Fertilizing Dysfunction
How NPK Is Short-Circuiting the Human Body
In modern agriculture, NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) promises abundant harvests and accelerated growth. However, the hidden cost of this agricultural success is becoming apparent. Our ecosystems, both external and internal, are now saturated with these elements. They move from soil into food, then into our bodies, revealing troubling links to chronic diseases. Quietly, NPK fertilizers might be short-circuiting human biology.
Nitrogen: Fueling Microbial Aggression
Nitrogen stress in the gut marks one of the earliest disruptions in our biology. Conditions such as Parkinson’s disease frequently show increased levels of urease-producing bacteria, including Klebsiella, H. pylori, Proteus, Desulfovibrio, and Mycobacteria. These microbes convert urea to ammonia, driving up gut pH and shifting the microbial ecosystem.
This shift stresses beneficial microbes that thrive in acidic, redox-stable environments. Rising pH and ammonia select for aggressive, urease-producing bacteria, resistant to oxidative stress. The resulting microbial imbalance primes the gut for dysfunction, cascading into systemic breakdowns of signaling pathways, cellular integrity, and overall health.
Potassium: Cellular Spillover and Signal Collapse
Potassium plays a vital role in cellular communication, enabling cells to maintain voltage and organization. But in a gut environment altered by nitrogen, aggressive urease-producing bacteria chemically attack beneficial microbes, causing potassium leakage from ruptured cells. This leakage disrupts electrochemical signaling vital for gut function and nerve health.
Extracellular potassium overload also compromises membrane potentials, disrupting peristalsis and nerve signaling, in addition to damaging the glycocalyx—a protective, carbohydrate-rich barrier coating gut cells and blood vessels. Loss of integrity in this barrier exposes cells to inflammation and chronic dysfunction (Yost et al.; Wu et al.; Muñoz-Planillo et al.).
Phosphate: Blocking Essential Vitamin D
Phosphate is ubiquitous in modern diets, abundant in fertilizer-grown foods and processed products. Silently accumulating in the body, phosphate particularly impairs kidney function by inhibiting the enzyme 1α-hydroxylase. This enzyme is crucial for converting storage vitamin D into its active form. Consequently, despite normal lab results from standard vitamin D tests (which only measure storage vitamin D), widespread functional vitamin D deficiency can occur. To accurately assess active vitamin D levels, a special test for active vitamin D is necessary.
Active vitamin D is critical for regulating calcium balance, immune responses, mitochondrial health, and glycocalyx integrity. Yet supplementation alone rarely corrects this deficiency. Persistent phosphate overload blocks the conversion and effective utilization of vitamin D at a systemic level.
It's also important to note that taking synthetic vitamin D supplements, when the body can't convert them to their active form, is not a real solution. This approach fails to address the underlying metabolic block caused by excess phosphate and can give a false sense of resolution.
Glyphosate: A Phosphate Trojan Horse?
Glyphosate, structurally similar to phosphate (a phosphonate), further complicates the scenario by competing with phosphate in biological processes. Glyphosate presence may significantly disrupt phosphate metabolism, microbial balance, and mitochondrial function. Its interference potentially magnifies phosphate-related dysfunction in vitamin D metabolism and glycocalyx integrity, deepening chronic health vulnerabilities (Samsel and Seneff).
Recognizing the Pattern in Chronic Disease
Nitrogen overload, potassium displacement, and phosphate blockade form a clear pattern beyond Parkinson’s disease, evident in multiple chronic conditions:
Chronic kidney disease: Driven by phosphate retention and potassium imbalances.
Autoimmune disorders: Linked with dominance of urease-positive microbes and compromised gut barriers.
Cardiovascular disease: Associated with phosphate-induced vascular calcification and glycocalyx deterioration.
Neurodegenerative conditions: Characterized by declining signal integrity and disrupted redox balance.
Symptoms differ among conditions, yet they share foundational issues—loss of cellular compartmentalization, compromised electrical stability, and disrupted microbial coherence, collectively indicating terrain failure.
Ultimately, this critical failure may be linked to the widespread use of NPK fertilizers, a connection that warrants deeper scientific investigation. Embedded deeply in human biology, their impacts affect gut health, renal function, and cellular integrity. To effectively combat rising chronic diseases, rethinking agricultural practices from the ground up is imperative.
With gratitude,
Martha
Resources
Yost, Susan, et al. "Potassium is a key signal in host-microbiome dysbiosis in periodontitis" PLOS Pathogens, vol. 13, no. 8, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1006457
Wu, H., Huang, R., Fan, J. et al. Low potassium disrupt intestinal barrier and result in bacterial translocation. J Transl Med 20, 309 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-022-03499-0
Muñoz-Planillo, Raúl, et al. "K+ Efflux Is the Common Trigger of NLRP3 Inflammasome Activation by Bacterial Toxins and Particulate Matter." Immunity, vol. 38, no. 6, 2013, pp. 1142–1153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2013.05.016
Samsel A, Seneff S. Glyphosate’s Suppression of Cytochrome P450 Enzymes and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut Microbiome: Pathways to Modern Diseases. Entropy. 2013; 15(4):1416-1463. https://doi.org/10.3390/e15041416
Tagkas, Christos F et al. “Fertilizers and Human Health-A Systematic Review of the Epidemiological Evidence.” Toxics vol. 12,10 694. 26 Sep. 2024, https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics12100694
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