this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2024
141 points (98.6% liked)

Health - Resources and discussion for everything health-related

2146 readers
212 users here now

Health: physical and mental, individual and public.

Discussions, issues, resources, news, everything.

See the pinned post for a long list of other communities dedicated to health or specific diagnoses. The list is continuously updated.

Nothing here shall be taken as medical or any other kind of professional advice.

Commercial advertising is considered spam and not allowed. If you're not sure, contact mods to ask beforehand.

Linked videos without original description context by OP to initiate healthy, constructive discussions will be removed.

Regular rules of lemmy.world apply. Be civil.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 9 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago (1 children)

God only knows what else it does. This, Herpes, and Epstein Barr need more research.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

It makes rodents lose fear of predators and become more likely to be eaten by a cat, which is where toxoplasmosis wants to live. It does this by literally changing the brain of the victim animal. Evidence is showing that the same effect happens in humans and we sometimes engage in riskier behavior as a result of infection.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

On a more serious note, some think it might cause schizophrenia.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41537-022-00292-2

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Apparently it makes men, but not women enjoy the smell of cat piss (it makes women enjoy cat piss less).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3210761/

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Toxoplasma can be picked up anywhere an infected cat has defecated, such as the litter box, sandbox, garden or yard.

Nice

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Luckily they only walk around in their toilet and get it all over their skin-piercingly sharp claws. Wait...no. The opposite of lucky.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's because it is a fight we are not willing to wage. If it were dogs it would be the same.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There are so many public health problems that we just ignore like this and it's fucking disgusting and terrifying