Cats Develop Dementia In a Similar Way To Humans (bbc.com) 71
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Experts at the University of Edinburgh carried out a post-mortem brain examination on 25 cats which had symptoms of dementia in life, including confusion, sleep disruption and an increase in vocalization. They found a build-up of amyloid-beta, a toxic protein and one of the defining features of Alzheimer's disease. The discovery has been hailed as a "perfect natural model for Alzheimer's" by scientists who believe it will help them explore new treatments for humans.
Dr Robert McGeachan, study lead from the University of Edinburgh's Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, said: "Dementia is a devastating disease -- whether it affects humans, cats, or dogs. Our findings highlight the striking similarities between feline dementia and Alzheimer's disease in people. This opens the door to exploring whether promising new treatments for human Alzheimer's disease could also help our ageing pets." [...]
Previously, researchers have studied genetically-modified rodents, although the species does not naturally suffer from dementia. "Because cats naturally develop these brain changes, they may also offer a more accurate model of the disease than traditional laboratory animals, ultimately benefiting both species and their caregivers," Dr McGeachan said. [...] Prof Danielle Gunn-Moore, an expert in feline medicine at the vet school, said the discovery could also help to understand and manage feline dementia. The findings have been published in the European Journal of Neuroscience.
Dr Robert McGeachan, study lead from the University of Edinburgh's Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, said: "Dementia is a devastating disease -- whether it affects humans, cats, or dogs. Our findings highlight the striking similarities between feline dementia and Alzheimer's disease in people. This opens the door to exploring whether promising new treatments for human Alzheimer's disease could also help our ageing pets." [...]
Previously, researchers have studied genetically-modified rodents, although the species does not naturally suffer from dementia. "Because cats naturally develop these brain changes, they may also offer a more accurate model of the disease than traditional laboratory animals, ultimately benefiting both species and their caregivers," Dr McGeachan said. [...] Prof Danielle Gunn-Moore, an expert in feline medicine at the vet school, said the discovery could also help to understand and manage feline dementia. The findings have been published in the European Journal of Neuroscience.
meets the bar (Score:5, Insightful)
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Only if they're over 80 (in cat years).
Re:meets the bar (Score:5, Funny)
When my cat gets a sudden urge to annex Greenland and Canada, I guess I'll know it's full onset dementia.
Re:meets the bar (Score:4, Interesting)
I know several ways to get rid of the monarchy in Canada. The easiest way would be for the Government of Canada to just say it wanted to do so. Done and done. Lots of other former commonwealth countries have done so, I believe the most recent is Barbados if you're curious. We keep it because it's cheaper than getting rid of it, and because constitutional monarchy works well for us.
Our Prime Minister is the head of government and runs things as they see fit, and while the King is our legal head of state, the role is primarily ceremonial (as opposed to say France where the President is the head of state, and is sometimes out of sync with the Prime Minister who is the head of government). Personally I do not want to change our government from a constitutional monarchy to a republic, and if it came to a plebiscite I would vote against it.
I look at the deadlock Americans end up with when the Senate and the House of Representatives are split between the D and the R and I think "No thanks." Our senate is appointed, supposedly in a non-partisan way (yeah right); but they basically never outright reject legislation from the house of commons, they only send it back for further consideration with comments; so we don't get that kind of deadlock. We do get minority governments that need to be propped up by a partner party; but this too I think is a good thing because it means compromise is required (though it does slow things down). Mind you, a republic like the USA could also in theory have a minority government if you had more than 2 parties actually winning seats (personally I think more than 2 parties would be a great thing for American democracy, but that's just me).
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It should be no surprise then that a significant proportion of the population would be quite fine if Toronto were to die in a fire. One day Quebec, or possibly Alberta will have enough and say we're
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Alberta wants to increase extraction and use of fossil fuels, and its politicians strongly imply that if anything is done to reign in emissions, they'll try to secede from the country. Alberta is one of the problems, not some sort of saintly jurisdiction. Its government is precisely the kind of institution which makes moronic arguments like "we need more pipelines to pay for the green economy."
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And here we go with the whole "we can't change, we just gotta keep going". You're precisely the example of the sheer unimaginable idiocy of humanity that I am talking about.
