What is Taxoplasmosis?
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What is Toxoplasmosis?
Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) causes Toxoplasmosis. T. gondii is a bad bug. T. gondii is one of the most common parasitic diseases and has been found in nearly all warm-blooded animals, including pets and humans. Over 60 million people in the US are infected with this parasite. There is no cure. Worldwide there are in some areas 95% T. gondii infection rate. Climate and cultural customs creates a cause and effect on the infection rate. Cats or felines in general are the source of the infections. Wait! Not all cats are infected. T. gondii only sexually reproduces in cat’s intestine. The cat poops out millions of oocytes (egg-like) hardy shell that remain viable perhaps years… depending on the environment.
Cat Symptoms
Cats are not infectious all of the time. When the cat is infected from eating an infected mouse, rat, or bird, they usually are sick for a short time. After they appear to be OK, they are not infectious. The cat’s immune system determines the cat’s reaction. Some of the symptoms may be fever, loss of appetite, and lethargy. Other symptoms may occur depending on whether the infection is acute or chronic, and where the parasite is found in the body. In the lungs, T. gondii infection can lead to pneumonia, which will cause respiratory distress of gradually increasing severity. The cat’s symptoms may also include circling, head pressing, twitching of the ears, difficulty in chewing and swallowing food, seizures, and loss of control over urination and defecation.
All Warm Blooded Animas are Possible Victims
Stanford University School of Medicine indicates per a recent study, eighty-four percent of the North American infants had serious complications of the parasitic infection, including calcium deposits in the brain, water on the brain, and eye disease that caused visual impairment or blindness.
Pregnant Women Beware!
T. gondii infection of pregnant women is especially dangerous. The parasite crosses the placenta causing the surviving children to suffer long-term problems. T. gondii may cause fetal deformities and spontaneous abortions in pregnant women. Some outcomes are cerebral palsy, mental retardation, brain damage, blindness, epilepsy, and even death. This is why pregnant women should not change the kitty litter!
Human Populations are Effected by T. Gondii
The T. gondii parasite could end up anywhere in the brain, so human symptoms of toxoplasmosis infection may depend on where parasite ends up. The parasite might migrate to the eyes, the skin. The Stanley Medical Research Institute and Dunhill Medical Trust, research team found that the parasite causes production and release of many times the normal amount of dopamine in infected brain cells. Dr. McConkey states, “Based on these analyses, it was clear that T. gondii can orchestrate a significant increase in dopamine production in neural cells,”
T. Gondii Changes Behaviors
Dopamine is the chemical that is responsible for sending messages to various parts of the body in order to control movement, behavior, and cognition. Dopamine is a normal chemical in the brain and irregular functioning of this chemical is the known reason for mental disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia and ADHD. T. gondii infected people have very high levels of dopamine.
Infected people behaviors are changed. Most motorcycles riders are infected with T. gondii. T. gondii men are prone to take more risks. People in car wrecks are 2.5 times more likely to be infected with T. gondii. Infected women become more attractive to infected men. Entire cultures are changed. Brazil has almost a 95% infection rate. The Brazilian women are known for being attracted to infected men. See:
http://www.praguepost.com/archivescontent/3144-jaroslav-flegr-a-manipulation-hypothesis.html
There is Much More
My book, Eyes Wide Shut: An Enigma in the appendix has much more details of human behaviors. My book is available at Barnes and Noble, Amazon and my web site: www eyeswideshutanenigma dot com. Be alert and aware.
Related Articles:
http://dallas93444.hubpages.com/hub/Why-Buy-the-Book-Eyes-Wide-Shut-An-Enigma
http://dallas93444.hubpages.com/hub/What-Does-Cats-have-To-Do-With-It
http://dallas93444.hubpages.com/hub/T-Gondio-Most-of-Us-Have-It
http://dallas93444.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Self-Publish-a-Best-Seller
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Enlydia Listener,
This requires a serious, lengthy answer... short answer, no cure... treat symptoms.
