Ah yes , the " crazy cat lady " of modern folklore : see hereschew human contact for the company of her feline friends , get into a rotating ensemble of novelty hombre shirt and sweat pants coated in cat hair . Listen in as she delivers a lively soliloquy to her cat posse while clipping coupons for blind drunk food and pussy litter . duple - rap all of Taylor Swift ’s cat - centric Instagrams , and then tweet a shruggie when otherscondemn her to a life of lonelinessbecause her love of cats must mean she ’s loco .
Reports over the preceding several years of a cat - borne parasite calledToxoplasma gondii– guess tocontrol human brainsand known to cause a blanket array of maladies – have only managed to give credenza to the stereotype . But could it be that childlike ? Can CT in reality make the great unwashed – particularly , citizenry attracted to CT , i.e. , " cat ladies " – crazy ?
Let’s talk parasites and cat poop
Yes , it ’s dependable that cats are the source of an super common leech , but there ’s a lot more to this protozoan than chalking its event up to meow - mania .
Toxoplasma gondiiare single - celled parasite whose only definitive primary hosts are cats . In other parole , the parasite must taint a cat if it wants to lie eggs – and it does , because it ’s a parasite , and prolongation is its evolutionary function . Toxoplasma gondiieggs , or oocysts , are then excreted by infected cat in their faeces , and can be consumed by humankind and other mammals in a number of ways . An estimated2 billion the great unwashed worldwide– 60 million in the United States – are infected withToxoplasma gondii .
That ’s a lot of cat the skinny , and the parasites plant within bear a long shelf - life .
Daniel Fishel/Thrillist
" Wait : waste cat feces ? " you ’re probably ask in revulsion . Yes , consume computerized axial tomography feces , by way of boozing contaminated water , exhaust undercooked meat ( of animals that grazed or hunt in soil where an infected Caterpillar take a crap ) , handling and eating unwashed produce ( planted in a garden visit by an septic cat ) , or cleaning an infected hombre ’s litter corner . The risk is in particular high-pitched for kids playing in sandboxes , the McMansions of litter boxes for cats on the go . Kittens are most vulnerable for contagion , and a single computed axial tomography infected byToxoplasma gondiican shed up to 500 million oocysts in two weeks .
" At any make time , it has been guess that some 1 % of cats are excretingT. gondiioocysts , " reportsthe Stanley Medical Research Institute , adding that American backyard and communities contain between3 and 400 oocystsper straight foot . " Insofar as these community are representative of the United States universe , " the Institute continues , " the 81.7 million owned guy would produce 856,930 tons of out-of-door Arabian tea feces each year . Assuming there are only 25 million savage cats , these would produce another 360,459 tons of cat feces , resulting in a entire accumulation of 1,217,389 tons deposited per year in the environment of the United States . "
That ’s a lot of cat poop , and the parasites embedded within bear a prospicient shelf - life . Oocysts can last in lovesome climates with moist soil or seawater for one class . Even one oocyst is enough to infect a human .
So can this parasite actually control human brains?
Not everyone infect withToxoplasma gondiisufferstoxoplasmosis , a serious illness that can do abortion , fetal growth disorder , retinal damage , brain damage , and death . The majority of the 2 billion people infected by the parasite do n’t know they have it , and never will .
But for those who do spring up toxoplasmosis , the termination can be devastating . " It ’s the most plebeian causal agent of contagion of the back of the center , " say Dr. Rima McLeod , professor of ophthalmology & optic skill and pediatric medicine , and medical director of the Toxoplasmosis Center at the University of Chicago . " It can get epilepsy , it can be annihilating for a babe , and it can be crushing for someone with a compromised immune organisation . " Those most at risk of infection are pregnant women , who can transmit the infection to fetuses in utero , fry , mortal undergoing immunosuppressive therapy like cancer treatment , and individuals hurt immunosuppressive diseases like AIDS .
Most masses , of course , wo n’t be eat by cat .
The medical dangers ofToxoplasma gondiihave been known for decades ; the mental health conditional relation ofToxoplasma gondiiare relatively newer on the scene , but gaining more believability in the field . Czech parasitologist and evolutionary life scientist Jaroslav Flegr , long consider periphery forhis theorythat the sponger can manipulate human personality , find oneself in two disjoined studies that subject testing positive forToxoplasma gondiiwere over twice as likely to be in a railcar shipwreck .
Flegr keep that those infect with the parasite are less direful and show slower response times , a conclusion that connects neatly with parasitologist Joanne Webster ’s determination on " fatal feline attractiveness , " wherein Webster and her team observed thatToxo - taint rat were drawn to cat urine , despite the inevitableness of that attractive feature fundamentally equating with suicide .
