Policy Reforms Can Save Lives
Editor’s Note: In April 2019, Dr. Stanley Prusiner published conclusive evidence that Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease are forms of prion disease. The implications are far-reaching. It impacts 50-100 million victims around the world, their family, friends and caregivers. It’s time to reform policies and practices on many fronts to protect public health and animal health.
Neurodegenerative disease and autism (a neurodevelopmental disease) have been surging around the world for the past 30 years. A man-made environmental disaster is creating a public health disaster that’s still unfolding in many ways in most nations.
Neurotoxins are driving the epidemic more than age–in some countries more than others. Teenagers are now dying of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease–the most severe form of brain wasting disease. Children are contracting autism at an escalating rate and at an uneven rate, which points to environmental factors. The pattern reflects human exposure to environmental toxins. There also is a pattern of mismanagement and denial around the world.
Alzheimer’s disease alone is taking the lives of 50-100 million people around the world now. As millions die, even more will be diagnosed. Millions more are suffering in silence with a misdiagnosis or no diagnosis. Misinformation and mismanagement are fanning the flames. Compounding the problem, the Alzheimer’s Association found that doctors have withheld millions of additional diagnoses. Coroners are keeping diagnoses off of millions of death certificates. Epidemiologists can only guess at the true size of the epidemic.
Despite millions of deaths, experts suggest that the prevalence of the disease will quadruple by 2050, if not sooner. Unfortunately, there is a growing stack of evidence that Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and other brain diseases are transmissible. There is zero evidence to the contrary. Victims also are being misdiagnosed and undiagnosed at an alarming rate.
A variety of factors can trigger neurodegenerative disease, including genetics, head trauma and neurotoxins. Deadly, self-replicating proteins appear to be one of those neurotoxins.
Prions (PREE-ons) are a deadly and unstoppable form of protein that migrates, mutates, multiplies and kills with unparalleled efficiency. Dr. Stanley Prusiner, an American neuroscientist from the University of California at San Francisco, coined the term as a contraction of proteinaceous infectious particle. The operative word is “infectious.”
Prions cause fatal neurodegenerative disease in humans and other animals by converting the cellular version of prion protein into a toxic form that erodes the brain and body. Prions migrate, mutate and multiply. They get stronger as they move up the food chain. At the top of the food chain, humans are highly vulnerable to prion disease. The prions shed from humans are the deadliest and most aggressive. Mismanaging human prions is a big mistake.
Dr. Prusiner earned a Nobel Prize in 1997 for discovering and characterizing prions and prion disease. President Obama awarded Prusiner the National Medal of Science in 2010 to recognize the importance of his research. Unfortunately, Prusiner’s science is being ignored and we all are facing a public health disaster because of the negligence and reckless disregard for public health.
Prions are a formidable threat. When the U.S. government enacted the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, it included a provision to halt research on infectious prions in all but two laboratories. It classified prions as select agents that pose an extreme risk to food, water and health systems. Unfortunately, the Center For Disease Control quietly took prions off the list about two years ago because the classification criminalized multi-billion dollar industries and many industry practices.
Prion disease is known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE). The operative word is “transmissible.” Prusiner claims that all forms of TSE are caused by infectious prions. Prion disease often is described as a wasting disease that causes a loss of body mass and brain mass.
TSE is a spectrum disease that varies in severity and symptoms. It depends on which region of the brain is impacted first and by what prion mutation. Few cases are identical in terms of symptoms and diagnoses. When the presenting symptom is memory loss, the diagnoses flow along the following chart.
In humans, the prion spectrum includes Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and an extremely aggressive version known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The difference between these diseases is very slight and often indistinguishable to neurologists. For example, millions of people have been told that they have Alzheimer’s disease, when, in reality, it’s CJD–where it’s clearly infectious.
“It is well known that CJD is transmissible via surgical or medical procedures involving prion-infected brain tissue. Our finding of infectious prions in skin is important since it not only raises concerns about the potential for disease transmission via common surgeries not involving the brain, but also suggests that skin biopsies and autopsies may enhance pre-mortem and post-mortem CJD diagnosis,” said Wenquan Zou, Associate Professor of Pathology and Neurology and Associate Director of the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. “The level of prion infectivity detected in CJD skin was surprisingly significant, but still much lower than that in CJD brains. Further investigation is necessary to determine whether extra precautions should be taken during non-neurosurgeries of CJD patients, especially when surgical instruments will be reused.”