Most healthy people don't require toxoplasmosis treatment. But if you're otherwise healthy and have signs and symptoms of acute toxoplasmosis, your doctor may prescribe the following drugs:
Pyrimethamine (Daraprim). This medication for malaria is also used to treat toxoplasmosis. It's a folic acid antagonist, which means it may prevent your body from absorbing the important B vitamin folate (folic acid, vitamin B-9, vitamin B complex), especially when you take high doses over a long period of time. For that reason, your doctor may recommend taking additional folic acid. Other potential side effects of pyrimethamine include bone marrow suppression and liver toxicity.
Sulfadiazine. This antibiotic is used in combination with pyrimethamine to treat toxoplasmosis.
Treating people with HIV/AIDS
If you have HIV/AIDS, the treatment of choice for toxoplasmosis is also pyrimethamine and sulfadiazine, along with folic acid. An alternative is pyrimethamine taken along with clindamycin (Cleocin) — an antibiotic that can sometimes cause severe diarrhea.
You may need to take these medications for life. Your doctor may consider stopping toxoplasmosis therapy if your CD4 count — the amount of a particular white blood cell in your blood — remains very high for at least three to six months. Side effects of most drugs can be more severe in people with HIV/AIDS.
Treating pregnant women and babies
If you're pregnant and currently infected with toxoplasmosis but your baby isn't affected, you may be given the antibiotic spiramycin. Use of this drug can reduce the likelihood that your baby will become infected, without posing a risk to you or your child. Although routinely used to treat toxoplasmosis in Europe, spiramycin is still considered an experimental drug in the United States. Your doctor can obtain it from the Food and Drug Administration.
If tests show that your unborn child has toxoplasmosis, your doctor may suggest treatment with pyrimethamine and sulfadiazine — but only in extreme circumstances. These drugs can have serious side effects for both women and their unborn babies, so they're normally not used during pregnancy. Drug treatment may lessen the severity of the disease, but it can't undo any damage that's already been done.
Thanks Dallas for that complete response. You have certainly done your research. Do you think there are any herbals that might mimic some of these stronger drugs?
I know you have science background...and are very knowledgeable about this kind of thing, but have you the resources to investigate the efficacy of things like turmeric, holy basil or other anti-invaders?
I often wished I had a research lab at my disposal to answer questions like these.
Enlydia Listener,
I fear to go into an arena where I have no knowledge about herbals. I know they can be effective.
FYI.. Toxo is similiar to malaria. Toxo flares when the infected's own immune system is down, (compromised).
Diagnosis is made chiefly from serological tests for IgG antibodies to T. gondii. Other antibody tests include indirect fluorescence or haemagglutionation. Raised antibody levels are not rare in the general population, and only an increasing level is suggestive of active toxoplasmosis.
Treatment
Most patients require no therapy as the disease is mild. Good general measures as described above will be sufficient to shrug it off. For those with the more severe form, pyrimethamine (25 to 50 mg three times day) and sulphadiazine (4 to 5g daily) are used in combination. Therapy needs to be continued for at least one month. Since pyrimethamine causes fetal abnormalities it should not be used during pregnancy or if a woman might be pregnant. Steroids are occasionally used to dampen down any inflammation in the eye.
Prevention is better than cure. Domestic cats that kill mice and birds are the chief source of infection and strict codes of hygiene should always be observed around pets.
Back to conventional treatment:
The parasites that cause malaria are related to Toxoplasma gondii, and a new drug that will soon enter clinical trials for the treatment of malaria also appears to be 10 times more effective than the current gold-standard treatment of toxoplasmosis, a combination of the drugs pyrimethamine and sulfadiazine.
In the March issue of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, a research team based at the University of Chicago Medical Center reports that the drug, known as JPC-2056, is extremely effective against Toxoplasma gondii, both in cell culture and in mice, and apparently without the toxicity associated with the current standard treatment.
The drug works inhibiting the action of the from of the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) that is produced by the family of parasites that includes those that cause toxoplasmosis and malaria, and in cell culture studies, the drug appears actually to kill the parasite, rather than simply preventing its replication. This is very important: not only do most of the current medications have a good many side effects, they have little effect on Toxoplasma during certain phases of its life cycle. It can hunker down in the quiescent cystic phase and wait until the antibiotics are gone.
