Doctors investigate mystery brain disease in Canada • Hacker News Board

Re: Doctors investigate mystery brain disease in Canada

#21

Post by peteretep » Wed, May 05, 2021, 9:07 AM UTC

> Several patients have presented with transient "Capgras delusion", a psychiatric disorder in which a person believes someone close to them has been replaced by an impostor.

> "It's quite disturbing because, for instance, a patient would tell his wife: 'Sorry ma'am you cannot get in bed, I'm a married man' and even if the wife gives her name, he'd say: 'You're not the real one,'" Dr Marrero says.

You could spice up a lot of marriages if you could harmlessly cause Capgras delusion for a few hours

Re: Doctors investigate mystery brain disease in Canada

#22

Post by carlmr » Wed, May 05, 2021, 9:07 AM UTC

samirelanduk wrote: post #15

jokoon wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It made some news, it was suspicious cases of pneumonia in china. First time I read the article, I was like "uh oh". It did not make the headlines though, but it was still noticeable. I think I spotted it on reddit or hackernews. Maybe the article was on BBC? BBC has quite a good world coverage. I guess you can google news by year. I'm very certain those articles exist. Next time I heard about it, it was getting much…

I don't think there were any reports online until December 31st.

According to Giuseppe Remuzzi there were strange pneumonia cases in northern Italy in November 2019, but as far as I can see they were not reported until March 2020.

Apart from that I remember the first reports from China in December 2019.

Re: Doctors investigate mystery brain disease in Canada

#23

Post by asenna » Wed, May 05, 2021, 9:08 AM UTC

samirelanduk wrote: post #15

jokoon wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It made some news, it was suspicious cases of pneumonia in china. First time I read the article, I was like "uh oh". It did not make the headlines though, but it was still noticeable. I think I spotted it on reddit or hackernews. Maybe the article was on BBC? BBC has quite a good world coverage. I guess you can google news by year. I'm very certain those articles exist. Next time I heard about it, it was getting much…

I don't think there were any reports online until December 31st.

I remember reading about it end of December 2019. I believe it was a Reddit thread with some worrying reports on the ground.

Re: Doctors investigate mystery brain disease in Canada

#24

Post by sirsinsalot » Wed, May 05, 2021, 9:08 AM UTC

Prion diseases terrify me. Especially having been in the UK eating beef at the time of the BSE outbreaks in the 1990s.

I wonder if there have been studies on the scale of potential latent vCJD/Prion disease in the population?

Re: Doctors investigate mystery brain disease in Canada

#25

Post by Cthulhu_ » Wed, May 05, 2021, 9:09 AM UTC

withinboredom wrote: post #11

Since prions can be inhaled via aerosoles[1], I often wonder how long it will be until vaping causes prion diseases to rapidly spread. Or new prions to be introduced. [1]: https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/j...

Eh? Loads of bad stuff can be inhaled via aerosols so idk why you're mentioning prion diseases specifically. I mean not that long ago there was a lot of 'off the market' e-liquids that would cause popcorn lung.

Re: Doctors investigate mystery brain disease in Canada

#26

Post by GordonS » Wed, May 05, 2021, 9:09 AM UTC

dmix wrote: post #17

r721 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article: "Despite patients showing no trace of any known prion diseases, it hasn't been completely ruled out as a cause, he says. Another theory is chronic exposure to what's called an "excitotoxin" like domoic acid, which was linked to a 1987 food poisoning incident from mussels contaminated with the toxin from the nearby province of Prince Edward Island. ... Dr Cashman says they are also looking at another…

You get plenty of excitotoxins from eating MSG which may be causing diseases too. The amount of msg in commercial food has doubled the last decade apparently. So much we don’t know about the body and what we put in it.

I hadn't heard this claim about MSG before. I did a quick search on Google, but didn't find anything that looked remotely reputable. I did a quick search on Google Scholar, and everything seemed to be refuting the claim. Do you have any sources you can share?

Re: Doctors investigate mystery brain disease in Canada

#27

Post by medstrom » Wed, May 05, 2021, 9:12 AM UTC

peteretep wrote: post #21

> Several patients have presented with transient "Capgras delusion", a psychiatric disorder in which a person believes someone close to them has been replaced by an impostor. > "It's quite disturbing because, for instance, a patient would tell his wife: 'Sorry ma'am you cannot get in bed, I'm a married man' and even if the wife gives her name, he'd say: 'You're not the real one,'" Dr Marrero says. You could spice up…

As long as you induce it consensually, right? It sure would be uncomplicated, no real third party needed.

Re: Doctors investigate mystery brain disease in Canada

#28

Post by StavrosK » Wed, May 05, 2021, 9:12 AM UTC

sirsinsalot wrote: post #24

Prion diseases terrify me. Especially having been in the UK eating beef at the time of the BSE outbreaks in the 1990s. I wonder if there have been studies on the scale of potential latent vCJD/Prion disease in the population?

Did prions survive cooking? I'd have thought cooking the beef would have killed them.

Re: Doctors investigate mystery brain disease in Canada

#29

Post by Hypergraphe » Wed, May 05, 2021, 9:14 AM UTC

sirsinsalot wrote: post #24

Prion diseases terrify me. Especially having been in the UK eating beef at the time of the BSE outbreaks in the 1990s. I wonder if there have been studies on the scale of potential latent vCJD/Prion disease in the population?

Yep, been there in the 90s, scary shit.

Re: Doctors investigate mystery brain disease in Canada

#30

Post by Hypergraphe » Wed, May 05, 2021, 9:15 AM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #28

sirsinsalot wrote: post #24

Prion diseases terrify me. Especially having been in the UK eating beef at the time of the BSE outbreaks in the 1990s. I wonder if there have been studies on the scale of potential latent vCJD/Prion disease in the population?

Did prions survive cooking? I'd have thought cooking the beef would have killed them.

Yes they do. From wikipedia : Prion aggregates are stable, and this structural stability means that prions are resistant to denaturation by chemical and physical agents: they cannot be destroyed by ordinary disinfection or cooking. This makes disposal and containment of these particles difficult.