
Aerial View of a Factory Farm Where Animals Are Raised for Food
Mad Cow Disease (the human version is called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease) is a form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. It is transmissible, progressive, degenerative, and fatal to cows and humans.
Since the time of Dr. Alois Alzheimer himself, two proteins (beta-amyloid (Aβ) and tau) have become tantamount to Alzheimer’s disease (AD). But a Mayo Clinic study challenges the perception that these are the only important proteins accounting for the clinical features of the devastating disease.
In a large clinico-imaging pathological study, Mayo Clinic researchers demonstrated that a third protein (TDP-43) plays a major role in AD pathology. In fact, people whose brain was TDP positive were 10 times more likely to be cognitively impaired at death compared to those who didn’t have the protein, showing that TDP-43 has the potential to overpower what has been termed resilient brain aging. The study was published in the journal Acta Neuropathologica.
Mayo Clinic researchers studied brains of 342 patients who had died with pathologically confirmed AD and divided them into two groups based on the presence or absence of the protein TDP-43. The protein was found in 195 or 57 percent of the cases.
“We wanted to determine whether the TDP-43 protein has any independent effect on the clinical and neuroimaging features typically ascribed to AD and we found that TDP-43 had a strong effect on cognition, memory loss and medial temporal atrophy in AD,” says Mayo Clinic neurologist Keith Josephs, M.D., the study’s lead investigator and author. “In the early stages of the disease when AD pathology was less severe, the presence of TDP-43 was strongly associated with cognitive impairment. Consequently, TDP-43 appears to play an important role in the cognitive and neuroimaging characteristics that have been linked to AD.”
The study also found that patients who suffered from greater cognitive impairment and medial temporal atrophy at the time of death had greater TDP-43 burden and had the protein in a greater number of brain regions.
“This is why we believe that TDP-43 pathology could help shed light on the phenomenon of resilient cognition in AD and explain why some patients remain clinically normal, while others do not, despite both having similar degrees of AD pathology,” says Dr. Josephs. “Our findings suggest that in order to have AD and be cognitively resilient, TDP-43 must be absent, so it should be considered a potential therapeutic target for the future treatment of AD.
This study was funded by the US National Institute of Heath (NIA) Grants and supported by the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
– Anastasijevic, Mayo Clinic, 2014
Mayo Clinic Neurologist Keith Josephs, MD
THE MAYO CLINIC’S TDP-43 AND ALZHEIMER’S STUDY
Formally known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), “Mad Cow Disease” is a persistent food safety concern in the U.S. and abroad. BSE occurs when cattle are fed rendered meat products made from other dead, disabled or diseased cattle or sheep as a feed supplement — or when chickens are fed rendered animals and their manure is mixed into cattle feed.
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, as well as a variety of ground or chopped meats. People who eat meat from infected animals can contract the human version of the disease, known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD). The disease slowly eats holes in the brain over a matter of years, turning it sponge-like, and invariably results in dementia and death. There is no known cure, treatment or vaccine for vCJD.
Center for Food Safety seeks to end dangerous animal feed practices that threaten human health and the safety of our meat supply, such as feeding rendered animals to other animals. We urge the CDC to classify vCJD as a reportable disease so occurrences can be tracked and to work to plug the loopholes that still exist in FDA and USDA regulations.
– Center for Food Safety, 2015
Factory Farmed Cows Eating Medicated Grain Feed
On left: A brain infected with vCDJ, riddled with holes due to tissue destruction.
On right: Normal brain tissue at a lower magnification.
“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.
“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.”
– ALZFORUM, 2013
To save money, factory-farmed cows are fed corn (which is cheap and often genetically modified) instead of the grasses they’re meant to graze on. Corn makes the cows sick, so they’re given antibiotics. These meds also fatten the cows – so the system “works” from a business perspective. If you eat factory-farmed meat, you’re ingesting sick animals, plus loads of antibiotics. Buy only grass-fed meat, and whenever possible, get it at a local farmers’ market from small farms.
– Lipman & Claro, 2014
“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.”
