Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) was widely pulicized in the 1990s as the human form of the cow disease bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), which is contracted from eating contaminated beef. However, there are sporadic forms of CJD that can occur for unknown reasons – unrelated to eating meat. Now, researchers have found a new variant of this fatal disease that appears to advance faster, causing dementia and even the loss of ability to speak and move. It is yet unclear what the cause is, but scientists speculate that an interaction with a genetic component may be likely.
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Tags: beef, brain, bse, cjd, dementia, disease, meat
Dr. Steven Chang, the author of DailyDose, is a staff physician with Kosmix RightHealth. Dr. Chang practices Family Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center, where his medical interests include both pediatric and geriatric care, public health, gay and lesbian health, and sleep medicine. Dr. Chang trained at the Stanford University affiliated O'Connor Hospital, and was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health. He holds an M.D. from McGill University and a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.
December 18th, 2008 at 6:36 am
What is “new” about this? Sporadic CJD is extremely fast-moving, taking the ability to speak first and ending with involuntary spasms which kill the patient within 9 months.
It has long been linked to eating brains of deer, sheep, goats, or cows (and possibly squirrels) in whose populations it has always occurred randomly. It is also proved caused by exposure to blood or cerebrospinal fluid.
Read Richard Rhode’s “Deadly Feast” for an overview of all of the research, history and politics of this disease. He discusses that certain genes make some more susceptible to the disease but it is not genetic per se (with the exception of a very rare family form of the disease.)
December 18th, 2008 at 6:57 am
Dr. Perrott – thanks for the comment. I don’t claim to be an expert on this topic, so I will definitely check out the book! You are right, sporadic CJD is not new – it’s been known since the early 1900s. But, what I gather they are talking about is PSPr (protease-sensitive prionopathy) which may be sporadic, but differs from sporadic CJD in regards to the properties of the protein involved. They theorize a genetic link because the patients all had a family history of dementia even though they did not carry a gene mutation associated with genetic CJD.
December 18th, 2008 at 8:42 am
My father died with CJD in 1980, He was run over by a car when he was a child the had a brain injury. they say this is how he contacted the cjd. I was wondering if me and my brother are at risk of getting cjd, because of this
December 18th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Thank you for the information. We lost our mother to this disease. While it is true that she was in London during a time in the 1970’s when there was an outbreak of Mad Cow Disease, we also noted that she had had massive blood transfusions 50 years prior to her death. The CDC originally said they would do an autopsy to prove the diagnosis but then backed off after her death. I wonder if it is that they do not want the actual statistics known about CJD. I wonder if there are, in fact many more cases of it than we are aware.
December 18th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
My wife of 32 years died at the age of 52 of CJD, from the date of diagnosis to passing was 49 days. She was an RN and had eaten wild game in the early 70’s that had been hunted in Colorado. I fully believe that this wild game consumption was the source of the disease.
December 18th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Can taking supplements (adrenal cortex from bovine) or getting botox injections be a possible source of this disease.
December 19th, 2008 at 4:15 am
Cheryl – you and your brother are not at risk for CJD from this. There are forms of CJD that are genetic, which could increase your risk of getting it if that is, in fact, what your father had.
December 19th, 2008 at 4:22 am
Diane, Dan and Elizabeth- thank you for sharing your stories. There are likely more cases of CJD than we are keeping track of. This new variant of CJD is a good example. Because it is a difficult disease to study, we just don’t know as much about it as some diseases. It is a possibility that getting botox injections can transmit CJD, although I am not sure about bovine adrenal cortex supplements.
Botox and CJD: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2005/jan/29/health.medicineandhealth