Mad Cow Disease Mostly Infects Teenagers

[@KeiFlox]

Prions absolutely terrify me, it's insane that just a protein can cause so much chaos.

[@pierrecurie]

There's even a paper out there that claims it can survive molten iron. Personally, I think their experiment was contaminated and it's not actually able to survive molten iron.

[@erinm9445]

Yes! Absolutely horrifying!

[@aamirrazak3467]

Yes prion diseases are truly frightening. One misfolded protein continuing to create more and more, and not even extreme heat or cold can eliminate them

[@psychoedge]

​@@aamirrazak3467 ironically enough, specifically folded proteins recreating themselves is the basis of life.

[@Tormekia]

Prions: Wololo.

[@tmoore1144]

I knew a co-worker, a nurse, who started tripping, then falling, then unable to walk. No one could figure what was wrong. She had to go to another state to get diagnosed. It was Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. They told her family they were sorry and sent her home to die. She was middle-aged.

[@fjordpitsky4486]

Creutzfeldt-Jakob is different from Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob (BSE). It's pretty much the same symptoms, but vCJD is infectious while CJD is not. Typical CJD develops spontaneously, often without known cause, which I don't know if that's more or less scary than the infectious form.

[@theninja4137]

​@@fjordpitsky4486it's still contagious, but is usually either genetic or spontanous. If you got the prions into your body though, they could still infect you

[@stephen1r2]

@@fjordpitsky4486 The other fun one is Fatal Familial Insomnia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_insomnia

[@AquariumWizard]

Same with my grandmother - it was the falling randomly that was the tip off that something was very wrong. She wasn't losing balance, she was literally glitching out. It was horrible.

[@SelmaTheCrazyJRT]

This is the reason why I'm banned from giving blood. When I was about 18-ish months old I had to get 3-4 blood transfusions. This was back when I still lived in the UK in the late 90's. I've been told that I can't donate on the "off chance" that I got infected. It's been 25 years, give or take. I think I'm good, but it still terrifies me.

[@SeliahK]

I had a head cold at 18 years old. No one doing the donation drive told me not to donate. Instant lifetime ban. Shrugs. I'm 45 now. Multiple phone calls and no dice getting it reversed. They lifetime ban VERY easily. (It's not necessarily a bad thing. I get why they're THAT careful. It's just an observation that it really doesn't take much.)

[@AquilaCat]

Same. I was born in Germany in 1989 and my family lived there another 2 years before moving back to the USA. All of us are banned from donating blood because of where we lived during the mad cow crisis. I go in and check every few years to see if it's still in effect. Last time the person I asked had to check with a supervisor first, but yes. Seems like now it's more of a "better safe than sorry" policy. Even after 35+ years.

[@Daniel-jk7pe]

Why do yoy guys want to donate blood so badly?

[@SelmaTheCrazyJRT]

@@Daniel-jk7pe I guess for many people it's a nice way of doing something good for others. Had it not been for a kind soul who donated their blood 25 years ago, I would not be alive today. We need blood donors in this world. Even if I could donate, I myself would probably not as I have a crippling fear of needles. But it's great that those who can, and are willing to, do.

[@mirjamhuth4513]

​@@Daniel-jk7pe because some people are in need of blood transfusions and well the blood has to come from somewhere, right?

[@Cerbera66]

A friend of mine, a brilliant amateur chef, died of BSE or CJD in the 90s. He had only 6 months to live from diagnosis to his death. 😢

[@Goldenretriever-k8m]

My friend’s grandma died of it. They tested her family members and everything too (don’t know how they tested them). I think they thought she caught it on a trip to Germany once.

[@tomsdottir]

I'm so sorry- what a dreadful thing to happen.

[@tatiana4050]

I think unless he was a cow it wasn't BSE. Unless you did have a bovine friend.

[@emu071981]

One of the more promising potential cures for prion diseases in general is mRNA therapies. Training the immune system to be able to recognise misfolded proteins would be a achievement on the same level as the discovery of antibiotics as there are plenty of syndromes where it is suspected that prions may be at play.

[@briebel2684]

Unfortunately half the USA is terrified of mRNA vaccines, along with the incoming presidential administration.

[@HattieLankford-24]

That would be incredible

[@jessicap4998]

Covid is a crappy disease, but it helped push mRNA research into the spotlight. mRNA vaccines have huge potential.

[@hannajung7512]

very true, considering, that thanks to that technology we allready have a promissing candidate for what amounts to a vaccine AND cancer treatment for ovary cancer, which is very deadly, by Training the immune system to reckognise one specific protein on cancerouse ovary cell, it is not unthinkable, that we could do something similar for prions. It wouldn't be as huge as antibiotics or vaccines though, as prion deseases are really rare and preventable, too.

[@ethymith]

I would like to see a counter protein

[@rajur8662]

I watched my grandfather die of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease many years ago. We lived in Minnesota and were immediately sent to Mayo for a formal diagnosis. I was in the room when the doctor tried to explain it to my grandma. It was such a quick descent from a fully functioning farmer, to a living body with no man. Prions are terrifying in the lack of knowledge we have of them.

