Being diagnosed with cancer is a harrowing experience. It is every emotion you can possibly imagine. Emotions you didn’t know you had. I will forever be grateful for this eye-opening experience because, even though I don’t believe I really needed it, the reality check made me love life more than I knew I could. 

The reason I am writing about glyphosate is because it is destroying life. It is in fact patented by the company Bayer Monsanto, as an anti-biotic with the soul purpose of killing. And this is what it is doing. Perhaps even, it is killing too slowly. Too slowly for us to acknowledge it as the threat that it truly is. Covid was fast, so the shock and fear factors hit hard, and it was very marketable, but glyphosate is subtle. It stealthily avoids the media’s keen eye. 

My cancer was not bad luck. Bowel cancer has increased by 296% in 30 years. Last week I heard of a teenager diagnosed with Stage 4 bowel cancer here is Australia. Something is not right.      

We all know that we are going to die one day but I have realised that none of us really believe it. It was a serious blow to my ego to be faced with my mortality. I was so angry at cancer, like it was cancer’s fault. I was searching for a reason for my cancer. My ego was desperate to blame something or someone else other than its host. This is not the reason I wound up at researching glyphosate though.

When I met my bowel surgeon, he told me that he believed my tumour was 16-18 months in size. This gave me a starting point for my research. 

Exactly 16 months before my diagnosis I got a rash that eventually covered my body completely. It started on my forehead and spread to my back and arms. It went down my legs to my feet and was also in my mouth and in my bum. I didn’t sleep for 6 nights straight! My face swelled up on day 4 so I went to emergency and they put me in a separate room as it was at the time of Monkey Pox. The dermatologists had no idea what caused it. They suggested it was a spider bite, but there was no bite. Their ego didn’t allow them to say ‘we don’t know’ and glyphosate definitely would not have been on their radar. 

I figured, due to chronic inflammation, the rash caused the cancer but then I remembered the showers I was having for 10 days at the start of the rash. I was having 8-10 scolding hot showers a day/night. I was draining our 400L hot water tank each day. I actually can’t even explain how fucking good they were! They itched my rash like you wouldn’t believe. WAY better that my kids toy rake. It was the only relief I could get. I was definitely addicted. I miss them. My body would sort of seize up in ecstasy. I haven’t said this publicly because it’s pretty graphic but I think it helps the story, I nearly came with a flaccid penis. No hands. Had to stop myself. I 'edged' with a flaccid. Laugh. Didn’t even know that was possible. Fuck it was good (take me back). 

Anyway, turns out that that feeling I was getting was a MASSIVE release of serotonin, sweet, sweet serotonin. 

After that discovery this is HOW MY BRAIN WENT……….

 

Brain: What is serotonin?

Serotonin is a chemical messenger that functions as both a neurotransmitter in the brain and a hormone throughout the body, playing a vital role in regulating mood, sleep, appetite, digestion, and wound healing. Often called the "feel-good" chemical, it influences feelings of happiness and well-being, while low levels are linked to conditions such as depression, anxiety, and sleep problems. Serotonin is made up of the ‘essential’ amino acid Tryptophan and 90% of it is stored in the gut lining while only 10% is in the brain.  

SIDE NOTE: I had a look for serotonin and cancer research papers and found a few relating excess serotonin to the development and progression of tumours.

 

Brain: What is an amino acid?

Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, and protein is a nutrient used by the body for growth and repair. We have 21 amino acids in our bodies. It turns out that 9 of these amino acids termed ‘Essential’ can only be obtained through our nutrition. We need to eat the right things in order to source them, in order to survive.  

 

Brain: So how do we get the essential amino acid tryptophan? 

By ingesting lamb and beef, leafy greens, some seeds and grains, fish, soy, eggs, turkey, and some fruits. Cool. I eat a lot of those, except turkey, no one eats turkey.    

 

Brain: And how is it produced? 

Via the shikimate pathway. Cool.

 

Brain: The fuck is that? 

The Shikimate pathway is a metabolic route found in plants, bacteria, fungi, and algae, which converts phosphoenolpyruvate and erythrose 4-phosphate into chorismate, the precursor for the aromatic amino acids phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan, as well as other compounds like folates and plant secondary metabolites. It is absent in mammals, and its inhibition by glyphosate makes it a target for herbicides and antimicrobial agents.  

