Occupational associations with MS continue to suggest a substantial role
for environmental factors. There have been few studies of MS by
occupation (Amaducci, Arfaioli, Inzitari, and Ivlarchi 1985; Murrell 1988;
Murrell and Matthews 1990). They identify a raised risk for leather
workers. The most recent study identifies a range of occupations in the
UK with -significantly raised SMRS, which are represented schematically
in figure 3. These trends were not the same for carcinoma of the colon or
ischaemic heart disease. In this study wives of farm managers and farm
workers appeared to be at greater risk than wives of butchers and
meatcutters and, although some of the data is based on low case numbers,
it is the overall trend and direction of the findings that is important.
Increased contact with a farm or raw farm products could fit with the
mathematical models of MS proposed by Alter, Loewenson and Horshe
(1973) in those communities reporting high prevalence.
An example of
such a deduction is the farm contact histories reported in the earlier
association of MS with distemper of dogs in Iceland reported by Cook,
Gudmundson, Benediks and Dowling (1980), although the distemper and
dog ownership hypothesis is now thought unlikely in the aetiology of MS
(Krakowa, Read, Nassim, Smith, Patterson and Warlow 198@; Miele,
Mathes and Matzier 1983). In one twin st udy by Bolsowick, Kurtzke,
Brody, Hrubic and Gillespie (1978), contact with farm animals was found
to be a significant environmental variable. The outbreak of MS in
laboratory workers involved with research with brains from sheep dying
from swayback by Campbell, Daniel, Porter, Russell, Smith and Innes
(1947) is particularly interesting and relevant to this notion, especially
now that confirmation has been updated (Dean, McDougall and Elian
1985), and the fact that swayback itself is due to a copper deficiency.[/
and here's another tidbit:
On the Internet, I discovered the National Center for Home Food Preservation’s site which reassured me that the, "controversy [surrounding] the use of nitrite ... has been settled and all sausage products produced using nitrite have been shown to be free of the known carcinogens." However, I also discovered a Reuters Health report about a study linking an increased risk of developing Multiple Sclerosis in people who ate certain types of smoked sausage in childhood.
The nitrites, a preservative, are not the problem -- but rather how the nitrates react with the phenols produced when sausage is smoked. So it’s a good thing I prefer fresh, undried sausage to cured. I can eat all I want and just forget about the nitrate issue.
and this is particularly interesting (and disgusting!)
...studies of exposed occupational groups are more
rewarding and frequently the preferred method used to identify or
detect such risks, because occupational exposures are additional to
those engendered in the general population and are substantially
higher, and therefore much easier to detect any associated risks. It is
therefore proposed that any potential health risk posed by the myriad
of biological agents present in food animals to human health could
also be investigated by studying exposed workers in the meat industry.
There is a well-defined exposure gradient among these workers, the
highest exposure occurring in slaughterhouses, with much lower
exposures expected in workers in the meat department of supermarkets
or canned meat industries. Meat workers have the highest human
exposure to these transmissible agents, because for example in a
typical large abattoir, they may come into contact with hundreds or
several thousands of animals that are slaughtered daily. Also, contact
with the animals is very intimate involving contact with secretions,
blood and other body fluids, droppings, and internal organs. Moreover,
abrasions and cuts from piercing wounds from sharp bone splinters and knives, and breaches in the skin from dermatitis due to contact
with irritant enzymes are frequent, making it easy for agents to enter
directly into the circulatory system. Power saws used on large
carcasses, slicing, mixing, mincing and tenderizing machines, falls
from slippery floors, and burns and scalds from the use of steamheated
fat-rendering vessels, are all further sources of injury that
facilitate entry of agents into the body and make the industry one of
the most dangerous of all industries (Copplestone & Kaplan, 1972;
Antonev et al, 1978; Women’s Occupational Health Resource Center,
1979). Aerosol transmission occurs continuously (Harris et al, 1962;
Rahkio & Korkeala, 1997), and exposure can even occur through
ingestion (for example, it is not uncommon for workers in the kill
floor in cattle abattoirs to drink blood from the animals. No other
human group has such potential for high exposure to these
... Cattle, pigs, sheep and poultry are provide the main source of food for the vast majority of mankind, and they are naturally infected with a plethora of transmissible agents that include prions, viruses, bacteria, protozoa, etc., that are known to cause disease in these animals, including cancer and neurologic diseases.
...Transmissible agents also cause an inestimable variety of nonmalignant
diseases in cattle, pigs, sheep and poultry, which are welldescribed
in standard veterinary textbooks.
... Some of these agents cause acute or latent disease of the nervous
system in animals with associated disturbances in gait, loss of
consciousness, paralysis, tremors, seizures, coma, and depression.
... Multiple sclerosis developed in four out of seven research workers
exposed to lambs affected by the swayback, a disease of the central
nervous system in sheep (Dean et al, 1985). Suspected cases of
congenital myasthenia gravis were recently diagnosed for the first time
in cattle (Thompson, 1998). These examples raise the possibility that
many of the neurologic diseases in humans presently of unknown
etiology, such as multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou
Gehrig’s disease), Alzheimer’s disease, and some forms of
Parkinson’s disease may well be due to zoonotic infectious agents
originating from these animals.
most interesting! but it sounds like you have to be exposed to raw brains on a regular basis to be in danger, and you can get purines from lots of non meat sources if it's a major concern. or just take the inosine capsule. also, i was a vegan for 15 years before i came down with this thing so it can't all be from animals!
and now please excuse this but i'm going to climb way out to the very skinniest end of a random and sketchy limb while thinking about the HepA vaccine that preceded my initial attack event:
A method for producing novel African Green Monkey Kidney (AGMK) cell lines is taught. These cell lines which are free of viable adventitious microbial agents are useful as substrates for viruses and for the preparation of viral vaccines.
What is claimed is:
1. A method of producing a vaccine for a virus selected from the group consisting of rotaviruses, enteroviruses, polioviruses, respiratory viruses, and hepatitis A viruses comprising the steps of:
(i) producing said virus using a cell line isolated from the kidney of an African Green Monkey, which cell line is substantially free of viable adventitious microbial agents and is able to support the growth of rotaviruses, astroviruses, enteroviruses, polioviruses, respiratory viruses, and hepatitis A viruses, by a method comprising:
(a) inoculating said cell line with an inoculum of said virus;
(b) incubating said inoculated cell line to permit proliferation of said virus; and
(c) harvesting the virus resulting from step (c); and
(ii) preparing a vaccine from the harvested virus.