Alzheimer's and an Arrant Protein (What's the connection?) Sorry..Long
Alzheimer's and an Arrant Protein (What's the connection?) Sorry..Long
My mother was diagnosed with "Alzheimer's" some 6 months before her death in 1998. She was the 3rd person in her family to have this disease. The heartache that this caused in years previous and the fact of not getting proper diagnosis and help for her condition added greatly to the heartache and pain that the family went through in dealing with her for the years prior to her diagnose and ultimate death.
Years before she was diagnosed; oh I'd say sometime in the 1980's, I saw a special on TV, on the PBS channel about a famous female anthropologist (sorry can not remember her name), who was doing work in Borneo or New Guinea or somewhere in the world with a remote tribe of people that practiced ritualistic cannibalism. As part of her research on tribes and their history and customs, she became aware of a disease that this tribe suffered from that was eventually tracked down as to the eating of human flesh. Part of her research entailed sending the brain of some of the victims to England for a frozen slide study. The brain of the person was frozen and then a ultra thin slice was cut and put under a very high microscope to study. The results were that the brain of these effected people which should have been whole and complete, (similar to a cluster like cauliflower) was in fact shot full of tiny holes. Holes that impeded the normal thought processes and caused erratic and illogical brain functioning. On further study she also found that the only other place in nature that had such a pattern of "holes" in the brain was in sheep. A careful study here in the US of effected sheep (May have also been in England---so long ago I can not remember), showed that the sheep also, upon frozen brain analysis had, not only the same symptoms as humans with this disease; but, also the same "holes" in their brains as did the cannibals of this remote part of the world. The theory, or should I say question of this program was: "Can a brain disease like "Alzheimer's", be transmitted through the eating of infected flesh like sheep or cattle?". (Although, it was not shown at the time that cattle could in fact possess this disease, only sheep).
Now, we sling-shot through time to the present. Just the other night I was watching a program on The Learning Channel. (TLC). When I first turned on this program I noticed that it was talking about the "Donner" (sorry don't know the spelling) party, and that particular tragedy. Then it went to Serial Killers; and, in particular the ones like Jeffery Domer (sorry...again don't know the spelling) who ate their victims. Up until this point it was just another program. Then it got really interesting.
The program switched to a remote tribe in Papaya New Guinea who practiced ritual cannibalism. Then it showed some men from this tribe that were effected by this disease. They had the "shakes" and had trouble walking in the beginning stages. They walked with a stick or a cane. Then as the disease got worst the brain started to show signs of severe dementia and mobility was greatly effected. Eventually they needed help standing and finally their body's could not stand upright or walk at all. And, the dementia became very severe, as to make communication impossible and activity (if any) very limited. The program then switched back and forth between one of these natives and "sick" cows and "effected" sheep that showed the very same difficulties. Then the program went on to explain that research had found that this problem with dementia and normal thought patterns that effected brain activity and mobility was found to be in a "Arrant Protein" that effected the brain functioning. This arrant protein was found in all "CJD" patients as well as in Mad Cow Disease, as well as in the natives of this land who developed a condition that they called Koru. (Sorry, again I do not know the spelling?).
They explained that this "arrant protein" caused the brain to fill up with plaque and then turn into a jelly-like substance and then eventually liquefied and ran off. This left holes in the brain which made normal thought patterns and mobility increasingly more difficult, and then eventually impossible. This was the first time that I have ever heard that CJD and Mad Cow Disease (and possibly Alzheimer's Disease ?), could actually all be related to an "arrant protein" of the brain.
PERSONAL SIDE-BAR
This protein was thought to infect the person in the same way that a cancer cell might infect a person. You have one effected protein, and instead of the rest of the normal proteins making this one protein better, the well proteins become a clone (as it were), to the sick protein. Similar to the spread of the one cancer cell. Eventually spreading and making healthy cells also sick. It attaches itself to a healthy cell and spreads out it's sickness from there. It is now a proven fact that the normally healthy brain stem in CJD is infected with this arrant protein, and it is thought that most, if not all Alzheimer's patients, have some from of this plaque or protein in their brains as well. (Healthy cells very seldom get more healthy when exposed to a sick cell). Therefore, it is my thought that this protein is more likely to invade the body from outside, than to be a genetic mutation that one can carry 40-50--60 or even 80 years before the damage begins. However, there are some forms of illness today that do carry very long life cycles. Even Aids can hide in the body for up to 10 years or longer, and Siflas can be carried for decades before it's final effects are known.
This also brings my mind around to the obvious connection between "tainted" meat sources and other bodily illnesses. Some two dozen or more people die each year from eating "bad" fish or sea-food. And, we all know about how you can eat "bad" meat and get Ecoli. (Although Ecoli, of course, does not have an extended life cycle.). This also springs my mind around to conditions in our packing plants. Many specials have been aired about how, in packing plants (even while FDA inspectors are present), huge sides of beef can fall into "the pit" and become contaminated with filth and then raised onto their hooks again and butchered without even so much as an antiseptic wash. Is it any wonder that someday it could be, or might be, proved that filthy hygiene practices may be to blame for infecting generations of people with brain debilitation diseases? (Just a personal thought). It is also a fact that clearly 1/3rd of our poultry products are infected with salmonella. Need I say more about improper and unclean food conditions?
When you put all these things together. You get a sanerio that I find disturbing. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not some kind of "Green Peace" whacko. Or, some kind of environmental nut-case. And, I don't particularly think of myself as any kind of conspiracy buff either. However, it is food for thought, (sorry about the pun), to think that our very food sources may be to blame for killing us. And, what is even worse, possibly giving us a disease that is far more, less preferable than a quick death. Namely a disease like Alzheimer's or CJD or any other of the horrific diseases that can destroy the human brain and leave the body to exist for years.
