You Gotta Be Kitten Me (Toxoplasma Gondii)

Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic disease caused by the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii. The parasite spreads by the ingestion of infected meat or the feces of an infected cat, or by vertical transmission from mother to fetus. From one-third to half of the world's human population is estimated to carry a Toxoplasma infection.

SOURCE
Don't worry that much about the numbers. I too was shocked reading the one-third to half statement. That means you have a 50/50 chance that this little fellow will be accompanying you on your morning drive to work. You may as well educate yourself about your new companion! For those unsure exactly what a parasite is
PARASITE

an organism that lives on or in an organism of another species, known as the host

The first question one is likely to ask is "What exactly does this parasite do?" To answer that we will first look at what it does to rats and mice.

Toxoplasma cycles between its rodent and feline hosts, living out different phases of its existence in each. Rats and mice infected with Toxoplasma start wandering around and drawing attention to themselves—in other words, behaving in ways that will bring them to the attention of cats. They are even, Dr Webster's work suggests, attracted to the smell of cats.SOURCE

You see over years of evolution (possibly), rodents "developed" an innate fear of the felines "scent" into their neurochemistry. What this ingenious parasite does is reverse this effect. Instead of the rodent fearing and avoiding the smell of cat urine, they now (when infected) are drawn towards that smell. Think Tom & Jerry, but Jerry is chasing Tom.

The affect this has on humans is quite varied, so I will be sticking one in particular. You are more than welcome to do more research yourself.

Before I continue I want to make this clear. I do not want this to end up turning into an argument about mental illness. I am simply offering one perspective to something that I know is a touchy subject. If you feel offended by my views towards mental illness I do apologize, and I hope you see that is my NOT my intent here.

One correlation we have discovered between this parasite and humans infected with it, is an increased risk for developing schizophrenia.

The connection with schizophrenia was originally suggested in the 1950s, but only really took off in 2003, when it was revived by Fuller Torrey of the Stanley Medical Research Institute, near Washington, DC. In collaboration with Bob Yolken of Johns Hopkins University, Dr Fuller discovered that people who suffer from schizophrenia are almost three times more likely than the general population to have antibodies to Toxoplasma. That does not, of course, prove Toxoplasma causes schizophrenia. As every science student is taught from the beginning, correlation is not causation. It could be that schizophrenics are more susceptible to the infection, or some third, as yet unidentified variable may be involved.

From my personal experience with schizophrenia and from being around those that have been diagnosed with this condition, more often then not they are some very creative and intuitive people. If you take the time to Google the "famous" people over the course of our history who have had this disease, you will see they have been some of the most progressive thinkers in our history. "Schizophrenics" have an easy time deducing various patterns and seeing the way individual pieces come together to complete the whole. See the works of John Nash for those who have never heard of this man before it would behoove you to look him up (after you finish reading this post of course). Here is a little about the man.

John Forbes Nash, Jr. (born June 13, 1928) is an American mathematician whose works in game theory, differential geometry, and partial differential equations have provided insight into the forces that govern chance and events inside complex systems in daily life. His theories are used in market economics, computing, evolutionary biology, artificial intelligence, accounting, politics and military theory. Serving as a Senior Research Mathematician at Princeton University during the latter part of his life, he shared the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with game theorists Reinhard Selten and John Harsanyi. Nash is the subject of the Hollywood movie A Beautiful Mind. The film, loosely based on the biography of the same name, focuses on Nash's mathematical genius and struggle with paranoid schizophrenia.

The film is wonderful, however certain details of his life and battle with schizophrenia were left out of the film to make it more acceptable to the masses. For example this I find to be most interesting.

A Brilliant Madness is the story of a mathematical genius whose career was cut short by a descent into madness. At the age of 30, John Nash, a stunningly original and famously eccentric MIT mathematician, suddenly began claiming that aliens were communicating with him and that he was a special messenger.

