Thursday, May 19, 2016

Coprophagia, Pica, Dimentia

Here are two articles that appeared side-by-side in Medical Express today:

Brain scans of dementia patients with coprophagia showed neurodegeneration

Mouse study finds link between gut bacteria and neurogenesis

Anybody see where I'm going with this?

A couple quotes from these papers:

From the human study:
Brain scans of the six showed medial temporal lobe atrophy, including a part of the brain called the amygdala, had moderate to severe atrophy. The cause of degeneration was unknown, although one patient who had died with a brain autopsy showed a type of brain degeneration known as , Dr. Josephs says.

Additional behaviors were common in these patients, including scatolia (fecal smearing), hypersexuality, aggression and pica (eating objects of any kind).

And from the mouse paper:

Antibiotics strong enough to kill off gut bacteria can also stop the growth of new brain cells in the hippocampus, a section of the brain associated with memory, reports a study in mice published May 19 in Cell Reports. Researchers also uncovered a clue to why— a type of white blood cell seems to act as a communicator between the brain, the immune system, and the gut.  

Luckily, the adverse side effects of the antibiotics could be reversed. Mice who received probiotics or who exercised on a wheel after receiving antibiotics regained memory and neurogenesis. 


I think that our gut bugs try really hard to help us out, forcing us to eat our own feces, or crazy powders, in an attempt to restore balance. The usual cure, as stated in the human paper, is "Behavioral modifications, such as restrictive clothing and drug therapy with antiepileptics and antidepressants."

Did you know that eating crazy, non-food items like raw starch is also a considered a mental disease?

A Little Known Eating Disorder Is on the Rise

Some pica behaviors involve substances that are foods but are not usually eaten alone or in large quantities. For example, small amounts of cornstarch thicken gravies and fruit pies. People with amylophagia may eat two or three boxes of cornstarch a week. Ingesting one-half box or more of cornstarch daily releases enough sugar into the blood stream to send blood glucose levels rocketing...

Since pica is generally considered an obsessive-compulsive or addictive disorder, the services of a qualified psychologist or psychologist may be just what you need to help you combat your eating disorder and return to good mental and physical health.

Anybody else think there is a connection here?  Call me crazy, but maybe we need to promote the eating of certain starchy things, not commit people who crazily gobble raw starch.

Later!
Tim

14 comments:

  1. When I read the first report I thought yuk dementia patients eating their own feces. How can I see the link to gut bacteria? On reading the second report that while a fecal transplant will improve the gut bacteria, it doesn't seem to regenerate brain cells (which is desparately needed for dementia patients). What I am curious about is why do animals eat their own feces? I am assuming the animal are doing it to gain some nutrients or bacteria back in their system, that otherwise might get lost. It could be that with dementia patients their primitive instincts are coming into play, but that we are classifying as odd behaviour and so give them drugs to stop it.

    I think we should be more inquiring about why odd behaviour occurs, what is the body trying to tell us, instead of just ignoring it. I'm wondering whether feeding dementia patients plenty of raw starch may help them in some way. Who knows?

    Jo tB

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    1. Pregnant women get "demented" as well, craving all sorts of things. I believe that people eat things like corn starch and laundry soap because they do not know that there is a perfectly good source of what they need in raw potatoes, etc.

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  2. Naked mole rats eat each others' poop, and the live about 10 times longer than expected for mammals of their size. Also, they have very low levels of insulin in their bodies. They are as ugly as sin too.

    They're hardly low-carb, though: they munch on huge underground Africa tubers that they discover while digging their tunnels. Resistant starch!

    http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/aging-naked-mole-rats-offer-clues-longer-living/

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    1. I love NMRs! They are the only animal that never gets cancer. What can we learn from them?

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  3. I've been around animals all my life. Domestic (dogs, cats, cattle, horses, etc.) and wildlife (deer, coyotes, foxes) all exhibit "weird" behavior when ill such as fasting and coprophagia. A mule deer, a buck, known to have been sick was seen eating the fresh feces of its herd and shortly afterwards appeared cured of its malady. Though the comparison of human health and animal health can be tricky, perhaps a study of veterinary medical journals and articles would yield some interesting observations.

    James H.

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    1. There was a big "stink" last year because the results of gut flora studies using rodents were completely different if the animal was housed in a wire cage or glass cage. In the wire cage, the poop fell out. In the glass cages, the animals could eat their poop. Studies using rodents now must be standardized for coprophagia.

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  4. I must qualify for a straitjacket!

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    1. Wilbur

      Wait a minute. Do you qualify partially, or fully? Do you also, you know... how to say.. you know what I mean...?

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    2. Wilbur :

      First Rule : You do not talk about THE CLUB
      Second Rule : YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE CLUB

      And I believe the polite term for some of these behaviors is FMT.

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  5. Wilbur, ha, ha!! with all the resistant starch you are eating, your behaviour must be straight jacket worthy.

    Jo tB

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  6. I like the taste of raw potatoes, and also enjoy PS added to my starchy vegetables - potatoes, sweet and regular, and squashes so it becomes a bowl of paste. I wouldn't say I crave PS and raw potatoes the way I would crave delicious stuff I no longer eat, but the fact that I love this dinner, and do like the taste of raw potatoes could indicate my body needs it. Thanks so much for this info!

    Debbie

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  7. I have long suspected reasons for aggressive behaviour (by males) may be either a need for 'better' bacteria via intensive skin contact or getting rid of infected teeth... I have to admit that these ideas I got from looking at my own aggressive tendencies when I was younger. Does that make any sense?
    Warmest greetings from Austria!

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    1. Afterall we are just multicellular organisms driven by unseen forces. Sports, social events, and family reunions may be due to our microbial overlords desire to acquire new bacteria and fungi.

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