Genetically modified foods and associated chemicals are possible causes of the increase in placental abnormalities in humans.
A meta analysis of data
surrounding the use of GM crops and glyphosate
Kaire downin, american college of healthcare
science,
Summer 2015 anatomy and physiology 501
Abstract
In a time where food
is scarce in many areas of the world, scientist have employed the use of
genetically modifying plants for food in a way that they can be resistant to
chemicals meant to protect them from other weeds and insects from destroying
thee much needed crops. This much interference with the natural make of plants
and the addition of these toxic chemicals used to protect them has created a
bigger problem than hunger when the bodies of our children and generations
afterwards are effected genetically and physically starting from the
development of placentas to the ability to reproduce later in life. This paper
seeks to prove correlations to the use of glyphosate and Round-up products on
genetically modified plants with the abnormalities that birth workers are
finding in placentas. In the process of reviewing studies, other concerns are
revealed such as the human reproduction rate drops in countries with high GM
Soy production and the incidence of birth defects, genetic abnormalities and
Celiac’s Disease.
Introduction
In May of 2009, Robin Lim, creator of the Bumi Sehat Birth
Clinic in Bali and winner of the 2011 Hero of the Year Award, sent an email to
a group of natural birth activists, doctors, writers and people concerned about
some of the conditions she was witnessing in mothers who were giving birth at
her birth clinic, conditions that used to be rare but were now becoming more
common and life threatening. She was encountering anomalies such as retained
placenta, velamentous umbilical cord insertion and short cords, decreases in
Wharton's jelly, and still births due to cord malfunctions and destruction in
late stages of gestation. Lim goes on to site 3 contributions to affected
placentas being “malnutrition, pollution (including Roundup) and GMO soy,” (Lim, 2011) . The implications
for her concern could affect the way food is produced. Many studies have been
performed that show direct malfunctions and malformations of the body as a
result of GMO crops and chemicals. The purpose of this study is to identify how
GMO and the chemicals associated with these crops are sources that may cause
placental abnormalities and increase the risk to birthing mothers and babies.
Methods
Upon
running searches through American College of Healthcare Science research data
base, using these terms produced these numbers of results:
·
Genetically modified organism fetal
development: About 1,920,000 results (most of these results had to do with
genetically modifying for reproduction , not the intake of foods. )
·
GMO
foods fetal development: About 144,000 results
·
Genetically modified food
fetal development: About 1,310,000
results
With so many results, filtering for a common factor, which
seemed to be GM Soy, seemed like a way to narrow some down. The next search was
on Google Scholar using the terms “GMO Soy and placental abnormalities” which
yielded about 3,590 results. None of the results had any direct scientific
study to placental development in-utero.
Results
The earliest study selected from the
results was in 2002 and was about the feeding of glyphosate (GLYP) tolerant
soybeans to mice and the resulting development through prenatal to adults. GLYP
tolerant soy beans are the “Round-up Ready” brand made by Monsanto Corporation.
The use of glyphosate is for weed control on major crops (S. R. Padgette, et al., 1995) . In this study,
scientists fed a transgenic soybean or non-transgenic soybean diet to groups of
pregnant female mice and during their lactation period. The male mice born to
these females were continuously fed on the same diet until certain intervals of
age and then culled and their testes were dissected. The researchers also did
multigenerational experiments in the same way, using adult males from the
original group born to the mothers fed the diet to breed new stock. The results
showed no difference in litter size, body weights, percentages of testicular
cell populations, or macromolecular cell growth between mice fed the transgenic
diet and the non-transgenic diets (Brake & Evenson, 2003) . However, this study
had no reference to the health or structure of the placentas created during the
gestation of the female mice fed the diets.
A French Study from 2005 tested the
Differential effects of GLYP and Roundup on human placental cells. GLYP and
Roundup were prepared in a lab at the dilutions approved for agricultural use
and used to test reactions with human placental cell cultures at different
concentrations for either one hour, 18 hours, 24 hours, or 48 hours. The
examinations included extracting the RNA and measuring aromatase activity with
radioimmunoassay. Human placental tissue from full term placentas obtained from
non-smoking women were used for the test which showed measurements of
microsomal aromatase activity and other measurements of reductase activity. The
results were different between the GLYP alone and the Roundup product which
adds adjuvants to the solution. Even at 10 times lower the suggested
agriculture use, the Roundup treated cells had reduced cell viability twice
more than glyphosate alone. This study concludes that GLYP is a “disrupter of mammalian
cytochrome P450 aromatase activity from concentrations 100 times lower than the
recommended use in agriculture.” Cytochrome
P450 aromatase is the enzyme responsible for estrogen synthesis (SIMPSON, et al., 2013) . Cytochrome P450 aromatase is also responsible
for sexual differentiation of neural structures, specifically the development
of the central nervous system and sexual behavior and function (Lephart, 1996) . The researchers on
this team suggest that reproductive problems are a concern when exposure to GLYP
occurs, even at lower than suggested use for agriculture levels (Sophie Richard, Sipahutar, Benachour, &
Seralini, 2005) .