Prion infectivity is highly concentrated in brain tissue, but it’s also in all bodily fluids and tissue. CJD transmission has occurred after patients were exposed to surgical tools previously contaminated by CJD victims. It’s also happening due to many other pathways.
According to neuroscientists Dr. Laura Manuelidis, at least 25 percent of Alzheimer’s disease diagnoses are actually CJD.
CJD, without dispute, is extremely infectious to caregivers and loved ones, but it has not been declared a reportable disease across the U.S. and many other nations.
Millions of cases of deadly CJD are being misdiagnosed as Alzheimer’s disease. Millions of patients and caregivers are being misinformed, misguided and exposed to an aggressive prion disease.
Prion disease is highly contagious, incurable and fatal. Despite all of the smoke and mirrors, prion disease is prion disease. It’s killing more and more mammals, including humans, every year. The hype about species barriers is ridiculous, reckless and irresponsible. Failure to quarantine CJD patients is negligent at best. Millions of people with prion disease have exposed us all to their infectious waste thanks to misinformation, mismanagement and negligence.
Meanwhile, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is likely a form of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy—prion disease. In most of these cases, the trauma was the change agent that caused prions to misfold and become toxic. Once the neurodegeneration of CTE begins, are these victims shedding infectious prions? Hopefully, prion researchers will fill in this very important blank. Again, families and caregivers need to know if they are dealing with a TSE.
Misinformed caregivers, family members, healthcare workers and others are caught in the crossfire of a deadly form of protein. In fact, few family members are warned about the infectious nature of CJD. Meanwhile, hospitals throw out surgical instruments used on such patients. Neurologists prefer not to touch or even be in the same room as a patient with CJD. The CJD Foundation and other advocacy organizations also remain mum on the risk of transmission. The CDC remains silent. Is this cone of silence at all levels incompetence, negligence or criminal misconduct?
Abnormal proteins also are associated with autism. In fact, it appears that age is the biggest difference between the neurodegenerative disease spectrum and autism spectrum disorders. Both spectrums share common environmental causes and pathologies. Plus, CJD is taking the lives of more and more young adults and adolescents.
In humans, most diagnoses are a process of elimination. The key difference is which region of the brain is attacked first and by which mutation of prion. Some prions now kill within weeks of showing clinical symptoms. Prions shed from humans are the most aggressive.
After eliminating all other diagnostic possibilities, the medical guesswork begins:
- If the patient has a memory disorder, it’s diagnosed as Alzheimer’s disease;
- If they have a movement disorder, it’s diagnosed as Parkinson’s disease;
- If the patient shows both symptoms, doctors flip a coin;
- If the patient ever had a concussion, it’s now ruled as CTE;
- If the person is incapacitated, it’s Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and very transmissible;
- If the victim is in the deer family, it’s chronic wasting disease instead of prion disease;
- If the victim is a beef or dairy cow, it’s called mad cow disease instead of prion disease;
- In other mammals, it’s called different things, but prion disease has been found in dolphins, elephants, mink, cats and many other species. The suggestion of a reliable species barrier against thousands, if not millions of mutations is ludicrous.
Prion disease causes memory loss, impaired coordination, and abnormal movements. Prion disease is incurable and fatal.
Prion Pathways
There are many sources and pathways for deadly prions. However, we can’t ignore the biggest pathways. The cruel irony of prion disease is that victims become part of the greater problem. As stated earlier, studies confirm that people and animals dying of prion disease contaminate the environment around them. Infectious prions are in the urine, feces, blood, skin, tissue, mucus and saliva of each victim. Infectious bodily fluids and tissue are contributing to the rapid spread of Alzheimer’s disease and other mutations of prion disease.
“There has been a resurgence of this sort of thinking, because there is now real evidence of the potential transmissibility of Alzheimer’s,” says Thomas Wiesniewski M.D. a prion and Alzheimer’s researcher at New York University School of Medicine. “In fact, this ability to transmit an abnormal conformation is probably a universal property of amyloid-forming proteins (prions).”
A study published in the journal Nature adds to the evidence about the transmissibility of Alzheimer’s disease between people. A second study by the same scientist in early 2016 supports the claim. Meanwhile, there is absolutely no evidence to the contrary. Even wildlife and sea mammals are contracting brain disease from people because of the dumping of infectious waste on farms, ranches and forests. Yes, research has found that plants/crops grown in infectious prions uptake those prions and become infectious. Growing food in sewage sludge (watch the video) makes the soil infectious and toxic.