 

Brain: ‘We’re a mammal’. Don’t we have bacteria and fungi in us though?

We are more bacteria and fungi than we are human. A friend of mine once told me that every time we shit, we briefly become more human.

Gut science has come a really long way in the last 20 years and it turns out that 54% of the approximately 40 trillion bacteria and fungi that we have in us use the shikimate pathway.

 

Brain: So why is my shikimate pathway not working? 

GLYPHOSATE. This question led me to the active ingredient in the world’s most sprayed herbicide.

I don’t want people to think that I have just picked out glyphosate because of my ego. I do have an ego of course but I have been brought up to have a really good relationship with it. I’m not arrogant, I promise. I was very ready to accept responsibility for my illness and eventually I did, which was a huge step in the healing process. However, this certainly doesn’t let glyphosate off the hook. 

The farm that surrounds our vineyard and that I was camping in my swag on at the time I got the rash had been sprayed with glyphosate 2 weeks before. The reason they did it was because the sheep got foot-rot so they needed to keep them off the soil for a year and decided to grow a canola crop in the meantime. Perhaps I got a large hit of glyphosate which caused the rash, and maybe it was in the rain water I was showering in too. Who knows, but it took me down this path and I got to know the extent of this chemical, its ugly history and the damage that it is causing.

 

GLYPHOSATE (The active chemical in ROUND UP)

To understand anything in depth you need to know the history behind it. Glyphosate is an anti-biotic compound that was discovered in the 1950’s and didn’t really have any significant role until 1964 when Stauffer Chemical Company patented it as a chelator. A chelator (key-late-or) is a molecule that binds to metal ions and minerals. It was used to clean industrial pipes as it would bind to mineral build up and separate or dissolve it. 

(SIDE NOTE: The Stauffer Chemical Company had two factories that manufactured glyphosate, located on the Mississippi River. This 85-mile stretch is known as ‘cancer alley’ due to the number of cancers residents and workers have been diagnosed with.)

 

In the 1970’s a scientist called John Franz who was an employee of the company Monsanto (the producer of Round Up) was given the task of finding a strong herbicide. He was working with water softening agents at the time when he discovered glyphosate could kill plants. He modified the compound so it would disrupt the EPSPS enzyme, the 6^th and final enzyme in the shikimate pathway. An enzyme is a biological catalyst, usually a protein, that speeds up biochemical reactions necessary for life by lowering the activation energy needed for the reaction to occur. 

I went to Uni with a mate called Nick. Nowadays, he is a regenerative agriculture consultant in Texas. When I first started researching glyphosate, I put a story on Instagram to which he replied, he and his wife have glyphosate in their bodies. They had been tested not long before. He had only been in organic vineyards for the last 9 months and his wife was not in any kind of agricultural role. 

 

Brain: So how did the glyphosate end up in their bodies? 

Nick sent me an article from a popular American agricultural magazine called ‘Acres U.S.A.’

The magazine had an interview with a guy called Dr Don Huber. He is a researcher, professor and an Army Officer in the chemical and biological warfare unit. He didn’t go to war but was assigned to a research and development team whose role it was to establish an agricultural recovery plan in the case of a nuclear attack. There are plans right now in place for Ukraine, Gaza and Israel for when it all ends. The war is pointless and land is useless without a recovery strategy.  

 

Dr Don was the commander of a Strategic Medical detachment at Fort Detrick when he first learned about glyphosate. It was 2 years before it went commercial in 1974. He and his team had the job of researching this new ‘miracle herbicide’. They tested it on wheat, soy and corn. After the use of glyphosate, the following crops were far more susceptible to disease primarily due to the fact that glyphosate was binding to, and therefore restricting the use of minerals (micronutrients) in the soil. Zinc, copper, magnesium, cobalt, iron and manganese were being ‘stripped out’ just like the gunk build up in those industrial pipes. Manganese in particular, is a micronutrient requirement in the shikimate pathway which is used for lignification and cell wall formation. Lignification is the hardening of the outer sheath of a plant which leads to a protective layer on the plant, like a shield. Manganese is also crucial for photosynthesis and energy production. Due to this fact alone, the herbicide should not have been approved according to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. If a chemical made plants sicker by increasing disease it was not supposed to be registered, Period! However, it was approved due to the fact that humans weren’t known to have the shikimate pathway within them they said ‘we don’t need to do any toxicology studies because it can never be toxic to mammals’. 

