Alzheimer’s Disease Vs Mad Cow Disease

Learn about amazing similarities between Alzheimer’s disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, the human form of mad cow disease.

In 2012 I’ve been finishing a post on Mad Cow Disease Fears in California and the indestructible prions that are believed to cause it, when I happened upon a TV program on the rising incidence of Alzheimer’s disease in the US.
In the context of my writing, I’ve become curious what causes Alzheimer’s disease. I was blown away when I learned that the cause of Alzheimer’s disease are also PRIONS!!!!!!!

After all that we’ve been told about heredity, arterial plaque and age-related dementia, it turns out that Alzheimer’s disease is caused by the same agent as mad cow disease?! It makes one wonder whether Alzheimer’s disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (the human version of mad cow disease), are two different and separate diseases. (To clarify, I don’t question the tragic reality of Alzheimer’s disease for its patients and their families. I have NO intention of disrespecting their plight or offending anyone. I wonder however whether Alzheimer’s disease is in fact a disease in its own right or may be – just, maybe – a late stage of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human version of mad cow disease, which can take decades before producing symptoms.)

Alzheimer’s disease was identified earlier than mad cow disease, how sure can we be however whether the human variant of mad cow disease (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) didn’t infect some people before the mad cow disease was actually identified? (The incubation period of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is lengthy. It can take years and even decades before it produces symptoms.)

Don’t you find it amazing that the same agent causes both diseases? Prions are indestructible. That’s why UK kept the ashes of infected and incinerated cows well-isolated from the public: even the ashes are still considered infectious. Shouldn’t the remains of Alzheimer’s disease victims be considered a public health threat, too?….

Mad cow disease was first identified in early 1980s. Alzheimer’s disease (even though it was first discovered in early 20th Century) wasn’t considered a serious disease in its own right until 1970s.

The symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease are not entirely different from those of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, both include depression, dementia and affected motor skills (Parkinson-like symptoms).

“Neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease is estimated to start 20-30 years before clinical onset.” (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease could be described the same way!)

Mad cow disease was first identified in the UK. This is an excerpt from the British Website http://alzheimers.org.uk:

• “There are currently 800,000 people with dementia in the UK.
• There are over 17,000 younger people with dementia in the UK.
• There are over 11,500 people with dementia from black and minority ethnic groups in the UK.
• There will be over a million people with dementia by 2021.
• Two thirds of people with dementia are women.
• The proportion of people with dementia doubles for every 5 year age group.
• One third of people over 95 have dementia.
• 60,000 deaths a year are directly attributable to dementia.
• Delaying the onset of dementia by 5 years would reduce deaths directly attributable to dementia by 30,000 a year.
• The financial cost of dementia to the UK will be over £23 billion in 2012.”

In the US, the situation is quite similar, while the mortality rates for breast cancer, heart disease, HIV/AIDS and stroke have all decreased in the past decade, Alzheimer’s disease deaths have risen 66 percent!

It has to be said that I’m NOT a physician, just a wellness coach and writer who by coincidence noticed strange similarities between two very serious diseases that have a similar cause, similar symptoms and similar outcome (neither is treatable nor curable) and dares to question their conventional – and separate – definitions. I might be wrong, but what if I’m not?