SOURCE

Interesting right? I thought so too. I also find it interesting that today mainstream psychiatry is coming up with more and more labels for various forms of mental illness, which in my humble opinion I see as a modern day witch hunt of sorts. They are so quick to call someone "crazy" and prescribe them with a pill to heal something that they created in the first place to sell us a pill and profit from.

Back to our favorite parasite!

Rats and mice are in the same "family" but they are NOT the same "species".

Many people think that rats and mice are members of the same family and some may think that they are even the same species, because they look so similar to each other. In fact, rats and mice are members of the same family, but they are definitely not the same species; rats and mice have both very visible noticeable differences, and different characteristics that you can’t see just by looking at them.

SOURCE
As it turns out, this parasite affects them both in a similar but different way..

T. gondii–infected mice interact with their environment and novel stimulation arising from it in a different way than uninfected mice. Initial studies observed that laboratory mice inoculated with T. gondii showed significantly diminished learning capacity and memory in double-training maze experiments

Hmm.. What happens in rats?

Initial studies with laboratory rats found that, while learning capacity was also reduced in some individuals, this was much milder and rarer than that observed for laboratory mice

SOURCE
I had hoped to delve into this topic even further but I am running out of room and this has taken me longer than initially thought and my brain is insisting I shut it down for now and get some sleep. When I have time I would like to discuss the Egyptians and there fascination with cats. Those guys were definitely progressive thinkers.

reply to post by MyParadoxicalSelf


Well, I don't eat meat or ......animal feces ....so I guess I'm in the clear.

reply to post by MyParadoxicalSelf


To finish the above post.

The next experiment drew on the demonstration that many antipsychotic drugs commonly used in the treatment of schizophrenia inhibit the replication of T. gondii tachyzoites in cell culture.25,26 Such observations provided support for the hypothesis that the antipsychotic and mood-stabilizing activity of some medications may be achieved, or at least augmented, through their inhibition of T. gondii replication and/or invasion in infected individuals. Moreover, they led to the prediction that such medications could also inhibit the behavioral effects of T. gondii in rats.

Are we all just lab rats ATS?

IF AN alien bug invaded the brains of half the population, hijacked their neurochemistry, altered the way they acted and drove some of them crazy, then you might expect a few excitable headlines to appear in the press. Yet something disturbingly like this may actually be happening without the world noticing.

SOURCE

reply to post by skepticconwatcher


Get close to a cat, they walk all over their poop and lick their butts. Good luck

reply to post by skepticconwatcher

How It Spreads People can catch toxoplasmosis from: touching or coming into contact with infected cat feces (cats get the infection from eating infected rodents, birds, or other small animals) eating raw or undercooked meat that's contaminated eating uncooked, unwashed fruits or vegetables that have been contaminated by manure being born with it (a woman who gets a toxoplasmosis infection while pregnant may pass the parasite on to her unborn child through the bloodstream) Although infection doesn't normally spread from person to person except through pregnancy, in rare instances toxoplasmosis can contaminate blood transfusions and organs donated for transplantation.

SOURCE

Toxoplasmosis (TOX-o-plaz-MO-sis) is a disease that can come from cats, but people are more likely to get it from eating raw meat or from gardening.

source

It would also stand to reason a simple cat scratch would do the trick. I have a vivid memory of a cat scratch from when I was 5 months old

Originally posted by skepticconwatcher
reply to post by MyParadoxicalSelf

 

Well, I don't eat meat or ......animal feces ....so I guess I'm in the clear.

edit on 25-10-2012 by skepticconwatcher because: (no reason given)

You can actually suffer from TPG transmitted in other ways as well. Hopefully, the OP goes over this. I had read an article posted on another site mentioning TPG and the potential effects it could have on Human beings. As well, he did after I posted this thus the edit.

OP you get my star and flag, I'm curious where you are going with this.

Originally posted by Hijinx

Originally posted by skepticconwatcher
reply to post by MyParadoxicalSelf

 

Well, I don't eat meat or ......animal feces ....so I guess I'm in the clear.

edit on 25-10-2012 by skepticconwatcher because: (no reason given)

You can actually suffer from TPG transmitted in other ways as well. Hopefully, the OP goes over this. I had read an article posted on another site mentioning TPG and the potential effects it could have on Human beings. As well, he did after I posted this thus the edit.

