French Researchers Find Glyphosate Link to Breast Cancer, Leads to More Aggressive Cancer, Also Strikes Younger Women

I missed this study when it first came out, but am glad to share it this week since it's an important chapter in the medical detective novel about herbicides that we are living in the middle of.

French cancer researchers have found that glyphosate causes cancer when it's combined with other risk factors. (Cancers usually develop as a result of multiple factors.)

In studies with rats, the researchers found that when glyphosate was combined with molecules linked to oxidative stress, more cancers resulted. Oxidative stress is the result of aging, smoking, alcohol, diet or other factors. Oxidative stress changes the structure of the genome of the breast, which can accelerate the growth of cancer.

"Especially, herbicides have been increasingly recognized as epigenetic modifiers," the studies' authors wrote in their introduction to the paper published in Frontiers in Genetics.

Glyphosate not only promoted cancer development, it also supercharged cancer both in the disease's severity and target.

• 50% of the rats in the study got cancer

• Cancer growth was more aggressive

• The type of cancer it accelerated is one that attacks younger women

“What was particularly alarming about the tumor growth was that it wasn’t the usual type of breast cancer we see in older women,” Sophie Lelièvre said. “It was the more aggressive form found in younger women, also known as luminal B cancer.”

Lelièvre is a professor of cancer pharmacology at Purdue, which also participated in the study, and serves as the co-leader of Purdue's International Breast Cancer & Nutrition project, a group of medical researchers around the globe.

“This is a major result and nobody has ever shown this before,” says Sophie Lelièvre, professor of cancer pharmacology in Purdue’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “Showing that glyphosate can trigger tumor growth, when combined with another frequently observed risk, is an important missing link when it comes to determining what causes cancer. ”

Read the rest of the story from Purdue here or coverage from Sustainable Pulse here.

The scientific article can be found here.

What to Drink in a Pandemic? Biodynamic Boxed Wines from Italy - And You Can Order Them Online

Pandemic? Don't panic. You can still move the climate change needle towards the good earth citizen end of the dial, avoid in store shopping and drink excellent, inexpensive table wine grown by an Italian coop in the Abruzzo - fair and friendly.

The amazing Lunaria brand winery is my hands down favorite when it comes to recommending a pandemic wine.

Choose your color: red or pink...I am a huge fan of both, though I tend to favor the what I call rosé.

Lunaria's Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

Demeter certified, biodynamic wine from Italy, this wine is $72 for TWO boxes, making it the equivalent of $36 a box or $9 a bottle. It's made by a cooperative on the eastern coast of central Italy  You can order it online from Organic Wine Exchange here.

Lunaria's Pinot Grigio - A Copper Colored "Rosé"

The same cooperative also offers a beautiful crisp, clean Pinot Grigio that is also a lovely balance of fruit and acidity. You can buy it here.

See the comments section for a list of retailers (provided by Mountain People's Wine in California).

Video on Demand: Seralini on Pesticides and Wine

The most brilliant scientists of our generation who are focused on pesticides and environmental health rarely give public lectures. They speak to their peers at professional conferences and present their research findings in peer reviewed journals, preferring to share the precise data and insights and analysis in those circles.

However, we are lucky to have the Environmental Health Symposium's video of Professor Seralini available to see. For $29 (to defray the professional video production costs), you can see and hear this clear and educational presentation from the leading voice against pesticides and about pesticides in wine.

Have a look here (and click on #11) to order.