Parasitic infections: this is not a joke!

[Kulapavana 0]

Source: Times Online <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-826557,00.html>

Published: September 21, 2003 Author: Jonathan Leake, Science Editor

For Education and Discussion Only. Not for Commercial Use.

 

 

Dangerrrr: cats could alter your personality

Jonathan Leake, Science Editor

 

 

 

THEY may look like lovable pets but Britain’s estimated 9m domestic cats are being blamed by scientists for infecting up to half the population with a parasite that can alter people’s personalities.

 

The startling figures emerge from studies into toxoplasma gondii, a parasite carried by almost all the country’s feline population. They show that half of Britain’s human population carry the parasite in their brains, and that infected people may undergo slow but crucial changes in their behaviour.

 

Infected men, suggests one new study, tend to become more aggressive, scruffy, antisocial and are less attractive. Women, on the other hand, appear to exhibit the “sex kitten” effect, becoming less trustworthy, more desirable, fun- loving and possibly more promiscuous.

 

Interestingly, for those who draw glib conclusions about national stereotypes, the number of people infected in France is much higher than in the UK.

 

The findings will not please cat lovers. The research — conducted at universities in Britain, the Czech Republic and America — was sponsored by the Stanley Research Medical Institute of Maryland, a leading centre for the study of mental illness. The institute has already published research showing that people infected with the toxoplasma parasite are at greater risk of developing schizophrenia and manic depression.

 

The study into more subtle changes in human personality is being carried out by Professor Jaroslav Flegr of Charles University in Prague. In one study he subjected more than 300 volunteers to personality profiling while also testing them for toxoplasma.

 

He found the women infected with toxoplasma spent more money on clothes and were consistently rated as more attractive. “We found they were more easy-going, more warm-hearted, had more friends and cared more about how they looked,” he said. “However, they were also less trustworthy and had more relationships with men.”

 

By contrast, the infected men appeared to suffer from the “alley cat” effect: becoming less well groomed undesirable loners who were more willing to fight. They were more likely to be suspicious and jealous. “They tended to dislike following rules,” Flegr said.

 

He also discovered that people infected with toxoplasma had delayed reaction times — and are at greater risk of being involved in car accidents. “Toxoplasma infection, could represent a serious and highly underestimated economic and public health problem,” he said.”

 

In Britain, concern over toxoplasma is growing among health experts — especially as the number of pet cats has grown to about 9m. Roland Salmon, an epidemiologist with the National Public Health Service for Wales, said: “The evidence is that cats are the main cause of infection.”

 

Toxoplasma moves in a natural cycle between rats and cats. Rats acquire it from contact with cat faeces and cats reacquire it from hunting infected rats. It has long been known that humans can become infected with the parasite through close contact with cats.

 

Pregnant women are advised to keep clear of the animals because the parasite can damage unborn babies. People with damaged immune systems, such as Aids victims, are also vulnerable.

 

Until now, however, the parasite has always been thought harmless to healthy people because their immune systems could suppress the infection. But this view seems certain to change, especially in the light of research at Oxford University.

 

Scientists there have found that when the parasite invades rats it somehow reprograms their brains, reversing their natural fear of cats. It is this same ability to destroy natural inhibitions that is thought to be at work in humans.

 

Doctors Manuel Berdoy and Joanne Webster at Oxford University are studying how toxoplasma alters rat behaviour and the chemical weapons it uses to subvert the brain.

 

Berdoy said: “The fact that a single-celled parasite can have such an effect on the mammalian or even human brain is amazing.”

 

One startling fact to emerge from research is the great differences in levels of infection. In France and Germany, for example, about 80%-90% of people are infected — nearly twice that in Britain or America.

 

“I am French and I have even wondered if there is an effect on national character,” Berdoy said.

 

Dr Dominique Soldati, a researcher at Imperial College in London, is studying ways of blocking toxoplasma from getting into cells. “Once you are infected you cannot get rid of this parasite and the numbers of them slowly grow over the years,” she said. “It’s not a nice thought.”