[@Rebar77_real]

Greedy slaughterhouse companies trying to maximize profit but end up hurting the public? Where have I heard that before...

[@pattheplanter]

In the case of recycling sewer fatbergs, it was just public disgust that caused the feed manufacturers to stop - no actual known medical problems. Why did they start doing it? Pure capitalist evil.

[@therongjr]

Upton Sinclair, almost 120 years ago

[@JimmyJamesJ]

United Healthcare

[@Jasonxbr]

Greed is the root of all evil. It's supersede any morals and ethics just to make more profits. So sad, just another way exploitation is a unfortunately side effects of capitalism.

[@KekeeBlack]

@@therongjr wild how we grew ip having these books thrown in our faces for years, meanwhile they let all this happen

[@boreduser1583]

Check Cronic Wasting Disease in deer. It’s a prion as well. They say it can’t be transferred to humans..buuutt…….

[@arcosprey4811]

closest thing we have to zombies

[@gmchris3752]

The researchers are watching it CLOSELY. Standard questions when someone develops CJD in the US involve a lot of asking about hunting, known venison consumption, and even BBQs with hunters where there MIGHT have been venison. They don't want to let a connection go undiscovered like MCD did in the UK!

[@alexhurst3986]

I'm putting forth a vote that Tom becomes a regular presenter. His energy and enthusiasm are infectious and that is a disease we could all use a bit more of.

[@Mx12b]

Is he not? He's in so many videos ....

[@colletteprops8708]

Been here for... 0:38 So far, decent af❤

[@ZT1ST]

​@@Mx12bHe's hosting for a week of filming, as I understand.

[@F1083]

he has the energy of a video gamer who has swallowed a bunch of caffeine pills, some Adderall and a red bull.

[@BRealBStrong]

I think he's already really busy but if he was in I would be here for it

[@kenyholt5036]

The most disturbing part of this is that feeding cows to themselves is standard practice 😢

[@novampires223]

I thought they banned that!!

[@mooing_cowmilk]

@@novampires223 They did (but not back in the 1980's)

[@Leyrann]

*was

[@archieames1968]

not any more. at least not in developed countries. Part of the reason why this remained localized in the uk is that is one of the few places it was more common. It wasn't exactly banned elsewhere but other feed was much cheaper.

[@M-DayProductions]

I agree

[@ryangooseling]

Recently, while talking about survival with my granddaughter, we were talking about what parts to cannibalize. My daughter mentioned the brain. I suddenly got very serious and we had a talk about curu and mad cow. How did we get to this conversation 😂😂 no idea😊

[@Omen-x4f]

Interesting definitely

[@Christopher-b1p]

Headcheese is quite delicious.

[@radagast6682]

Would you please do a video on Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)?

[@fricki1997]

Came to the comments looking for this. Prions are even more scary when they're in wildlife.

[@TobyLegion]

But what would there be to add? The overlap with this is pretty huge and most of it was already covered here. Except that there aren't any known cases of human CWD, so it is cautiosly assumed that humans probably can't get it.

[@radagast6682]

@@TobyLegion Not yet!

[@Feenixfire90GamingTFG]

Oh... the deer disease... yeah the video on KZbin about that is disturbing.

[@pierrecurie]

@@TobyLegion ​ @radagast6682 There _were_ 2 cases of humans getting CJD from CWD infected deer back in 4/2022. More recent analysis suggests it was sporadic CJD.

[@camillastacey4674]

I remember seeing piles of cows being burned on tv when this became a real problem in the uk. And the agricultural minister feeding a burger to his daughter to prove it was safe. I worked for someone in the late 90s when there was another outbreak, they were farmers and terrified of what it meant for them.

[@rolfs2165]

"British beef is safe. That's why I'm having my daughter eat the burger instead of eating it myself!"

[@magilviamax8346]

Yeah probably meat from Argentina...

[@1tuinman]

I remember that poor daughter having to eat the burger in front of the cameras... could you ever forgive your own father for that?

[@PinkRose0910]

@@1tuinmanWell hopefully it was safe tested meat. I would hope they would also make laws that don’t allow farmers to turn their animals into cannibals. It’s wrong. Cows are herbivores.

[@Christopher-b1p]

They tried to ignore and then cover up the whole mad cow disease outbreak in Britain. The reason. It started was because they figured they could feed cows to other cows. From there, it got worse and worse.

[@just_kos99]

I was in England in March 1996, when the story broke to the British public. It's been over 28 yearsa and I just read that it can sit and stew in one's brain for DECADES. I wonder if it's not turning my brain to sponge this very moment....

[@austinfreyrikrw6651]

You are most likely just fine. The incubation period is around 10 years and you are still able to watch and respond to a KZbin video more than 2 decades after your possible exposure.

[@fusionstar916]

I have this random migraine and the urge to scratch my leg.

[@shakeyj4523]

I was there at the same time, and in the US we were restricted from donating blood. That was just lifted two years ago, as there has not been a single case recorded. So it seems you are in the clear now.

[@MsPassas96]

My national blood donation site still ask of i was in england at that time or if i have received blood around that time.