You're going to find out, like all of us, that the laws of physics don't give a flying fuck about your comforts, and will strip them from you without mind, thought or feeling. They are undeniable, unavoidable and they are our master.
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And here we go with the whole "we can't change, we just gotta keep going".
We are changing. It is going to take generations. Sorry, I'm just the messenger. You can believe me or not, makes no difference. Life goes on the same regardless.
You're going to find out, like all of us, that the laws of physics don't give a flying fuck about your comforts, and will strip them from you without mind, thought or feeling.
Government is a much bigger threat to my comforts than climate.
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We don't have generations, and if you think government is a bigger threat than climate change, then you demonstrate ever more the utter idiocy of humanity. You want a free pass for being a greedy idiot, but the universe doesn't care about ideology either. It's rather pathetic to watch someone try desperately to convince themselves they are immune from the physical forces of nature. Well, amusing and depressing, because people keep doing it.
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You want a free pass for being a greedy idiot, but the universe doesn't care about ideology either.
It's easy to preach from the comfort of Western society. Give that all up and you will have credibility, but otherwise buying an EV is not going to save the world. I prefer to simply not bother with the pretense, but apparently it still fools some people.
It's rather pathetic to watch someone try desperately to convince themselves they are immune from the physical forces of nature. Well, amusing and depressing, because people keep doing it.
I'm totally not immune. I'm going to die eventually like everyone else. Probably not from climate change. While I am here I am going to continue to try and enjoy life like most people, but by all means you do you.
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They don't really. Despite prime ministers accumulating more soft power in the last few decades they still depend on maintaining the confidence of parliament, which is itself fairly sensitive to public opinion. Lose that, or get too close to losing that, and you're gone, as Trudeau demonstrated most recently.
The nice thing about a ceremonial monarchy is that it fills the dangerous head of state position with someone nobody is remote
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You annex Greenland; you invade* Canada.
Depends on whether you have a sharpie and a world map or not. With those two at hand you can do either to either country.
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Your cat hasn't claimed your computer keyboard as it's soverein territory yet?
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Maybe it's Gen-X nostalgia but the 1990s was a golden age; cats snoozing atop Trinitron monitors.
I, for one, welcomed our new feline overlords.
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We can't rule out that some cats are just born stupid, or very poorly parented.
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Re:meets the bar (Score:5, Insightful)
And even if he did, he had the quiet and slightly confused version rather than the lashing out version. Plus he surrounded himself with skilled and knowledgable people who could take over if he was making really bad mistakes in his decisions - can you really say the same for the current president?
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Biden was almost certainly suffering senility given his age. But I've yet to hear anyone in any position of authority suggest he had dementia. That's pretty much an invented lie made by Trump supporters to disguise the fact Trump almost certainly does have dementia.
So yes, lies are apparently fine as long as they're in support of your candidate if you're a Republican.
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Considering I'm not American, then no. I did not religiously keep up with American politics. It's unavoidable now when even one of my country's largest TV stations keeps a daily blog called, "Overview of what Trump said during the night".
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You guys? I'm sorry, which group did I somehow join without noticing what I signed?
My cat went this way (Score:5, Informative)
Re: My cat went this way (Score:2)
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Re: My cat went this way (Score:4, Insightful)
I would not let it bother you. Cats are members of the family but they are not people. I am not saying that to belittle your cat or your feels for it. i myself love cats. I am saying to remind you they don't experience the world the same way we do.
A human feels shame and is embarrassed if they can't remember your name. A cat, probably not. I know at least one of my elderly cats probably had some degree of dementia. They are creatures of habit, a cat spends 16 years eating dinner at 7pm and suddenly isnt waiting by its bowl at 6:59, but will eat if shown food, has obliviously lost some faculty. He would also walk laps around the room sometimes as if he forgot how to get where he wanted to go in the house.
He would sit and stare into space too, startled easily but would always quickly calm down. He was also still doing things cats like to do , sitting in the sun, watching the wild life out the window, playing with toys, etc. At any rate I think he was still living a good life, if not as full of one as it had been. I don't regret that last year with him before renal failure set in and he could not longer eat and was clearly in pain, did not want to walk etc.
