The crazy cat lady is a true thing. It's because of this little organism about which we know little: Toxoplasma gondii. Most people have only ever heard of it because it was the "T" in the "TORCH" panel of labs that pregnant ladies were supposed to get. It's also the reason that pregnant ladies aren't expected to clean out the cat litter box.
Lots has changed, including the TORCH panel. It has long been said that the only people who need to worry about Toxo are pregnant ladies and folks with compromised immune systems, from AIDS / HIV or from medications after an organ transplant. The new science is showing that Toxoplasma is related to cystic fibrosis (gunked-up lungs in children that was thought to be genetic) as well as to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. All of these problems are more likely to occur in a person who was exposed to Toxo as a child.
So what does this mean in practical terms? Should you not have a cat when you are having kids? Perhaps not. Or perhaps the right answer is to test your cat and if the cat is infected, let it live somewhere else until your kids are big. The important thing is that NOW WE KNOW. There is yet another thing that could be causing young people to go mad, and it isn't bad parenting or polluted air or bisphenol A. It's the parasites that our cats can carry.
Be careful out there in the big world.
Lots has changed, including the TORCH panel. It has long been said that the only people who need to worry about Toxo are pregnant ladies and folks with compromised immune systems, from AIDS / HIV or from medications after an organ transplant. The new science is showing that Toxoplasma is related to cystic fibrosis (gunked-up lungs in children that was thought to be genetic) as well as to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. All of these problems are more likely to occur in a person who was exposed to Toxo as a child.
So what does this mean in practical terms? Should you not have a cat when you are having kids? Perhaps not. Or perhaps the right answer is to test your cat and if the cat is infected, let it live somewhere else until your kids are big. The important thing is that NOW WE KNOW. There is yet another thing that could be causing young people to go mad, and it isn't bad parenting or polluted air or bisphenol A. It's the parasites that our cats can carry.
Be careful out there in the big world.
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