Toxoplasma - A Brain Altering Parasite that can Change Political Beliefs, Lead to Tribalism, etc.

[TheBlackAdder]

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Toxoplasmosis is caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii and is one of the most prevalent parasitic diseases in the world. Infections can spur from situations like consuming uncooked, contaminated meat or cleaning the litter box of an infected cat. The disease most often produces no obvious symptoms in humans but can be dangerous for pregnant women or people with compromised immune systems.
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Participants were asked various questions related to their mental and physical health, including use of prescription drugs, frequency of doctor visits, and presence of anxiety, depression, phobias, and mania. They also indicated whether they had been diagnosed with a mental health disorder from a list of 25 disorders. Additionally, they completed a measure of political beliefs and values which assessed the four factors of Tribalism, Cultural Liberalism, Anti-authoritarianism, and Economic Equity.
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The researchers said their results are largely aligned with past findings showing that people from areas particularly affected by parasites demonstrate higher conservatism and authoritarianism. This might be explained by the parasite-stress theory which suggests that these attitudes serve to minimize contact with outsiders in order to avoid pathogen exposure. However, since the current participants came from a small region with low parasitic stress, this reasoning may not hold. Instead, the authors suggest that an inflammatory reaction to toxoplasmosis might cause mild yet chronic stress that leads to personality changes, and thus, changes in political attitudes.


There's a bunch I cut out in between to meet the copyright posting requirements.

https://nordot.app/950392982508781568

I knew conservatives were full of shit, didn't know if was infected cat shit.

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[magicarpet]

1. Well,.. who could have known,.... ?

.... Dining on cat shit straight from the litterbox was not such a good idea.

[doc03]

2. I suspect Republicans are catching it from bullshit nt

[TheBlackAdder]

6. They seem to gorge on it and say. . .

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[we can do it]

3. OMG, we have a friend who volunteers for multiple cat shelters.

She has gone from Obama voter to drumpster.
She’s all in watching the fear shows.

[Kid Berwyn]

4. Important Public Health Information

[QED]

5. Foxoplasma?

[hlthe2b]

7. 15-25% or pigs in the US are infected; undercooked pork is every bit the risk factor as cats, if not

MORE attributable to the majority of infections in the US. Further the T. gondii oocysts require 1-5 days once expelled in feces to become infectious so merely eliminating cat feces from the litter box daily prevents transmission--as well as not feeding cats raw meat.

[Chakaconcarne]

8. Guess all of these Blue areas in the US are screwed

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Understanding-Toxoplasmosis-in-the-United-States-Lykins-Wang/4ae6c790a92778c983c08f62a0531bb5296fb47a

Myself included.... yet, I still continue to visit DU daily. Weird.

[wnylib]

9. So conservatism is a disease? I could agree with that.

[Tommy Carcetti]

10. Ironically, one of the most popular conservative shitposters on Twitter is named "Catturd."

No joke.

So yeah...checks out.

[dsp3000]

11. More importantly, is there a way to diagnose and cure? Serious question.

And As a cat lover I was always aware of toxoplasmosis. Never a clear answer on what to do though

[Tree-Hugger]

14. Treatable

It's not routinely screened. There is a blood test for it. There are treatments for it, including and antiparasitic and an antibiotic.

For cats, there is a blood test. Again, it's not routine. There are IgG and IgM tests that determine if a suspected infection is active or not. The treatment is antibiotics and steroids (not always). Fecal tests are not reliable.

[multigraincracker]

12. Toxoplasmosis: Can you catch crazy cat lady syndrome?

https://nuscimagazine.com/toxoplasmosis-can-you-catch-crazy-cat-lady-syndrome/

Humans and other animals are intermediate hosts of T. gondii, becoming infected by eating cysts or oocysts. T. gondii most often calls a human “home” when one consumes undercooked contaminated meat or is exposed to infected cat feces. This is much more likely in an unkempt home overwhelmed with cats, especially if they roam outdoors. Within a few days, contact with areas like litter boxes or gardens may lead to ingestion of infectious oocysts, leading to the creation of further cysts within the host’s body. These cysts become permanent residents in intermediate hosts and are infectious to cats, people, and other intermediate hosts consuming the tissue. For someone with many cats, their likelihood of exposure is greater than that of an average cat owner, which could be the speculated cause of the “crazy cat lady” stereotype.

This stereotype may originate from the behavioral changes Toxoplasmosis has been observed to produce in rats, especially since parasites can also affect human brains. In 2000, researchers at the University of Oxford suggested T. gondii manipulated rats’ perception of risk in the face of predators, sometimes even turning this instinctive avoidance into attraction. Infected rats in the study became drawn to the smell of cat urine, compromising their safety but likely allowing T. gondii to continue reproducing in its definitive host when inevitably eaten by a cat. However, a more recent study published in 2020 analyzed T. gondii-induced changes in mice and provided evidence that the parasite “lowers general anxiety in infected mice, increases explorative behaviors, and surprisingly alters predator aversion without selectivity toward felids,” defying the idea that they only lose fear to cats.

[iemanja]

13. Correlation is not causation.

[Sky Jewels]

15. Sidenote: Authoritarians/Republicans are far more likely to be dog people than cat people.

They like the obedience and control dogs provide them and a lot of them hate cats because cats don't play their game. You win kitties over by knowing how to interact with them, not by barking orders and giving them hand signals, etc.

I'm a tribal cat-loving lib who hates authoritarianism and conservativism.

[TheBlackAdder]

16. Dogs like to eat other animals poop.

[Sky Jewels]

17. That is true.