| You may be wondering what a prion is and why you | | | | bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle (also |
| should care. Well, your ears might perk up a lot if you | | | | known as mad cow disease).What is not known is if |
| hear the words - 'Mad Cow Disease'. That disease is | | | | there is a connection to prion disease and Alzheimer's |
| caused by a transmissible prion.Prion related diseases | | | | disease. We have recognized several genetic |
| have been recognized for years. However, until | | | | mutations that can cause Alzheimer's disease and |
| recently we did not realize what caused them.What | | | | form prions in the body of the person with the |
| we did know about them is that they caused | | | | mutation. However, this does not account for the total |
| dementia. People gradually lost their ability to reason | | | | number of those with Alzheimer's disease.One piece |
| and remember things. We also noticed that there | | | | of evidence that is suspicious. It is known that people |
| were typical changes in the brain when looked at | | | | who habitually eat meat more than four times a week |
| during autopsy.Prions became famous when Kuru was | | | | have three times as much chance of getting |
| found among the Fore people of New Guinea. In this | | | | Alzheimer's disease than vegetarians. However, at |
| disease, people would get unsteady gait, tremors, and | | | | least some of this statistic could be related to |
| slurred speech. The interesting thing was that only | | | | increasing arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) in |
| women and children seemed to get the disease.It was | | | | those that eat meat.If there is a prion that causes |
| finally noticed that when a person died, his family would | | | | Alzheimer's disease that you can get from eating |
| eat him as a way to honor the dead. But only the | | | | meat, why can't you easily prove or disprove it? Well, |
| women and children participated in this practice. | | | | here is the problem. The currently know prions cause |
| Scientists found that by stopping this practice, the | | | | disease fast enough that you can put the prions into |
| incidence of the disease suddenly plummeted.Further | | | | lab animals like white mice and they get the disease. |
| research in Kuru found that the cause was a protein - | | | | However, have you ever seen a mouse live as long |
| not a bacteria or virus. Furthermore, there was no way | | | | as someone who has Alzheimer's disease? Of course |
| to destroy this protein by filtering or cooking. Proteins | | | | not.We do know that prions come in strains that vary |
| are formed as a long molecule that then folds over | | | | widely in the amount of time that it takes to cause the |
| and over. The shape of the folded molecule | | | | disease. So, here is the big question. What if there |
| determines how it functions.It also determines what | | | | were a prion that caused disease in humans, but it |
| enzymes in the body are needed to break it down | | | | took longer to cause problems than the lifespan of the |
| when it is no longer needed. The prion works by | | | | animal that it came from? For instance, if cows live 10 |
| causing a protein in the brain into the wrong shape. | | | | years but it takes 50 years for the disease to show |
| Therefore it does not work and the brain makes more | | | | up, you would never - ever see the disease in cows |
| and more of the chemical - trying to make enough of | | | | even if they carried the disease. The same goes for |
| the protein to fill the need of the body.The real | | | | chickens, sheep and pigs. You see the problem?At this |
| devastation of the disease though is that the resulting | | | | point, we do know that one fact - that you get only 1/3 |
| misshapen chemical does not have enzymes in the | | | | as much dementia if you are a vegetarian. Until more is |
| body that can break it down! So the protein builds up in | | | | known about what is really in fact safe to eat, |
| large amounts that become toxic to brain cells and | | | | vegetarians have a leg up on carnivores on this |
| finally cause them to die.Once scientists realized the | | | | issue.Dr. Ron is an Emergency Room physician with |
| cause and effect of this prion, several other known | | | | over twenty years experience in the health care field. |
| diseases were found that fit this pattern. These | | | | He often treats people for problems with their weight. |
| included scrapie (found in sheep), chronic wasting | | | | Come to |
| disease (found in deer and elk), Creutzfeldt-Jakob | | | | Balanced Diet |
| disease and fatal familial insomnia in humans, and | | | | Health now for more great resources. |