Slartibartfast Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 Jaroslav Flegr is no kook. And yet, for years, he suspected his mind had been taken over by parasites that had invaded his brain. So the prolific biologist took his science-fiction hunch into the lab. What he’s now discovering will startle you. Could tiny organisms carried by house cats be creeping into our brains, causing everything from car wrecks to schizophrenia? http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/how-your-cat-is-making-you-crazy/8873/ :svengo: I am definitely getting something to deter cats when I start gardening again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Random Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 One more reason to not like cats! :ack2: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Marple Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/how-your-cat-is-making-you-crazy/8873/ :svengo: I am definitely getting something to deter cats when I start gardening again. I saw that a while back. Makes one wonder about those we call "cat people" ;). Seriously, though, it sure looks like there should be some further study...my fil is a huge cat lover and he has had some mental issues for as long as my dh can remember. He has been on multiple drug therapy for many years and is usually just " getting along " (as he calls it). I'm a cat lover as well but we don't do inside cats due to allergies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danestress Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 I think I can post this much of a quote without violating any copy right laws GIVEN ALL THE nasty science swirling around this parasite, is it time for cat lovers to switch their allegiance to other animals? Even Flegr would advise against that. Indoor cats pose no threat, he says, because they don’t carry the parasite. As for outdoor cats, they shed the parasite for only three weeks of their life, typically when they’re young and have just begun hunting. During that brief period, Flegr simply recommends taking care to keep kitchen counters and tables wiped clean. (He practices what he preaches: he and his wife have two school-age children, and two outdoor cats that have free roam of their home.) Much more important for preventing exposure, he says, is to scrub vegetables thoroughly and avoid drinking water that has not been properly purified, especially in the developing world, where infection rates can reach 95 percent in some places. Also, he advises eating meat on the well-done side—or, if that’s not to your taste, freezing it before cooking, to kill the cysts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DianeW88 Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 Over 1/3 of the world's population has had toxoplasmosis. Not all of them are running in front of cars and jumping off bridges. Also, it is not really a first world problem, as most people's first world cats live better than most of the third world's human population. Unless your cat is out of doors hunting when it is a young kitten and then you are getting its feces all over you and injesting particles from it...you're safe. Of course, all pregnant women should avoid cleaning the litter box, because even though contracting a toxoplasmosis infection from a litter box is remote, the damage to a fetus is devastating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melinda in VT Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 There might be an easy test to see if you have toxoplasmosis: do you like Chanel No. 5? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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