[@tw8464]

Exactly. We have no way to know if we ate the meat with the prion diseases until it's too late. You have to be careful eating wild game too. Deer have it. It's called chronic wasting disease in deer. I used to eat deer meat people would give me because I like it's taste and it is our culture. But I don't accept it anymore because of the chronic wasting disease. Unless the meat is tested there is no way to know for sure. But most people don't get it tested and just eat it. To me it's not worth taking a chance on, as the disease keeps spreading among the deer populations. I will eat beef because I know there is more awareness and some incentive to test it and not destroy the industry by having mass casualties. But yeah I remember the mad cow nightmare the unnatural cow cannibalism feeding rotted ground up cow carcasses to other cows and feeding it to kids and families. It's sickening just to think about it

[@NotSoMuchFrankly]

"Like, couldn't even run for US president young" So...anyone who showed up after dinosaurs?

[@darkstarr984]

Sadly, we’ve never had anyone run as young as they actually could (it’s officially 36 and I always joked I would run a grassroots campaign the moment I could, but I don’t know if we’ll have elections in 8 years).

[@sugarrookieart]

​@@darkstarr984 Okay the "there wont be elections" liberal scare shi needs to stop.

[@MeepChangeling]

@@darkstarr984 If we don't, become the Rebel leader. I'll be your intel guy.

[@gigabyte2248]

@@darkstarr984 36? That's hilarious

[@ericeaton2386]

As someone in their 30's, this cut deep.

[@xWood4000]

Carlson et al (2023) about CWD showed that even plants can accumulate prions from the soil in above ground parts. This is speculation on my part, but that could mean that vegetables may have prions from the soil

[@parachutes_party]

Came here to say this. The possible implications are quite scary.

[@rebeccasford]

I'm from the UK, and was a teen during the mad cow disease scare. My family became vegetarian, and i still can't give blood. It was so awful, and scary. Plus it was freaking criminal to feed cows, other cows.

[@kosmosXcannon]

Probably not common but I wonder how often pigs eat eachother and if something similar could happen.

[@hanifarroisimukhlis5989]

@@kosmosXcannon Yes, but it's not common for farm pigs to be fed other pigs. Doubly so ever since we understand the cause of BSE.

[@LimberMuffin]

Prions not being alive isn't relevant to whether our immune system can neutralize them. Snake venom isn't alive either, but our immune system can produce antibodies to neutralize it.

[@just_kos99]

So do you have an explanation for why our immune system doesn't target these proteins?

[@kiefermattern917]

@@just_kos99 Not at all the point op made, stop being a prick.

[@Tazallax]

​​@@just_kos99 Generally because our immune system goes through a robust selection process that prevents it from reacting to self. When that goes wrong, you get immune disorders. But our immune system can and DOES recognize proteins. That's actually sort of how it works: antibodies bind to specific regions of an antigen, which then calls for further immubological response. The immune response to proteins is one of the most robust responses. They explain that (self recognition) at the end of the video, but the first generalization is just wrong.

[@MaxContagion]

@@just_kos99 i think the video covers that tangentially "super rare" and "takes us back to the 80s"

[@Tazallax]

Thank you! That was a horrible description, because your body can and does recognize foreign proteins. All. Day. Long. You're not allergic to peanuts, you're allergic to proteins in peanuts. You have allergies from bits of pollen and dander, which are not cells or bacteria. Antigens are small, recognizable portions of something that your immune cells/antibodies respond to, and proteins cause strong responses! They go on to explain this at the end of the video (self recognition), but the first bit is just wrong.

[@McSmacks]

My friend died of this. It was awful.

[@Goldenretriever-k8m]

My friends grandma did. It had been incubating in her for years.

[@MichaelYouTubetube]

Just a guest host but has that great enthusiasm like a Hank host! Amazing!

[@HorzaPanda]

I always wondered how intact misfolded proteins were getting into the body, because usually the body just splits proteins down into amino acids and absorbs those. Definitely interesting to finally find out how

[@pierrecurie]

They're protease and acid resistant.

[@Phlosioneer]

To be more precise, the ones that are known and contagious are protease and acid resistant. That’s a form of natural selection; only the misfolded prions that were durable enough to propagate become contagious. If they aren’t durable, they don’t propagate. They are not alive and they can’t evolve but natural selection doesn’t require either of those things.

[@Christopher-b1p]

Physionic addressed this issue in one of his videos. It's not quite as simple as degrading proteins down to individual amino acids.

[@mikebarushok5361]

If proteins were always broken down all the way to individual amino acids Celiac disease and numerous systemic food allergies wouldn't exist.

[@KyrenaH]

Cows should not be fed other cows.

[@alisonwilson632]

Exactly! They're grass eaters not meat eaters

[@Christopher-b1p]

One day, I was listening to a lecture. The title of the lecture was "Seals and Cannibals". I turned to the girl next to me and said, "That's why I wouldn't be a cannibal! And she replies: there are other reasons Why you shouldn't be a cannibal. And I was like oh!

[@Christopher-b1p]

​@alisonwilson632 Technically cows derive their nutrition from microbes, not directly from grass.

