- (1) The number of deaths from Alzheimer's Disease has
increased by more than 9000% in North America since 1979. In 1979 only
653 people died from Alzheimer's Disease. By 2004, that number jumped to
60,000. About 5 million North Americans currently have Alzheimer's Disease.
- (2) A study from Yale University showed that approximately
5% of Alzheimer's Disease patients were incorrectly diagnosed. The patients
actually had Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (CJD). One variant of CJD is caused
by eating the beef from mad cows.
- (3) The infectious agents in mad cow disease, CJD, and
other wildlife brain wasting diseases are called 'prions' and are almost
indestructible. Normal sterilization of surgical instruments will not kill
them. Patients have died from procedures using prion-contaminated surgical
- (4) A September 2004 survey of pathologists in California
showed that more than 70% were reluctant to conduct autopsies on CJD patients,
fearing contamination of their instruments and facilities.
- (5) Toronto coroner Dr Murray Waldman has alleged that
many funeral homes do not embalm patients who have died from CJD, fearing
that their facilities will become contaminated with deadly prions. Waldman
also argues that there is a statistical link between eating red meat and
- (6) Prions can be transmitted in the blood supply. In
Europe, people have died after receiving blood from prion infected donors.
- (7) Veterinarian Dr Richard Marsh presented strong scientific
evidence that mad cow disease was already present in United States cattle
in the 1980s. His data were ignored.
- (8) In spite of assurances from the USDA that since 1997,
cows are no longer fed to cows in the US, several loopholes remain, even
in June 2005. It is still OK to feed cow blood to cows. Dead cows can also
be fed to chickens and chicken litter is then fed back to cows.
- (9) Several clusters of CJD have been reported in the
United States in the past decade. The Center for Disease Control (CDC)
has dismissed all of them as statistical flukes.
- (10) An epidemic of chronic wasting disease, also called
mad deer and mad elk disease, is currently spreading through the United
States. Since 2003, the disease has jumped from the epicenter in Colorado
to New Mexico, Utah, Wisconsin, and in 2005 it had reached New York State.
Every year eleven million hunters try to kill deer and elk and many of
them eat venison.
- (11) In 2002, a number of reports of young hunters dying
of brain wasting disease surfaced in the scientific literature, although
the CDC said the deaths of the hunters was not conclusively linked to eating
- (12) A 2004 letter to Science Magazine cited evidence
that flies could be vectors for transmitting prion disease.
- (13) On June 10, 2005, the USDA announced a possible
second case of mad cow disease in the United States. According to a June
10 Associated Press report quoting Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns:
"Johanns, former governor beef-producing Nebraska, said that there
was no health risk and that he intended "to enjoy a good steak."
The statement was reminiscent of then Agriculture Minister John Gummer
and his young daughter Cordelia consuming hamburgers on television in 1996
to assure an anxious British public that beef was perfectly safe. Shortly
afterwards, scores of young people began dying of human mad cow disease
in the UK.
- Colm A. Kelleher PhD is the author of Brain Trust: The
Hidden Connection Between Mad Cow and Misdiagnosed Alzheimer's. He is a
senior research scientist in the biotechnology sector. For more information,