There's another instance of this where flukes infect ants making them want to climb blades of grass where they are eaten by cows. Here's a diagram of the lifecycle of this odd creature:
I thought this might be bull so I googled it. Apparently the fact that these parasites affect human behavior is proven! How widespread this is is up for discussion. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol9no11/03-0143.htm
My friend who's a 24 year old (extremely cute) female, who eats your Standard American Diet (but on the healthy side), took a 40 day juice fast about a year ago.
After about day 30, she passed a huge ball of worms in her stool. Let me emphasize "huge". Like, a babies fist. Needless to say, she had some parasites.
I now fear the juice fast... and, in a weird way... her :)
Yeah, ditto on the curiosity and revulsion. Is this a normal occurrence when juice fasting? What kind of juice? And when it was all over, any after-effects?
'Research has shown that women who are infected with the parasite tend to be warm, outgoing and attentive to others, while infected men tend to be less intelligent and probably a bit boring. But both men and women who are infected are more prone to feeling guilty and insecure.'
Although I do not doubt the infection rates I am sceptical about the conclusions. Any woman that does not LOVE cats is obviously not warm and attentive of others and I would like to see more details on the men samples; for example were they married to the above ladies or not. Do guilty and insecure people tend to have cats as pets?
Anyway I love cats since I was a kid and I am male! Worth the infection if I have it and perhaps the reason that so far I have not catch AIDS!
This parasite is indeed real and widespread, and the reason you don't notice its effects in others is because its effects are rather minor, resulting from small brain infections and increased dopamine at certain sites (I had no luck pinpointing the location of these, unfortunately).
The most agreed-upon effect appears to be that the parasite results in decreased neophilia. What a sensationalist story like this one will not tell you is that the observed effects are "rather low":
Our results showed that CMV infected subjects had lower scores in the personality dimension novelty seeking than the CMV-free subjects. Novelty seeking in infected subjects negatively correlated with levels of anti-CMV antibodies. Negative correlation was also found between novelty seeking and Toxoplasma-infection in Prague, while in villages and smaller cities the correlation was not significant. The effect of both infections, although highly significant, was rather low, explaining about 2 % of total variability of the novelty seeking in our experimental set.
Further, while cats are this parasite's original host, it seems that you're as likely to become infected form undercooked meat as from water polluted with cat fecal matter. I guess that's not as much fun as saying "cats are bad, now everyone fight!" I love how every media outlet picked this up as soon ('06, granted) as possible but it took Reuters a month to report on conclusive findings that marijuana consumption results in lower incidence of head and neck cancer.
This is old news and fluff. For a less fluffy article:
Increased incidence of traffic accidents in Toxoplasma-infected military drivers and protective effect RhD molecule revealed by a large-scale prospective cohort study.
For those with too little time to read the actual paper, here's the results summary:
We confirmed, using for the first time a prospective cohort study design, increased risk of traffic accidents in Toxoplasma-infected subjects and demonstrated a strong protective effect of RhD positivity against the risk of traffic accidents posed by latent toxoplasmosis. Our results show that RhD-negative subjects with high titers of anti-Toxoplasma antibodies had a probability of a traffic accident of about 16.7%, i.e. a more than six times higher rate than Toxoplasma-free or RhD-positive subjects.
In case I missed it, did that study control for location? I know that the other study stated that it did not have much (if any) background information on the candidates, but did say that infection rates for the parasite are higher in villages and small towns. I think that this is a significant lurking variable in any traffic accident analysis, and needs to be considered: In my experience, rural folk are less exposed to some of the more "creative" driving situations than those who live closer in.
I find new discoveries about incurable diseases which change human personalities on the scale of individuals and whole societies very HN-worthy, by the same standard as other science/medical discoveries.
Unfortunately, this is (1) old news; and (2) especially prone to obvious, knee-jerk LOLcats jokes -- there were already three before your comment. So I have mixed feelings about its topicality.