[@Googlymoogly-m8i]

When I was in college we did a lot food safety and as part of it we went to an abbatoir. Now they have a weird super powerful suction machine that sucks the spinal cord and spine directly out of the carcass. They have to collect and destroy with records to be sure it's out of the food system. It was fascinating and kinda horrifying

[@Christopher-b1p]

There was a really good video on a meat factory that switched from being kosher to non-kosher. Because they didn't bleed the cow in the same way, they couldn't tell where the thyroid was. As a result, it got included in the meat. People started having weird symptoms. Took a lot of work to figure out what it was.

[@WeeWeeJumbo]

i followed a middle aged content creator who caught CJD. it was like hyper-dementia and we watched it happen in real time. horrible. Rest In Peace O.P.

[@taylor3950]

That sounds awful to watch

[@jasminpeer6473]

Allison Raskin's mother just passed away from CJD and hearing her account of it sounds absolutely horrifying. RIP Ruth Raskin.

[@5Seed]

Small correction. Farmers did not reprosses the cow carcasses. The slaughtering companies did this then sold this back to farms as recovered protiens feeds. Farmers just sold cows (either alive or dead) to the slaughter houses.

[@shakeyj4523]

They knew what was in the feed though. Same difference.

[@user-eh6th9wj5k]

You’re being pedantic. Did the farmers feed the cows repurposed protein? Yes or No. Someone said farmers fed them corn would you say “No the farmers didn’t, they fed them feed made of corn from a feed company.” Just stop with the needless corrections.

[@tw8464]

Corporate profits $$$ as usual no science behind grinding the cow corpses to feed to other cows as cannibalism that is completely unnatural but yet they did it anyway out of greed 💰 🤑

[@HunterSeth]

@@5Seed reprocess* *Hi. I’m the spelling and dictation police. It seems your comment could be detrimental to A.I learning software. Please turn on your automated spell correction systems and try again.*

[@pirobot668beta]

The word y'all looking for is 'ruminant protein': putting dead sheep into cow feed-stocks. Sheep get 'Scrapies', a prion infection that causes intense itching. The thinking of the time was "Cows can't catch a Sheep disease and the extra protein makes Cows mature sooner" Feeding dead animals to herbivores is never a good bet.

[@laanaalove]

Wakeup honey, scishow just dropped a new video unlocking a new fear

[@MaxContagion]

definitely don't look up the deer version of it. and also don't get near any deer or anyplace deer have ever been

[@catman8965]

Hardly new. If you lived in Europe in the 1980's you cannot donate blood. How do I know? I'm one of them.

[@AECRADIO1]

DEER HAVE IDENTICAL DISEASE CHARACTERIZATION. Hunters were told to bring in decapitated heads for testing.

[@ivytarablair]

...OH THANKS 😱😱😱 ​@@MaxContagion

[@SephieRothe]

I was alive in the 90s this isn't a new fear

[@villaorleanspr]

My dad died of Mad Cow in 2004. It took 3 months to go into a coma from the onset of the first symptom. He was 73. We didn’t know what was happening until electrical brain energy was measured while he was in a coma.

[@rolfs2165]

0:27 "Like, couldn't even run for US president young" I think r/anythingbutmetric is calling …

[@tobyihli9470]

I thought the decrease was due to eliminating cattle brain and spinal tissue from the feed of beef cattle.

[@tor-WX]

thanks youtube for recommending me this as i'm eating beef jerkey, as a teenager

[@KarlBunker]

Two cows are talking: Cow 1: "Are you worried about Mad Cow Disease?" Cow 2: "Why would I be? I'm a rabbit!"

[@HattieLankford-24]

And very late

[@Megs125]

This video is terrifying thanks!

[@JulesAl-Mighty]

For most of my adult life my entire family was banned from donating blood because we were all potential mad cow carriers. We lived in Europe in the early 80’s, It was finally lifted in 2020.

[@kitefan1]

Yes, one of my friends traveled frequently to the point where if she has a 6 hour layover at Heathrow for 5 hours she will leave and go the Harrods or somewhere. They banned her too. I thought it had been lifted but couldn't remember when.

[@lenabreijer1311]

My oldest spent time in a British boarding school in the 80s, she wasn't allowed to donate blood either.

[@JoseELeon]

after surviving microbiology II i didnt expect to hear bovine spongiform encephalopathy ever again

[@lpqlbdllbdlpql]

My grandma died of this. By the time symptoms show, it goes downhill quickly.

[@lrodrigues7488]

The craziest thing about mad cow disease is that it's a result of humans fcking around and finding out... We already eat them, why be cruel to them and feed themselves too themselves?!😢

[@CiCodiCadno]

(paraphrasing) "UK teenagers aren't eating more burgers or meatloaf than other ages..." Aye, we don't eat meatloaf _at all_ over here

[@ikeekieeki]

good for you

[@cfmcguire]

I think you can add chronic wasting disease to the list.

[@disorganizedorg]

I thought that CJD, kuru, and chronic wasting disease were synonymous?