Spouses of those with Alzheimer’s disease are 600 percent more likely to contract the disease, which is further evidence that the TSE spectrum is transmissible. Caregivers, family members and others are in harm’s way. The same goes for Parkinson’s disease.
Surgical instruments infected with prions, for example, are impossible to sterilize and hospitals throw them away. Meanwhile, caregivers and family members are not warned. CJD victims are not quarantined. They are sent home to die in many cases. Reckless.
Many factors are contributing to the epidemic. Prions are now the X factor. Industry and government are not accounting for prions or regulating them. They are ignoring the threat completely, which violates the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 in the United States. Other nations also are ignoring laws developed to protect food, air and water.
Prion Aversion and Containment
Aversion is the best defense against neurodegenerative disease. Therefore, please be aware about the following risks in your life. If the government won’t regulate and outlaw certain practices, you and your loved ones should at least be informed so that you can minimize prion risks in your life:
Dental Procedures: As stated above, when hospitals expose expensive surgical equipment to patients who have prion disease, they throw out the equipment. Dentist offices don’t even ask patients if they have neurological disease. They certainly don’t turn them away. As such, these dental patients are contaminating dental tools and offices with deadly prions. These tools and offices cannot be sterilized to neutralize prions. Every patient who subsequently follows the sick patient is exposed to a contaminated dental environment.
“I exposed my dentist and dental hygienist,” said Ryan, a 30-year-old father of two who fought prion disease for about a year before losing his battle. “The lady from the funeral home said that I should be quarantined. One of my nurses died because of me.”
In addition, dentists are implanting human bone tissue in your mouth before they give you that artificial tooth implant. Unfortunately, there is no way to assure you that the person who donated that bone didn’t die with, or from, neurodegenerative disease. Actor Peter Falk and others have had deadly encounters with neurodegenerative disease at the dental office.
Blood Transfusions: The blood supply is a huge concern for prion disease. Blood donors are not screened effectively, if at all. Many people are infectious, but don’t even know that they are sick, yet.
Organ Recipients: Organ donors are not screened effectively, if at all, for prion disease. Many people are infectious, but don’t even know that they are sick, yet. Organ donation and growth hormones harvested from cadavers have spread prion disease to healthy humans.
Gel Caps: Gel caps are derived from animal byproducts, including parts that are considered high-risk material for prion disease (bones, tendons and soft tissue). These parts are boiled and the proteins are shaped to become gel caps. Once these facilities are contaminated with prions, they become perpetual prion incubators and distributors.
Collagen: Collagen derived from animal byproducts, including parts that are considered high-risk material for prion disease (bones, tendons and soft tissue). These parts are boiled and the proteins are shaped to become gel caps. Once these facilities are contaminated with prions, they become perpetual prion incubators and distributors.
Homes and Offices: As stated before, people are infectious long before they develop clinical signs of neurodegenerative disease. They proceed to infect homes, offices and beyond with sneezes, coughs and utilizing dishes and utensils. Are you willing to bet your life on the coffee cup used by someone who has Alzheimer’s disease or who just died of CJD?
Spouses of those with Alzheimer’s disease are 600 percent more likely to contract the disease. Caregivers, family members and others are in harm’s way.
Hospitals and Clinics: Once contaminated always contaminated. It just takes one patient with CJD and this becomes a pathway. Avoid transfusions (from someone else—bank yours for you if possible) and transplants if possible.
Restaurants: Utensils and drinking dishes are your biggest concern. Take your own if possible.
Biosolids: Human waste and much more is being sold as fertilizer. Sewage sludge is infectious waste. It’s radioactive waste. It’s carcinogens, pharmaceuticals, heavy metals and more. Putting this deadly soup on crops is criminal. Unfortunately, the criminals at the U.S. EPA say biosolids and sewage in mulch is legal and safe, until recently. It’s killing mammals on land and at sea. It’s killing people. It’s contributing to chronic wasting disease and mad cow disease, too. The EPA recently admitted that it can’t assess the risks associated with sewage sludge and biosolids.
Prions incubate in many places, including sewage pipes and wastewater treatment plants. Wastewater treatment plants can’t detect or stop prions. Therefore, they ignore them. So does the EPA. So do various other government agencies around the world. Wastewater treatment plants are prion collectors, incubators and distributors and have been for many years.