WORLD VIEW
Scientists now are working to identify this protein and to reverse the stem of further damage in CJD patients and in Alzheimer's patients and in many other diseases like Mad Cow Disease. However, I wonder when if ever, the powers-that-be, will ever fess up to the fact that illuminating the contamination at the source would have not been more preferable, than to treat the condition after-the-fact. Unfortunately, do to our world social-economical and political ties with big business; and, the import and export of goods (world trade) like food products; such a thought would seam unrealistic at best. Let's face it, on every ground, our world order is tied into, it would seam better to keep fighting the problem that we have right now, than to cast blame on an industry that financially supports the world markets. For financially, socially, politically and economically we are all dependent upon each other. My only regret is that I do not live in a world whereby it is NOT financially feasible to "do the right thing". And, whereby doing the expedient thing, always SEAMS more profitable.
Re: Alzheimer's and an Arrant Protein (What's the connection?) Sorry..Long
Sorry to not see this post a few years ago when it was written. Gizmo hits the nail on the head. Amazing that she could put 2 and 2 together so nicely. Too bad that the medical people have not done so well. There are those that are catching on though. Some are finding that ther is a connection and that Alzheimer's does not come from aluminum or shoes. It will be found to be from an infectious agent. Where could it come from? Evidence is fast accumulating that it comes from the animal products we eat. The most dangerous would be sheep, cattle, deer, and elk eyes, brain, or anything connected with this material. This does not mean that other products from diseased animals do not transmit disease, but that these particular items are very infectious.
The recent (day before yesterday) USDA report that reveals the American mad cows have a different form of mad cow from those in England should awaken the sleepy. One of the differences is that the US mad cow has a longer incubation period. Ummmm... you mean that humans would have a longer incubation period also? Like 60 instead of 30? What diseases do Americans have that begin later in life and involve dementia? Two major fatal diseases that come to mind are sporadic CJD (human mad cow) and Alzheimer's.
New research suggests that both diseases begin in the same manner with an errant protein that can cause the amyloid plaques to develop. It is seen now that amyloid plaques develop in some cases of mad cow disease. They are also seen in "mad" sheep (scrapie). There is a lot of pressure to keep the people from thinking their meat is unsafe, just as in England before it became known that people were indeed dying from infected cows. As Gizmo stated, we must consider the financial interests at stake in this battle over the truth. As we see today in Congress, this financial interest reaches deep into the hearts of the politicians and their appointments in agencies like the USDA.
Re: Alzheimer's and an Arrant Protein (What's the connection?) Sorry..Long
Thanks for this info.
The cost of medical care for the millions with Dementia really ought to outweigh the interests of the meat industry .. one would hope that the government agancies would eventually see the light.
meanwhile it seems like a good idea to stay away from meat, especially undercooked ...
Re: Alzheimer's and an Arrant Protein (What's the connection?) Sorry..Long
Martha, yes the cost is staggering in terms of dollars, but nothing compared to the pain and suffering. I have sympathy for the rancher who finds himself in a spot and his industry that will be decimated, but to a large degree the industry brought this upon themselves by their wrong practices of feeding diseased animals to cows. Politicians to a great degree today have been corrupted by their own greed and we see the results in the failure of the agencies that were supposed to protect our health. Japan will not buy our beef for a good reason. The USDA will not allow a company to test their cows for mad cow disease. It is all very sad.
My sympathies go out to those who suffer in consequence. An ounce of prevention is worth much more than a pound of cure today. You say that it would be good to stay away from meat, especially undercooked... In the case of e-coli or saolmanella, cooking will kill the disease, but not so with the prions that cause human mad cow disease and probably Alzheimer's. They are not renedered inactive by cooking. It takes heat in the 300 degree centigrade range to render them harmless.
Some will say the risk is very low, but it is not. We were told that there were no mad cows in the US. Well it was not true. We are now told that the meat is safe, but it is not. How many have to suffer and die before the risk is too high? It is too late to reverse what has happened, but it is not too late to warn others that their children and grandchildren are at risk. That is a fearful thought, but it needs to be considered. These terrible diseases that we hate do not just happen. They are caused. The subject needs to be studied by those who really want to know. The truth is not past finding out. It will be discovered by those who want to walk in it.
Re: Alzheimer's and an Arrant Protein (What's the connection?) Sorry..Long
I know about both the financial and the emotional cost. My Mom had to spend her life savings on nursing home care before being eligible for Medicaid. The family has been torn apart by her illness, some unequally caring for her, others backing off and denying the very real problem. I was her caregiver for 5 years, and there is no description of the fear and pain and depression, sleepless nights, asking 'why?" etc.
I am glad you are bringing up this subject, and I wonder if we should all urge our representatives on state and federal levels to look (once again) into the practices of the meat industry.
If the problem is caused by feeding unnatural food to cows, why is it also present in wild game like deer? We eat a lot of venison and always thought that was a completely safe and natural food.
Re: Alzheimer's and an Arrant Protein (What's the connection?) Sorry..Long
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martha H
I wonder if we should all urge our representatives on state and federal levels to look (once again) into the practices of the meat industry.
If the problem is caused by feeding unnatural food to cows, why is it also present in wild game like deer? We eat a lot of venison and always thought that was a completely safe and natural food.
We must do what we can to elect honest legislators and yes we ought to ask them to be more responsible. There is too much corruption.
Martha, you ask a very good question about venison. Many are like you and try to do the best they can, but have not been told the truth of the dangers. There are financial interests in keeping the dangers of eating deer and elk hidden also. Of course the biggest industry is the beef and dairy industry, so they have an influence in what is said about the deer and elk also.
Mad Cow disease is a "spongiform" disease. This type of prion disease is found in many animals and humans. Much testing has been done on different species and the disease is transmissible between many species. The question is not so much which animals, but what is the method of transmission? I am afraid that the extent of infection is much wider than has been shown. We have not seen this disease in fish, dogs, pigs, and chickens. This does not mean that these animals cannot transmit the disease. They could be carriers of the infected prion. But, it is in cats, sheep, goats, deer, elk, cattle, mink, and mice. There are others, but I am just writing off the top of head.
