'People should not give their cats away' Parasite Carried By Cats Could Increase Suicide Risk - Polidicks

[QUOTE]There's fresh evidence that cats can be a threat to your mental health.To be fair, it's not kitties themselves that are the problem, but a parasite they carry called Toxoplasma gondii. A study of more than 45,000 Danish women found that those infected with this feline parasite were 1.5 times more likely to attempt suicide than women who weren't infected. That's not a huge increase, but it's probably too big to have been caused by chance, says Teodor Postolache, a University of Maryland psychiatrist and senior author of the paper, which was published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Still, the absolute risk of suicide remains very small. Fewer than 1,000 of the women attempted any sort of self-directed violence during the 30-year study span. And just seven committed suicide. But this isn't the first time T. gondii infection, or toxoplasmosis, has been associated with behavioral changes in people, Postolache says. Previous studies have shown links to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and even the chance that a person will get in an automobile accident. The T. gondii parasite lives in the intestines of cats. Cat owners can become infected when they change a litter box, Postolache says. But he says people are more likely to be infected when they eat vegetables or meat that are raw or undercooked. "People should not give their cats away" because of this study, Postolache says. Scientists still aren't sure how the parasite affects a person's brain, he says. But in rodents, it causes cysts to form in areas of the brain involved in behavior. [B]A study of rats also found that infection caused them to lose their fear of cats and become attracted to the odor of cat urine. That behavioral change would increase the chance that a rat would be eaten by a cat — allowing the parasite to get into the cat's intestine, which is the only place it can reproduce sexually.[/B] The parasite doesn't benefit much from infecting a human, since cats don't eat people very often. So humans are probably just "collateral damage" from the parasites' effort to infect smaller animals, says Robert Yolken, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University. Yolken says he owns two cats and that "the benefits outweigh the risks."[/QUOTE] [URL]http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/07/02/156142214/a-parasite-carried-by-cats-could-hurt-humans-sanity?live=1%3Futm_source%3Dfp&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=20120702[/URL]

[quote]Yolken says he owns two cats and that "the benefits outweigh the risks.[/quote] This is true, i would never give away or put down my cats. And my cats shits and pisses in the woods far away from home so there is no danger for me.

[QUOTE=blacksam;36605862]Still, the absolute risk of suicide remains very small. Fewer than 1,000 of the women attempted any sort of self-directed violence during the 30-year study span. And just seven committed suicide.[/QUOTE] Well, that's not too bad. It's not like you're going to uncontrollably slit your wrists if you get it.

So...the article is basically saying unless you eat cat shit and drink the piss. Nothing will happen.

This gives a whole meaning to "eat shit and die"

Makes me think of the stereotypical single person who lives with a cat...:smith:

I just read the whole article, what does this have to do with giving your cats away?

Correlation ≠ Causation.

[QUOTE=Mr. Smartass;36607659]I just read the whole article, what does this have to do with giving your cats away?[/QUOTE] They are saying people shouldn't panic and start giving away their cats just because they are afraid this cat parasite might cause them to kill themselves. When it's your time to die then you'll die, cat or no cat.

I remember seeing about this parasite on a documentary. One thing I remember from the doc is that this parasite usually lives in rats, this parasite actually controls rats in the way that instead of the rat doing the natural thing and running away when they sense a cat, they get closer, the cat eats the rat which then transmit the parasite back to rats via the cat's shit, completing the parasite's cycle, humans just kinda get in the crossfire. So basically, unless your cat is eating wild rats, there's very likely nothing to worry about. And then I read the rest of the article and see that this is mentioned, great.

so how do you check if you have this?

[QUOTE=Swilly;36606893]So...the article is basically saying unless you eat cat shit and drink the piss. Nothing will happen.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]The T. gondii parasite lives in the intestines of cats. Cat owners can become infected when they change a litter box, Postolache says. But he says people are more likely to be infected when they eat vegetables or meat that are raw or undercooked.[/QUOTE] um

[QUOTE=PelPix123;36608682]The thing is, the infection rate for T. Gondii is like 45% in first-world countries. One in two people reading this reply will [I]already[/I] have it in their brain altering their behavior. Fun fact: there are no recorded cases of schizophrenia predating European domestication of cats. Recent studies think it may be the original cause of schizophrenia, and also suggest it may be sexually transmittable. So far: Negative effects: It can cause you to develop schizophrenia. It can increase depression severity. It can inhibit impulse control. Positive effects: It can make you quicker-thinking. It can make you more sexually appealing.[/QUOTE] benefits outweigh the risks B)

[QUOTE]Cat owners can become infected when they change a litter box[/QUOTE] Uh fuck. I change my cat's litter all the time, is this saying just being next to cat litter can put you at risk of getting it, or do you have to actually eat shit? These types of articles are not good for my hypochondriac mind.

Oh god this is awful, I have two cats. Time to kill myself

Toxoplasmosis has been pretty well-known and studied for decades, so this is nothing new. Interestingly enough, most warm-blooded mammals (including us) actually have[I] toxoplasma gondii[/I] in their intestines, cats just typically have the highest concentration of it [editline]3rd July 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Cruma;36610983]Uh fuck. I change my cat's litter all the time, is this saying just being next to cat litter can put you at risk of getting it, or do you have to actually eat shit? These types of articles are not good for my hypochondriac mind.[/QUOTE] The likelihood of developing toxoplasmosis just by changing your cat's litter box is astronomical. It's just sensationalism. However, you increase that likelihood if you don't wash your hands afterwards and touch things like food, eating utensils, you get the idea... [I]very[/I] few people contract toxoplasmosis just by having a cat.

[QUOTE=Cruma;36610983]Uh fuck. I change my cat's litter all the time, is this saying just being next to cat litter can put you at risk of getting it, or do you have to actually eat shit? These types of articles are not good for my hypochondriac mind.[/QUOTE] Never touch the feces of any animal directly. I know that for a lot of you this is asking too much, but it's for your own good. If you have to interact with feces, such as cleaning your cat's litterbox, use gloves. When you're out doing yard work and such, be careful what you touch barehanded. If you pick up poop and the wind carries some like dust, don't breathe it in.

Wow, I knew about this back in 2005 when I read this bad boy: [quote][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178649987l/815394.jpg[/img][/quote] I hadn't realized this wasn't common knowledge yet.