 

Brain: Hang on a sec. What does manganese do for the human body?

The human body uses manganese for its role in enzyme activation, which supports metabolism (carbohydrates, proteins, and fats), bone development, immune function, blood clotting, and the reproductive system. It also acts as a crucial component of anti-oxidant enzymes that protect cells from damage and contributes to brain health and glucose regulation.  

 

Brain: And how does the body get manganese? 

The human body cannot produce manganese, so it must be obtained through diet. Cool.  

Back to Glyphosate. Glyphosate cannot kill a plant in sterile soil. This means the soil must be alive, it must have active fungi and bacteria in it in order for the chemical to work. This is why plants will develop a resistance to glyphosate over time and why an operator will need to move on to something different in order to kill those weeds in the long term. 

SIDE NOTE: There is a town in Australia called Dean just outside of Ballarat. They have had a ‘cluster’ of dementia and Alzheimer’s. It has been extensively researched and it was decided it was the use of the herbicides Diquat and Paraquat (two of the chemicals used in Agent Orange) that is causing it. However, the reason they have had to move to a herbicide that is known to do damage is because they have sprayed so much glyphosate that the local weeds have had to develop resistance in order to survive. Mother nature has an answer for everything. Those weeds are annoying for us but a survival technique for her. Perhaps the excessive glyphosate is making the impact of the Diquat and Paraquat far worse.  

 

Back to Glyphosate. Monsanto patented glyphosate as a herbicide in 1974 and people slowly started to use it. Catch phrases at the time were ‘safer than water’ and ‘Life is Chemical’. Shit like that. Of course, the biggest selling point was the fact that mammals didn’t have the shikimate pathway. We can’t condemn the sales people at the time because they can only act to their level of awareness, and to them, this was true. I feel sorry for these people to be honest. They really thought they were doing a good thing and they really believed that this chemical was helping reduce world hunger. Maybe it did initially too. It’s when they learn it is doing damage and don’t say anything that it becomes sinister. Monsanto knew that this chemical should not have been on the market. They even had some of their own research in the 1980’s showing that the chemical was found in the tissue of Blue Gill Sunfish. This paper was buried at the time and has only been discovered since. Monsanto cut the testing period of 2 years (the life-span of their subjects, rats) down to 3 months because glyphosate is ‘not an acute toxin’, again due to the shikimate pathway thing. 

 

Speaking of 'using chemicals properly', in 1996 Monsanto released Genetically Modified seeds (GMO’s) termed ‘Round Up Ready’ that had been engineered to resist glyphosate. The way they did this was by inserting a gene sourced from a soil bacterium that produces an enzyme that is resistant to glyphosate. The result is a change in the peptide (short chain of amino acids) in the shikimate pathway, whereby the amino acid Glycine will now actually become a different amino acid, Alanine. In other words, plants that are resistant to glyphosate have an Alanine where there would normally be a Glycine. The company now sells 96% of all seeds to American farmers. (Not sure about Australia). 

 

These GMO’s enabled farmers to directly spray glyphosate on the living crops and it would only kill the weeds below them. Glyphosate is highly water-soluble meaning that it dissolves in water very easily, and evaporates into the atmosphere very easily too. 

 

Brain: Hang on, aren’t we made of water? 

A new born bub is about 75% water and by the time we die we are approximately 60% water. Cool.

 

This also means that it will ‘bioaccumulate’ (build-up) in plants that it is sprayed on. It builds up in the meristematic (continuously dividing, like skin) tissue and the reproductive tissue. All the processes of life require water to perform their function.  

 

One of the most disturbing things is the use of glyphosate as a desiccant. Desiccant, meaning it is used to kill a crop (not resistant to glyphosate) before harvest. This technique is very handy if there is bad weather coming, or a deadline for a sale, or you don’t want the moisture of the plant to be blocking up the harvesting machines. The issue here is the proximity to the processing of that produce and the proximity to ingestion by us consumers.