Your question is how do deer and elk get infected? We do not know for sure, but it is highly likely that the first route of transmission was the same as the cattle in England. Through their food. In my research it appears that Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in the deer and elk began on the Canadian border in the Mid-west. It is spreading out from there throughout the US and Canada. It is not in all of our states yet, but rapidly expanding. What would lead me to think that it began in the food supply? Because industry was involved. Elk and deer farms are located in this area and they feed their stock just as the cattle ranchers do. I know that deer and elk are vegetarian, but if you check it out, you will probably find that their food contained meat and bone meal or some other animal product. If so, then there is your link to the disease. Very sad.
It is not understood at all, what is the vector for infection in the herds that are wild. It is rather frightening when one contemplates why it is spreading so fast. We don't know yet. But, you will find that just as in the beef industry, the powers that be will tell you that there is no science to say that there is danger from eating deer and elk that have CWD. So, many hunters continue to kill and eat deer and elk even in areas where the disease has been found. There are efforts being made to identify the spread of the disease and hunters in those areas are asked to provide the heads for testing. They are then told if the animal was infected and if so they surrender the carcass to the wildlife agency which destroys it at a super high temperature.
The more you study the subject the more shocked you will become. I hope this answers your question to a degree. It ought to cause us to question very carefully the trust we have in the governmental agencies that are entrusted with the health of our loved ones.
I first wrote this thread in 2004 and it received no response. I am glad and warmed that it has finally developed interest in this forum. May I first appologize for my spelling. I (again) do not have the use of spell check, so I do appreciate your suffering thru my awful spelling and teriable grammar.
It seams to me that the only people that really have a vested interest in the "why" and "how", are the people who are directly affected by these diseases and their families and loved ones. I'm afraid at the age of 62, and with my life experiences, that I am quite jaded in my thoughts about the medical world and I see it only in terms of it oporating in it's best financial self-interests and not motivated at all to eleviate human suffering nor human loss. (But I digress, and I'm afraid I'm preaching to the chior).
We have progressed in the last 100 years or so, from a society of people who once provided and cultivated it's own food resources to one dependent on large corporate and multi-national interests that litterly feed the world. When it was in the best interest of our family to obtain fresh wholesome food to eat, we grew our own, or bought and sold from local dealers. With the advent of refrigeration we could produce more and save more, food stuffs. But, it was decades before the pressure of mass production and corporate greed and "corner cutting" for profits became involved, in our nations food supply. With the advent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the last century, we were supposed to have over-sight, a safety net as it were, to assure us that our food supply was not contaminated nor endangered during the frenzy to produce more supply, and more profits (in the bargan), while producing a food supply for the masses.
Has it worked, NO. Why? Because it's not in our governments best interest to slow or stop a partner in business, that is so profitible (both the business and to Washington). Most employees that are employed by the FDA go on to leave their jobs and work for the food industry as lobbiests. Just as representitives of mine owners interests go to Washington DC working for the best deals for mine owners at the sacrifice for the miners safety. And, most DEA officers who go to South America to stop the drug trade, end up very rich but do not stop much drug traffic. We are not effective on the war on drugs and we will not be very effective on the war for good, clean, wholesome fresh food and water. Why? Because it doesn't profit any business or corporation. And, polution, contamination, waste and shotty business practices, does.
We are told (with Ecoli) that the problem is, that restaurants are not cooking the meat well enough. Long enough, at a high enough tempuratures. What hog wash!!! If the packing house could spare 30 sec. on the line to hose down that carcuss that fell into the "waste" pit, before moving it down the line, maybe we wouldn't have to cook a burger for two days to get the poop out of it! And, we as consumers, just let it slide.
1/3rd of our nations supply of chickens and eggs contain saminilla. (This has actually increased expidentially as the production has increased, so it could be more by now, this is an old figure). We still do not know "why". But, anyone can tell you why it's getting worse. Why it's much more likely today, that you will get sick from eating chicken or eggs, than you were say 10 or 20 or 40 years ago. "Mad Cow" disease may have existed years and years ago, but the cases were few and far between. Why is it so prevelent and feared today? Because it's no longer the unusual, it's becoming more and more likely as more and more infected beef come into the market place without food safety, cleanliness, and inspection guidelines.
Ecoli, Mad Cow, Saminilla and even Aids...what do all these things have in common? Cleanliness, sanitation and a lack of public safety that is sacrificed for the sake of mass production, and corporate profits. But, you say, "Gizmo, why have you added Aids to this?" Well, for two reasons. One, aids is a second cousin to ecoli. The cause at the source is a contamination relative to fecal matter. And second is, anyone who has ever been involved in the food industry will tell you, the danger and chance of spreading any illness goes up expedentially as sanitation goes down. That's what all these things have in common. CLEANLINESS. And, CROSS-CONTAMINATION. Ecoli is spread by lack of cleanliness and cross-contamination. Mad Cow? Eating infected meat. Saminilla, eating infected chicken and eggs and the lack of sanitation in food production. Aids, the cross contamination of bodily fluids and in contaminated needles or blood transfusions or sex with an infected person.
We all know the stories about historic medical practices. When Doctors began to keep stuff cleaner, people got less and less sick. The question isn't why. The real question is why did we let our world get this way? Why do we continue to allow the powers that be, have free raign to look after the rights of big business and to disavow our rights and safety?
If you think that you are safe because you give up eating meat, chicken, eggs and raw uncooked fruits and vegetables (even ice creme) in a foreign country.... ! You are now much more likely to get sick or to die from eating fish than ever before in history. And why not? Look at what we do to our oceans, rivers and streams. The last time I ate a fish caught in our local lake my throat almost closed up from the asthma attack I had. I had to go to the hospital. A friend of mine went to Mexico and had raw oysters and came back with hepatitis A. Another friend of mine on a trip to Mexico had an Ice Creme Cone that was prepared with a scoop placed in a cup of local water. He almost died.
We humans walk through the world and don't understand that the world has changed. We can no longer leave our doors open and unlocked. And, we can no longer order food in a restaurant and just assume that all the employees have had their shots or that the food has been prepared with safety (with care taken to guard against cross contamination), or that their supplier wasn't asleep on the job and sold them contaminated meat from the packing house, or fruit or lettuce that fell into that cow flap and soked up ecoli. And, do you know if that fruit juice that you were just served was pasturized, or not?
