SCI/TECH: Obesity and Mad Cow Disease

Links between obesity and prion-related diseases like Mad Cow were made some time ago. Prion diseases are known to make fat cells or "lipids" mutate, but no one quite understands how it all works. Research presented at the recent Biochemical Society Symposium helps unravel the mystery.





Scientists are working madly to understand how prion diseases like Mad Cow infect different cells to cause obesity and anorexia, diabetes, heart disease, spinal cord injuries and other diseases.

Prion diseases are hard to diagnose because they do not show up on any standard medical tests. As a result, doctors and victims' families often conclude that the problem is 'psychological.' Medical reports about prion-related diseases commonly state, "...the patient's complaints were thought to have a large psychologic component."

Prion diseases are caused by infectious proteins called prions. Prions spread through the body slowly, one protein, then one cell and tissue at a time. Eventually, whole organs may be infected as well as other body parts, the nervous systems, hormones and the immune system. The infection often takes decades to move through the body and get to the brain: "The incubation period of iatrogenic TSE ranges from 15 months to 30 years... "

Mad Cow disease and other prion-related diseases are epidemic, contrary to what the 'damage-control' spin says. Most people are infected with one strain or another. The question is not IF you have a prion disease, but where it will come out in your body, and what symptoms you will have. Prion diseases are hard to recognize because they don't have a common course of progression, and "...clinical presentations may be atypical." Almost every case is different, but obesity is a fairly common symptom of infectious prion and protein misfolding diseases.

Prion diseases are spread in several ways. They can be congenital, called "familial" or "inherited," and sometimes result in birth defects but not all the time. Prion diseases can be "acquired," meaning caught through contaminated food or water for example. "Iatrogenic transmission" means "infections acquired by the patient during the course of treatment," for example, spread through medicine, blood or tissues products or medical procedures.

The public is not informed about the links between obesity and Mad Cow-related diseases to prevent panic and "protect the economy." This results in "blaming the victims" and sometimes, the victims' parents. Most recently, Georgia House Bill 497 looks to legislate the requirement that school districts include a child's Body Mass Index (BMI) on his report card. Arguably, such legislation is not designed to help and protect but rather, to target.

"Blaming the victims" for having symptoms of epidemic infectious disease is leading us back to Eugenics programs and legislation. Not long ago, US Eugenics laws targeted the "unfit" for sterilization, incarceration and "mercy killing."

"It is better for all the world if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind... " Mr Justice Holmes's closing remark contained no consolatory words for Carrie Buck, the 20-year-old unmarried mother sitting abjectly in the US Supreme Court.

...Carrie perfectly fitted the law's description of a "probable parent of socially inadequate offspring". ...the highest court in the land shared the opinion of the Virginia Colony, Carrie Buck would be forcibly sterilised.

Thumbs up for the bright, white folks

There is a strong political movement in the USA arguing that the nation should re-instate the Eugenics laws that Mr. Justice Holmes upheld in the 1926 Supreme Court. Public support seems broad, but many people do not understand they're supporting Eugenics when they agree to "Personal Responsibility in Health." Nor do they know that most of the targets suffer from infectious prion-related diseases. Or that obesity is only one "flaw" on the target list.



Related News Links:
www.findarticles.com
www.wired.com
personal.uncc.edu

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Psychological Complaints: Mad Cow Disease and Spinal Cord Injury
NEWS: Should Kids Be Graded on Weight
SCI/TECH: Mad Cow Madness
politics.abovetopsecret.com...

GREAT POST SOFI!
I like the way you are getting specific...

For those that think "if this were true, every doctor in the nation would know"

think again pookie, many doctors haven't read a recent medical journal in 10 years... and many more feel that there is nothing new they can learn (the old dog syndrome)
for the younger doctors, they may be aware of the possiblility of prion disease, but they look to the older doctors for advice, and they get the same answer...
"prion disease, you think you have a mad cow on that table do ya?" and they laugh it off. The younger newer doctors rely upon the older peer review in regards to bold diagnoses...

it is a slowly changing tide, it may take years for prion disease to be a accepted diagnoses to common family practitioners...

they check all the greatest possiblilites first, and as Sofi has pointed out in other threads, almost all prion diseases have a more common cause that is first assumed to be the culprit... (even though prions often caused the common culprit anyway)
until the medical community starts to accept these prion related lab findings, it will go slowly...

the people who know, don't care that the info circulates slowly, they are not concerned with our health.

[edit on 17-2-2005 by LazarusTheLong]

You have voted soficrow for the Way Above Top Secret award. You have used all of your votes for this month.

Outstanding reporting. I'd vote you Way Above twice if I'd had two votes left.