 SIDE NOTE: In Australia it is mainly used on wheat, canola, lentils and chickpeas. I stopped eating hummus after I learnt this. Apparently, humus has some of the highest levels of glyphosate going round.

 

Brain: So, what about us consumers?   

Just searching ‘glyphosate’ on Spotify lead me to a lady who has overtaken Roger Federer on my list of heroes. She doesn’t know it yet, but I love her. Her name is Stephanie Seneff. I have recorded a podcast with her on this topic to accompany this.

LINK TO PODCAST. 

Stephanie is a senior research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a bachelor of science in biophysics, and a master’s, an engineer’s and a Phd in electrical engineering and computer science. She mainly studied the intersection of human biology and computers. We have Stephanie to thank for Siri and Alexa. Cool, thanks very much. In 2008 she began studying the impact of nutritional deficiencies and environmental toxicants on human health. She has been researching and writing about glyphosate for over a decade now.  

She was alerted to Glyphosate while attending a talk by Dr Don Huber about 15 years ago. She has written a book called ‘Toxic Legacy. How the weed killer glyphosate is destroying our health and the environment’. It’s a fucken dry read, unless you’re me (someone who has suffered because of this chemical), and it’s blowing your mind with every page turn. 

If you Google Stephanie you will see that she gets discredited quite a lot. It’s strange though because there isn’t really anything in this for her. She is 77 years old and lives in Hawaii. I have listened to her enough to know she has her ego in check, and there is no financial gain for her either. Why are they trying to shut her up? Stephanie is an incredible woman. I asked her why she is doing this and her response was ‘because of the children’. 

You need to read Stephanie’s book (Toxic Legacy) to properly understand the extent to which glyphosate damages us. There are SO many things that it does, including disrupting the endocrine system, which is the body’s ability to communicate and respond to stressors within. She has a huge amount of research correlating it to obesity and autism too, which she talks about in more detail in the podcast. 

BUT THERE IS ONE MAIN POINT TO KNOW! Glyphosate binds, or joins to, sites in the body where the amino acid Glycine would otherwise bind to. Remember, amino acids are the building blocks of our proteins. Glycine is not termed ‘essential’ meaning that our body produces it without us having to eat anything in order to get it. It is the smallest of all the amino acids and it plays a vital role. It performs functions in the body by synthesising proteins, including collagen for skin and tissues, and acting as a neurotransmitter in the brain to regulate mood and sleep. It is also essential for producing the antioxidant glutathione, protecting cells from damage, supporting metabolic and cardiovascular health, and helping to regulate blood sugar.

 

Brain: WAIT! Can’t we just test to see if the glyphosate molecule fits where glycine would normally fit in the body? Simple with today’s technology surely! 

I asked Stephanie why we can’t simply repeat the test that Monsanto did for themselves in the 1980’s with the Blue Gill Sunfish and she said ‘researchers don't want to mess with it because there is potential to draw the ire of Bayer (Monsanto) executives, which could be really bad for your career. Also, just as with the vaccines, the industry has managed to sell the idea that I'm not credible and that the idea that glyphosate could substitute for glycine is hogwash. I know a couple of people who have the needed skills and have been trying hard to get funding to do the research, but the funding agencies don't want to mess with it either. It's a sad state of affairs’.

Very frustrating because if this was true it would change the entire world and probably save millions of lives.

 

Anyway….Brain: Hm. I wonder if there is glycine in the gut lining (where serotonin lives)? 

Yes, glycine is present in the gut mucosa, as it is used by intestinal epithelial cells for synthesising glutathione and other vital compounds, and is transported into these cells by the specific glycine transporter GLYT1. Glycine also contributes to maintaining the integrity of the intestinal barrier and offers protective effects against damage.  

The first thing that glyphosate does is expose you to the outside world. If you think about it, your whole GI tract, from your mouth hole to your bum hole, is kind-a on the outside of your body. Your gut lining is the first line of defence to the toxicities of our modern world. Glyphosate breaks down the protein structure used to hold this barrier together and it creates leaky gut. Leaky gut has now been related to over 90% of the chronic diseases that exist on our planet. Why has gut science come so far so quickly? Because it has had to, nothing else is working.