Re: Alzheimer's and an Arrant Protein continued...
Now, I truly believe that Alzheimer's is an abnormality caused by a protein in the human body that eats, desolves, and liquifies brain cells so that they flow from the brain and cause holes. The same holes that are found in some sheep. The very same holes that those cannibals suffer from in that tribe in New Guinnie or New Zealand or whereever. We don't know how those sheep got it. But we do know how that tribe got it. All the members in that tribe...the women and the children, that were served the brains of their human victums developed some form of Alzheimer's. The tribe is dying out. The males will dye without wives or children, because they ate the "good" parts of their victums. The parts that are supposed to be the essence of the man that they killed. The heart, the liver, the blood and the flesh. But, the junk parts went to the women and the kids. The brains, the kidneys and the colon and left over bones with meat for soups.
We know that Mad Cow can now be spread to other cows by grinding up unsaleable cow parts (brains + bones) into meal and putting it in "cow food". Just as those cannibals spread Alzheimer's type disease through their tribe, so is Mad Cow being spread through cow cannibalism through the cow community. We already know "HOW". Though stupidity and through greed.
All we have to do now is to find out why. What has happened to us as a society that we have come so low? Why do we put up with such a distructive force. It is war that is being purpatrated upon us and we don't even know it. We just walk around like those cattle, and we stay subject to the "powers that be". We are all caught up so much in our own special interests that we don't stand up against our own suffering and murder. Yes! Murder!
Bad food, air, water is killing us every day. We just don't think about Alzheimer's unless it directly effects US. And why is it effecting more and more of us each day? Because we are living longer. Let's face it people, if we are going to live that long, we can't do it on toxic waste and poison, and filth. Did you know that the most likelihood of getting Alzheimer's is age? At 75 you will have a 50/50 chance of getting Alzheimer's or some other form of dementia. At 80 your chances are over 60% and at age 90 you have a 70% likelihood that you will have at least some form of dementia. And, by 95 (if you can live that long), you will have over an 80% chance that you will be working with some form of Alzheimer's or dementia type illness.
When you look at the world that we live in, it's not "why", it's "why not"? How can you not get some disease if you eat a sandwitch with lettuce that you do not wash, and it has been produced at a farm where cows or chicken feed freely among the crop (cross-productivity) and it's processed at a plant that cares less about cleanliness than it does about productivity. It's not why? It's rather, my gosh, why aren't we all dead? Why aren't we all sick? WHY NOT?
If you are a pregnant woman and you live within 3 miles of the Rio Grand in Texas, along the Texas/Mexican boarder, you are 3 times more likely to have a child with birth defects than if you live in any other place in the United States. If you live in Idaho among the old strip mine areas you are 5 times more likely to get cancer, luchmeia, or some other disease than any other place on the West Coast. Don't any of you remember the Grace Chemicals law suit? There was a movie about it. I live downwind from Handford. I sware that when I turn out the lights at night, I'm supprised that I don't glow in the dark! Almost everyone I know up here has digestive problems. The Digestive Disease Clinic can't do the endoscopes, proctascopes and colonscopes fast enough.
My point is. If we want life. If we want a quality of human life. If we want that for us, for our kids, for our grandkids. If we want the sickness to stop. If we want the heartbreak to stop. WE HAVE TO STOP...We have to stop allowing ourselves or others to keep us captive... living in our own sewer, in our own waste, and our own polution.
WE HAVE TO CLEAN UP OUR ACT.
(So..., I'm sorry, maybe I am a conspiracy nut after all, or at least a pesimist)
After all, if we all live long enough, with the way we treat this world, and with the polar ice caps melting at such an alarming rate...maybe we won't have this world to complain about much longer. And, if we are - what we eat....Maybe, this is FOOD FOR THOUGHT?
Re: Alzheimer's and an Arrant Protein (What's the connection?) Sorry..Long
Gismo, you have had this pent up for some time. It is understandable when you are a victim and see a loved one suffer for so long. It is hard when you begin to see that there is a reason "why" it has happened and know that it need never have been.
You say "It seams to me that the only people that really have a vested interest in the 'why' and 'how', are the people who are directly affected by these diseases and their families and loved ones." This is the reason why I came here to share this information. I was glad that you had already began the topic, because I am not a "victim" yet. But, you know that I can be or my children can be. So, I do have a vested interest in the matter. But, those who have come here to support and comfort one another as you live the experience today are the ones who have the "right" to demand an answer as to "why?"
There will be some who will become very angry when they better understand what is being said. But, this is can be very destructive if not combined with actions that produce good. So, let us work together as everyone has been doing. Don't let the corruption in the world spoil your peace. If we can help others, then there can be a blessing for them and us.
While I feel very strongly about what I have presented, there is the need for everyone to study this for themselves. It is not a difficult thing to do, but it will take a little time to sort out the truth from the lies. While it may be easy to see that there are significant problems in industry and government, we want to be on solid ground when we begin to share with others that the probable cause of Alzheimer's is an infectious substance called a prion.
Right now, we are at the cutting edge of science when it comes to prion disease. I have been researching this for the last 16 years. I produced a one hour video in 1992 stating that mad cow disease in England would be transmitted to humans. This was while England was saying that it could not be transmitted by eating the meat of mad cows. Today, I have seen research that tells me the most common cause of Alzheimer's is most likely Scrapie in sheep. But, the reason why the disease is increasing in the human population is that the prion disease has spread from sheep to cattle and to a host of other animals. And, this disease is not limited to transmission by eating infected meat. It probably is being transmitted through medical proceedures and medicines that have been contaminated. There are many products that can be contaminated by prions from these animals. Remember that the heat in most manufacturing processes does not render the infective prion harmless.
There is much more, but I think enough has been said to encourage all to study the subject. My hope is that our children and grandchildren will have an opportunity to be protected from the ravages of this dreaded disease.
