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