This morning, I have been doing some research in this area. It is my belief that Alzheimer's is an infectious disease. I believe it to be directly related to spongiform disease in animals and man and have expressed this thought many times in this thread. There is evidence in the literature to suggest this. My understanding is not based just on my study of the light we have been given regarding the connection between the disease in animals and man, but rather on both the inspired counsel we have and the scientific literature published.
Here is an excerpt from an exciting article that may help others to see the truth from my perspective:
Is AA amyloidosis in cheetahs a prion disease? The answer depends on whether AA amyloidosis in captive cheetahs is caused by spontaneous disease or transmission of amyloid between animals. Environmental influences on AA amyloidosis epidemiology could be due to the presence of either “infectious” amyloid, a prion-like etiology, or to factors that enhance the incidence of spontaneous disease, i.e., a non-prion etiology. Even if transfer of AA amyloid between cheetahs enhances AA amyloidosis, the question would remain as to whether the transferred amyloid initiates the disease de novo or merely accelerates ongoing disease. The latter scenario would place AA amyloidosis into a gray area with respect to the basic prion concept. In this instance, prion transmission would affect the kinetics of the disease without actually initiating it.
Regardless of prion semantics, there could be practical consequences of such kinetic phenomena in both animals and humans. For instance, recent studies have shown that injection of β-amyloid can enhance Alzheimer's-like amyloidosis in transgenic mice (14). This raises the possibility that inadvertent transfer of β-amyloid from one person to another could accelerate the neurodegenerative process to the point where it becomes Alzheimer's disease as opposed to normal aging. In this example, as well as in cheetah AA amyloidosis and many other protein misfolding diseases, the basic problem is likely the outpacing of an organism's protein quality control mechanisms. This may sometimes be more a problem of the rate, rather than of the instigation, of protein misfolding. sourceWhat we see here is that there are some that are beginning to believe that Alzheimer's may be infectious. And....that the infection source can be other "prion" type disease infected animals via feces or by ingestion of the carcass of the dead animal. And, it has been shown that milk is a vector for the transmission of some prion diseases.
When we consider that we have had Scrapie and Mad Cows for some time, it becomes a matter of how great is the risk from eating animal products? Well....if what I believe about the relationship between Alzheimer's and animal products is true, then one need merely count the cases of Alzheimer's. And, if that does not speak to risk, then consider that the numbers are increasing and is projected to continue to increase.
The threat of cancer from eating animals and their milk and eggs does not seem to concern some, but there are worse things to die from. The mind is a precious gift and when it begins to be eaten by CJD or affected by amyloid plaques it is a fearful thing. Better to prevent the disease.