" For evolutionary reasons , theToxoplasma gondiiparasite can not complete its lifespan cycles/second in the bowel of cats , " tell research psychiatrist Dr. E. Fuller Torrey , executive director of the Stanley Medical Research Institute and schizophrenia specialist who has investigatedToxoplasma gondiifor some time . " So that if you are a parasite , and you ’re trying to be a smart sponge and succeed in life , evolutionary - wise the hypothesis is that the leech has learned right room to make it more potential to get back into a computerized tomography . "
OK, but is there any hard evidence that the parasite is rewiring our brains?
The doubtfulness is this : if a CT leech can rewire a rat ’s brain so that it ’s attract to its own predatory animal , can that same parasite rewire a human ’s brain so that it ’s attracted to bozo , too ? Possibly ! As Motherboardputsit , " Toxoplasma thinks we ’re scab , and it wants us to be eaten by a cat , " impart , " To take it a step further , perhaps cat ladies are more likely to be eaten by cats . suppose someone lead a cloistered lifespan , pass alone , fence in by now - starve qat . It ’s not absurd : in 2008 , a woman in Romania key out as a cat buff was ' eaten head to toe ' by her pet cats after dying of natural suit … "
Most hoi polloi , of course , wo n’t be eaten by cats . But the parasite may also rewire the human brain in even more serious ways , indicating that there ’s far more interesting thing go bad on withToxoplasma gondiithan excuse why computed tomography people like cats .
It ’s important to accentuate that nobody should go home and shoot their khat .
More than80 studies , including those led by Dr. Torrey and co - investigator and Johns Hopkins University neurovirologist Dr. Robert Yolken , item links betweenToxoplasma gondiiand schizophrenia , including four studies reporting " that individuals with schizophrenia , compared to mastery , have had more contact with quat during childhood . " A 2015 study at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam describe byCBS Newsfound that " an item-by-item infected withT. gondiiwas almost double as likely to develop dementia praecox . "
scientist are ready to admonish against jumping to conclusions that these scientific studies yield classical grounds of the crazy cat lady possibility in natural action . " Well , first of all , we have n’t proven anything , " says Dr. Torrey . " What we ’ve shown is that there are certain aspects ofToxoplasma gondiithat would be consistent with some of the symptoms of schizophrenia , but none of us would say that we ’ve shownToxoplasma gondiicauses schizophrenia , orToxoplasma gondiicauses crazy cat ladies , etc . "
Schizophrenia is a serious and continuing mental illness , affecting 1 % of the general universe . " Crazy " is an insensitive word for describing someone afflicted with genial malady . No matter the probability of a leech notice in computerized axial tomography tail leading to schizophrenia , the label " crazy " can and should be scrub from the lexicon surroundingToxoplasma gondii .
But what about the “crazy cat lady” stereotype?
Women are not at greater risk for infection byToxoplasma gondii , by the way . While Flegr maintain that the parasite yields different behavioral manifestations for piece versus women , there ’s no information indicating that one sexuality is more probable than the other to narrow the contagion . On top of that , Flegr ’s discovered personality distinctions contravene much of the classic " half-baked cat lady " personality character that such women are asocial recluses . As report inThe Atlantic ’s 2012 profileof Flegr , " [ … ] males who had the parasite were more self-examining , suspicious , oblivious to other people ’s opinions of them , and inclined to neglect rules . Infected woman , on the other hand , presented in precisely the opposite way : they were more outgoing , trusting , simulacrum - witting , and formula - bear than clean women . "
Not only is the stereotype both inaccurate and offensive ; it also diminish the earnestness of the disease theorized to explain it .
" It ’s a very important author of damage to citizenry in a way that weigh , " says Dr. McLeod of toxoplasmosis . " There ’s a lot of hype about things it might do , but we know the thing that it can do . [ An septic ] sister can terminate up without visual sense , without cognition , all the thing that Zika can do , this virus can do , and it ’s here with us right now . "
And despite the fact that the sponger is specific to bozo feces , the indoor house cat is , more than potential , not at fault , says theCornell Feline Health Centerat Cornell University ’s College of Veterinary Medicine . Feral cats and outdoor cats are the more probable culprits ; even still , you’re able to get toxoplasmosis whether you interact with cat regularly or not .
" It ’s a very common parasite , it ’s in the surroundings , " says Dr. McLeod . " You just have to experience in the world to get it . "
" true cat can make squeamish pets , " adds Dr. Torrey . " But there are some face to what has come out so far that makes some of us uneasy , and would suggest that , specially for shaver , you may require to take certain precautions " – such as deal sandbox when not in economic consumption . Otherwise , he pronounce , cat companionship is not cause for alarm or terror .
" I think it ’s important to stress that nobody should go home and shoot their cat or whatever . "
signalize up herefor our daily Thrillist email , and get your jam of the best in food for thought / drink / fun .