It sounds like you took care of your pet similarly and gave her all the good days she could have. I think you should feel good about that.
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... Cats are members of the family but they are not people. ,,
Cats are people. They're just not human people.
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and then howl loudly and repeatedly. It was heartbreaking.
I have a healthy young female cat who does that when she feels she didn't get enough attention from the humans. It is a heartbreaking cry similar to mating call. I'm not heartbroken at all because I know she's fine (she wants cuddles or playtime).
So now they're going to be raising cats... (Score:5, Insightful)
... to be dissected as research subjects?
Did a dog conduct this study?
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you are why Trump won - you like untested drugs? (Score:2, Insightful)
Anyone else think maybe we shouldn't be experimenting on animals? I've read a lot of studies too often how they're treated sounds inhumane. The mice get shipped in a fedex box, bounced around so much it traumatized the animals and messes up one study. Who knows maybe many of them? https://youtu.be/DOXTxpEZ_yw?t... [youtu.be] I don't feel strongly for or against mice, but it seems like basic morality is absent sometimes in science.
Did you think about this before you typed this? Either they test medicine on animals or they test it on you. Your statement lacks basic common sense. You didn't say "should they test on Animals more ethically?" Cruelty is cruelty, but if it requires being cruel to a rat, rabbit, or even a cat or dog vs a child, I am fine with it. That's fucking common sense. Is it gross? Yeah!!!! Should they be more cruel than they need to be?...absolutely not, but...what's even more cruel than vivsecting an elderl
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what's even more cruel than vivsecting an elderly cat after it's death?
Anyone who talks about vivisecting an animal after its death shouldn't be lecturing anyone on common sense. And if that didn't make sense to you, you should consult a dictionary.
Re: you are why Trump won - you like untested drug (Score:2)
Maron really said that? Wow talk about pot calling kettle black. I've listened to Maron for 10+ years and he's turned into one of those cunty liberals in the last 5 years.
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The mice get shipped in a fedex box, bounced around so much it traumatized the animals and messes up one study.
And yet these same animal rights activists reccommend that we all use public transportation.
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Anyone else think maybe we shouldn't be experimenting on animals?
Personally, I'd rather we had a perfect model of something that wasn't an animal or a human to experiment on.
We don't.
Is it humane to know there is a cure for something, animal or human, and decide not to seek a cure? To let them suffer with it?
I've read a lot of studies too often how they're treated sounds inhumane.
Setting a broken limb causes immense pain. Should we force people and animals to live with unset, unhealed broken bones? Some forms of cancer eat away at the body, also causing unimaginable pain with currently no hope for a cure. Yet many jurisdictions do not recogni
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I had a roommate in grad school who did animal research, on lambs, and lots of friends who did and do various kinds of animal research.
You couldn't be more wrong. Animals are very strongly protected, sometimes even more so than people because they cannot give informed consent. Those protections make animal research many, many times more expensive than it could be, but almost everybody who does it thinks it's worth it.
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Biology is at least two orders of magnitude more complex than watch assembly. I'm not sure what fantasy world you live in, in which you think that manual math simulations can be executed efficiently by any of the technology we've had for the past 600 years.
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Biology is at least two orders of magnitude more complex than watch assembly. I'm not sure what fantasy world you live in, in which you think that manual math simulations can be executed efficiently by any of the technology we've had for the past 600 years.
Obligatory xkcd. [xkcd.com]
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If it were the focus long ago would have been in establishing first principles and doing the math so that simulation would be possible.
Here [wikipedia.org] is a list of unsolved physics problems unsuited to current mathematical modeling.
"I, at any rate, am convinced that [God] does not throw dice" Albert Einstein
“Not only does God play dice but... he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen.” Stephen Hawking
"And they are loaded." - Me.
Lithium deficiency (Score:2)
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I see you have no reading comprehension of even the abstract you quoted. I'll quote it here for you but please note that it does saying nothing about curing dementia with Li supplements, it merely points out this might be promising avenue to attack the problem:
The earliest molecular changes in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are poorly understood1,2,3,4,5. Here we show that endogenous lithium (Li) is dynamically regulated in the brain and contributes to cognitive preservation during ageing. Of the metals we
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And yet, it does state that lithium injection treatments seem to be effective in reversing the symptoms of Alzheimer's. Not sure what important distinction you're trying to make here.
