Parkinson’s Disease: Caused by Glyphosate (Monsanto) and/or Trichloroethylene?

Several studies linked Parkinson’s disease to pesticides, most notable to glyphosate (Roundup), manufactured by Monsanto. Glyphosate was first marketed in 1974. Before it was wildly used, the incidence of Parkinson’s among farmers was very low. Since the 1980s, farmers and farm workers (of non-organic farms that use pesticides) are disproportionally affected with Parkinson’s compared to other occupations¹.

Another recent study found that, even when diluted by a factor of 99.8 percent, which is 450-fold lower concentrations than presently used in GMO agricultural applications, Roundup chemicals are still fully capable of destroying both human cells and DNA². The deadly GMO pesticide glyphosate is the highest selling herbicide in the world and has been identified as having a wide range of minimized and/or under-reported adverse health effects. Other additives in Roundup, polyoxyethyleneamine, for instance, a surfactant that facilitates glyphosate’s absorption into cells, has been found to significantly increase Roundup’s synergistic toxicity in humans.

In a California study that included information on farms where pesticide use is high, the overall Parkinson’s incidence rate for Hispanics was the highest among the race/ethnic groups³. Hispanics are widely employed as farm workers in California.

In a French study, the more a farmer used pesticides, the higher was the prevalence of Parkinson’s disease⁴.

A new study with twins established a connection between the solvent trichloroethylene and Parkinson’s⁵. Studies with identical twins are especially important since they exclude the role of genes as a variable. A twin with a work exposure of six months or greater to the solvent trichloroethylene had six times the risk of Parkinson’s disease as compared to his unexposed twin. Trichloroethylene is the most frequently reported organic contaminant in groundwater and is detectable in up to 30% of US drinking water^6,7.

Could bacterial infections lead to Parkinson’s?

The results of two earlier studies support the idea that the loss of dopamine-producing nerve cells may be due, at least in part, to previous bacterial infections. Researchers in Chicago found that maternal infection with gram-negative bacteria’s toxin (endotoxin) in pregnant rats resulted in a marked decrease in the number of cells in the substantia nigra in the rat pups that were born. Subsequent exposure to environmental toxins (!) after birth tended to speed up the loss of these cells⁸. In another US study, researchers concluded that an association may exist between a previous infection with a certain bacterium known as Nocardia asteroides and the development of Lewy bodies in people with neurodegenerative disorders⁹.

More recently it was reported that Helicobacter pylori-infected mice make less dopamine in parts of the brain that control movement, possibly indicating that dopamine-making cells are dying just as they do in Parkinson’s disease patients. Feeding mice killed H.pylori produced the same effect, suggesting that some biochemical component (toxin) of the bacterium is responsible^10,11.

Dietary habits as well as the work environment and exposure to chemicals naturally play a role in the prevalence of Parkinson’s. The more pesticide sprayed fruit and vegetable are consumed, the higher the chance for the development of Parkinson’s.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo assessed the eating habits of 249 newly-diagnosed Parkinson’s patients and compared them with 368 healthy volunteers. The results showed those in the ‘Mediterranean Eating diet’ group who ate the highest amounts of fruits, vegetables and fish were nearly half as likely to get Parkinson’s disease as those who ate the least¹².

Eat lots of antioxidant laden organic fruits and vegetables and wild fish. Never use herbicides, never use Roundup. Fight for a GMO free world.

Since trichloroethylene, glyphosate and other pesticides are eliminated with the help of glutathione in the liver, the extra glutathione in ToxDetox may explain its beneficial effects in Parkinson’s. StopReabsorb (activated charcoal) is widely used to eliminate trichloroethylene and other pesticides from drinking and ground water.

Glutathione in ToxDetox and StemDetox with their natural ‘antibiotic’ effects, together with StopReabsorb’s ability to neutralize toxins may be credited for their overall effectiveness in Parkinson’s if we accept that bacterial infections and their bacterial toxins play a surprisingly neglected, yet, important role. Overall the use of ToxDetox, StemDetox, StopReabsorb (with double dose: 2000mg per day) is suggested to be taken and a high quality tap water filter to lower the load of pesticides and toxins in drinking water.

REFERENCES

1. Glyphosate induced cell death through apoptotic and autophagic mechanisms, Ya-xing Gui et al., Neurotoxicology and Teratology, Vol 34, Issue 3, May–June 2012, Pages 344–349
2. Cytotoxic and DNA-damaging properties of glyphosate and Roundup in human-derived buccal epithelial cells. Verena J Koller, et. al., Arch Toxicol. 2012 Feb 14. Epub 2012 Feb 14. PMID: 22331240
3. Incidence of Parkinson’s Disease: Variation by Age, Gender, and Race/Ethnicity, Stephen K. Van Den Eeden et. al., American Journal of Epidemiol. (2003) 157 (11): 1015-1022.
4. Frédéric Moisan, et. al., The relation between type of farming and prevalence of Parkinson’s disease among agricultural workers in five french districts, Movement Disorders, Vol. 26, Issue 2, pages 271–279, 1 February 2011
5. Samuel M. Goldman et al. Solvent Exposures and Parkinson Disease Risk in Twins Annals of Neurology 2012: 71: 76-784. Available free online at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ana.22629/full
6. United States Environmental Protection Agency. Toxic release inventory program. Available at: http://www.epa.gov/toxics-release-inventory-tri-program.
7. Wu C, Schaum J. Exposure assessment of trichloroethylene. Environ Health Perspect 2000; 108( suppl 2): 359–363.
8. Carvey PM, Chang QA, Ling Z. Prenatal lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induces permanent reductions in dopamine neurons: effect of epigenetic alterations in CNS inflammatory homeostasis as an animal model for Parkinson’s disease. Presented at the 8th International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders in Rome, Italy, June 14-17, 2004, and published in Mov Disord 2004;19(suppl 9):S151.
9. LeWitt PA, Beaman BL, Camp DM, Loeffler DA. Nocardia asteroides: a possible environmental cause of Parkinson’s disease? Presented at the 8th International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders in Rome, Italy, June 14-17, 2004, and published in Mov Disord 2004;19(suppl 9):S222.
10. M.F. Salvatore, S.L. Spann, D.J. Mcgee, O.A. Senkovich, and T.L. Testerman. Helicobacter pylori infection induces Parkinson’s Disease symptoms in aged mice. Presentation at the American Society for Microbiology general meeting, May 22, 2011, New Orleans, La
11. Rees K, et.al., Helicobacter pylori eradication for Parkinson’s disease. Conchrane Database Syst Rec. 2011 Nov 9;(11):CD008453.
12. Dietary patterns and risk of Parkinson’s disease: a case-control study in Japan. Okubo H., et al., Eur J Neurol., 2012 May;19(5):681-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-1331.2011.03600.x. Epub 2011 Dec 5.