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].