Comment by walterbell | Hacker News Reader

Comment by walterbell | Hacker News Reader

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Video, https://holisticnootropics.com/stephanieseneff/

> Dr. Stephanie Seneff is a Senior Research Scientist at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory ... BS degree from MIT in biology and a PhD from MIT in electrical engineering and computer science. Her recent interests have focused on the role of toxic chemicals and micronutrient deficiencies in health and disease, with a special emphasis on the pervasive herbicide, glyphosate, and the mineral, sulfur. Since 2008, she has authored over three dozen peer-reviewed journal papers on these topics.

  Glyphosate affects the gut and ultimately neurotransmitter
  Glyphosate is an endocrine disruptor
  Glyphosate contributing to the obesity epidemic
  Glyphosate holds onto environmental chemicals in the body
  Glyphosate suppresses vitamin D metabolism
  Glyphosate can disrupt short-chain fatty acids
  Makes excess propionate which shows autism connection in mice
  Study showing correlation between glyphosate and mental health issues and cancer
  Glyphosate suppresses glutathione metabolism
  Cant optimize NAD with glyphosate
  Can’t make ATP with glyphosate, leads to chronic fatigue
  Glyphosate linked to Amyloid-Beta found in Alzheimer’s Disease
  Glyphosate tied to sperm motility and infertility

What is it they say about correlation and causation?

It's not clear what qualifies Seneff to draw these conclusions, given that (1) her academic background isn't in biological sciences, and (2) experts in these fields have noticed a trend of misinterpretation and junk publishing in her research activity[1].

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Seneff#Response_from...

Recommendations on studies and better sources welcome.

I'm not particular interested in proving or disproving glyphosate's safety.

For the purposes of this conversation, I'm only interested in calling out bad research/woo science when I see it. And this is precisely that.

“The world’s most used weedkiller, glyphosate, was discovered in a wide range of essential food products including bread, pulses and grains from top grocery stores such as Hy-Vee, Whole Foods Market, Amazon, Walmart and Target.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup”

I see no reason do distrust this women unless you have invested interest in roundup. This is a major issue and I’m so glad that we’re at least mentioning it, if not fighting for our collective best interest to be healthy.

I have no vested interest in Roundup's success, and I have a civic disinterest in just about anything Monsanto is saying. They have a track record of lying about the safety of the chemicals they produce. They're the DDT company, after all.

As for why I distrust this woman: see my original comment. She isn't an expert, and she has a reputation of publishing junk science. The preponderance of historical evidence is already against Monsanto, so the junk she peddles is just noise in an otherwise compelling argument that glyphosate needs more scrutiny.

Put another way: if I were more conspiratorially minded, I would see someone like Seneff as controlled opposition: she's just credentialed enough to ensnare otherwise well-informed lay-people, but also just enough of a crank to be trivially discredited by potentially dishonest actors. But I'm not, and I'm inclined to treat her as another in a long line of well-intentioned non-experts who actively diminish the credibility of glyphosate safety research.

Do you support the flagging of the original article, which is mostly focused on testing the glyphosate content in consumer foods?

I didn't flag it, if that's what you're asking. But I do think the editorialization ("poison", "contamination") is unwarranted given what we actually know.

We can thank Wikipedia for science arbitration.

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