Might Alzheimer’s Disease Be
“Foodborne”?
June 04, 2015
Story at-a-glance
-
Alzheimer’s, Parkinson's, and Lou Gehrig's disease
appear to be linked to the presence of a protein,
TDP-43, which behaves like infectious proteins
called prions, responsible for Mad Cow and Chronic
Wasting Disease
-
TDP-43 pathology is detected in 25-50 percent of
Alzheimer’s patients; autopsies show Alzheimer’s
patients with TDP-43 were 10 times more likely to
have been cognitively impaired at death than those
without it
-
Alzheimer’s may be a slower moving version of Mad
Cow disease, acquired by eating contaminated meats,
and Mad Cow is created by a CAFO system that
“cannibalizes” herbivores
By Dr. Mercola
Mounting research shows there’s a compelling link between a
particular kind of protein and neurodegenerative diseases such as
Alzheimer’s, Parkinson's, and Lou Gehrig's disease.
What’s so intriguing about that is this protein, called TDP-43,
behaves like toxic and infectious proteins known as prions, which
are responsible for the brain destruction that occurs in Mad Cow and
Chronic Wasting Disease;1
two types of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
Mad Cow Disease affects cows, while Chronic Wasting Disease is a
neurological disease found in deer and elk. As explained in
Scientific American:2
“Prions are misshapen yet durable versions of proteins
normally present in nerve cells that cause like proteins to
misfold and clump together, starting a chain reaction that
eventually consumes entire brain regions.
In the past 15 years, scientists have learned that such a
process may be at work not only in mad cow and other exotic
diseases but also in major neurodegenerative disorders...”
As Many as Half of Alzheimer’s Patients Have Prion-Like Proteins
According to research3
published in 2011, TDP-43 pathology is detected in 25-50 percent of
Alzheimer’s patients, particularly in those with hippocampal
sclerosis, characterized by selective loss of neurons in the
hippocampus, which is associated with memory loss.
Research presented at the 2014 Alzheimer’s Association
International Conference (AAIC) also revealed Alzheimer’s patients
with TDP-43 were 10 times more likely to have been cognitively
impaired at death than those without it.4,5
But how do you end up with TDP-43?
CAFO—A Common Denominator for Mad Cow and Chronic Wasting Disease
While some prions6
serve beneficial cell functions; others, acting like an infectious
agent, are known to cause neurodegeneration. TDP-43 is in this
latter category.
The common denominator between Mad Cow and Chronic Wasting
Disease7
is forcing natural herbivores to eat animal parts, so is it possible
humans are being infected with TDP-43 via contaminated meats?
The evidence is certainly suggestive, and from my perspective,
it’s just one more reason to avoid all meats from livestock raised
in
confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Remember that nearly
all meat in restaurants are from CAFO animals.
CAFOs are major warehouse-style growing facilities where animals
are crowded together by the thousands, and fed a completely
unnatural diet of
glyphosate-containing genetically engineered (GE) grains mixed
with antibiotics. That alone is a recipe for out-of-control spread
of disease, both among animals and humans.
When you add in the practice of feeding herbivores meat and
animal byproducts, the situation can become even more complex and
problematic.
Mad Cow is a man-made plague, created by a CAFO system that
“cannibalizes” herbivores, and it can spread like wildfire as the
remains of a single diseased animal may contaminate feed given to
thousands of animals in different locations.
We now know that one of the primary modes of transmission of Mad
Cow Disease is by feeding cows bone meal and waste products from
other cattle infected with the disease. As a result, it's now
illegal to feed beef-based products to cows.
However, in its limited wisdom the beef industry still uses a
feed product known as "chicken litter,” and that too can introduce
Mad Cow disease into our food system.
Chicken litter consists of a rendered down mix of chicken manure,
dead chickens, feathers, and spilled chicken feed—the latter of
which includes cow meat and bone meal, the very ingredients
that are supposed to be off limits for cows.
Pigs, chickens, and turkeys can also be fed cattle byproducts,
and current laws permit byproducts of those animals to be
fed back to cattle8
as well. This is a second loophole that can allow Mad Cow agents to
infect healthy cattle—and you, should you end up eating any of these
infected meats.
Similarly, Chronic Wasting Disease is the result of domesticating
wild animals and feeding them an unnatural diet. The disease is
often imported and spread via game farm animals.
Infected deer and elk shed the infectious prions in saliva and
urine, starting around three months after being infected. They
remain contagious for the remainder of their life, contaminating
land and water as they go along.
Game farms cater to hunters who are more or less guaranteed a
kill, and the potential for these infectious prions to spread to
humans through consumption of infected game animals is another
serious concern.9,10
The CAFO-Alzheimer’s Connection
If you eat meat from a cow infected with Mad Cow Disease, you can
contract the human version of the disease, known as Variant
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). As noted by Center for Food
Safety,11
which reported on the 2012 Mad Cow outbreak:
“Tissue from infected cows’ central nervous systems
(including brain or spinal cord) is the most infectious part of
a cow. Such tissue may be found in hot dogs, taco fillings,
bologna, and other products containing gelatin, and ground or
chopped meat.
People who eat contaminated beef products are at risk of
contracting the human version of mad cow disease... The disease
slowly eats holes in the brain over a matter of years, turning
it sponge-like, and invariably results in death...
The incubation period for ‘mad cow’ disease in cattle is
thought to be approximately five years; it may be latent in
humans for a decade or more before manifesting itself.”
Just last year, Mad Cow claimed the life of a Texas man—the
fourth American victim of the disease.12
Symptoms of vCJD are similar to Alzheimer’s and include staggering,
memory loss, impaired vision, and dementia,13
and there’s no known cure.