Re: Alzheimer's and an Arrant Protein (What's the connection?) Sorry..Long
Thanks to both of you for your important information .. we sometimes get complacent, but this is the time for action.
I am leaving NY today after 7 days of visiting Mom at the nursing home. It has been a depressing time. Mom has delusions. She thinks she is at a country club. People in wheelchairs sit around and wait for something to happen, and nothing ever does. Depressing is a mild word. I can't wait to get back to my own place, near my grandchildren. But for their sake as well as my own, I will continue looking into this meat connection .. thanks also for warnings about washing salad ingredients etc.
I am always rejected from donating blood since I lived in Europe and go back now and then .. the Red Cross says 'we have to prevent transmission of Mad Cow Disease."
Way back when, one of my sons got Salmonella from playing in a sandbox where birds had left droppings ....
Re: Alzheimer's and an Arrant Protein (What's the connection?) Sorry..Long
It's true - when you stop and think about everything people can die from, it's amazing that any of us are still around!!! I feel that there is nothing safe left to do anymore! Life is hazardous to your health!!! All kidding aside, my Mom is 80 y/o and still in good health. She swears it's because she ate oranges and watermelon and also spinach as a child and she has never liked drinking milk. PLUS, she has never had to take any medicine! A most blessed women indeed. I just hope and pray it continues. Take care all and Blessings to you. C
Re: Alzheimer's and an Arrant Protein (What's the connection?) Sorry..Long
Sorry, I am not buying a lot of this discussion. My parents, ages 85 and 93, have eaten meat every day for 80 years. They are both mentally sharp and in good health. If everything around us has been poisoning us the for past several years why are longevity rates the highest ever, especially in developed countries? Don't even get me started on global warming. There are a whole lot of people making a lot of money over predicting the sky is falling. When I was in college in the 1970's the environmental movement was predicting the coming big freeze, but when that didn't work out they started pushing global warming. For every scientist that says there is global warming there is another who says it is all a bunch of baloney. I do believe in solar warming since there have been periods in the world when the sun became hotter, but there isn't a whole lot you can do about the sun.
When I watch protests by environmentalists on television I always notice there are several people from the left side of the spectrum who oppose free market societies on any terms so I have to wonder at the motives of these "environmentalists". Is it a clean environment or the destruction of a capitalistic society that interests them?
Getting off my soapbox now.
Jane, who wishes her local weather guy could predict the weather for the next day as well as scientists say they can predict it for the next 50 years.
Re: Alzheimer's and an Arrant Protein (What's the connection?) Sorry..Long
Yes Jane, let us make the best of the world as we inherited it from our parents and God's creation - not harm it, not destroy it, but make intelligent use of its assetts.
I think all of us with an AD family member are trying hard to pin it on something ... especially something in our control so we can avoid having it ... but for now, there is nothing we can give them but love and care.
Thank you so much for your comments. It is a blessing to me to finally know that I am not nuts, and that I am validated in some way that Scarpies in sheep and Mad Cow disease and those holes in the brains of those cannibals and in Alzheimer's patients, are somehow all related. Yes, I have had this pent up now for sometime. Part of the anger is that if I...I as a stupid know-nothing housewife. If I, as an uneducated lay-person can connect the dots...then why can not the so-called, self proclaimed professionals?
You say that you are not a "victim yet". That's correct. But, we are ALL potential victims. This is my point. It's not just us survivors of Alzheimer's that are at risk. The whole human race is at risk. And, most of us do not know or understand (YET), to what extent. Just as you have tried to warn people of Mad Cow, that can be transmitted from eating infected meat, so I have been crying out now, for years, that there is a connection between Alzheimer's and other diseases and the corruptness and greed that effect all of us, in every facet of our daily lives.
The anger that I feel is from the very fact that I do understand. I understand basically where Alzheimer's comes from. How it happens, how it progresses and the effects that it has on the victim and their family and everyone that come into contact with them. I understand the most effective ways to treat the disease and how to care for someone with the disease. I understand the drugs, the care and the treatment(s) that are proven effective. The only thing that I do not understand is, why the heck, if I understand (stupid, uneducated little old me), then why can't the so called professionals, the soposed specialists understand?
Do you think that this anomoly is restricted to Alzheimer's? You're wrong. I'll give a brief personal example. I have Berrets, not sure of the spelling. How did it get this way, this far? Briefly, I saw many many doctors for over 40 years. I've been a patient at the local Digestive Disease Cclinic for over 25 years. I was diagnosed origionally with a sticky "Phyloric valve", and given raglin for periodic attacks But, continued to suffer for another 25 years, dispite many and various medications that were ineffective. Eventually I was diagnosed with Berrets, a pre-cancerous condition. When my doctor confronted me with the news, he was shocked with my response. Briefly, I was not supprised. (What the hell do you expect after digesting and passing battery acid for over 40 years? I should have come as no suprise to him, after all, he's the doctor, I'm not, and I got the point long ago - it was certainly no suprise to me). It took going to a Naturopath, to get a real and a truthful diagnosis. That is I have food allergies and a bad pancreas that doesn't produce the necessary digestive enzeimes. So, I've suffered all these years because I have failed to get a proper diagnosis and treatment to a disease that has now turned into a pre-cancerous condition. The question isn't, will I get cancer, it's when will I get cancer. And, with the Alzheimer's in my family???? Goodness! The question is the same in that case also. Not if, but when?
Now the point of this little story. After my endoscope this week I was given yet another RX for another drug to treat my condition. Don't ask me if my condition has improved, or worsened, I don't know. I'm only the patient you know. I never saw the doctor. Here is all I know. Fill the RX, take it twice a day, see the doctor in 3 months. Now you are as wise about my situation as I am! So, like the cow that I am, or treated like -- at any rate -- I went to the pharmacy to get my RX filled. Now, I work and have insurance through my work, my husband works and I have insurance through his work. Both medical policys are pretty much the same. I have a $10; $25: and $40 co-pay on prescriptions on both policies. I handed the druggest my RX. He said that with my insurance that will be $180 dollars. I said, "Forget it, when I get cancer the Kemo will be cheaper". The druggist was taken aback. Thought I was kidding and had a sick sence of humor. Not at all. It is quite sad, but quite pragmatic and the God's honest truth. My insurance will cover all of the Kemo, but none of the medication that may prevent the necessity for the Kemo. Look at your own policy. Most will cover "treatment", but very few will cover "Preventitive Medicine".