[@slyar]

​@@disorganizedorgYeah, they're just for different origins. CJD is for humans, Kuru​ is specifically from a tribe in Papua New Guinea, and CWD is for deer

[@edmondantes4338]

@@disorganizedorg They are not. For reasons that are not totally clear the same exact protein, major prion protein (PrP), can cause several different diseases (all lethal and incurable) with different symptoms and speeds with which they kill you. In addition to kuru and CJD there are also other possible syndromes caused by prions in humans, such as GSS and fatal insomnia. Also prion diseases have different names when they affect different species, for example CJD is basically the human equivalent of BSE in cows. Chronic wasting disease affects deer, so that's why it's not synonymous with the others I mentioned.

[@AECRADIO1]

Oh deer....

[@studioMYTH]

I was under the impression that wasting disease was caused by alcoholism?

[@CoriSparx]

Why did this have to come up on my front page while I was in the middle of eating a burger? 😫

[@ericmaclaurin8525]

Google is always listening.

[@kalkuttadrop6371]

Could it not also be that older people who got VCJD were more likely to have it misdiagnosed, either as regular CJD or as some other disease like Alzheimer or Dementia. Or they died before they had symptoms as a result of something else. Or they died of the disease, but way earlier due to being more fragile and thus it could have been missed in a brain check It could be all this is true and Teens get it faster on average after infection, but all humans have some of those M things and stuff like stomach ulcers or mouth cankers could get those proteins into the blood easier. Kuru could take 40-60 years to show symptoms and while that's likely an outlier(that community was doing cannibalism for so long in such a tight area they probably unintentionally bred themselves to be resistant) someone in their 50s who was infected could easily croak of something else before the VCJD showed up, or again, it be misdiagnosed as regular CJD or a different dementia or just not checked.

[@tw8464]

Yeah the prion diseases may be more common in people than we realize. Considering also how many people in the world eat wild game like deer that is known to have prion diseases also.

[@kitefan1]

Apparently the symptoms of Mad Cow are different than regular dementia (Dr. Google and being of age in the 80s). Regular dementias take years and Mad Cow was a few months. It wasn't just your regular demented crazy either because it was attacking more broad sections of the brain.

[@kalkuttadrop6371]

@@tw8464 There have been zero confirmed cases of CWD spreading to humans despite it being around since the late 1960s(which may actually be earlier then the Cow Patient Zero who first got BSE, that's estimated around 1971). While something could always happen we had humans dying of VCJD by the early 90s, less than a decade after we discovered it in cows and just over 20 years after it first emerged. Cows can spread their prions to humans, so can squirrels(Kentucky VCJD outbreak from squirrel brains) and of course other humans(That's Kuru). Eating the brains and spinel cord directly is a way bigger risk then meat that might have some bits in it, and same species is riskier than other species, both those trends seem clear. Hence Kuru was proportionally a couple orders of magnitude more prolific then human mad cow. Scrapie cannot infect humans. This is the entire reason people thought it was safe to eat mad cows. Scrapie has been known since the 1700s and is still a recurring issue today, it's actually more common than Mad Cow even with our modern protections(maybe sheep proteins are unusually vulnerable i dunno). We were eating it for centuries with no obvious issues and we rechecked after this whole debacle. We stopped eating scrapie sheep in the 90s to avoid tempting fate, but there's no evidence of a problem. CWD is seemingly like scrapie. It can't infect humans, but we're playing it safe these days best we can. It is totally possible it could via a middleman. There's a theory that Mad Cow emerged from Scrapie infected sheep parts being fed to cattle. So maybe one Scrapie WAS capable of setting off Cows and then the Cow prions could set off Humans even if the Sheep ones couldn't do it directly. It's theoretically possible that CWD prions could infect something like squirrels and those could infect us as we know squirrel prions can hit humans thanks to Kentucky. But that theory is not proven, it's just as likely one cow got spontaneous BSE(which is where most of todays once or twice a year cases probably come from) just like some humans get SCJD, and the problem was that cow being fed back to other cows triggering Acquired BSE. That's what happened with Kuru, it's generally believed it started with someone in the tribe in the 1800s dying of Spontaneous Human CJD and them being eaten giving rise to Kuru. We're being as careful with CWD as we really can be with wild animals. It's worse than Mad Cow in many ways as these specific proteins spread far more prolifically through the body than normal and infect most body tissues rather than just nerve tissue. Deer overcrowding due to wolves and bears being mostly wiped out could be making it worse. But despite this no humans have gotten provably sick, so that suggests it's likely a Scrapie situation.

[@TheScaryBarry]

B and T cells can definitely detect protein shapes, it just matters how specific the particular receptor is for antigens. The body typically is overly cautious for identifying self which may cause less specificity for specific antigens.

[@aalhard]

Prions are like zombies, they aren't alive and the eat BRAINZZZZ😂

[@hypotheticalaxolotl]

And it spreads by biting! ... In the other direction, but it still counts.

