For many years I have been fearful about the potential of disease caused by prions. Prions are like a medical science fiction writers nightmare. They are way smaller than bacteria, smaller even than viruses and contagious. They are also passed on genetically. They are too small to easily identify. Long ago I used to tell people that the UCSF researcher who discovered them would win the Nobel Prize for his discovery. Foolishly perhaps, I neglected to place a bet. He did win the Nobel Prize and we now have Mad Cow Disease. I am afraid that there will be other prion-induced disease or maybe there already are ones that we don't recognize.
Scary huh?
Mad Cow Disease (medically we call it bovine spongiform encephalopathy - BSE) has now been identified in most countries of western Europe. This disease is transmitted through eating contaminated meat. The disease takes years to develop so no one who has lived in Britain since the late 1980's, regardless of the present health condition, is allowed to donate blood in the US. The US bans importation of beef and bone meal from British cows. Bone meal has been identified as the source of the spreading European epidemic. The US continues to import other bovine products including milk, blood, fat, gelatin, bone mineral extracts, collagen etc. The most heavily prion contaminated parts of the animals are nervous tissue (brain, spinal cord) and digestive tract.
European scientists believe that infectious prions do not appear in cattle until they are over 30 months of age. The older the animal the more infectious they are. All meat from cattle older than 30 months must be destroyed unless the brain tissue has been tested free of BSE. In France they test 20,000 slaughtered animals every day. The animals must be killed to be tested.
The problem has risen essentially from cannibalism. The first disease now known to be caused by prions was Creutzfeld-Jacob disease which is a brain disease among South Pacific peoples who practice cannibalism. Animals that eat their own species - now resulting from modern feeding practices, give rise to these diseases.
I am concerned about farm raised salmon as they are commonly fed fish meal. Whole Foods recently told my wife the salmon they were selling was wild. I asked her to confirm and they told her it was farm raised but "our producers give them organic feed". I asked to see the feed contents - It was a Monsanto product (not exactly organic huh) containing "fish meal".
I am concerned about chondroitin as it is usually produced from beef trachea.
I am concerned about calcium supplements containing "bone meal" or hydroxyapitate (also derived from bone meal).
I am concerned about glandular extracts used as dietary supplements. In the past I contacted Phytopharmica, a company who sells these extracts. They told me "we test for all diseases". This was disturbing as there was no commercially available test at that time. Today they told me they are concerned so they import animal products from South America and New Zealand wh ere this disease has never (YET I fear) been identified. I also called Standard Process who having been making glandulars longer than anyone I know of but I haven't heard back from them.
What about other diseases? Could other mysterious diseases have prion origins? We just don't know. I think we are just starting to see beyond the tip of the ice berg.
I think you can now understand why I am concerned. I am sorry if this frightens you but you need to know. Glucosamine is good. Wild Pacific salmon is great. Calcium citrate or malate is fine. I even eat farm raised salmon occassionally. However, it is hard to use the fork with my fingers crossed.
Best Michael Carlston, M.D.
Friday, January 26, 2001 11:33 AM
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