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And yet, it does state that lithium injection treatments seem to be effective in reversing the symptoms of Alzheimer's. Not sure what important distinction you're trying to make here.
Just a guess, but they may be referring to the distinction between a cure and a "potential approach" to treatment and prevention by preventing what "may be an early event in the pathogenesis of AD."
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Mice don't get Alzheimer's. If you engineer them correctly you can get mice that get something that kind of looks like it, in some ways. A particular lithium compound seemed to be effective at treating some of those Alzheimer's-like features, in a particular strain of mice, in one study.
That might translate to actually treating actual Alzheimer's in actual humans. Or it might not. Most of the time it doesn't. Which is why better models are so helpful.
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Now all we need to do is to figure out how to give a cat a lithium pill [nih.gov].
they're all crazy (Score:2)
Science confirms the crazy cat lady and her cats are all crazy.
Nature vs Environment (Score:5, Interesting)
From TFA:
The discovery has been hailed as a "perfect natural model for Alzheimer's"
and
"Because cats naturally develop these brain changes, they may also offer a more accurate model of the disease..."
It may be a "natural model", in that cats develop the same disease in a manner similar to that of humans. But I question the "naturally develop these brain changes" assertion.
Given the well-known association of diet and lifestyle with the development of human dementia - and given that most domestic cat food is processed crap which probably mimics the processed crap that humans eat - I'm wondering if feral cats who eat birds, rodents, and the like are significantly less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease.
It's great that we have cats in whom we can study Alzheimer's, with the aim of developing treatments for both felines and humans. But I think we should be looking more closely at possible causes. After all, preventing disease is better than treating it.
Then again, maybe feral cats simply don't live long enough to develop the disease...
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>"given that most domestic cat food is processed crap which probably mimics the processed crap that humans eat"
Actually, cat food has greatly improved in many ways over the decades. The price has certainly gotten ridiculous. Anyway, there are great debates about the best ideal diet for cats, and LOTS more choices now. One thing I learned, which was hard to "swallow" was that "meals" and "byproducts" can actually be a GOOD thing for them, because they evolved to eat some of that gross stuff. The most
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The most suspect are grains, legumes, and other carbohydrates.
Cereal grains were the suspects I had in mind - I didn't know until you mentioned it that legumes are now part of cat food.
Average lifespan in the wild for cats is much, much lower than for pets (between just 2 and 5 years). But that would be true for probably any animal, including humans.
Thanks for the insight. It makes me wonder - totally aside from diet-induced dementia - if some of us are doomed to have it just because of age. Maybe it's something which happens in certain species, regardless of diet or whatever equivalent of the APOE4 gene they might have.
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>"I didn't know until you mentioned it that legumes are now part of cat food."
Oh yes, this has been the latest "thing" for quite a number of years since "grains" were removed. They shifted to other, non-"grain" carbohydrates, especially peas. That did improve allergy issues with some cats, but is still questionable. Cats weren't designed to eat peas and chickpeas :)
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Looking up one of the most popular cat foods sold (Purina One) in this case specifically the Chicken and Rice version.
Indeed the stuff mentioned above seems to be the crap they put in it.
Ingredients that seem problematic to me:
- Rice flour
- Corn protein meal
- Whole grain wheat
- Soybean meal
- Mixed-tocopherols (preservative)
- Natural flavour (this is always where the most crap hides)
- Glycerin
- Dried chicory root
- Dried carrots
- Dried peas (as you mentioned above)
Indeed Cats are carnivorous and all that extr
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>"Looking up one of the most popular cat foods sold (Purina One) in this case specifically the Chicken and Rice version."
Well, I wouldn't consider that a premium brand (and believe me, they sell a LOT of premium stuff now). If you looked at those, especially ones that say "grain free" you won't typically see rice, corn, oats, or wheat. Some of what you listed isn't concerning:
- Mixed-tocopherols (preservative)
That is vitamin E
- Glycerin
That "should" be neutral
- Dried chicory root
Almost every cat food h
Develop? (Score:2)
You mean they've not born that way? :-)
Did someone with Tourette's Syndrome write this? (Score:2)