So, here I sit. Oh, sure I can go on line to a group that have the same medical problems with the same lack of medical care and concern that my situation got. We can hold hands and chat and comfort each other. And, say that the world sucks, and we can **** and moun. But, it's not going to change anything. The doctor that finally gets to tell me the unpleasent news, gets to go home and say, "honey what's for dinner?". And I, who pretty much knew that that was the enevitable outcome all along, get to go home and take it on the chin because, what else can you do? But, don't kid yourself. Learning how I got it, learning why, when and how? That just plain doesn't make me feel any better. I understand it. I just don't agree with it. And, I just don't understand that if I KNEW.....IF I UNDERSTAND, then why can't the ignorant, self reightous, self surving, totally inept, brain dead doctor that was treating me all those years, why couldn't that idiot figure it out? With all his so called education and knowledge? And, why? Why in the last 20 years of my mothers life couldn't her family doctor spot "Alzheimer's", and treat it effectively and save us all a lot of grief, sorrow and needless suffering?
I commend you for your research. I, like you have known for a long time that sheep, cows and brain disease were all somehow related. But, you and I won't get the so called "professionals" in the field to listen. Listening would requior a brain, and a HEART. Somehow, I believe that with the world economics driven by greed and by maddness today, that it just isn't financially feasiable to actually "cure" anything. That would take thought. That would take careing. That would take compassion. And none of those commodies are very profitable.
If our children, grandchildren and their children are to be protected from many of these heartbreaking diseases, then the world has to change. As you so aptly put it "...we ought to ask them to be more responsible. There is too much corruption." And, I might add that it creaps into every aspect of our lives. From the drug companies that do not treat illnesses correctly at a reasonable profit, but prefer to sell us smoke and mirrors at prices out of reach for the average American, to the doctors that prescribe out of the need to comply to insurance restrictions rather than to the patients true needs. From the nursing home that is supposed to care for our loved ones well, rather than financially profitably for themselves, to the researcher that developes drugs that can be sold profitably, rather than drugs that are effective but unprofitable. From the polititian that would rather represent the "powers that be" rather than the "needy that have no power". From the company who wants to dispose of waste economically, rather than choosing to protect the enviornment, and from the worker that looks the other way, in any field of employment, when they know that things are "wrong", but want to keep their job, rather than to help others by doing the "right thing"..
If you want to know who is the next victim.....Look in the mirror
If you want to know who's to blame......Look in the mirror.
When we quit buying the garbage....It'll stop being jammed down our throats.
When we've decided that we've had enough of living in a sewer, and feeding dead cows to live cows (with thousands of dead cows per year and possiably only 2 or 3 infected cows as feed, that's call by the number crunchers as an "acceptable risk")....then maybe we'll clean up the world we live in.
Or, maybe our children's children will have the brains to. (But, not if Alzheimer's progresses, at it's current alarming rate).
Re: Alzheimer's and an Arrant Protein (What's the connection?) Sorry..Long
Gizmo, I am a very conservative person. So, most would think that I would take exception with what you say, but I pretty much agree with you. But, we will lose an opportunity here with those that truly want to know about the cause of Alzheimer's if we get sidetracked with the political corruption that is in both parties. It will not be easy for some to see this relationship between the brain disease in cows, sheep, and deer, and the brain wasting diseases in man. They will not study the evidence. So, let us concentrate on the facts of what has been learned about these diseases that destroy the brain. And, hopefully some will take it to heart and help their children.
Re: Alzheimer's and an Arrant Protein (What's the connection?) Sorry..Long
Sorry you misunderstand. I am really not so much concerned about the cow rancher's politics who makes a choice to feed his cattle with dead cow parts rather than healthy feed. I don't give a dang if he is a Republican or a Democrate. The fact that they know that the feed companies participate in these unscrupulous practices and they don't care because it is ecconomically fesiable for both the rancher and the feed lot, and the packing house. In the whole process, greed and self interest is the guideing light rather than the health and well-being of society and the pride in produceing a safe and wholesome, reliable product for consumption, at a reasonable profit.
I don't care if the person who is killing me is a Democrate, a Republician or a man with bright green trousers. This is not a political issue. It's an issue of morality. Something that we as a society, have saddly lost. And morality my friend, is not an exclusive property of one political party over another. Your either a decent person in everything you do,,,,or you're not. (I often wonder how chemical company's that polute the local water supply are not concerned about their own families drinking from the same troth).
The ability to test cattle for disease exhists. The ability to test tainted sheep exhists. The ability to test the nations blood supply for aids exhisted also, in the 80's, but too many greedy people would rather crunch the numbers of risk and liability, and determine that the potential for spreading aids was far more profitable than protecting future potential patients from aids. That would have amounted to charging an additional $5.00 for a pint of blood. (And we can't have that)
It's a sick world, and the only sickness here is not just political. It has no party affiliation. It's a sickness of the human sole and it's not just a sickness of the body. When I read about Alzheimer's for the first time, I read about it in 1998 from a book that was published by John Hopkins in 1980. 18 YEARS! 18 YEARS, the medical profession knew the diagnosis, the symptoms, the effects of and the prognosis of Alzheimer's. And, what has the medical community done about it? We now understand the protien. We understand the biological process. We understand the effect and the tole on human life and behavior.