I tend to be a cold, calculating jerk, but I intentionally temper that with my distaste for unfairness. I'm in favor of personal responsibility, just not for accountability in matters of health. I think a person has an obligation to themselves and to those who care for them to mitigate any adverse condition to whatever extent is reasonable, but not necessarily to eliminate the condition or otherwise do the impossible. It's going way too far when people can't get insurance and therefore can't get medical help till they are visibly dying, and that's what happens when companies are looking for every excuse to get an employee off of their insurance- it's only a matter of time till your employer does a Body Mass Index on you yearly. By the way, did you know that Arnold Schwartzenegger failed one of those things? They simply aren't reliable.
I have a responsibility to myself to eat well- not to drink two liters of coca cola every day and at least once in a while to have salad instead of french fries, but my employer can't and shouldn't monitor this. It's up to me. Somebody who has a financial stake in the matter can't be trusted to objectively decide who is making a reasonable effort to mitigate damages for insurance and who isn't, so we can't let them impose these standards at all. If they are in danger of going bankrupt (which they aren't) fine let them raise the deductable and create an incentive to take care of yourself. Otherwise medical capitalism/eugenics (there isn't much difference) just needs to take a back seat to taking care of people.

[edit on 17-2-2005 by The Vagabond]

Hey, thanks Vagabond!

Prions - and so, prion diseases - are affected by environmental contamination and pollution. ...The many weird and different affects resulting from the various combinations has confused scientists for decades. That's one of the reasons the Environmental Genome Project (EGP) was created in 1997 - to sort through the maze.

Here's another tidbit, based on EGP funded research.

"Many Diseases May Begin in the Womb: A growing body of evidence suggests that poor nutrition, stress and other factors can affect a woman's developing fetus in subtle but fundamental ways, predisposing offspring to health problems as adults. These include heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, obesity, and possibly psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression."

Birth Defect News

What are you getting at? Obesity is some evil white mans conspiracy against minorities? Stop eating like a pig and you won't get fat. Why is everything the white gov't's fault. Go live in a country that isn't run by whitey you will soon change your tune. BMI index doesn't apply to body builders because muscle is heavier than fat. Tom Cruise & Brad Pitt both have an abnormally high BMI. BMI applies to average people who don't work out.
People have to take responsiblity for there own actions.

In another thread, i pointed out that the data collectors that know more about you than the FBI, have total tabulation on what you eat, how much you have sex, and how often you get sick,
all simply by what you buy and what info you let out...

none is sacred, and any can be bought by local landlords, government agents, INSURANCE COMPANIES, and apparently... even the scumbag next door, that wants to steal your identity...
all simply by posing as a business who is hiring someone and wants to go a background and spending habit check...

pay cash for everything... it is still trackable, but much harder to coorilate...

sorry, now we return to the previously scheduled program...

Originally posted by BattleofBatoche
What are you getting at? Obesity is some evil white mans conspiracy against minorities?

You wish.

But no - white people aren't immune to prion diseases. Genetics and race might influence exactly what cells are most vulnerable to attack - but don't count on "racial immunity." It ain't happenin.

Stop eating like a pig and you won't get fat.

Me? I've had a drop-dead roll-over-and-drool hard body for most of my life. My standard comeback line: "Take a number." ...and yes, I always ate like a pig. Burned it all off - but most important, I did not have prions attacking my lipids.

People have to take responsiblity for there own actions.

Absolutely. But people are NOT accountable for catching infectious diseases from food and water - OR for having symptoms of those diseases.

The FMD Action motto:

It's not your fault if you're sick, and it's not your fault if you don't get better. But you do have some power. Learn what it is and how to use it.

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[edit on 17-2-2005 by soficrow]

Hey I know how the medical community will treat your illness in many ways before finding out exactly what the problem is not matter that you explain over and over what the problem is they always tell you that is not is something else.

After been through some similar problem with my health I came to the conclusion that doctors either don't know what they are doing or they do it in purpose so they can get more money from you and your insurance.

And it does make you mad at least it did to me, after been treated for something else for almost a year when what I had it only took one outpatient surgical procedure to fix.

Yes very soon doctors will have to admit that is something making us sick and is becoming an epidemic.

can cause either obesity or anorexia? I wonder if it could be controlled-sort of like the discussion earlier this week of modifying HIV to attack cancer...

Imagine a bunch of easily spread diseases that cure many modern ailments-cancers, obesity, Alzheimer's, degenerate nerve or bone diseases...

It'd be pretty rough on the medical-pharmaceutical complex, wouldn't it?

Originally posted by Phugedaboudet
can cause either obesity or anorexia?

Yes - depends what proteins mutate in what stage of cell development - more or less.

It'd be pretty rough on the medical-pharmaceutical complex, wouldn't it?

Prions are created in drug manufacturing and research processes, often accidentally. When this happens, the prions clump together or "aggregate" and are basically a "ruined batch." ...The ruined batches get dumped down the sink, go through the sewer system into ground water and soil - and then into rivers and on to the oceans...

...Once prions are created, they have the ability to become infectious. And they're pretty much everywhere now - thanks mainly to drug manufacturers and chemical companies.

IMO - It's bassackwards to look for a drug to treat the effects of the drug that caused it in the first place.

Someone needs to grab those manufacturers and developers and say, "Clean up your room! RIGHT NOW!"

....We have a better chance at survival if we focus on prevention - and preventing re-infections.