Firstly it's a very old discovery, just the effects of latent toxoplasmosis are becoming more newsworthy in tabloids and fluff pieces, traditionally the whole encephalitis was what people worried about.
Toxoplasmosis' only agreed upon (and still alleged) effect is a decrease in neophilia, which is linked to monoamine oxidase A a product of the so called 'warrior gene' that is far more prevalent in society than toxoplasmosis infections (33% genetic prevalence amongst European whites IIRC and ~60% in Asian/Pacific Islanders).
Oh and BTW toxoplasmosis is easily curable, it's regularly cured in humans and in animals that carry it used for food production (Pigs, Sheep and farmed Deers). The reason doctors don't treat it, is because you're safer to have latent toxoplasmosis than none at all, not only can it lead to miscarriages in women, but the chance of encephalitis increases with decreased immune function. So if you get toxoplasmosis when you're healthy, like most people, you'll be fine, but if doctors go around curing it you'll get reinfected and seriously increase your risk for death.
Ironically the mild production of Monoamine Oxidase A is known for a decrease in danger-seeking behaviour, but extreme production (witnessed in people with the Warrior Gene) is known for an increase in danger-seeking behaviour. Toxoplasmosis apparently acts like the warrior gene for mice, but will in fact likely prolong the life of a human infected with latent toxoplasmosis.
I had toxoplasmosis when I was 12. It made my vision cloudy for a day or so until I was pumped full of prednisone to fight it. I still have a tiny blind spot in my eye from it, but (to my knowledge) no other long-term effects. Sidenote: I had an eye exam the other day and the doctor could no longer recognize it as toxo - he thought it was histo, which is apparently something you get from chickens.
It's good to hear that your only lasting effect is a tiny blind spot; can you yourself observe it, or is it only noticeable on an eye exam?
Histoplasmosis IIRC is caused by a fungus spore. It's common in the ground everywhere, however in certain areas it's a lot more prevalent for some reason, I believe the states surrounding the Ohio and Mississippi rivers are the main place in North America. It's apparently on 80% of peoples skin in these areas, which is similar to ringworm (another fungus) in most people. However dirt infused with bird or bat droppings are a hotbed, so chicken litter of infected chickens is the common source for most humans. The only time fungi usually cause problems is when they get out of control, and dealing with infected guano is probably a good bet. IIRC it's usually an inhaled infection (causes something like pneumonia) but sometimes, often children, accidentally rub it into their eyes.
I had a severe outbreak of ringworm, my doctor told me it was highly contagious and I likely caught it from my dog. My dog was clean and when I visited a dermatologist he told me that because I have psoriasis the ringworm fungus basically struck it lucky and got through the skin. Incidentally the ringworm 'cured' my psoriasis (it used to cover about 20% of my torso and limbs, now I don't have a single patch).
You say you have medical knowledge. Regarding your claim that the ringworm cured your psoriasis. I find that a very exciting claim, if true. There are other cases of people using parasites to cure illness.
Is anybody using ringworm as a psoriasis treatment?
Perhaps by "other cases" you're alluding to accounts like this one, of using intentional hookworm infection to treat allergies. If not, you may find it interesting:
Well my experience with doctors was, at around 7 I was diagnosed with eczema due to clusters around my elbows. At around 10 a doctor performed a scraping, which produced pin-prick bleeding that is Auspitz's sign, so pretty much guaranteed psoriasis. At around 17/18, after having had psoriasis for 10 years I went to the doctor because the large patches (some were as large as the palm of my hand) had turned smooth and slightly yellow in the middle, but still appeared to be psoriasis on the outside. He said I'd 'obviously' been misdiagnosed as it was clearly ringworm and he started me on a broadspectrum antifungal.
The antifungal barely worked, but UV is known to be a treatment for both fungal infections and psoriasis. After my first round of antifungals I had a vacation scheduled for the south of France, the infections got better, but when I returned to the UK and by the time I'd got another appointment it'd flared up again. This occurred several times, after my third round I had basically a 2 month vacation in France and no medication. By 6 weeks the ringworm had cleared up and when I returned to the UK my doctor confirmed I was clear.
