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Parasites Makes Us Dumber or Sexier
odie_q writes "It has long been known that the Toxoplasma gondii parasite alters its host's behavior, but now it seems the way it alters it depends on the sex of the host. From the article: 'A common parasite can increase a women's attractiveness to the opposite sex but also make men more stupid, an Australian researcher says ... Infected men have lower IQs, achieve a lower level of education and have shorter attention spans. They are also more likely to break rules and take risks, be more independent, more anti-social, suspicious, jealous and morose, and are deemed less attractive to women. On the other hand, infected women tend to be more outgoing, friendly, more promiscuous, and are considered more attractive to men compared with non-infected controls.'"
I doubt Bush _is_ stupid or inarticulate. He does it on purpose. How many times have you heard people say he's a good man doing a hard job, or say he at least knows to surround himself with intelligent people, or discuss his mispronunciation of "nuclear" instead of the fact that America is the first nation on Earth to allow a first nuclear strike? It's extraordinarily unlikely that someone could pull the crap he pulled, AND STILL GET REELECTED, without careful planning. Stupidity appeals to Americans, and Bush used it very successfully. He accomplished most of his and the Republicans' goals, stayed in office for two terms, and did it in such a way that Republican leaders could distance themselves from him in time for the '06 and '08 elections, keeping 50% of Congress. Amazing.
ResidntGeek
Thank you Captain Obvious. I have one further question: Does the grandparent poster thus indicate that he may have been affected by the parasite, and that this infection could somehow have come as a result of his gray cat? Please explain if my reasoning is right...
Let this be a lesson to the other religeous dictators
- We will gather evidence of your tyranny and war crimes
- We will invade and hunt you down like a dog
- We will trial you in your own country
- We will kill you
- Your countrymen will cheer when you are gone
So, uhh, when are we going after Bush?
The part that I thought was really surprising was "More attractive" and "more promiscuous"... Anybody else see a connection here?
Anything else would be really gross, and would risk numerous other diseases.
Now that we have food out of the way, that leaves cats. Cat elimination would greatly reduce the risk to my family. I particularly wish to eliminate the neighborhood cats that poop in my vegetable garden, because that is where my kids and I dig in the dirt with our hands -- as gardeners are apt to do, and no it isn't reasonable to use gloves when planting seedlings.
Gardeners are at increased risk.
Fix: use a box trap, then call animal control to eliminate the cat for good. (obviously an unloved stray, because of course any responsible animal owner would keep their cat inside to protect it from cars and dogs and raccoons)
I'm sure it makes great common sense to trust Wiki medical notes as always being absolutely correct, accurate, and true, since the Wikipedia has such rigorous tests for truth validity of submitted material.
1) But aside from that, it's known that for two weeks after infection, cats CAN transmit the parasite in their feces and CAN carry the parasite externally on their fur through contamination with the feces. Hence there is a genuine risk period for physical touch. Now the problem is, when, ever, is that two week period? You can never know. Hence there is always a probability of risk from a cat. I repeat again, children are at risk from handling the animals, as they are far likelier to put fingers in their mouths. People are cautioned to avoid even breathing dust from cat boxes.
2) I stand behind what I said about having the parasite's cysts in the brain being not generally a really great idea. a) parasite causes brain lesions. NOT healable. I don't care about post-infection treatment, that's locking the barn door after the horse is out. b) I've read a research paper saying the immune system can't effectively get to the parasite in the brain.
3) the Wiki quotes use the weasel word "seems' quite a bit in regards to treatment. I think I'll stick to preferring 'certain' to 'seems to' when considering medical opinion.
4) Papers indicate that the human immune system keeps the parasite 'under control' but do not say that it eliminates the parasite completely. So what happens to a person when the immune system is weakened by a bad case of the flu or anything else? Do infected people see a flareup of the parasite, but never realize that is going on?
5) Research finds that the parasite alters behavior in mice, i.e. brain function, and makes me wonder considerably about effects in humans. If it affects aggression in males, and is estimated to affect 10 to 20% of people in North America alone... it's hardly insignificant to be concerned.