Another
study shows that the adjuvants in Roundup increase the toxicity of the GLYP
after an experiment with oyster larvae where toxicity was induced using Roundup
at 1/20th the amount of GLYP needed to produce the same toxic
results (Mottier, et al., 2013) .
In Canada, the blood of 30 pregnant
women and 39 non-pregnant women was analyzed to evaluate the correlation
between mother and fetal exposure to GLYP and the levels in their bodies in
2011. GLYP has several metabolite toxins associated with it and can be traced
in blood samples. In this experiment, they were looking for GLYP and its
metabolite, aminomethyl phosphoric acid (AMPA), another herbicide called
gluphosinate (GLUF), and its metabolite 3-methylphosphinicopropionic acid 3
(3-MPPA), and Cry1Ab Protein (a Bt Toxin). The non-pregnant women were found to have GLYP
(5%) and GLUF (18%) in their serum samples where pregnant women were not found
not have it. This might be because some of these subjects had not been exposed
to the GMO foods that contain these chemicals. The researchers express concerns
and point out other findings in previous animal studies which they acknowledge
use much higher levels of GLYP to test fetal development with results that show
skeletal retardation in developing rats (Dallegrave, et al., 2003) and harm to human
placental and umbilical cells (Sophie Richard,
Sipahutar, Benachour, & Seralini, 2005; Benachour & Séralini, 2009).
However, 3-MPPA were detected in 67% of the non-pregnant women and 100% of the pregnant
women and the umbilical cords of their fetuses. Cry1Ab was found in the blood
samples of 93% of mothers, 80% of fetuses and 69% of non-pregnant women.
Furthermore, this toxin has been shown to be present in livestock fed on plants
that have been treated with GLUF making it possible that people could have
further contamination through meat consumption (Aris & Leblanc, 2011) . This study was the
first of its kind to detect pesticides associated with modified foods in women
and their fetuses. It was not noted if the babies born to the women in the
study experienced any trauma at birth, the cesarean rate, any placental
abnormalities or fetal deaths.
Hannah Landecker from the University
of California Center for Society and Genetics wrote a research paper not based
on experiments with GMO foods or toxic herbicides and pesticides, but from an
Epigenetic stand point of food as exposure. Taking the understanding that food
becomes part of one’s environment during gestation and lifetime and has the
ability to influence gene expression, Landecker explains the social scientific
aspect of food shaping our health as a cause and controller of disease. These
epigenetic changes that can happen, as in the genetic changes seen in the 2005
French study by Simpson, et al, can have a role in resetting or reprogramming
the gene expression in individuals through nutrient exposure as early in life
as in the womb. The genetic expressions are then passed down to generations
afterwards due to this interaction of the molecular make up of individuals.
Landecker points out that this is ingrained in our culture from a political and
technical network of food production, distribution and consumption and is
transgenerational giving it a strong economic influence. When food is
manufactured in an engineered state and is unintentionally toxic, it becomes an
environmental exposure that influences the metabolism of the people inhabiting
this specific point in history where we modify food in more ways than we have
ever in all the years of agriculture. People have a limited control of what
they consume when engineered products are in so many food items and consumed at
such a high rate. This shapes the way our future generations will be able to
receive and metabolize food, as it influences the gene expression of fetuses
before they are even born and passes these gene to the next generation
compounding the exposures. An addition to this collection of exposures to toxic
chemicals, we are also breathing, bathing and living in environments with more
engineered toxins than ever before, sure to change the physiology of our bodies
(Landecker, 2011) .
Even though this research paper did not expressively deal with
genetically modified foods and GLYP or Roundup, it explains about how our
bodies process foods and the molecules within the foods to influence genes and
ties together some of the surrounding research that shows that these toxins
effect our genetic expressions (SIMPSON, et al., 2013) . A focus of this
paper was on eating foods with purpose, not just for the nutritional make up or
taste, but for their reaction on the body such as helping to lower cholesterol
or having an antioxidant effect. We can eat with purpose to enhance our health
but when the foods we are looking to for these health changing effects are also
molecularly enhanced with other toxins that effect our genes in negative ways,
we are also exposing ourselves to possible changes that induce disease. Which
brings me to the next study.