What I don't understand are the little newaunces of the disease. Like, why is it that the very doctor that diagnosed the disease in a man, now some months later feels the need to yell at that same man thinking that if he raised his voice enough the patient would suddenly understand him better? And, this is supposed to be a doctor? Little things like that, upset me. Things like the National Center for Alzheimer's Support in Utika N.Y. gets a call from a woman who says, "I think that I have Alzheimer's", and the lady on the phone says, "What makes you think that?" And, the lady says, "My gynocologist says so". Incredible, inconcievable, unbelievable that a gynocologist can accurately diagnose Alzheimer's. Or, how about the doctor that won't put a patient on Aricept because the patient is diagnosed in middle to later stage and they think that Aricept is only for the first stages of the disease. Just what kind of a fool do you have to be today to get a medical licence these days? When anyone that knows anything about the disease or the drug knows that it's somewhat effective in most cases in all stages. Or, how about this? The doctors that commonly think that a patient should be pulled off of Aricept in 1 or 2 years because the drug only lasts for a short time to help with Alzheimer's symptoms? Hey, how about that one? When the truth is that the beginning dosage levels are 5-10 MG, but the company that produces the drug (Physer's) own lituature states that it is not recommended nor advised to ever pull a patient off of Aricept, (as a matter of fact it produced a drastic downhill slide that is in most cases permanent), but rather the appropriate proceedure is to increase the dosage to 15 or 20 MG because the disease increases with time, thereby needing higher dosages to be effective. Or, how about those doctors that don't bother with Aricept at all because they are following the dictates of their insurance companies and not the dictates of the needs of the patients themselves. Do you think these guys have a political agenda, or are they just trying to play the game to survive and keep their medical practice? But, the most upsetting thing I delt with in all my years of posting on boards like this one, was the one about prescribing EST for Alzheimer's patients. That one made me physically ill. (How cruel, how barbaric, but I cound relate, because many a time I felt like my mothers own treatment should be equated to medical treatments of old, similar to blood letting and the use of leaches).
Why do you think I can get my Nexium for my digestive problems for $40 co-pay a bottle and it will cost me $180 for this new stuff? (even though I'm not supposed to pay more than $40 according to my policy?) Maybe because the makers of Nexium have a special deal with insurance companies and health providers, and this new drug doesn't? Does one work better than the other? How the heck should I know. The point here is made. Doctors prescribe and you get treatment. Is is what you need? Or, is it what the insurance Co. is willing to provide? Who decides? In my long experience with my mom, from 1992 to 1998, I can personally assure you, that it's the insurance companies that are really practicing medicine here, AND NOT YOUR DOCTOR. I know this, by personal, long and hard fought, and well thought out, experience. And, I would be hard pressed to tell you which political party my insurance company belongs to, or my doctor. But, I do know my party. It's the party of quit screwing me over!
Yes, I am bitter. Yes, I am jaded. And yes, you're right, maybe I'm just too pesimistic to discuss this. (that's why I seldom write on boards any more). But, you have to cut me some slack. I've been fighting this war for far too long. I've got my battle scars. It's many a time, during this long battle, trying to get ... adaquite anything, during my mothers illness, that I said,
"Just who the heck here has the Alzheimer's anyway? My mother, or the "System"? My mother, or everyone else involved? Cause I can deal with my mom. I understand why she is nuts, at least SHE has an excuse!"
It's not healthy to turn cows into cannibals. It's not reasonable to cut down our rain forests where new drugs and medicines are found everyday. It's not sane to endanger some species of wildlife in order to make our lives more comfortable and to provide us with more fosil fuels to burn away our ozone layers. It's not reasonable to polute the water we drink or to add chemical additives to our food when we do not know the consequences. And, since a large part of dealing with Alzheimer's patients is medical, it's not unreasonable to expect that all the parties involved, should be held to the highest standards of responsibility (and honesty).
Re: Alzheimer's and an Arrant Protein (What's the connection?) Sorry..Long
I am going to share something that will surprise most on this board. I found this statement last year. I could never understand why we did not know there was a similarity between Alzheimer's and Scrapie (mad sheep disease) which has been around for a long time. Thirty years ago the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) in England, at its meeting on October 12, 1976 stated "The USDA concluded that it could 'no longer justify or permit scrapie-blood line and scrapie-exposed sheep and goats to be processed for human or animal food at slaughter or renderng plants.' (ARC 84/77).The problem is emphasized by the finding that some strains of scrapie produce lesions identical to the ones which characterise the human dementias."
So, do your research and find out if people were warned thirty years ago. And find out if all sheep were tested before going to market. So, tell me now how many in the US have eaten Scrapie? And, tell me that there is no way that Scrapie can infect humans. And if Scrapie infects humans, what is the name of the disease in humans. I have never heard of anyone with Scrapie.
Jane, to answer your statement about your parents who eat meat daily and did not become infected with Alzheimer's, there are a number of reasons why not everyone is infected. How many kids and adults come down with Leukemia when Leukemia is rampant in the US dairy herds? Milk is mixed from many cows insuring that most of our milk has Leukemia virus in it. So, even though we have a high incidence of Leukemia, why doesn't everyone get it who drinks milk?
With Scrapie, not all sheep have it and not all cows have BSE. And, there are different levels of infectivity within the different cuts of meat. As time goes by the situation is getting worse. Disease in the animals is increasing now at a rapid pace. We know that in England some people were more suseptible to contracting CJD, Mad Cow Disease. They have identified a gene in those who have contracted CJD that seems to indicate a much greater chance of becoming infected with CJD.
That many have not contracted a disease is not suggestive that it is not infectious. You are going to have to take a look at the evidence and decide if there is sufficient information to suggest a link between prion diseases in animals and Alzheimer's. To my mind, I want to know what causes such fearful diseases. There is little doubt in my mind that it is coming through the food chain. And, when I look for something that could cause the disease, I am shocked that others have not already seen the similarities between the prion diseases and Alzheimer's. But, now I know that others have seen it.
Each person at this board has enough to be concerned about without getting into an argument over the cause of this disease. My purpose is not to argue, but to present information to you, that you may study this on your own. I care deeply for your pain and suffering and believe that we have good reason to think we have found the cause. And, if so, that you would want to know.
Jane, I want you to know that I agree with you on global warming. But, there are many issues that could distract us from the real issue that we need to better understand. I think that most of us already believe that there is something wrong in our society and it is reflected in our politicians, not all, but too many. So let us focus on this disease and how best we can help those who already have it and how we can prevent others from contracting it.
