the brain eaters!

[Sparky]

the brain eaters!

Prions cannot be destroyed by boiling, alcohol, acid, standard autoclaving methods, or radiation. In fact, infected brains that have been sitting in formaldehyde for decades can still transmit spongiform disease. Cooking your burger 'til it's well done won't destroy the prions

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/dna/prions/

are prions a product or a byproduct of evolution?

[Sparky]

http://www.gilbertling.org/

While Richard Preston's "The Hot Zone" focussed on the Ebola virus; Laurie Garrett's "The Coming Plague" describes a whole gamut of new infectious killer diseases. But neither author could have foreseen that the mad cow disease can cross species barrier to produce the 100% fatal brain disease in humans (the Creutzfeld-Jakob disease) after eating beef from diseased cattle. Even more scary, this is an new and different category of disease. It is not caused by bacteria, fungus, parasite or virus, but by a normal protein gone berserk in its way of folding. So strong is this wrongly-folded protein, it cannot be destroyed by severe measures that destroy normal proteins, including baking at 700 degrees. Named "prion" , it can spread to other similar proteins causing them also to fold in the same wayward fashiion, and eventually fatally turn normal brains of the host organism , be it cow or human, into sponges.

[tayga]

As a chemist, I never bought prion theory. The fact is that all of the changes attributed to prions can be caused by substituting tetrahedrally-coordinated manganese (II) for square planar-coordinated copper (II) in the proteins concerned offered a far simpler explanation for the pathology. Especially when its incidence is principally in areas where manganese levels are high and where copper-binding organophosphates agents have been used.

If you're interested, Mark Purdey (now deceased) investigated this thoroughly. You might find some interesting parallels between Mark's battle with consensus science and those experienced by Electric Universe supporters.

http://www.markpurdey.com/index.html

It was studying Mark Purdey, and Gary Taubes' writings on the lack of science behind the Low Fat doctrine, that opened my eyes to the possibility that large swathes of consensus science might be a triumph of dogma over research.

[Sparky]

by substituting tetrahedrally-coordinated manganese (II) for square planar-coordinated copper (II)

Then are you saying that Creutzfeld-Jakob disease is caused by something else?

[ElecGeekMom]

Yes.

Check out the Mark Purdey site. It was a combination of factors. The mangangese-copper issue, the excessive use of organophosphate insecticides, and excessive stimulation of a neurological type. He also factors in the fallout from Chernobyl for the problem in the UK.

His homegrown, organically-raised cattle did not get mad cow disease. He went to court to obtain the right to NOT use the mandated organophosphate pesticides on his cattle.

He continued doing research after developing his hypothesis (which he got published in a journal), and found other combinations of similar factors that led to the development of similar diseases in other species. It's an interesting (though technical) read.

[flyingcloud]

the brain eaters!


are prions a product or a byproduct of evolution?

or source...

[flyingcloud]

all they need is a driver

or are they the driver of the driven

[tayga]

Then are you saying that Creutzfeld-Jakob disease is caused by something else?

Purdey is. I'm not an expert. However, unlike the prion people, Purdey surveyed where 'prion' diseases occur. High environmental levels of manganese were always a factor. A great example is Queniborough, in Leicestershire. It is remarkable for being the site of Britain's first CJD cluster. Here's the party line:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1211192.stm

What the scientists didn't consider was that Queniborough had been the site of a dyeworks that used tonnes of manganese until it burned down in the 90s and scattered managanese-bearing ash over the locality.

My favourite blogger, George Monbiot, wrote a tidy summary of Purdey's work back in 2000. As usual, Monbiot was on the money:

http://www.monbiot.com/2000/11/23/mad-c ... manganese/

[Sparky]

tayga, and others, sorry to have overlooked thread for some time now...in my manic postings,,, well as manic as one can get, using a dellosaurs on dialup, i just missed seeing the thread for some reason.....

Thanks for the alternative ideas... didn't this type disease [kuru] show up in some native tribes that practiced cannibalism ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease)

how would that jibe with "environmental insults "?

thanks,

[Sparky]

Alzheimer’s disease seems to spread like an infection from brain cell to brain cell, two new studies in mice have found. But instead of viruses or bacteria, what is being spread is a distorted protein known as tau.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/healt ... -find.html