Wastewater reclamation and reuse spreads prions back into our world, our watersheds and our food supplies. Prions from humans are the most aggressive and deadly mutations. Recycling them into our food, water and living environments creates even deadlier mutations. It’s a vicious circle that continues over and over again. Ignoring it will only make the epidemic and the resulting contamination worse.
The world produces about 1.9 billion tons of sewage sludge every year. It all should be dumped into lined landfills. It’s time to stop growing our food in this toxic soup of infectious waste, carcinogens, nerve agents and endocrine disruptors. Allowing rains and runoff to rinse these toxins into our rivers, streams, lakes and oceans is taking its toll on public health and marine life.
The EPA never conducted a legitimate risk assessment regarding the land application of sewage sludge. It never issued official policy. It issued something known to industry insiders as the “sludge rule” back in the 1990s. Furthermore, the fake risk assessments for biosolids and wastewater reclamation were prepared before the world of science knew about prions.
“Since it’s unlikely that the sewage treatment process can effectively stop prions, adopting measures to prevent the entry of prions into the sewer system is advisable,” said the Toronto Department of Health, November 2004.
According to prion researcher Joel Pedersen at the University of Wisconsin, prions in soil become up to 680 times more infectious. From there, they migrate, mutate and multiply. It’s a real world version of Pandora’s Lunchbox.
“Our results suggest that if prions enter municipal wastewater treatment systems, most of the agent would bond to sewage sludge, survive anaerobic digestion, and be present in treated biosolids,” Pedersen said. “Land application of biosolids containing prions represents a route for their unintentional introduction into the environment. Our results emphasize the importance of keeping prions out of municipal wastewater treatment systems.”
Ironically, this public health disaster began when global leaders realized that dumping sewage in our oceans killed entire underwater ecosystems and spoiled our beaches. Now, we’re told that sewage sludge should be rebranded as biosolids and sold as fertilizer. Good thinking. We’re still polluting our oceans with sewage. It’s just getting dumped in upstream. In fact, sewage sludge also is used to reclaim mines high in the mountains. In mine reclamation, it replaces one toxin with hundreds of other ones—including heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, carcinogens and prions. These mines are still contaminating surface water runoff. In other words, we’re spreading prions from mountaintops to the ocean’s depths just with mine reclamation that incorporates sewage sludge as a soil treatment (to cover heavy metals and acids).
Food labeled as organic should be sludge-free, but that doesn’t mean those crops are immune to these toxins in the air and water.
Reclaimed Wastewater: It’s the latest sensation sweeping the nations, but it’s based on fraudulent risk assessments. The greatest threat, prion disease, is unaccounted for in the risk assessments. Suffice it to say, bad idea.
Canaries In A Coalmine
Many forms of wildlife, including sea mammals, are vulnerable to prion disease. In sick deer, it’s being referred to as chronic wasting disease (CWD). Sick wildlife is serving as the proverbial canary in a coal mine. First, sick deer, elk, moose and reindeer are confirming that the human forms of neurodegenerative disease are transmissible. Norway’s reindeer are the best example.
Other mammals are contracting brain disease from infectious human waste when it’s dumped where they eat (land application of biosolids) and drink. These prions are making their way back into the human food chain.
Secondly, sick wildlife prove that there is not a species barrier when it comes to prions—especially the aggressive prions shed from humans. Sure, deer, elk and moose are getting prions from each other, but they are having prion disease injected into the herds with infectious waste from humans. Sewage sludge. Biosolids. Reclaimed wastewater.
My guess is that many of the game farms that are being affected by chronic wasting disease have had sewage sludge (biosolids) dumped on their farms in the past to make additional money. Unfortunately, this paydirt is death dirt. It’s infectious waste and much more. Wild deer are exposed to sewage when dumped on farms, ranches and in forests.
Sick cattle also are falling victim to human prions in sewage that’s being dumped on farms and ranches. Mad cow disease isn’t such a mystery. It’s the bovine form of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. A deadly prion is a deadly prion. The name game is just part of the smoke and mirrors being used to sweep this global prion epidemic under the rug.
Remember, there is no research to contradict or refute any of this prion theory. Answers begin with the truth. Prions + Pathways = Victims. Reforms are needed on many fronts around the world now. Please contact us to join our coalition.
