You Gotta Be Kitten Me (Toxoplasma Gondii)

reply to post by Jakes51


Thank you for adding your words. I have been an observer here for some time and finally decided I should start being more active in the community I enjoyed observing for awhile now. What is making me a bit angry is how the majority of posters appear to skim my first post and then comment.

It is frustrating for me as a new member who took the time and effort to relay something interesting and that hit home for me on a personal level. I also thought my fellow members of ATS would enjoy the subject matter and where it was heading.

So far it looks like most people skimmed the first post and then come in calling me a "doomsday poster". It is obvious those people do not even read or try to comprehend what I am saying. The poster who called me a "doomsday" poster probably read the title, possibly half of first post and commented. I find it rude and quite ignorant of them.

I have seen so many post where people post a youtube vid, and offer one sentence explaining it. I tryed to approach the subject in a fun way with what I thought to be some interesting information. I even named the thread in a fun way as opposed to Alien Parasite Found In Our Brain. This is disheartening to me as a new member honestly. I see this turning into a debate over cat poop, not the discussion I had expected from ATS.


Just a suggestion ATS when someone takes the time and effort to put up more than a sentence worth of a post.. maybe you should read it. Some actual information maybe inside

reply to post by mamabeth


So your cats don't crap in a box in your house then bat it around the sand to cover it? amazing!

reply to post by cavalryscout


Your the second cat worshiper to take fact as an attack on cats. You guys really creep me out.

reply to post by VaterOrlaag



Kind of presumptuous of you dont you think? who's to say I prefer any type of animal to the next?

reply to post by MyParadoxicalSelf

I should have made the posts title Are toxoplasma parasites taking over our brains? I went for cute not scary

yes yes yes.you dam well shuda. my head has melted. im a hypochondriac i collect diseases as a hobby!
this is yet another worry i dont need. and i fit all the signs of having gandi as i shall call it.
can we set up a support group?

edit to add myparadoxicalself, very interesting thread, disturbing yes. but none the less interesting and i have read ALL the posts so this is not a derail attempt.
The fact is i really do have this friend who has loads of cats! and im around them often and im a bit of a skitso too.

Is there anyway to test for this? I have 2 cats and they are very clean, but just a couple months ago one of them brought in a dead rat through the window.

Also, is schizophrenia the only symptom? Because I have been having anxiety recently, and I can not for the life of me figure out what is causing it.

Edit: Also, would eating garlic or taking garlic pills help avoid being infected? Because I remember reading that garlic has a history of helping fend off parasites (imagine that, it also helps fend off vampires, who are parasites )


Edit 2: What are the common treatments for this? (sorry if any of these questions were already answered, I tried to find answers but there is quite a bit to read)

reply to post by MyParadoxicalSelf


Good thread.
If I could add some info... this article mentions toxoplasmosis and other infections that play a role in mental health.

It is research like this that has led Johns Hopkins virologist Robert Yolken and psychiatry professor and former special assistant to the Director of the National Institute for Mental Health Dr. E. Fuller Torrey to believe that toxoplasmosis is one of several infectious agents that causes most cases of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The idea is not new. In fact, as far back as 1922 the famous psychiatrist Karl Menninger hypothesized that schizophrenia was "in most instances the byproduct of viral encephalitis." Torrey notes that in the late nineteenth century schizophrenia and bipolar disorder went from being rare diseases to relatively common ones at the same time that cat ownership became popular. And Yolken designed a retrospective study of twenty-five hundred families showing that mothers of children who later developed psychoses were 4.5 times more likely to have antibodies to toxoplasmosis than the mothers of healthy controls. Due to the frequency of cat ownership, a large percentage of the US population (up to 50%) has been exposed to toxoplasmosis but most immunocompetent carriers remain asymptomatic until another immunological burden such as HIV or a separate parasite weakens the host defenses and precipitates pathogenic expression. That is what makes interpretation of the chronic state so tricky and at the Research Institute for Infectious Mental Illness we make sure to try to identify any parasitic coinfections before deciding on an appropriate course of treatment.