[@zabs1671]

The immune system can inactivate proteins via antibody binding. But as these prion proteins are endemic to the “host”, it’s much less likely that the immune system would naturally generate such antibodies. For researchers, it might be difficult to find epitopes that are unique to the misfolded protein that don’t also bind to other normal proteins. The development of AI that can accurately predict protein folding may be of great benefit here.

[@bellablue5285]

I remember when this was a huge thing in the mid-90s. Still kinda haunts me, scared the crap out of me as a kid/teen The similar one in deer is also unnerving, they're quite common here and already there are places where you can't consume venison

[@hotelmario510]

What terrifies me about vCJD is all the unknowns. We don't know if there will suddenly be a massive "epidemic" of vCJD cases caused by years of it lying dormant in people's brains, until it happens, or it doesn't.

[@dragojuice8716]

actually juust did some looking into prion diseases after hearing about a group of hunters all getting very sick from a disease they caught from eating meat from a deer with CWD.

[@give_anna_an_alt1744]

I feel like I'm one of the few that remembers this disease even though I'm young because of my culinary education background. Always kinda sticks on my mind.

[@kitefan1]

Mad Cow fear bumped all my other fears down. As a kid the diseases that most creeped me out were Rabies and Tetanus with Polio and Trichinosis following close behind. More advanced medical practice and not feeding pigs on the dirt mostly pushed those away. But I'm still pretty sure I"m not going to eat bear meat unless I watch it cook. One of my great Aunts creeped me out telling me about Lockjaw. One of my favorite stories is about of people at a party that ate trichinella infected appetizers of some sort. The only one who didn't get VERY ill was the alcoholic. The theory was that the amount of whiskey in his gut killed the trichinella before they could get past his gut.

[@AECRADIO1]

Whitetail deer suffered a similar fate as well..

[@Feenixfire90GamingTFG]

Those cows probably ended up in my aunt's freezer. When the crisis hit, a UK supermarket that I shall not name decided not to recall all the meat and instead reduce it to like 10p a packet. And she bought the whole lot and even got a new chest freezer to store it all. Her and her family fed off that for a year or two, maybe longer. Even my family thought they were insane. Also, on a tad separate note, given the incubation time of this prion... I wonder when this will catch up with folk and cause MCI in those that were around at the time? Or if this can be passed on with flawed prion development? So many questions for such a mysterious disease source.

[@usopenplayer]

Why not name them? People who ate that food ate that food might be giving blood transfusions and infecting more people unknowingly.

[@TysonJensen]

It won't. 3% of humans give or take are vulnerable to this. The rest are immune, we don't know the specifics. We know the "why" is that meat-eaters have evolved some kind of defense. Humans are more recent to the meat eating game than wolves and other carnivores that are immune and if we keep eating meat we'll evolve into full immunity eventually. It would be super nice if we could figure out the specifics and just test you -- then you'd know if you are a meat-eater-yes or a meat-eater-scary-please-no.

[@crimsonraen]

Yeahhh, prion diseases are terrifying.

[@kimberlydrennon4982]

This video is on my cork board with strings of me trying to explain to local yokels why, even though we haven't seen cervid wasting disease jump to humans, you should not tempt fate and instead discard any venison that comes back positive.

[@chase__k3548]

The immune system not breaking down prions doesn’t have to do with them not being alive, it has to do with immune tolerance.

[@theoctopuscats6510]

I read a book about a teenager that got mad cow and got so freaked out that I stopped eating beef. After two weeks I realized I never liked beef that much and haven’t eaten it since. It’s good for the environment too.

[@LordBrittish]

Cow burps man. Cow burps. 💨

[@CWorgen5732]

Meh. Not that much better. The bigger difference, I believe, is switching from cheap feedlot-raised beef to grass-fed beef, because fewer resources have gone into producing their food.

[@stephenkohler3472]

I've been moving in that direction for a few years just for my gut health... stuff like this makes me want to go full vegan

[@superblue-Bc6re]

Good for the environment ?!

[@ODST_Republic]

Gets it from other meat instead or hereditary gene

[@exosproudmamabear558]

Ngl this sound like an easy fix when I think although I know it isnt. We have something called systematic proteases they target specific proteins and degregade them. Some of the anitivirals in this category, some dementia drugs and antifibrobilitics are in this category too. Problem is some proteases also target other proteins so you cant go agressive on them and we still couldnt find one that target prion proteins due to their issue is folding not the protein issue so it needs to hug protein properly. You need make them smaller too so they can get inside the cell. Once you make the protease delivering is easy you can use liposomal technic or gold nanoparticules to get into cells and bbb with ease. But since prions are a folding issue we can just go for fixing the fold. Just send bunch of similar structure to normal prions that is resistant to folding intratheacally so they just fix/infect the misfolded ones. You can also send folding fix proteins they find misfolded proteins and tags them for degredation. These are theories of course but nobody exactly tried these. The only drug in the trial is reducing synthesis of prion production.

[@-SinisterVR]

As a teen, I will not longer be eating burgers..

[@jekentmenietje]

Tom Lum is such a great storyteller. He can make any topic interesting. Good job!

[@tesmith47]

Too much twitching and jerking around

[@ZT1ST]

@2:21; Prion: "Can you feel your heart burning? Can you feel the struggle within? The fear within me is beyond anything your soul can make. You cannot kill me in a way that matters."