I visited my regular doctor again (not the one I'd dealt with the ringworm with as he was more specialist, plus on vacation) and she was amazed at my lack of psoriasis, except she confirmed (with a Auspitz's sign) that I still have psoriasis of the scalp.
I've always visited the south of France and Spain and a lot of other mediterranean destinations and none of them ever cleared up my psoriasis, it often went into remission but the scaling remained. So this makes me believe the ringworm (due to it removing a lot of the plaques) allowed the psoriasis to go into complete remission, which removed the food for the ringworm (it had only infected my existing psoriasis and not the rest of my body).
The ringworm left me with discoloration for about a year and I was fortunate enough not to get psoriasis nor ringworm on my nails (they can turn them into claw-like things). I wouldn't advocate it, but 25% of psoriasis patients get a fungal infection, so many might get lucky enough to have it happen to them too. It certainly didn't outright cure it, but I believe it acted as a catalyst of sorts that helped to remove it (I still have psoriasis, but it no longer covers 20% of my body, in fact it only occurs on my scalp, where the ringworm fortunately didn't spread to).
I have, however, read of tape worms being used for the treatment of a few other diseases, including Asthma and IBS (Crohn's specifically IIRC). Incidentally 50% of children with Asthma and eczema/psoriasis have the same defective gene (for filaggrin production), it's also believed Crohn's and hayfever (a condition I also have, but has severely diminished since my psoriasis has cleared from my skin) share the same gene. For asthma and crohn's there is already 'Helminthic therapy' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helminthic_therapy), which typically uses pig whipworm, which is only transitory in humans (IE it only lives a short time). Not only does it have higher success rates than medicines, but it also has less severe side effects (hookworm I believe has higher success rates, but causes more people to have side effects and carries slightly worse side effects).
Perhaps in time helminthic therapy will spread to psoriasis treatment, as in theory it should work with any autoimmune disease. Hope this gave you some more info, personally I'd vote for helminthic therapy over ringworm for treating psoriasis, as the side effects of ringworm (whilst generally benign) can be very visual; the discoloration only stayed for about a year with me, but can apparently last considerably longer. I'm sure many women would prefer stomach cramps than potentially life-long discoloration of the skin (at the beginning it seriously looked jaundice in places).
Very interesting, but in some ways contradictory to what I've read elsewhere, which includes:
(1) the effect on humans might be different for men vs. women (with one becoming more withdrawn, and the other more reckless); and
(2) that there's no treatment sure to reach latent cysts, and those that have the best chance have strong negative side effects.
In particular, I've never heard that having a latent infection is better than none-at-all, or that a latent infection protects against reinfection any more than having shaken the disease entirely (which with many diseases leaves residual resistance).
Do you have any references for this 'safer with latent toxoplasmosis' interpretation?
There's been no scientficially-verifiable studies done on the actual behavioural effects of toxoplasmosis, either on people as a whole or on individual sexes. The behaviours most commonly noted in infected people is decreased jealousy in males and decreased frigidity in females; anything beyond these are largely debated and are essentially wild speculation.
The biggest medical concern for infection is in women, no evidence has been shown that pregnancy will reactivate latent toxoplasmosis and allow it to become acute. If a woman is infected with toxoplasmosis it is safer to leave her untreated until she will no longer have children (around 50 years naturally, younger if her tubes are tied). Infection with toxoplasmosis when pregnant is exceptionally dangerous to the child (blindness and brain damage are exceptionally common, brain death can occur shortly after birth in many cases), but also very dangerous to the mother due to a suppressed immune system, which can start with flu-like symptoms and quickly progress to encephalitis.
Treatment in males could be performed at any time, however the course of drugs for latent toxoplasmosis are either exceptionally strong, or exceptionally long term and both are far more harmful than the infection. Not to mention that if the infection isn't completely removed it may become acute, potentially causing eye damage and nasal lesions, possibly a loss of smell. The bigger problem if the infection becomes acute is that the hosts immune system has usually been somewhat compromised by the medications.
