Glyphosate and Eosinophilic Esophagitis
Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE) is an emerging chronic immune-mediated
disease that causes damage to the esophagus through excessive fibrosis,
mediated by excessive infiltration of eosinophils into the esophagus and
overexpression of IL-13. It currently affects one in 1000 people in the
United States [71]. EoE was first identified in 1993, and its rate
has been rising in prevalence over time since then. In an experiment
designed to assess whether glyphosate could be causal in this alarming
rise over time, mice were exposed to physiological levels of glyphosate
in utero and throughout their lifespan. Chronic glyphosate treatment
induced a 2-fold increase in esophageal eosinophils compared to baseline
[71].
It is noteworthy that there are several other health conditions that
have been found to co-occur with EoE, and it is likely that these
correlations point to a common cause, namely glyphosate exposure. One of
the strong comorbidities is autism, which is also comorbid with food
allergies and gastrointestinal disturbances that co-occur with EoE. A
study based in Virginia involving 266 children with a diagnosis of EoE
found that 12.7% of them also had a diagnosis of autism [73]. This
is much higher than the prevalence in the general population. A study
based in Nevada found strong comorbidities between EoE and several
different conditions, including gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)
(3.69%), diseases of the gut (7.26%), asthma (13.4%) and pollen and
food allergies (7%) [74]. Adults with autism were found to have a
highly significant increased risk of GERD (p = 0.0001) [75]. We have
already seen that glyphosate is a risk factor for asthma [67].
A study on 56 patients diagnosed with celiac disease found that six of
them (10.7%) also had a diagnosis of EoE [76]. It has been
hypothesized that glyphosate may be the primary cause of the rise in
celiac disease in recent decades, which correlated strongly with the
rise in the use of glyphosate on wheat as a desiccant [66]. Children
with ASD are at a higher risk of gastrointestinal disorders and gluten
intolerance, compared to the general population [77].