I listened to a podcast earlier this week that was pretty scientific (for me), yet fascinating. The Bulletproof Exec (Dave Asprey) interviewed Dr. Stephanie Seneff, a senior researcher at MIT. For three decades she’s been doing interdisciplinary research where biology and computers intersect.

It was so full of information, I could hardly keep up with the podcast while driving. Later I went online to read the actual transcript. Here’s the link, and the page also has video of the Facetime-like conversation.

I am not a scientist, but the findings and recommendations that I found intriguing in this lengthy and wide-ranging conversation are listed below. If you want to learn more about any of this, there’s a lot of good information available online. There are open-access scientific journals and papers available on the internet that are free. And you can google “Seneff”.

• The cause of heart disease isn’t high cholesterol, it’s a deficiency in sulfate.

• Sulfate deficiency is behind the chronic diseases of the elderly as well as autism.
• Glyphosate (RoundUp) is everywhere, in the air, in the rain, in the water, and in our food, even organic food (inadvertently, of course).
• Glyphosate interferes with the liver’s ability to make cholesterol sulfate.
• Glyphosate may have a direct link to high cholesterol. When sprayed on soil, it increases the amount of toxins made by fungal organisms. These mycotoxins when consumed in our food raise cholesterol.
• Melanoma rates have paralleled increased rates in sunscreen use over the past 20 years.
• Glyphosate disrupts the skin’s natural ability to protect itself from sun damage by disrupting pathways in the gut that produce aromatic amino acids (tryptophan and tyrosine) that are precursors to melanin in the skin. The skin becomes more sensitive to UV radiation.
• The skin can make sulfate from sunlight and oxygen if the pathways are intact. The skin makes cholesterol sulfate.
• Sunscreens that contain aluminum also disrupt the sulfate-making enzymes in the skin.
• Sunscreen fools you into thinking you’re safe, and you stay out too long.
• Sulfate makes tryptophan (precursor of serotonin), Vitamin D, and cholesterol water soluble, which helps them move where needed in the body through the blood stream (instead of needing to be transported by LDL cholesterol particles). Sulfate coats the linings of the blood vessels with a gel, which helps blood flow without blockages.
• Autism is caused by a deficiency of heparan sulfate in the brain’s ventricles and cerebrospinal fluid. Fractones in the edges of the ventricles are where new neurons are produced. Lack of heparan sulfate means fewer new neurons.
• The FDA has a huge database (FAERS) reporting the adverse side effects of drugs. Researchers analyzing the database found intriguing connections between terminal diseases and drugs. They came up with a short list of drugs and biologicals linked to death: heparan sulfate, protamine sulfate, and Trasylol. Glyphosate is found in these substances when the substances they are made from are contaminated.
• Glyphosate goes into red blood cells, kills them, and people become anemic. Anemia is epidemic now, rising in parallel with use of glyphosate.
• Glyphosate goes into the testicles.
• If you have blood drawn and reinjected, it’s common to add a little heparan.
• Nutritional research is often not well-designed. For example, when scientists run tests on fats that are permeated with toxins, they report on the fats but not the toxins. Did the fats contain glyphosate or hexanes? We don’t know.
• A French researcher, Seralini, has done a lot of research on rats. When Monsanto claimed no adverse effects after 3 months of a GMO RoundUp-Ready diet plus exposure to supplemental glyphosate, he replicated the study but lengthened it and found problems at 4 months.
• Plus, the Monsanto control group (of supposedly healthy rats) was not exactly being fed GMO-free organic food and filtered water. It was exposed to some glyphosate, and 6% of the control group got cancer.
• Humans and pigs rely more on their kidneys to process toxins. Rats and most other animals rely more on their livers.
• Any product containing both glyphosate and hexane is really toxic. They are both found in canola and soybean oils.
• Toxins go into our fat cells.
• Glyphosate is extremely well-correlated with obesity.
• Obesity is a natural way for the body to respond to toxins.
• Statin drugs, glyphosate, and aluminum are all considered to be safe by conventional science.
• Aluminum deactivates sulfate lining the blood vessels, which forms a gel making blood flow easier.
• Aluminum interferes with detoxifying enzymes in the liver that make bile acids and sulfate.
• Aluminum and glyphosate bind together. Glyphosate delivers aluminum to the pineal gland, because it’s outside of the blood-brain barrier. There it’s probably related to sleep disorders.
• Statins disrupt the liver’s ability to make cholesterol, which we need in our muscle cells and neurons. Lack of cholesterol harms these cells.
• Statins also reduce coenzyme Q10 in the heart, which protects you from heart failure. Side effects of taking statins include increases in diabetes, neuropathy, cataracts, hair loss, arthritis, and gut problems.
• Statins protect you from small heart attacks that you would probably recover from, so when you do have a heart attack, it will probably be a big one that’s more likely to kill you. Small heart attacks help your body produce sulfate and recover.
• Heart attacks release taurine, a sulfur-containing amino acid.
• Avoid heart attacks in the first place by getting enough sulfate.
• Mycotoxins (molds) are a known cause of atherosclerosis.
• When people are detoxing from mercury, they often have Candida (yeast) flareups because the yeast sequesters the mercury to keep it out of the liver, brain, and other tissues.
• Fungus feeds on and removes unhealthy things to make way for healthy things.
• Fungus infection is killing a lot of species now, like bats.
• Glyphosate is a major contributor to fungus infections.
• Fixing the soil and making it healthy again will help with our health, help butterflies and bees recover, and help slow climate change.
• People are working on creating a strain of bacteria that eats toxic mold in homes.
• “If you want to get fat quickly, live in a moldy house.”