The Role of Infections in Mental Illness www.nutritional-healing.com.au...

reply to post by MyParadoxicalSelf


Thanks for the response! It was a great thread, and very informative. Since it appears you were an observer for quite awhile? It is one heck of thread! Keep up the good work! I saw where you were heading with it, and the suspicions that this bug may affect the mind? Lets call it the "Cat Scratch Fever," because its much easier to say than Toxoplasma Gondii. Like I said in my original post, I don't know what to make of it? By the sounds of it, this matter is still be investigated by the medical community? The jury is out. In the meantime, these animals have been a companion to humans for thousands of years, and I recall mummies being buried with their mummified companions. I don't see that changing much? Although, the alleged affects on people's minds is interesting. I suppose we have to find some reason why so many people are crazier than a rat in tin crap house? Perhaps, this will do along with so many other alleged reasons? Just my musings on your topic, and it was a very interesting thread!

Now that you've gotten in your cracks at me. The doomsday poster I was referring to was Dr Joanne Webster, because Dr Webster is the one who caused this alarmist ruckous based on her own very small "study", where she used extremely tenuous "facts" to link the illness to mental diseases. Her study wouldn't have even been noticed had she not tacked on an inflammatory and FALSE claim that "YOUR CAT IS MAKING YOU CRAZY". This womans scare tactics got traction due to her headline, and it took off, and it has INDEED caused the deaths of thousands of cats, because of people who are always looking for another reason become alarmed. So much so, that animal control and humane organizations had to start addressing the disease with people coming into dump their animals.

Her intrepid article was entitled How Your Cat is Making You Crazy. It is not about feline behavior problems, but rather a profile of one scientist’s view that Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite of cats that can also infect most warm blooded animals including people, can cause a host of mental health problems.

This single womans article is extremely alarmist and would make you wonder why you might have a cat if it is possible to “catch” toxoplamosis and mental disease from your feline friend. And it left those with mental illness clamoring for more information as they thought they finally have someone or something to blame for their illness.

I would encourage all those reading here to note, cats usually become infected by ingesting the tissues of a mouse, so if you have an indoor cat, it is very unlikely your cat will ever become infected. Cats that do become infected are only TEMPORARILY affected, IF AT ALL, and will only shed the infective form (in their feces) for a few weeks of their lives, generally when they are kittens. What is your kitten doing outdoors eating mice?? Futhermore, cats are fastidiously clean, use litter boxes or bury their feces outside, so it is rare for a human to come in contact with cat feces at all.

Also, humans are most commonly infected by eating contaminated food, not from cats. People are far more at risk from many other illnesses and accidents than toxoplasmosis.


I guess my reaction is based on the fact ( which I've stated) that words,and "casual passing along of information" can and DO indeed have tangible and harmful results. This womans article made the rounds on the MSM ad naseum simply because of her INFLAMMATORY AND MISLEADING title. She did it for a reason, and it worked. It got her attention and made a disease that has been known for decades into some sort of new boogy man attributed to CATS!!! and giving your children mental illness. I've seen the results of her attention seeking article so I tend to bristle when I see it regurgitated.

I watched a show where they discussed Toxoplasma. I cant remember what show it was but im pretty sure it was on the Science channel, maybe it was Curiosity- Worlds Dirtiest Man w/ Mike Rowe but im not positive

They found that almost all people they tested that are adrenaline junkies like skydivers were infected with it. They said something like when humans are infected with Toxoplasma they are more careless and are more likley to put thier lives in danger. so I guess were are like the rats.

like the toxoplasmosis doomsday poster would portend.

This is what sparked what you are now calling an "attack" on you by me. Now you claim you were not talking about me, but the Dr.? I am confused.

That is the thing. If you actually read my post carefully with an "open" mind without letting your heart get involved (as I suggested), you would see my adoration for cats. If you read behind the words so to speak, you will see "I AM" a cat lover myself. You would see "I AM" trying to explain the role this could play in certain "spiritual" aspects of cultures, namely the Egyptians. I actually believe what we label mental illness (of certain types) could be beneficial for the human race right now.

You would see I AM not spreading doom as you believe about this disease. You would see I AM in fact doing the opposite here.You would see "me" say please understand this is just one original thought, taken through a plethora of thoughts all of them being equally valid or true. Not to take what I AM saying as the truth.

Now that my heart has gotten involved, I do not want to continue because I feel this will impact the message "I" was "attempting" to deliver. I urge any future readers and others that may have skimmed the message, to go back and read again. If you do this without letting your love for cats get involved you will see this is in no way spreading fear of cats (toxo plasmosis) or mental illness, quite the opposite.

At some point in my future here on ATS I may come back to this thread and try offering what I had planned originally. Right now it seems people are misinterpreting the message and it is having the reverse effect than intended.