There's also little proof of an immune resistance to toxoplasmosis and a person who has already been infected is highly likely to be reinfected, it is far more common to contract through your diet than your pet cat (prevalence in France is near 90%, but is near 5% in South Korea despite cat ownership averaging in the 20-40% around the world). This not only means you'll have to be retreated for the same exceptionally benign disease, but it increases your chances of acute infection.
I'm sure a magical cure all of toxoplasmosis would undoubtedly do good, but it's prevalent everywhere in the environment, and despite animals being treated with medications to prevent toxoplasmosis, food is the number one way to contract it. You would have to treat a few billion humans and animals, including vermin and hope none will become drug resistant.
Acute toxoplasmosis shows no signs of drug resistance, however latent toxoplasmosis already shows signs of drug resistant strains despite treatment barely being performed except in rare cases (Rh-negatives allegedly suffer decreased reaction time, which is dangerous for drivers, especially when already tired).
I have no references for non-treatment toxoplasmosis treatment being safer, that's just common sense when populations like France are near 90% infected and show lower violence rates than lower infected populations like Britain (22%) despite the infection allegedly increasing violence amongst males. The statistics would appear to be contradictory to some of the assumptions made by doctors.
What this really needs is an actual long-term behavioural study, but until then we have wild speculation with zero scientific basis and all appears to be contrary to current observable statistics.
Great info provided in an authoritative, confidence-inspiring tone and level of detail... but if I wanted to read this from a source other than an pseudonymous thread commenter, what references do you recommend? (Is this from medical journals? Are you a practicing doctor or researcher in this field?)
I've studied psychology, sociology and some medical care and am in no way a licensed professional (I'm purely debating on what I know, there are likely doctors far more knowledgeable on this subject, but as yet there have been no scientific studies on the behaviour effects, so anything other than infection prevalence and the acute symptoms of toxoplasmosis are wild speculation anyway), so I got into reading journals on them all (plus magazines like New Scientist), so personally I'd recommend journals if you can. The Lancet (which is essentially the medical journal in the UK) is a quality journal; I know they had an article on prenatal toxoplasmosis treatment, a good one IIRC, in the first half of 2007.
Other than that, I'd say a quality medical dictionary or an excellent anatomy textbook like Gray's Anatomy wouldn't do you harm for the inquisitive mind. There are lots of texts out there, once you get acquainted with some it becomes easier to find others.
I personally believe you're better of understanding your body and medicine, because if you ever get sick you're stuck relying on another human being and not a living embodiment of scientific facts. You're never going to know something doesn't sound right, if you don't know what your doctor is talking about. I'd also add, always get a second opinion for even moderate care issues (if you can, I live in Canada and grew up in the UK with Universal Healthcare, I'm aware this isn't necessarily practical for everyone in the US who may read this), or at least find and discuss your medical concerns with others, it can sometimes help. I realised my psoriasis wasn't eczema (which I was originally diagnosed with) when I noticed the difference between mine and all the other kids, like I've said elsewhere it spread to 20% of my body because I was told it was benign. I knew a girl with 70% coverage because she'd been misdiagnosed; a single flare-up of her 'eczema' caused her to breakout over nearly her entire torso and needed hospitalization for about a month to get it under control.
Some of us made LOLcat jokes because the story is old news. Maybe they weren't funny to you -- if so, mea culpa.
The danger of demonizing bad jokes is that eventually, nobody will make any jokes at all; they can't all be funny. Then we're just a bunch of annoyingly high-strung geeks being Very Serious about matters which have absolutely no relevance.
I think Slashdot's and Reddit's problems run deeper than one-liners. /. has some features I think would be interesting to add to HN (meta-moderation is a very interesting concept), while HN has some interesting things /. would stand a lot to gain if implemented (the idea editors shot down stories rather than post them).
Whatever Slashdot's problems, they're still the gold standard in moderation systems, and something about that site seems to encourage long form comments- something I often miss here.