An intriguing suggestion is that Alzheimer’s is a slower moving
version of Mad Cow disease, acquired by eating contaminated CAFO
meats... TDP-43 might also “predispose” you to Parkinson's, or Lou
Gehrig's, just as easily as Alzheimer’s. Which disease ends up
materializing may depend on the area of your brain the proteins
attack. As noted in a 2014 AlzForum.org article:14
“Pathological TDP-43 appears to follow a set route
through the nervous system, and what that route is depends on
the disease at hand. Two new papers in Acta
Neuropathologica add TDP-43 itineraries for Alzheimer’s
disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration [FTLD] to a
previously published staging scheme for amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis.15
While the starting points and paths taken differ, the
disease-specific routes suggest that TDP-43 travels from neuron
to neuron along axonal highways... The TDP-43 stages fit with
the ongoing theme in neurodegeneration research that these
diseases are progressive not only over time, but also in space,
as pathological proteins spread throughout the nervous system...
Overall... the FTLD pathology progressed from the front
of the brain to the back. This contrasted with the ALS staging
system, which began in the motor cortex at the brain’s apex and
moved downward and forward from there. ‘The spreading mechanisms
could be very similar, but the early focus of pathology seems to
be different [between ALS and FTLD]...’”
The Case for Foodborne Alzheimer’s
The idea that neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Lou
Gehrig's (ALS) may be spread via CAFO foods goes back at least a
decade. A 2005 study16
published in the journal Medical Hypotheses, titled:
Thinking the unthinkable: Alzheimer's, Creutzfeldt-Jakob and Mad Cow
disease: The age-related reemergence of virulent, foodborne, bovine
tuberculosis or losing your mind for the sake of a shake or burger,
states:
“In the opinion of experts, ample justification exists
for considering a similar pathogenesis for Alzheimer's,
Creutzfeldt-Jakob, and the other spongiform encephalopathies
such as Mad Cow disease. In fact, Creutzfeldt-Jakob and
Alzheimer's often coexist and at this point are thought to
differ merely by time-dependent physical changes. A
recent study links up to 13 percent of all ‘Alzheimer's’
victims as really having Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.”
[Emphasis mine]
The researchers also note that bovine tuberculosis serves as a
vector for human Mad Cow Disease. Bovine tuberculosis (caused by
Mycobacterium bovis and M. avium-intracellulare or
paratuberculosis) is one of the most prevalent disease threats in
American CAFOs, and the researchers quote USDA data suggesting that
anywhere from 20-40 percent of American dairy herds are infected at
any given time!
According to the authors:
“The health risk for milk tainted with M. bovis has been
known for decades and there was a time not so long ago when
‘tuberculin-tested’ was printed on every milk container.
Schliesser stated that meat from tuberculous animals may also
constitute a significant risk of infection.
At the turn of the 20th century, 25 percent of the many
US deaths from TB in adults were caused by M. bovis. Dairy
products aside, when past and present meat consumption are
factored in, there is three times the risk of developing
Alzheimer's in meat eaters as opposed to vegetarians.
The investigation into the causal trail for
Creutzfeldt-Jakob, indistinguishable from Alzheimer's except for
its shorter, lethal course might have grown cold where it not
for Roel's and others who linked mad cow in cattle with M. bovis
and related paratuberculosis on clinical, pathologic, and
epidemiological grounds.
The southwest of the UK, the very cradle of British BSE
and CJD outbreaks, saw an exponential increase in bovine
tuberculosis just prior to it's spongiform outbreaks. All of
this brings up the unthinkable: that Alzheimer's,
Cruetzfeldt-Jackob, and Mad Cow Disease might just be caused by
eating the meat or dairy in consumer products or feed.”
[Emphasis mine]
Take Control of Your Health by Choosing Your Foods Wisely
Could Alzheimer’s disease, which now is the third leading cause
of death in the US, may be the result of a slower-acting form of Mad
Cow-or Chronic Wasting Disease? As shocking as that may sound, the
links between the diseases are compelling, and they all point to one
main culprit: factory farming practices, which eliminate
hygiene and replace animals’ natural diets with unnatural grain
diets, into which animal byproducts are mixed in.
This sets in motion a disease-producing cycle that can only be
stopped by reverting back to farming according to natures design.
The bottom line is, an animal’s diet matters greatly. You cannot
judge the benefits of the animal’s diet based on added weight gain
or added milk production alone! There can be all sorts of unforeseen
ramifications when you alter the natural course of nature, including
man-made scourges like Mad Cow and Chronic Wasting Disease.
Organic, grass-fed, and finished meat that is humanely raised
and butchered is really about the only type of meat that is
healthy to eat. The following organizations can help you locate
farm-fresh foods in your local area that has been raised in a
humane, sustainable manner:
Local Harvest |
This Web site will help you find farmers' markets,
family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in
your area where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and
many other goodies |
Eat Wild |
With more than 1,400 pasture-based farms, Eatwild's
Directory of Farms is one of the most comprehensive sources
for grass-fed meat and dairy products in the United States
and Canada |
Farmers' Markets |
A national listing of farmers' markets |
Eat Well Guide |
The Eat Well Guide: Wholesome Food from Healthy Animals
is a free online directory of sustainably raised meat,
poultry, dairy, and eggs from farms, stores, restaurants,
inns, and hotels, and online outlets in the United States
and Canada |
Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture |
CISA is dedicated to sustaining agriculture and
promoting the products of small farms |
FoodRoutes |
The FoodRoutes "Find Good Food" map can help you connect
with local farmers to find the freshest, tastiest food
possible. On their interactive map, you can find a listing
for local farmers, CSA's, and markets near you |
© Copyright 1997-2015 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.
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