[@Hasmanian]

Well I didn't want to sleep tonight anyway.

[@magicknight8412]

I think at the time McDonalds got their beef from Brazil so that was "safe" much to the relief of a lot more teenagers. But yes was very scary

[@idontwanttopickone]

I, as many Brits my age do, remember the endless footage on the news of huge piles of burning dead cows and crying families who had just had their whole herd put down because one cow in a neighbouring farm had it. It was heartbreaking to watch and I was a city kid, I didn't grow up in those communities that were hardest hit. It was devastating for the whole country and really frightening for everyone. I've eaten beef since, but after watching this I wonder if I should wait until we can be sure it isn't around. It is also things like this that make me very concerned about food safety post Brexit in the UK. The recent horse meat scandal highlights why this could be an issue - horse meat made it into the food chain because someone wanted to bulk out their profits and the only reason we know that is because it was tested and tracked back to the source because we were in the EU, which funds all these tests. Our products and consumer protections are already being eroded since leaving the EU because the UK doesn't have the capacity to test everything that comes into the country. If you don't believe me, you should know that Boots (the generally well liked and trusted high street chain) sell FFP2 NR masks in the UK, but have been banned from being sold in the EU because they tried to ship them into Ireland and were tested by the EU, only to find that they don't meet FFP2 standards. I only know this because someone bought me those masks and I still owned a proper M3 FFP2 mask so I could see straight away that the ones from Boots were terrible and paper thin. I looked it up and found an import ban notice online. So yeah, Brits, please be careful now we are in the wild west when it comes to products on our shop shelves. Hopefully it doesn't mean BSE 2.0 or more children burning up in unsafe fancy dress costumes or things bulked out with lead or nails in cuddly toys or all manner of terrible things that have happened in the past, becoming more common in the future. ...I also wondered, although this might be a silly question, if Mad Cow Disease could be transmitted to aquatic life via livestock interactions with waterways? If it exists in the wild for years and all water flows to the sea eventually, is there a risk of a future outbreak among sea life that we wouldn't be able to stop?

[@youmaycallmeken]

Feeding cows cow parts, perhaps that's not just scary sounding but also dangerous healthwise.

[@blackrose4289]

Horrifying. Also, I'd absolutely love to see Ella and Caroline get to present some episodes in the future too. I get it might be harder to organize with them being in the UK, but it'd be really fun to get all three LLE hosts on the channel!

[@SAmaryllis]

This is scary stuff. I never really understood it when it first came up in the news since I was pretty young, but I'm glad to have learned about this now!

[@CC-uj6oe]

For all those vegetarians, sadly prion can travel via veggies too. Look up zombie deers...and they aint eating each other for sure...

[@Delekhan]

Thanks for your energy Tom! Really appreciate the video...

[@sbdodds]

I would just like to say I was a bit irritated by the repeated use of the phrase "prions aren't alive, so your immune system can't kill them." Viruses, toxins, venoms, and other things that your immune system successfully neutralizes are also not alive, so, to me, this felt a bit too broad of an analogy.

[@jesipohl6717]

i sincerely doubt large factory farms ability to be regulated.

[@CorinnePritchard]

Prion diseases are terrifying, but meatloaf is more so (it's not a huge thing in the UK). The 80s equivalent is probably the huge vats of beef mince and dumplings we were forced to eat at school. Since the 90s, spaghetti bolognese (horribly done, of course).

[@JamesMcCloskey]

Kind of glad I was raised vegetarian from birth...

[@DanteGabriel-lx9bq]

In life, I have 3 fears: 1. Dementia. 2. Karma. 3. Suffocating. Prions cause dememtia, and they're more common than people think, Alzheimer is the example.

[@shakeyj4523]

Alzheimer is not cause by Prions. Karma does not exist. Learn to swim, and don't put plastic bags over your head. There, two out of tree fears solved.

[@rridderbusch518]

Alzheimer's is caused by the human APOE gene. The riskiest is being a 4/4, the least is 2/3.

[@Marine_Veteran_Vegan_Gamer]

Karma? 😂😂😂

[@_Ben___]

There's new research suggesting alzheimers is auto immune. Waiting on more info.

[@kitefan1]

Where do you get Alzheimer's being caused by prions?

[@alyssedahlgren7955]

This absolutely upsets me. I love children and want them to enjoy life through play and academic learning.

[@Nealetony]

Nope prions and rabies are on my list of omfg, but my background is microbiology.

[@AroundTheBlockAgain]

I'm admittedly surprised at how long it takes to start affecting a person after consumption.

[@BillWalker-w4x]

You incorrectly ascribe ‘being dead or alive’ as a criterion for initiating the immunity system. It is the quality of Self or Non-Self that matters! And prions are seen as ‘Self’, hence no reaction.

[@kyststudio-epicartadventure]

I saw a report showing it can be killed, by heating it to 137 F, for a length of time. I don’t remember the length. Seems like such a low temp wouldn’t work but apparently it can unfold at that temperature.