A huge take-away for me here is that GMO foods per se are not as nearly as scary as the rampant use of glyphosate and the fact that it’s in the air, rain, and water.

Given all this, what can you do?

1. Avoid glyphosate as much as you possibly can.
2. Especially avoid GMO foods (not required to be labeled) because they are genetically modified to be resistant to glyphosate, which farmers spray on crops to increase yield. Most corn, soy, and canola products are GMOs and treated with glyphosate. Foods labeled organic do not contain GMOs.
3. Do not use canola or soybean oils at home.
4. Ask at restaurants what kind of oils they cook with. If nothing else, it will raise awareness and eventually lead to change. The same way restaurants now offer gluten-free options because customers asked for them, more will avoid GMO/glyphosated cooking oils and using olive, avocado, coconut, and other healthy oils.
5. Be politically active on the issues of GMO labeling and use of glyphosate. Let your representatives know repeatedly, as many times as it takes, how you stand on these issues.
6. Filter your water.
7. Buy and/or grow organic food (which cannot have glyphosate sprayed on it on purpose…but it’s in the rain and water), and wash it well before eating. Soaking in water and vinegar when you get it home can remove pesticide/herbicide residue. (Or so I’ve heard.)
8. Eat foods that contain sulfur, like fish and shellfish, egg yolks, garlic, onions, and cruciferous veggies like broccoli, kale, collards, cauliflower, cabbage. Here’s a good link and here’s another one.
9. This article may clear confusion about sulfate, sulfite, and sulfur.
10. Take MSM. (Start with a low dose of a quality brand sold at a store that employs a supplement buyer. Take more if you like — there’s no recommended dosage, and some take several grams per day for arthritis — and if you have side effects, cut back.)
11. Drink San Pellegrino water, high in sulfates.
12. Don’t wear sunscreen, especially if it contains aluminum.
13. Get a tan in the spring to protect your skin from sunburn in the summer (if you tan. I don’t, and I didn’t in the pre-glyphosate days.)
14. Get some sunlight on your skin every day during peak hours, but stay out half as long as it takes you to get sunburned. Cover up or go inside after that. [edited, see comments]
15. A safe and healthy amount of sunlight helps you detoxify and lose weight.
16. Since toxins go into fat, if you’re trying to lose a lot of weight quickly, research glutathione and take an appropriate amount to protect your kidneys and liver from toxins being released due to loss of fat.
17. Don’t inject, eat, or smear aluminum on yourself. That includes many anti-perspirants and sunscreens, and some vaccines. (You can request mercury-free, aluminum-free vaccines.)
18. Take collagen protein, like Great Lakes Gelatin or Collagen Hydrolysate.