Rima McLeod, professor of ophthalmology and specialist in infectious diseases at the University of Chicago said,
"JPC-2056 has the potential to replace the standard treatment of pyrimethamine and sulfadiazine. Taken by mouth, is easily absorbed, bioavailable, and relatively nontoxic. In tissue culture and in mice, it was rapidly effective, markedly reducing numbers of parasites within just a few days."
JPC-2056 is not a new drug. It was developed in the late 1980s by teams led by Wilbur Milhous and Dennis Kyle of the Walter Reed Army Institute for Research and David Jacobus of Jacobus Pharmaceutical Company. The original version was quite toxic, but the researchers found ways to reduce the toxicity and developed an oral version of the drug. Clinical trials using JPC-2056 to treat malaria are scheduled to begin later this year.
Thanks again for your complete answers. I value your integrity regarding this, and wanting to get the word out through your articles and your novel, which contains a lot of information. Good luck on your novel. It really caught my interest when you first began posting chapters on here.
When I can afford it, I will buy a copy...too many other bills and things to put first right now. But I do wish you great success. I know how hard it is to get the word out on a literary project that you put a lot of time into.
Enlydia Listener,
email me dallas93449 @ charter dot net and I will send you free EBook. The message is too important to rely on being profit driven...
I will email you tomorrow...I am excited to find out how it ended. Thanks so much.
Thanks!
Enjoy. If you like it, tell a friend! If you do not, tell me...!
Thankyou...my email address is "babygarden"...what do you want me to put in the subject box, so that you don't delete it?
Enlydia Listener,
Email me either through HubPages or the email address above. I do not have your email address..
dallas, this is shocking! I had no idea and I have indoor outdoor cats. Yesterday I found a dead bird in the garden, most certainly killed by my hunter cat. I can only imagine that my family has been affected by this... did you say bacteria? I am not going to sleep well tonight!
I was curious about herbal remedies and found an interesting site you might peruse: http://tribes.tribe.net/herbalmedicine/thread/d062
This is a discussion amongst folk who know they have toxo issues. One mentioned cryptolepsis tincture and another colloidal silver. Herbs that seemed to help include ginger, sophora and garlic.
I am sending this link to my brother as well, because his dear wife has Lymes Disease, which is correlated. Thanks for the heads up. I promise to buy your book one of these days.
Storytellersrus,
One must be aware and alert. Toxoplasma gondii is a single-celled, intracellular protozoan that causes the parasitic diseases known has Toxoplasmosis.
Immunology study experts at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered that bacteria which are in the human gut apparently aid in instigating the body’s defense mechanisms against Toxoplasma gondii. This parasite is claimed to be accountable for toxoplasmosis.
Pregnant women, their fetuses and others with weakened immune systems can apparently have disastrous consequences with toxoplasmosis although it is otherwise a mild infection.
I cannot comment about holistic methods or procedures. I confess ignorance.
It is not all gloom and doom...
If one keeps their cats away from other cats, does not feed them uncooked meat and does not expose them to the outdoors, one may have a non-T. gondii free cat.
Many vets are not aware of the possiblity cats in remission (no symptoms) can have a full blown re-infection. When re-infection occurs, generally the cat is much sicker and more infectious. Latent Toxo is generally triggered to becoming active again by the cat's immune system being compromised. An example is feline leukemia...
Humans too are susceptible to latent Toxo roaring back with vengence to be much worse than the initial infection. An example is people with AIDs. They ususally die a horrible slow death...
Any immune desease can lower your body's defenses and make you a prime candidate for latent Toxo to become active again.
Toxo initially infects humans with flu like symptoms. Our body's immune sysptoms and Toxo develope a mutual stand-off. Toxo remains in our bodies, but is not active. It retreats to cycts in muscle and nerve tissue. It still effects our behaviors while latent. It is active in producing dopamine...
There is no cure...
Enlydia Listener Level 6 Commenter 6 months ago
Dallas, do you think there is a cure, or antidote, or way to eradicate?