this hiatus, about Each One, Reach One. So I've reached one house, and done what I did for someone with spiraling downward wellness who was working on her body's issues -- and thereby her house was taken care of (to the best of my ability), to assist in the process. I will trust that it was of help, though I know it is a bit of a boat rocking to have things moved to be cleaned and processed. It's just a process.
I'd thought that this week I'd be inquiring with her about the interview but found out yesterday a schedule had been moved up on something that affects my work / part of a project so I'm going to again juggle and postpone. When the time is right, it will happen. In the mean time, O'Rio's owner had felt he could help her in her healing / reversals and keep her company when she wasn't feeling well, and despite my frustration that I'd have to put off the energy work I was about to do with him, I was thrilled when I inquired with him / his spirit to see if he wanted to go -- and he did. He's SO WELL, he's ready to practice Each One, Reach One as well! Our soul mates come in so many forms, and connect us sometimes, to others and situations, as O'Rio has.
I was thrilled to see 4,270 reads of this topic about autism had occurred to this point, and wanted to provide an update on it in the form of this comment, as I'm thrilled to have been granted an interview by Dr. Grandin. I also was thrilled to get the call back, and to have her agree that animals other than humans are, increasingly, having symptoms of autism.
She repeated herself in a short conversation about what's going on today with children and adults with autism in terms of not being forced as she was to go through the motions of being socially 'normal', and the ironic thing was that O'Rio's owner is now with another younger dog who is a young and perhaps more afflicted version of O'Rio, and they're now working on reversing symptoms, including teaching her how to act!
The humans and O'Rio, providing the modeling and repetition, incentives, etc. So I'm eager to get the update on that situation with the dogs and potentially have that to include with my discussion with Dr Grandin, when we mutually get time to have the conversation.
I'll close with a photo of O'Rio, from this spring or early summer (because that sheet that's been my 'dog in the car sheet' since 2002 and I got separated in June when I sent it with someone to hold space for us to sit at the bluegrass festival the next day).
Oh, and the headliner agreed to an interview, too! FUN! She'd talked about how she used to hang out on her property with the cats, dogs, horses and play music but not tour and then she got into a different mode and has had to sacrifice that in order to tour. She was stunned by the beauty she saw at Palisade and said she was hoping to get to the river for a dip after the performance..... I hope she did -- they had a very good band.
And she was intrigued by my story when I introduced myself, of the 'coincidence' of who was standing next to me up front and center under the stage -- not standing, dancing too -- a woman who'd moved here about the time I had, with similar health issues who got IVs (and has been public in the mainstream media about mercury sensitivity / mercury being a core concept in her wellness concerns, environmental health concerns, and actions. Per an auricular medicine MD in Germany, O'Rio is mercury sensitive -- he can see it via the polarizing filter via photograph. Two women, average age 60, who could easily have been dead by now, in wheelchairs, or living in nursing homes -- both of us have given up our difficult professional work of the past -- she as an attorney and I as an occupational therapist.
Connected by my former neighborhood, where she lives still, due to her marrying a man from Mexico who put out word he was looking for work, and became my handyman, or one of them that I call upon -- who was there with her AND his mother from Mexico. Admirably walking across things with his support and guidance, which I'd been afraid I might not be able to navigate with my less-thanp-perfect lower extremity capabilities. Yes, I've been able to see myself so much better after having watched O'Rio, and he has re-vital-ized me in what is possible in terms of reversal of symptoms. And it was sure 'neato wowie' to have that coincidence of timing and place, which resonated with Nicki Bluhm when they came to meet fans.
I'd not been aware of her prior to that performance, so I went to YouTube and heard that there was a special place in her past performances granting access to someone who was in a wheelchair --- again, wow! To me, that's nothing more than god / source(s) / the divine whatEver you call it, letting me know 'everything's playing out as it's intended'.....
Live and learn. Learn and live better! ~~ Mardy
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!