 SIDE NOTE: One of the most disturbing things I learnt about glyphosate is that fact that it accumulates in the body and can be passed on through generations. In rat studies, they found that the generation that suffered the most side effect was the third generation. This could potentially explain the rapid increase in bowel cancer since the 90's. I am part of the 2nd/3rd generation since the increase in use. People between 20-30 years old would be generation number 3. 

WHAT NEXT THEN?

Something has caused bowel cancer in Australia to become a young person’s disease. It has increased too quickly to be genetic or just bad luck. I believe cancer is death by 1000 cuts but some cuts are way deeper than others. Glyphosate is a deep cut.

SIDE NOTE: Example of little cut: My radiotherapy practice gave me a moisturiser with two carcinogens in it and when I alerted them to it, they said it was such small amounts that it won’t do any damage. For fuck’s sake! I already have cancer. This mentality has to change.

 

The acceptable amounts of glyphosate are too high. They should be zero. A 2024 study in QLD showed 9% of people had it in their urine. It is killing us slowly, although farmer suicide rates are 94% higher than non-farmers. One farmer kills themselves every 10 days. Is it stress? Stress is as old as agriculture itself, surely. Is suicide a problem with the brain? …..or is it the gut? The gut is often referred to as the 'first-brain' these days. More research needed.

Glyphosate is binding up our micronutrients and as our technology gets better we are able to look at this on a micro (sub-atomic) level. It is actually deficient in its purpose long term, it weakens plants. It is causing cancer.  It is poisoning our water, killing our butterflies, killing our worms, changing the sex of frogs and killing other amphibians. It’s in our air, rain, drinking water, blood, urine, brain, breastmilk, food, and at much higher levels in our pet’s food.

 

Ignorance, blissful at the time, built jails for our society as we know it. I don’t blame the generation that accepted this chemical into our lives for all the issues it has caused. How were they to know. I blame us for now knowing and not acting upon it. 

Change is difficult, especially given the busy lifestyles we lead; another jail we have built. With change comes the need to make more decisions. With the knowledge that glyphosate leads to all these health issues comes the need to think more about how to farm, where we shop, how to cook, what to eat, and WHY? to all these things too. Considering all the other decisions we need to make in our lives it is easy to turn a blind eye to knowledge that leads to this extra effort. Unless you get cancer. Then believe me when I say, the effort your body and your mind will have to go through will be much more demanding. 

 

I haven’t gone into the corruption of it all because I’m concerned I’ll be cast aside with the flat-earthers. But I will say that Bayer Monsanto, the company who produces Round Up has now paid out over $11 Billion dollars to people claiming glyphosate caused their cancer. They have lost 11 out of 17 court cases where people blamed them for their cancer, and have settled nearly 100,000 cases outside of court.

Monsanto sold to a German company Bayer (the producer of Agent Orange) in 2018. They now own the chemicals that make you sick, the GMO seeds to grow the food that can resist the chemicals that make you sick, AND (Bayer) produce the chemotherapy and other drugs that are given to you when you’re sick. Now that is a fucken good business model. Closed loop system.   

 

Australia just dismissed a Class Action Case where 800 Aussies were claiming it caused their cancer and they have approved the chemical for another 10 years (2034). This is seriously disheartening, especially for a cancer patient. It is banned in 33 countries now, FOR A REASON! We need to join them. 

Last thing, because I’m rambling and over it…….It took 7000 peer reviewed papers before the fact that smoking caused cancer went mainstream. There are a bit over 120 that say glyphosate causes cancer. We can’t afford to wait for another 6900 more. Smoking is my choice, glyphosate is not. (Ps. I don't smoke). 

We are all careful about putting anti-biotics in our bodies and only really want to do it as a last resort, so why would we spray the whole planet with one. Doesn't make sense.

There might be holes in my story but my question to you is WHAT IF I’M RIGHT? ......The world will need to change big-time, heavy. 

Anyway, share this around and let’s find someone who can check that amino acid for us!

 

Yours,

Duggie