Exposure to glyphosate, the main ingredient in the popular weed killer roundup (herbicide), relates to more severe cases of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in humans, find a new study.

‘Prevalence of the liver disease is on the rise in the United States due to the exposure of glyphosate, the main ingredient in the popular weed killer Roundup (herbicide).’
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The results, they found, were significant: Regardless of age, race, body mass index (BMI), ethnicity or diabetes status, glyphosate residue was significantly higher in patients with NASH than it was in patients with a healthier liver.Read More..





The findings, coupled with prior animal studies, said Mills, suggest a link between the use of commercial glyphosate in our food supply, which has increased significantly over the past 25 years, and the prevalence of NAFLD in the United States, which too has been on the rise for two decades.
"There have been a handful of studies, all of which we cited in our paper, where animals either were or weren't fed Roundup or glyphosate directly, and they all point to the same thing: the development of liver pathology," said Mills. "So I naturally thought: 'Well, could it be exposure to this same herbicide that is driving liver disease in the U.S.?'"
The study examined urine samples of 93 patients. Forty-one percent were male; 42 percent were white or Caucasian; 35 percent were Hispanic or Latino. Average BMI was 31.8. Patients were originally recruited as part of a larger study at the UC San Diego NAFLD Research Center conducted between 2012 and 2018. Liver biopsies were used to determine the presence or absence of NAFLD while classifying the subjects by cohort.
Mills plans to put a group of patients on an all-organic diet next and track them over the course of several months, examining how a herbicide-free diet might affect biomarkers of liver disease.
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"The increasing levels [of glyphosate] in people's urine very much correlates to the consumption of Roundup-treated crops into our diet," said Mills. But while researchers say this study shows a link between herbicide exposure and liver disease in human subjects, Mills said much work remains to be done.
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Source-Eurekalert