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How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy

Sentient Biped sent me another really cool article on cats. So here I am sharing it with all of you.

How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy

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? A biologist’s science- fiction hunch is gaining credence and shaping the emerging science of mind- controlling parasites.
By Kathleen McAuliffe

The parasite T. gondii, seen here, may be changing connections between our neurones, altering how we act and feel. (Dennis Kunkel Microscropy, Inc./Visuals Unlimited/Corbis Images)

Read the article here.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on February 11, 2012 at 11:50pm

Whoa!

I think about Toxo often, while washing my hands after cleaning the litter box. This is scary stuff.

Permalink Reply by sk8eycat on May 3, 2012 at 11:50pm

Jerry won't let me sleep. If I shut my bedroom door, he sits there and sings, yodels, yowls till I have to let him in, no matter what time it is. (He sleeps all day.) Then I have to pet him for an hour or so, or he will stomp all over the bed and around my pillow. When I finally do fall asleep, he waits awhile, and then starts head-bonking me to wake me up so I can pet him some more.

I be tired.

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on July 4, 2012 at 1:59pm

New information on toxo infection and suicide.

Cat Parasite Linked to Suicide Attempts in Humans

Permalink Reply by Steph S. on January 24, 2013 at 4:57pm

Thanks - I will follow the link, appreciate it.

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on August 17, 2012 at 11:05am

Common Parasite May Trigger Suicide Attempts: Inflammation from T. ...

Toxoplasma gondii infection linked to suicide attempts.

Permalink Reply by Steph S. on January 24, 2013 at 4:58pm

Thanks - I am just now learning about all this.

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on January 24, 2013 at 3:45pm

New data on how toxo changes infected humans.

How a Cat-Borne Parasite Infects Humans

... Czech evolutionary biologist named Jaroslav Flegr has made headlines for a radical claim: that a common parasite called Toxoplasma gondii is controlling our brains.

Flegr discovered that the behaviors that toxo provokes in rats in order to get them eaten—slowed reaction times, lethargy, reduction in fear—also show up in infected humans.

In order to travel throughout the body and, most importantly, to the brain, toxo hijacks ... the white blood cells. ... it also turns them into tiny chemical factories, producing a neurotransmitter known to reduce fear and anxiety in rats—and in humans.

Over the next 15 years, using experimentation and analysis of public health data, Flegr discovered a series of fascinating links between toxo and human behavior. A toxo-infected person is more than twice as likely to be in a car accident—which Flegr attributes to the parasite's tendency to reduce reaction time—and has a higher than normal risk of developing schizophrenia. Other scientists have shown a connection between toxo and an increased risk of suicide. [emphasis mine]