– Broxmeyer, 2005
REFERENCES
ALZFORUM. (11/23/2013). The Four Stages of TDP-43 Proteinopathy. See: http://www.alzforum.org/news/conference-coverage/four-stages-tdp-43-proteinopathy
ALZFORUM. (1/24/2014). TDP-43 Routes Mapped in Alzheimer’s, Frontotemporal Dementia. See: http://www.alzforum.org/news/research-news/tdp-43-routes-mapped-alzheimers-frontotemporal-dementia
Anastasijevic, D. (2014). Why Some With Alzheimer’s Die Without Cognitive Impairment, While Others Do? Mayo Clinic. See: http://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/why-do-some-people-with-alzheimers-disease-die-without-cognitive-impairment-while-others-do-223585/
Broxmeyer, L. (2005). 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. Medical Hypotheses, 64:4,699-705. See: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15694685
Center For Food Safety. (4/25/2012). Press Release: California Cows Unhappy About Mad Cow Disease. See: http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/press-releases/706/california-cows-unhappy-about-mad-cow-disease#
Center for Food Safety. (2015). About Mad Cow Disease. See: http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/issues/1040/mad-cow-disease/about-mad-cow-disease
Hardin, J.R. (11/30/2014). Alzheimer’s, Gut Bacteria and Music. See: http://allergiesandyourgut.com/2014/11/30/alzheimers-gut-bacteria-music/
Hardin, J.R. (5/30/2014). Moms to EPA: Recall Monsanto’s Roundup. See http://allergiesandyourgut.com/2014/05/30/moms-epa-recall-monsantos-roundup/
Lipman, F. & Claro, D. (2014). The New Health Rules: Simple Changes to Achieve Whole-Body Wellness.
Mayo Clinic. (2014). TDP-43 and Alzheimer’s. Video. See: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/06/04/alzheimers-disease-cafos.aspx
Mercola, R. (2015). Might Alzheimer’s Disease Be “Foodborne”? See: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/06/04/alzheimers-disease-cafos.aspx?e_cid=20150604Z1_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20150604Z1&et_cid=DM78202&et_rid=979877762
© Copyright 2015 Joan Rothchild Hardin. All Rights Reserved.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing on this site or blog is intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
REFERENCES
Environmental Working Group. (2014). Pesticides. See: http://www.ewg.org/key-issues/toxics/pesticides
Moms Across America. (2014). Glyphosate Testing Full Report: Findings in American Mothers’ Breast Milk, Urine and Water. See: http://www.momsacrossamerica.com/glyphosate_testing_results
Wikipedia. (9/20/2014). 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic_acid
© Copyright 2014 Joan Rothchild Hardin. All Rights Reserved.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing on this site or blog is intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
In this 2011 documentary, eight people afflicted with serious illnesses (Parkinson’s, breast cancer, Crohn’s disease, diabetes, depression, prostate cancer, a rare neuro-endocrine cancer, alcohol addiction) leave everything behind for 30 days and embark on a natural medicine quest into the heart of the Amazon jungle. Working with indigenous healers, each participant uses a combination of time-tested plant medicines and intense spiritual ceremonies to restore their health.
Five of them will return with real results, two will return disappointed, and one won’t come back at all.
In THE SACRED SCIENCE, Nicholas J. Polizzi and his team take their brave group of patients straight to the source of this ancient plant wisdom.
Here’s the film’s trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS9AVcLsYnk
If you don’t know them already, I also highly recommend ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin’s 1993 book TALES OF A SHAMAN’S APPRENTICE: An ethnobotanist searches for new medicines in the Amazon Rain Forest.
and the 2001 award winning film about his work, THE SHAMAN’S APPRENTICE.
REFERENCES
Miranda Productions.(2001). The Shaman’s Apprentice. Documentary film. See: http://www.amazon.com/Shamans-Apprentice-Plotkin-Susan-Sarandon/dp/B00DYQW4V0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413741806&sr=8-1&keywords=mark+plotkin+film
Plotkin, M.J. (1993). Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice: An ethnobotanist searches for new medicines in the Amazon Rain Forest. See: http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Shamans-Apprentice-Ethnobotanist-Medicines/dp/014012991X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413741740&sr=8-1&keywords=mark+plotkin
Polizzi, N. J. (2011). The Sacred Science. Documentary film. See: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1956671/
The Amazon Conservation Team. See: http://www.amazonteam.org/
© Copyright 2014 Joan Rothchild Hardin. All Rights Reserved.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing on this site or blog is intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.