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Soficrow, no wonder I look forward to your posts. If this problem with prions started out as a conspiracy between a few groups of people for some kind of gain, it snowballed it's self into something that has gone beyond conspiracy. I know there's a struggle ahead of humanity to find out more about these prion related diseases, if in fact they exist, and I believe they do. But science's lack of research funding and the Pharmacutical companies lack of interest could point to an industry in fear of the truth. We may have already found a way of killing ourselves

Originally posted by BattleofBatoche
What are you getting at? Obesity is some evil white mans conspiracy against minorities?

Yes, that's exactly what she said. In fact specifically I think she said that George Bush did it. [ / sarcasm ]
I believe what our friend is trying to inform us about is that in cases where an individual is less healthy than their lifestyle would suggest, it may not simply be the "big boned" or "genetic" excuse that is highly common. In SOME cases people are less healthy than their lifestyle should make them because of a disease which changes the way fat cells behave. This leads not only to unexplained obesity (did you know there are guys bigger than sumo-wrestlers who can run the iron-man triathalon?) but it can lead to inverse problems such as anorexia or non-weight related problems depending on which organ the disease manifests itself in.
The "conspiracy" is really not so much a conspiracy, but an unwillingness to accept social responsibility. It is more "economically viable" to say one is genetically predisposed to a condition or has created the condition by their lifestyle (some people do, but some people are falsely accused of this with not examination of their lifestyle at all, just like you did in the statement I quote next.) but that is more economically viable than to acknowledge that they are affected by an illness and attempt to treat them. By failing to acknowledge the illness the insurance companies not only get out of treating that illness, but they are trying to get out of treating all secondary illnesses as well. I could be a fitness god, but if I had a prion disease which had caused my fat cells to behave differently I might remain grossly overweight no matter what. My insurance company hopes to one day be able to call that a lifestyle-induced risk factor, without even looking at my lifestyle, and then they would not provide for my care when my illness lead to heart attack. (note that i personalize the example but I actually am not morbidly obese and do not plan on having a heart attack.)

Stop eating like a pig and you won't get fat.

It would be nice if things were that easy wouldn't it. I suggest that you deny both ignorance and arrogance.
I've been there- I have drooped myself from 260 pounds to 200 flat. Was I eating like a pig before? HARDLY. I could have smoked most people on a 3 mile run even at 260 pounds because I did it every day. For me to "stop eating like a pig" and not be 260 pounds, I starved myself 3 days a week (1 meal a day consisting of 1 fruit, 1 slice of bread, and either a boiled egg or half a small can of tuna.) while doing a great deal of VERY strenuous excercise (I actually quit my job so I could work out to get into the Marines full-time.)
Stop eating like a pig? Get a life kid. There are people like me out here who have to beat the crap out of themselves to get anywhere near what you might think is "normal".

Why is everything the white gov't's fault. Go live in a country that isn't run by whitey you will soon change your tune.

You're taking this out of context. The only allusion to white people being behind this in Sofi's post was the link to an outdated court case, and at that time in our history racism was an undeniable factor in public policy. Idiots come in all shades and tones and I'm confident that Sofi is aware of this. It doesn't change the fact that the modern phenomenon of denying insurance and therefore attempting to deny medical care has parallels to eugenics, and even if this is not a white-man's conspiracy, the eugenics movement was DEFINATELY a racist movement. The parallels are there. I'm white and I don't feel indicted by the article- I'm not trying to take anybody's medical coverage away. Don't take it so personal.

BMI index doesn't apply to body builders because muscle is heavier than fat. Tom Cruise & Brad Pitt both have an abnormally high BMI. BMI applies to average people who don't work out.
People have to take responsiblity for there own actions.

What about people who have high BMIs because of fat despite living perfectly healthy lifestyles?

There is a huge difference between taking responsibility for your actions and being made accountable for the effects of illness. You tell me- have you gone out and surveyed people to find out who is lazy and who is affected by genetics and/or illness? You have heard of Somoans, right?

People obesity "IS" and epidemic in the US is not a lie, it can happen to anybody and is affecting all of us slim or over weight.

And while we have some screaming "stop eating like pigs" in many cases it has nothing to do with what you eat.

I used to see obesity like most people as a personal problem and lack of control because I didn't know about the reality behind it.

Educate yourself and be prepared because it can affect all of us. I feel like I am on an eternal diet because I am so scare of obesity and the health problems associated with it.

Originally posted by kazi
Soficrow, no wonder I look forward to your posts.

[Blush] Why, thank you. Appreciate that, very much. Need my compliments, and respond well to positive reinforcement.




If this problem with prions started out as a conspiracy between a few groups of people for some kind of gain, it snowballed it's self into something that has gone beyond conspiracy. I know there's a struggle ahead of humanity to find out more about these prion related diseases, if in fact they exist, and I believe they do. But science's lack of research funding and the Pharmacutical companies lack of interest could point to an industry in fear of the truth. We may have already found a way of killing ourselves


...They are out there - and we do need to get on it. ...A good clean up will go a long way, for starters. ...Like the farmer said, "No point treating the cows if you don't clean the barn."



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