Please read through the words carefully. Not only in the OP and following posts from me but these words here as well. If you have the time click WHY I AM HERE in my signature. It will "possibly" give you an idea about the nature of myself and why I joined ATS in the first place. This was not spreading fear of the parasite it was doing the opposite. It was letting people who had never heard of it become informed, while at the same time giving a less fearful look for those familiar with the subject matter.

This single womans article is extremely alarmist and would make you wonder why you might have a cat if it is possible to “catch” toxoplamosis and mental disease from your feline friend. And it left those with mental illness clamoring for more information

Why do you think they would like to make us think we are in danger from this parasite? Can you see how my message was not trying to continue this view of toxoplasmosis but in fact do the opposite? I feel your love and appreciation for all animals as well as cats.

As I type these words I am playing "fetch" with my cat he loves chasing and returning rolled up pieces of paper. You and I are a lot alike.

You are reacting to the "mainstream" version of this parasite, not my own that I was presenting here. That is what is frustrating me. When you do that it completely misses the original message, and continue to spreads fear of something.

reply to post by MyParadoxicalSelf


i recommend just letting it go. The poster has their viewpoints. As long as they don't spam attack the thread to derail it, let them be.

You have an outstanding thread here. Focus on making it more outstanding.

LOL, like the farmer.....be out standing in your field.

I've seen the results of her attention seeking article so I tend to bristle when I see it regurgitated.

reply to post by SilverWraith


I did not regurgitate the article. READ my actual posts please? I have taken the time to post 3 full pages of text so far, perhaps if you read them before posting you will notice that.

Thank you.

Originally posted by bigfatfurrytexan
reply to post by MyParadoxicalSelf

 

i recommend just letting it go. The poster has their viewpoints. As long as they don't spam attack the thread to derail it, let them be.

You have an outstanding thread here. Focus on making it more outstanding.

LOL, like the farmer.....be out standing in your field.

Thank you for helping me "remember". It was way easier just being an observer here.

I got way to worked up over this. Perhaps I will go rant in the rant forum.

I want to apologize to the above poster who I had a bit of an "altercation" with.

I am sorry. I let my emotions get the best of me!
I do notice this has been moved into the skunk works.
I had planned continuing to follow this original "thought" till the end.
Now that this has been moved into skunk works it is a bit disheartening for me. I feel this is just as reasonable as some of the other topics I have seen allowed to stay in general or the alien forum.
My other topic in the skunk works was done intentionally by me because I knew it was skunk material
If I get the urge I will continue to delve into the matter further.
I just love Cats and Egyptians..

reply to post by SilverWraith


Last thing my friend.

This single womans article is extremely alarmist and would make you wonder why you might have a cat if it is possible to “catch” toxoplamosis and mental disease from your feline friend.

That is what I was looking to "dispel" or show another view that is NOT based on fear. We play for the same team in the end. That is why I reacted emotionally because I too share your passion for cats. We are one and the same.

Just saying if a thread about a guy looking for a special person that is a Pisces to help him get a look into the abyss.. is allowed to stay on top of the psychology forum

These 12 humans are suppose to teach one human out of each zodiac sign the power, and in some cases spells, that will one day save the earth, or stop certain events from happening.

then my post here should be allowed to be placed in the alien or to stay in general where it was.

You never know.. I could be helping him recruit. Pisces are said to be Cat people so it is likely this person will stumble upon my thread one day and save the world.

Your Welcome world!

Originally posted by MyParadoxicalSelf
reply to post by SilverWraith

 

Last thing my friend.

This single womans article is extremely alarmist and would make you wonder why you might have a cat if it is possible to “catch” toxoplamosis and mental disease from your feline friend.

That is what I was looking to "dispel" or show another view that is NOT based on fear. We play for the same team in the end. That is why I reacted emotionally because I too share your passion for cats. We are one and the same.

But another "view" of what? What are you dispeling exactly? Please explain so I can hopefully understand what you're saying.

I am struggling to understand how you can say you're looking to "dispel or show another view that is not based on fear", when your sources are from the very originator of the fear itself! If you were trying to dispel or offer a different view, then why bring up this womans work and then talk about how fascinating it is and how it pertains to you and lend credence to it but at the same time say that you're dispelling it? Either you embrace this womans work, or you don't, you can't have it both ways?

reply to post by SilverWraith


I am quoting the source yes, but the views presented are not from the source. Give me a moment to go back through and get the text.