In 2013, Anthony Samsel, an
independent scientist from New Hampshire, along with Stephanie Seneff, a
computer scientist who does work with Artificial intelligence projects in
Massachusetts, set off to show the correlations between GLYP and Celiac’s
Disease and other related health complications that have been on the rise at
the same rate as the increased use of GMO foods and GLYP or Roundup. Their
findings were evident of the connection and bring to light just how devastating
environmental toxins can affect the population. In their study they show that
Celiac’s Disease, whose symptoms include diarrhea, skin rashes, nausea and
depression, is affecting up to 5% of the population in North America and
Europe. The imbalances of gut bacteria due to the Celiac Disease are directly
related to the way that GLYP interacts with the microbiome of the body. People
with Celiac’s often have reproductive challenges that include infertility in
males, miscarriages and birth defects like microcephaly. There is evidence that GLYP could be
disrupting the metabolizing of complex proteins, leaving behind the larger
protein fragments that could be triggering autoimmune reactions leading to
injury to the small intestine, which is a symptom of Celiac’s Disease. GLYP’s
known reaction with CYP enzymes creates excess retinoic acid (RA) that is
associated with complications in pregnancy including teratogenic effects in the
fetus (Samsel & Seneff, Glyphosate’s Suppression of Cytochrome P450 Enzymes
and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut Microbiome: Pathways to Modern
Diseases, 2013) .
These abnormalities include microcephaly and deformations of the skull and
hindbrain underdevelopment. Other birth defects listed were cleft palate, ear
malformations, polydactyly, syndactyly, and anencephaly. Also reported were in
laboratory in vitro studies that showed DNA strand breaks, apoptosis, and
plasma membrane damage. Rates of Celiac’s Disease, Thyroid cancer,
hospitalizations for acute kidney injury, end stage renal disease death, deaths
from Parkinson’s Disease, deaths due to intestinal infections, all plotted on a
graph from 1990 to present compared with the GLYP use on corn, soy and wheat
crops all show the same upward trend correlation (Samsel & Seneff, 2013) . Again, this research paper does not
specifically address placental abnormalities but does show all the ways in
which GLYP effects other body systems through exposure. If the digestive tract
of people exposed to GLYP can be this disrupted, causing the inflammation,
autoimmune and nutrient deficiencies mentioned in this and other studies cited
in this paper, it could also be assumed that these problems will have an effect
on growing healthy placentas in gestating women.
Discussion
People have been genetically engineering food plants since
the agricultural revolution began. Only now that it is being performed in labs,
with the purpose of making plants resistant to chemicals, are people becoming
concerned. Is it the GM foods that are dangerous or is it the chemicals that we
are adding to them which is causing the problems seen in some of these studies.
Can a study even identify the problems that Robin Lim has expressed concern
about, or is it too late because we have seen multiple generations with
exposure to the toxins reported? Several
of the above studies have been conducted after babies were born with not enough
data to prove any placental structural differences in mothers who are exposed
to GLYP or Roundup. However one thing remains indisputable, health problems are
increasing at the same rate that GLYP and specifically, Roundup is being used
over the whole world.
Part of the goal for this paper was to collect the data from
when GMO crops were introduced to several countries and compare it to the rate
of fetal deaths due to placental abnormalities and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
(SIDS) which is found to have a twofold increase in babies that are born to
mothers who experienced placental abruption or placenta previa (Li & Wi, 1999) . The only data that
was available that suggested a similar correlation was a study from 2013 that
explained that Argentina and Brazil, the world’s largest GM soy producers have
been experiencing a drop in birth rates and an increase in still births and late
term abortions starting at the same time the GM crops were introduced (Samsel & Seneff, Glyphosate, pathways to modern
diseases II: Celiac sprue and gluten intolerance, 2013) . It was not noted if
pregnancy rates remained the same or dropped as well, and even if they did
drop, with evidence showing that lack of fertility could be in relation to the
use of GM crops, the only way one could show a correlation is if the rates of
methods of birth control rose at the same time as birth rates dropped. In a future study, comparing these numbers
from other locales would help to determine if there is a correlation between
the time that GMO crops have been in the country and the rates of fetal and infant
deaths. It is also important for birth workers to carefully document the state
of the placenta at the time of birth or termination so the date is available
and further studies could be conducted on exactly what the consequences are
from the beginning of life.
Conclusions and
Recommendations
It is recommended that a study be
conducted by collecting data of the state of placentas at birth, as well as
reporting about the circumstances surrounding fetal death in a more clear and
concise method with details surrounding the condition of the pregnancy and
placental tissues. Only after this kind of data is available are we going to be
able to tie together the possible correlations between the crops and/or GLYP
and Roundup use and the destruction of human placental tissue and developmental
abnormalities that are leading to fetal death and hemorrhage in mothers. In the
meantime, there are plenty of studies showing the dangers of using these
chemicals and the changes they are responsible for, not just in our environment
but in our bodies and genetic make-up that are going to affect generations to
come without any knowledge of just how much. More rigorous testing and wait
periods for agricultural products with more oversight and regulations should be
supported to avoid this in the future along with barring the people who have a
vested interest in such companies, such as Monsanto, from having any political
power or influence. Taking the profit motive out of food and medicine could tangibly
help prevent some of these atrocities from happening. Monsanto has been
responsible for some of the worst public experiments of the last century and
the affects can be seen worldwide. With the decline of health and the decline
of human birth rates, it is safe to say that the profits they have collected
should be put back into the research to reverse the effects of the
environmental toxins we have been exposed to.
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