Re: Alzheimer's and an Arrant Protein (What's the connection?) Sorry..Long
Then lets focus on AD. Let's take it to the base.
It doesn't take a medical professional to look at the facts and see the connection between the frozen brain slides of the following:
Dementing brain illness(s) in the human species
Diseased Cows
Infected Sheep
And, those infected cannibals (in some remote part of the world)
All these frozen brain slides will show you the same signs. A disease that attacks healthy brain cells, turns them to goo or jelly, and eventually liquifies those cells so that they are evacuated from the head cavity, leaving holes where health brain matter should be.
And, if you talk to that tribe of cannibals and survivors of brain damaged victums here in the "civilized" parts of the world; or, those ranchers and herders, you will hear the same symptoms, the same malfunctions that indicate that this disease symtomology are completely similar in nature. You may even talk to cattle ranchers, sheep hearders and the like and find out that if they allow some of their herd to live long enough without being transfered to market, that they too have noticed behavioral and motivity problems that are similar to brain disease symptoms in humans.
OK, now your've studies all the biological-physiological evidence on the subject. You've done accurate symtomology in behavior, mobility, and functionality on all subjects (animal and human), and you see the connection that all these brain diseases are related. You do more research and find an arrent or mutated protien that runs through each and you connect the dots.
Now what? You say that these "people", the "powers-that-be" have made the connection sum 30 years ago. I don't doubt you. I believe that to be a more than accurate statement. I believe that people in the business of supplying animals for human consumption have known this for themselves for much much longer, maybe even centuries. You can pass laws. You can talk to your local and government officials. You can turn it over to the FDA. (Joke)
But unless you can stand next to every cattle rancher and help the owner not to make the decision to turn that falling down cow over to the slauter house; Unless you can stand next to every owner of a sheep and make them destroy that sheep that walks into fences or stands dumbfounder while the sheep dog runs around trying to herd it like crazy, rather than to turn that lost and diseased sheep over to market for a profit, unless you can convience him? Unless you can stop making cannibals out of cattle, by feeding them posibaly infected cow and animal body parts, and unless you can assure a real safety and inspection process for our food supply.....then what good is that knowledge?
I know why my cells have mutated to a pre-cancerous condition. You can not digest battery acid for over 40 years and not expect there to be any concequences. And, you can not feed disease to cattle or humans on any scale and not create a human population frough with mental & physiological illness(s).
So, what's the solution? What's the answer? Are we going to stop killing each other, or are we as a society, as a whole and to the last man and woman, start doing the "right thing"? There is no way to stop this process on the individual level. That is impossiable because our world will always have it's fill of greedy people. (If I know that there is a problem and it most likely started with sheep, don't you think that the providers of sheep are smarter than me, and have figured that out already?)
Have you studied the effects of radiation on arrent protiens in a living subject? Have you studied the effects on a carcus of a dead subject? Will radiation of our nations food supply solve this, and many other problems caused by infected animals and cross-contamination of food stuffs? Can radiation help irradicate this problem? Maybe that's the answer. There seams to be a lot of feet draging about that. Same as there was a lot of feet draging to test infect blood in our nations blood supply (for the aids problem).
Answers like this may help our nations future. But, remember that it will not help the millions of us that have it in our genes, now. Nor, the hundreds of millions of us that will be cross-contaminatated with these infected genes in the future. (It's called marrage and having children).
One recent Medical answer to this problem in recent years (the past decade) is to provide a brain shunt to allow the out-flow of liquified brain tissue. I rank this right up with EST (electro shock therapy) used to address the behavioral problems related to this disease. Now, do you see why one of my favorite sayings is:
"Modern science is about as successful in treating Alzheimer's today as it was in treating illness in the 14th century by using blood letting and leaches".!
It's graphic, but it's true. You may call it a pesimistic form of relating to the problem, but I prefer to call it realistic. It's always easier to sell smoke and mirrors to someone to solve their problem, rather than to find the real cause and develop a truthful solution. Unfortunately the real solution would have been for man-kind to conduct itself in an honest and respectful way in the first place. To follow the laws of man, animals and nature and to make decisions based on "the right thing to do" and not on making a buck. I wish I could have been there when that sheep herder or cattle baron made that dicision that changed our family dynamics for all eternity. But, I wasn't. And, are we going to stop having children or grandchildren? I doubt it. And, even if our infected line dies out there are millions of us to carry on. And, millions more of us are created every day. You don't have this arrent protein in your genes? Good for you. But, what about your children, their children and who will they merry and have children with? Anyone at any time can find a little suprise some 40-50 years or more, down the road. This and other little suprises are just waiting in the wings.
I go back to my origional hypothesis. I may know "why" my cells changed to develop cancer. Will it be of the throat or the colon? Even in my family with no history of cancer, the human body can only sustain so much abuse, misinformation, neglect and malpractice. (The same logic is valid for my mother's, her brother's, and their mother's Alzheimer's).
I may also understand all the dynamics of "why" gas costs $3 at the pumps. But, I'm just human cattle, and this fact won't stop me from going through the pen, (along with the rest of the herd), and pumping up.
Re: Alzheimer's and an Arrant Protein (What's the connection?) Sorry..Long
Dear Giz, Please expalin ingesting battery acid. I have acid reflux and am keeping it under control using various antacids. Is that the acid you are referring to? How can yours not be healed by now? (I know this is not AD related except to the extent that AD is also not detected and/or treated early ...) Thanks for your info.
Alzheimer's and an Arrant Protein (What's the connection?) Sorry..Long 
Thank you for your imput.
! You are now much more likely to get sick or to die from eating fish than ever before in history. And why not? Look at what we do to our oceans, rivers and streams. The last time I ate a fish caught in our local lake my throat almost closed up from the asthma attack I had. I had to go to the hospital. A friend of mine went to Mexico and had raw oysters and came back with hepatitis A. Another friend of mine on a trip to Mexico had an Ice Creme Cone that was prepared with a scoop placed in a cup of local water. He almost died. 
(Joke)