OP you get my star and flag, I'm curious where you are going with this.

edit on 25-10-2012 by Hijinx because: (no reason given)

I had intended to include more but ran out of room, so had to include more in the next post. When I have time I will come back and explore the Egyptians and how they seen cats as sacred, the sphinx (half man half cat) etc. I really must head to bed for now but thank you for reading. "This" has been on my mind for two years, I just had never followed it through other than mentally.

reply to post by MyParadoxicalSelf


I really wish more room was available to have everything included within one post. I am new here, well new posting but a long time observer. Can you do that? Or do you only get the room they give you?

I have read about this subject on other sites. I believe that it is just more propaganda to make animal lovers afraid. Humans have lived with cats and many other domesticated animals for centuries.

If cats were truly disease carrying and life threatening to humans - they are taking their time in doing us in or at least debilitating our ability to survive their bugs. Cats and humans seem to be getting along just fine.

It is the fluoridated water, vaccines and processed foods that are more of a threat to my health than anything my cats carry as a biological weapon. And guess what - the sodium fluoride, vaccines and processed foods are all human inventions!!! Fancy that - join the dots and see whether you can see my point of view.

Much Peace...

reply to post by Amanda5


No where in my post did I say this should be looked at in a "negative" way. I in fact love animals.. Guess what my favorite animal is? In fact I believe there could be certain benefits. The number one rule is (in my humble opinion) not to fear what we do not understand.

reply to post by Amanda5


Your avatar is lovely by the way.

this link shows that the parisite causes more road accidents to people who are infected by it www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... the insurance companys have known about this added risk for many years as have governments

reply to post by MyParadoxicalSelf


The avatar was given to me as a present by Purple Chiten - to cheer me up when I was doing it tough. Hope it brings you a laugh. Purple Chiten if you are reading - you have given me the gift that keeps on giving - thank you.

Much Peace...

reply to post by Amanda5


It's pretty god darn hilarious

Just watched this after reading your thread. They look like microscopic maggots! Ugghh! Seeing how cats are such a popular pet in society we're probably all infected! Pity this since cats are so cute!

Sunday Night Toxo Terror Part 1

Sunday Night Toxo Terror Part 2

It looks like sleep will elude me today.

When I have the time and proper "mindfulness", my plan is to return and follow this line of thought I have started here. Regretfully any future post will be presented with a "mosaic" nature about them, so one will need to follow along through the thread if you wish to see the picture I am "attempting" to paint.

I wish I could "spill the beans" all at once so to speak, however our mind simply does not work that way. We see the beginning and the end ~ what happens in between is one attempts to fill in the remaining space, hopefully achieving something worthwhile as an end result.

This is simply one line of thought being navigated through a path of like minded thoughts, all of them being equally valid and true.

Originally posted by cameraobscura
Just watched this after reading your thread. They look like microscopic maggots! Ugghh! Seeing how cats are such a popular pet in society we're probably all infected! Pity this since cats are so cute!

Sunday Night Toxo Terror Part 1

Sunday Night Toxo Terror Part 2

Kittens will remain being as cute as they ever were.

IF AN alien bug invaded the brains of half the population, hijacked their neurochemistry, altered the way they acted and drove some of them crazy, then you might expect a few excitable headlines to appear in the press. Yet something disturbingly like this may actually be happening without the world noticing.

This sounds like something right out of that kooky Scientology...space bugs.

L. Ron Hubbard, the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of his people to Earth (then known as "Teegeeack") in a DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and killed them using hydrogen bombs. Official Scientology scriptures hold that the essences of these many people remained, and that they form around people in modern times, causing them spiritual harm.

reply to post by zonetripper2065


I have three cats living in my house,I have never seen my cats step
in their poopoo! My cats are 9,10 and 11 years old.