[@QueerCoral]

Yeeeep. My aunt died of this in 2020, right before the pandemic hit in the US. She was dead within a month.

[@shawnholbrook7278]

When I was a little kid, my family was in England in the late 70's . I don't think I have mad cow disease. But, it was always a concern.

[@ShutterShadeChicka]

I listen to the Let’s Learn Everything pod and got 22 seconds in before going “is that Tom Lum??” 😂

[@leoveenman3674]

In the early 70ies a course leader of ours was telling us students that this was going to happen.

[@amykendrat1701]

Let's keep Tom!

[@benmcreynolds8581]

Prions are truly one of the most terrifying things that i have ever learned about.. For us to just learn that misfolded proteins can cause a run away effect within your body and they do all this in a pretty hidden manner.. Just sounds like some kind of nightmare. Some might not know until years after being exposed..You would think this would be a more talked about thing? It's the trippiest thing ever and I wish we had ways to learn more about this stuff as well as to learn more about dementia..

[@skybluskyblueify]

Besides, teen brains are changing in major ways until their mid ~20s+. Brains always change, you cant learn without brain change[physical], but seems to me that the body could put it in their brain since so much is going on at the time period. Scary.

[@mentalmotherof2219]

The narrator of this video reminds me of a hyperactive child

[@therongjr]

Like delayed-reaction, slow motion rabies

[@KeiFlox]

Would love to see a video on kuru, another prion disease.

[@geldoku]

Another name for the same disease

[@KeiFlox]

@@geldoku Kuru is caused by eating human brains, not cow brains.

[@betasloth]

Holy cow. Those prions must have some serious beef to be so persistent.

[@chiedzawith2ds]

So Mad Cow Disease is also coz of cannabilsm. A major problem with human cannabilism is prion diseases.

[@Christopher-b1p]

It's more likely.to cause problems in future generations with DNA abnormalities. There's a tribe near Australia that used to eat their dead, as a kind of religious ritual. They all developed problems.

[@robochelle]

So what is the M cell doing, or not doing, that a lack of it makes one immune to prions? Is it due to the lack of exposing the prion to immune cells, to letting the prions pass through the gut unimpeded, or due to not allowing any nutrients (including prions) through the gut?

[@terryenby2304]

As a Brit, this is a genuine fear. But like… I’m still more likely to die falling out of bed tomorrow 🤷🏻

[@_Ben___]

"Can be caused by eating a cheeseburger".... mmmm worth it.

[@AECRADIO1]

With BACON!

[@AlanChunkyMunky]

Ooooof i remember being ultra frightened and paranoid about Mad cow as a kid. It’s a perpetual fear that lives in the back of my mind. Hopefully it’s just fear and not… you know

[@missblizzard48]

Devil: Come on! Just let me create one disease! God: Oh for pete's sake, fine! Devil: Jackpot.

[@BoyProdigyX]

I guess SciShow has officially decided viruses ARE alive then, inferred by saying our immune systems jump into action to "kill" them (unlike a rogue, misfolded protein)? They should probably do an update episode to clarify the "Is It Or Isn't It" episode from a few years back… it was riddled with ambivalence. I'm glad to hear they've officially put that to rest. 🙄

[@colleenorourke6934]

Me reading the title as a high school teacher: ".......Yep."

[@Threetails]

Does red cross still ban people who ate beef in Europe in the 80s? I know for a long time I couldn't donate blood.

[@mihalydozsa2254]

Can't wait for modified version that makes people smart 😀

[@halfdeadedlifereturningwit3420]

Because I was stationed in Germany early 80s, I can't donate blood. Found out during a Red Cross blood drive in 2004.

[@DIYmanicpixiedreamGUY]

I can't give blood because I was born in Italy in the 90's and I guess there's concern about being a dormant carrier. You'd think they'd have figured out a way to test for that at this point

[@just_kos99]

I was in England in March 1996. I've always wondered if I could donate blood because of that.

[@QuantumMindfuck]

In Canada they recently lifted the restriction on those who lived in the UK or Europe during the mad cow era - might be worth checking if your country has lifted the ban too

[@shakeyj4523]

If you are in the US, they lifted that ban about two years ago. Double check, but you should be able to give blood now.

[@MsPassas96]

​@@just_kos99In portugal you couldnt.

[@DIYmanicpixiedreamGUY]

@@shakeyj4523 Great 👍 I'll look into that

[@jet96]

You can catch it by unnecessarily eating the flesh of another sentient being

[@ericmaclaurin8525]

Sentience has exactly ZERO impact and using the word "unnecessarily" is even worse since you never have to eat a sentient creature and having to or not has no impact at all.

[@jet96]

@ the only way to catch mad cow disease is from eating the flesh of an infected cow. Cows are sentient beings just like dogs, cats, and humans having distinct personalities and the ability to experience joy and suffering and the desire to live. Humans do not require animal flesh to survive or thrive. Therefore, mad cow disease is caused by unnecessarily consuming the flesh of sentient beings. I can’t tell if you are agreeing with me or disagreeing with me but nothing I said is even remotely controversial. Are you confused?