 

_______________

 

http://www.natur.cuni.cz/~flegr/TOXO/index.html

 

________

 

http://www.natur.cuni.cz/~flegr/Tehul3.htm

 

Paper is titled "Changes in the personality profile of

young women with latent toxoplasmosis"

 

http://www.natur.cuni.cz/~flegr/MANUSCRI/cloninger/flegr-cloninger2.pdf

 

Toxoplasma-infected men measured significantly lower on

verbal intelligence test measurements than those free of

toxoplasma.

 

Only 27% of the toxoplasma-infected had completed high-school compared to 36% of those not infected.

 

Although women are not the subject of the paper, it mentions

the remarkable result that toxoplasma infection appears

to increase verbal intelligence in women and to decrease it

in men.

[Kulapavana 0]

this article reminds me how little of our "personality" is really "ours"... hormones, parasites, upbringing, etc, etc...

[Priitaa 0]

Yikes! That's a scary post. That is, your second post is more scary than your first. Makes its point tho.

[Kulapavana 0]

This is kinda interesting too. I remember studying the life cycle of liver fluke (sheep, and sometimes human, parasite) in college. Grass snails pass it out (in microscopic larval form), ants eat it and soon parasite grows in them,

 

inducing the ant to climb to the top of blade of grass and wait...

 

to be eaten by sheep, where the parasite grows 1000s times its original size, lays eggs which pass out in urine and are eaten by snails... so the cycle goes on and on. Behold the banyan tree of material creation! /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Kulapavana 0]

btw: did you see my ad for anti-parasitic formula in the Marketplace? /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Priitaa 0]

LOL Good plug.

 

Well, I don't think I have parasites, but ya never know. Out of curiosity if nothing else, I will probably check out your link.

 

And now you are making me think I should post the link to m little online business too. :-)

[Guest guest]

don't get carried away by these idle allopathic dreams! No germ has ever caused a disease, as a little thinking would have told you ages ago.

for when we get the flue, we will carry millions of germs in us when the disease is fullblown, right?

Right. hence the germs are the result of the disease and cannot therefore be the cause, since these two - cause and result - are by necessity always different and can never be the same.

For a 150 years we have followed the idiot Pasteur, with the result that we cannot cure the common cold because we are on the wild-goose-chase after the imaginary cause - the germ, which really is a result.

Germs cannot attack healthy cells, but only sick ones. they are a bit like the cops and demolishers, who attack sick cells - having receptors that fit the bacterium or virus.

the disease is the squatter, who has occupied those cells and has put out the receptors - this place is squatted.

if you now wonder wherefrom originates disease, then look at the 7 deadly sins - not called deadly for nothing - and all the excesses which people subject themselves to and are subjected to by their environment.

[Kulapavana 0]

most of what you say is true. however, many very healthy people (american indian, pacific islanders) were wiped out by infectious diseases when they came in contact with white man, who carried the germs but was largely immune to them.

 

as for most of the parasites, they are a VERY different disease vector than germs and can infect ANYBODY exposed to it, regardless how "sinless" they might be. certainly, a healthy person will resist their infestation a lot better than a weak one, but that is about it.

 

real life is a little more complicated than some neat theories peddled by semi-educated people whose books litter health food store shelves promising cure for all diseases.

[Kulapavana 0]

there is a new, very rapidly spreading parasitic disease in deer. scientists are concerned it can jump species barrier and reach humans as well. here is an excerpt from government site (http://wdfw.wa.gov/factshts/hairloss.htm)

 

"We now believe the underlying problem is a muscle worm known as Parelaphostongylus. This parasite lays eggs into the blood stream which are then filtered out in the very small capillaries of the lungs. The eggs hatch in the lung producing a larva which grows in the air sacs creating a small zone of inflammation. Lungs of some deer submitted for histopathology revealed as much as thirty percent of the lung to be occupied by larva. It is thought that the low grade pneumonia created by the abundance of larvae is subjecting the deer to immune suppression. When deer are immune-suppressed lice numbers increase dramatically. Pathologists confirm that the hair loss is caused by a hypersensitivity reaction in the skin which is driving the deer to constantly rub and lick. At this point it is uncertain whether the hypersensitity reaction is due to the lice or the lung larva."

 

pretty nasty stuff! /images/graemlins/frown.gif