We discussed earlier in 2018 that certain traits in behaviour, risk taking, and emotive decision making may be adversely affected by the associated infection of a common feline protozoa called Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii). You may have nodded your head with a knowing smile reviewing the list of related symptoms and the known behaviour of certain others – not yourself obviously!
Now clearly there will have been several internal discussions following this revelation including …. does kitty go? Or even do people think of me as a crazy cat lady or man, and if so, do I have a cat, or many now or once upon a time? You see T.gondii is very good at remaining in you once infected and as such may then have a long time to mediate behaviour.
As the end of the year approaches, we wanted to be sure we searched for any counter research as ‘kittens are of course for life’, not something to discard once ‘crazy symptoms’ develop!
So if you are thinking of starting or expanding a cat relationship in the new year you will be pleased to learn that newish research in the journal Psychological Medicine suggests that you and your cat friends are just fine. Scientists from University College in London examined 6,705 adolescents and 4,676 young adults to see if early exposure to household feline companions contributed to the risk of developing psychotic episodes.
In what is the largest and best-controlled study to date, the researchers showed that those exposed to cats were at no increased risk of psychosis after controlling for several other variables (including ethnicity, social class, and dog ownership – to control for exposure to animal stool).
Naturally this does not mean that owning a cat is now a way of stating that any strange behaviour is not cat related, after all according to ReelSEO.com, a website about video marketing, there are more than two million cat videos on YouTube. People have watched these videos more than 25 billion times, which equates to an average of 12,000 views per cat video. Clearly there are some questions about psychological stability and cats amongst this participating audience!
We hope that this will mean you and your feline companion(s) can enjoy the festive season in greater harmony than before and if you have a relative, friend or neighbour that you still think may have a latent infection based on their behaviour, remember many papers have been found to be incorrect on review!
We would like to extend a big thank you to you for reading some or maybe all of the e news we send out each fortnight. We are having a break until the end of January and on behalf of all of us at Nutri-Link we wish you a healthy, happy and peaceful end of the year and a fabulous 2019.
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Damn! I really wanted to post a picture of my cat but I don’t think I can 🙁
Just want to wish Michael , Antony and their team for their commitment to all of us for relentlessly updating us and educating us in all sorts of manner especially those who are not able to physically attend seminars one way or the other. The webinars are brilliant and absolutely important to reach us even with our busy lives. Thank you !
Have a wonderful Christmas season and best wishes for the new year . Long may you continue to provide us with knowledge that otherwise we would have mussed. With every blessing.