Might Alzheimer’s Disease Be “Foodborne”?
Surprisingly, this protein, known as TDP-43, acts similarly to toxic and contagious proteins called prions, which are accountable for the brain destruction occurring in Mad Cow and Chronic Wasting Disease; both of which are types of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
While Mad Cow Disease spreads among cows, Chronic Wasting Disease is a neurological disease affecting deer and elk. Scientific American explains:
“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
A 2011 study reveals that TDP-43 pathology is identified in 25-50% of Alzheimer’s patients, mostly in those with hippocampal sclerosis, distinguished by selective loss of neurons in the hippocampus, which on the other hand is linked to memory loss.
Another study was presented at the 2014 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) which also concluded that Alzheimer’s patients with TDP-43 were 10 times more susceptible to cognitive impairment at death than those without it.
But how do you end up with TDP-43?
CAFO—A Common Denominator for Mad Cow and Chronic Wasting Disease
Although some prions perform useful cell functions, others, like TDP-43, act like an infectious agent leading to neurodegeneration.
Taking into consideration that the common denominator between Mad Cow and Chronic Wasting Disease is making natural herbivores to eat animal parts, a question arises whether it is possible for humans to be infected with TDP-43 via contaminated meats.
The findings are definitely indicative adding another more reason to avoid all meats from livestock bred in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Always bear in mind that almost all meat in restaurants comes from CAFO animals.
CAFOs are big breeding facilities resembling warehouses in which animals are swarming by the thousands, and are fed on an entirely unnatural diet of genetically engineered (GE) grains containing glyphosate and antibiotics. This only leads to uncontrolled spread of disease, both among animals and humans.
This situation is further complicated by feeding herbivores meat and animal byproducts.
Mad Cow is in fact a man-made pandemic, generated by a CAFO practice that ‘cannibalizes’ herbivores, and it spreads at an enormous speed as the remains of a single diseased animal may actually contaminate food given to thousands of animals in different locations.
It is a well-known fact that one of the most common ways of transmission of Mad Cow Disease is by feeding cows on bone meal and waste products from other cattle infected with the disease. Consequently, feeding cows on beef-based products is banned today.
Nevertheless, a feed product known as ‘chicken litter,’ which too can cause Mad Cow disease, is still used by the beef industry.
Chicken litter is made of a condensed mix of dead chickens, feathers, chicken manure and spilled chicken feed—the latter of which contains cow meat and bone meal, both of which are supposed to be banned for cows.
Farm animals and poultry such as pigs, chickens and turkeys can also be fed cattle byproducts, and current laws allows byproducts of those animals to be fed back to cattle as well, rendering this is a second loophole that can let Mad Cow agents to infect healthy cattle and humans who end up consuming any of these contaminated meats.
In the same way, domesticating wild animals and feeding them an unnatural diet results in the occurrence of Chronic Wasting Disease which is often imported and spread through farm animals.
Apart from the fact that infected deer and elk spread the contagious prions in saliva and urine, starting around three months after being infected, these also remain contagious for the rest of their life, contaminating land and water as they move along.
Another serious concern is game farms catering to hunters who are more or less guaranteed a kill, thus increasing the potential for these contagious prions to spread to humans through consumption of infected game animals.
The CAFO-Alzheimer’s Connection
Should you consume meat from a cow infected with Mad Cow Disease, you can actually catch the human version of the disease, known as Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). This is justified by what the Center for Food Safety 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.”
It was only last year that Mad Cow claimed the life of a Texas man, making him the fourth American victim of this disease. It’s scientifically proved that symptoms of vCJD resemble Alzheimer’s and include memory loss, dementia, impaired vision, staggering, and unfortunately, no cure has yet been found.
It is also suggested that Alzheimer’s is a slower moving version of Mad Cow disease contracted by eating infected CAFO meat. In addition, TDP-43 is a potential predisposition to Parkinson’s or Lou Gehrig’s, just as to Alzheimer’s. Which disease will be the end result is determined by the area of your brain that is affected by these proteins. A 2014 AlzForum.org article notes that:
“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. ‘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
It’s a decade-long theory that neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Lou Gehrig’s (ALS) can potentially spread by the use of CAFO foods. According to a 2005 study 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:
“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% of all ‘Alzheimer’s’ victims as really having Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.”
It was also noted by the researchers that bovine tuberculosis acts as a path for human Mad Cow Disease. Bovine tuberculosis (triggered by Mycobacterium bovis and M. avium-intracellulare or paratuberculosis) is one of the most common disease threats in American CAFOs, with researchers quoting USDA data that anywhere from 20-40% 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.”
Take Control of Your Health by Choosing Your Foods Wisely
An inevitable question arises whether Alzheimer’s disease, which is currently the third leading cause of death in the US, is the possible result of a slower-acting form of Mad Cow or Chronic Wasting Disease. Dreadful as they are, the associations between the diseases are compelling, and they all indicate one main culprit: factory farming practices, which disregard hygiene and substitute animals’ natural diets with unnatural grain diets combined with animal byproducts.
This subsequently triggers a disease-producing cycle that can only be prevented by going back to farming in line with natures design. The key factor, however, is an animal’s diet. The benefits of the animal’s diet cannot only be measured by added weight gain or added milk production. All sorts of unexpected implications can arise when the course of nature is altered, including man-made menaces like Mad Cow and Chronic Wasting Disease.
The only type of meat that is healthy and safe to eat is organic, grass-fed and meat that is humanely raised and butchered. If you are interested in locating farm-fresh food in your local area that has been raised in a humane, sustainable manner, the following organizations can be quite helpful:
This Web site will help you learn about farmers’ markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area where you can obtain produce, grass-fed meats, and much more.
Eatwild’s Directory of Farms is one of the most inclusive sources for grass-fed meat and dairy products in the United States and Canada with over 1,400 pasture-based farms.
A coast-to-coast listing of farmers’ markets.
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 committed to supporting agriculture and marketing the products of small farms.
The FoodRoutes ‘Find Good Food’ is quite helpful in providing link to local farmers who offer the freshest, tastiest food possible. You can find a listing for local farmers, CSA’s, and markets near you on their interactive map.
Source: www.realfarmacy.com
