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Brain Trust: The Hidden Connection Between Mad Cow and Misdiagnosed Alzheimer's Disease (Hardcover)

by Colm A. Kelleher (Author) "During the spring of 2003, in the small town of Goldendale, Washington, the deputy sheriff, a patrolman, and a veterinarian faced something they had never..." (more)
Key Phrases: United States, New Guinea, United Kingdom (more...)

4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Review
George Knapp, Emmy Award-winning journalist

Anyone who thinks the meat on their plate is safe is living in a fantasy world. When the public sees this book, there will be hell to pay.

Product Description
When the cattle-borne sickness known as Mad Cow Disease first appeared in America in 2003, authorities were quick to assure the nation that the outbreak was isolated, quarantined, and posed absolutely no danger to the general public.

What we were not told was that the origins of the sickness may already have been here and suspected for a quarter of a century.

This illuminating exposé of the threat to our nation's health reveals for the first time how Mad Cow Disease (a.k.a. Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) has jumped species, infecting humans in the form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), and may be hidden in the enormous increase in the number of Alzheimer's cases since 1979.

Detailing the history and biology of Mad Cow Disease, Brain Trust discloses how an investigation into the mysterious deaths in a group of cannibals in a remote part of the world evolved into a research program in the United States that may have had unforeseen and frightening consequences.

The shocking questions examined include:

• Have millions of Americans already been exposed to the prions known to cause Mad Cow Disease through years of eating tainted beef?

• Does the epidemic of prion disease spreading like wildfire through the nation's deer and elk pose a threat to hunters and venison eaters?

• Are the cattle mutilations discovered in the last 30 years part of a covert, illegal sampling program designed to learn how far the deadly prions have spread throughout the nation's livestock and beef products?

Exposing the devastating truth about Mad Cow Disease and a new theory of the possible consequences of a little-known government research program and the potential national health catastrophe that may be the result, Brain Trust inoculates Americans with an effective cure: the truth.

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Product Details

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Paraview Pocket Books (October 19, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0743499352
ISBN-13: 978-0743499354
Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces

Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #468,763 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category: (What's this?)
#85 in Books > Health, Mind & Body > Personal Health > Stress > Mind-Body Connection

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
During the spring of 2003, in the small town of Goldendale, Washington, the deputy sheriff, a patrolman, and a veterinarian faced something they had never seen before. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, New Guinea, United Kingdom, Richard Marsh, Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture, New Jersey, New Mexico, Colorado State University, North America, The Times, Carleton Gajdusek, The Lancet, South Dakota, Beryl Rimmer, Nobel Prize, Sir Richard Southwood, Washington State, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Steve Mitchell, The New York Times, Tony Andrews, White Sands, World War, Fort Detrick

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 15 books:

Laughing Death: The Untold Story of Kuru by Vincent Zigas on 4 pages
Mute Evidence by Ian Summers in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
Deadly Feasts: The "Prion" Controversy and the Public's Health by Richard Rhodes in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
Department of Agriculture: Forest Service: [Hc]: [1992-93]: House of Commons Papers: [1992-93] by Great Britain on page 284
The Daily Mirror by David Lehman in Back Matter

See all 15 books this book cites

Books on Related Topics (learn more)

Deadly Feasts by Richard Rhodes

Discusses:

Prion Biology and Diseases by Stanley B. Prusiner

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Customer Reviews

19 Reviews

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4.4 out of 5 stars (19 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As a neurologist, I found it frightening, November 21, 2004

By	Stephen Wong (Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews

As a trained neurologist working at a school of medicine, I thought I had a fairly good understanding of BSE and its human counterpart, nvCJD. But clinical knowledge is only one piece of the puzzle.

Drawing upon epidemiologic, forensic, political, medical, scientific, and historical sources, the author has provided a truly chilling account of the importation of prion disease samples from the small cannabalistic Fore tribe in New Guinea for U.S. animal experimentation in the 1950's and '60's, with credible links to the current epidemic of animal prion disease in North America (CWD or chronic wasting disease, TME or transmissible mink encephalopathy, and BSE), as well as the current epidemic of Alzheimer's disease in developed countries (i.e., those eating mass-produced livestock). The author also speculates that the cattle mutiliations in North America in the past few decades may have been programs designed for the surveillance of prions within the nation's food supply.

Some disturbing points made in the book are:

1) 5 - 13% of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) cases that go to autopsy at university medical centers is actually misdiagnosed sporadic CJD (ref: Manuelidis, J. Pathology 1989), alarming since AD is so common and on the rise.
2) BSE, when transmitted to mice, cause neuropathological findings of nvCJD, but surprisingly, may also cause changes indistinguishable from sporadic CJD (ref: Collinge, EMBO Journal 2002 & Science 11/04)... in combination with the above, the implication is that a significant proportion of clinical AD may be due to BSE.
3) CWD (chronic wasting disease), a prion disease of wild animals such as deer and elk, has been spreading rapidly within the past few decades in North America.
4) If infected animals graze on a pasture, that pasture remains infectious to new animals for years... meaning that the disease will be difficult to contain, to say the least.
5) The "species barrier" is weaker than it sounds, i.e., most mammals and birds can contract it from each other.

Working in a complex medical system, it's all too familiar to me the fact that families do not pursue post-mortems, diagnoses are not considered, and tests are never 100% reliable. The extra pecautions and higher risk are hindrances to autopsying a patient clinically diagnosed with CJD. Knowing the foibles of human nature, it is almost certain that enormous economic incentives for cattle ranchers and various government agencies have contributed to underreporting and underestimation the potential severity of the problem... which is a shame given that we have the benefit of having observed the same public health fiasco in the UK.

It is common dogma that sporadic CJD is not related to nvCJD or BSE, but that statement may be mistaken in light of more current research such as the type cited in the book. I hope that if awareness is promoted via reading this book, suspicion and surveillance for the disease among veterinarians and physicians will increase, and a more accurate picture of the situation will be revealed.

As for the book itself, it appears well-researched with references appearing in a detailed appendix. The strength of the work is how the seamless argument is woven together in a highly readable fashion, making it accessible to all. It reads like a first-rate thriller and is hard to put down. I read it in two sittings over a weekend.

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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read!, November 17, 2004

By	C. Wong "www.organicfamilymagazine.com" (Connecticut, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Brain Trust has all the makings of a good horror novel. There are many deaths, cover-ups and even cannibalism. The only problem is that it was NOT a work of fiction by Stephen King. It is the horror story of how Mad Cow disease came to be discovered. This terrifying tale begins with researchers in Papua New Guinea studying the Fore people and the illness they were succumbing to called Kuru.

The story unfolds over five decades and reveals the scary details of the spreading disease and the stark reality of how unsafe our food supply is. I distinctly remember the first time I heard about prions and it scared me terribly with good reason. Prions are not a virus or bacteria, but a protein with an odd shape that can apparently multiply and are zoonotic (passed between species).

This book covers the history of how the various forms of prion disease (scrapie in sheep, chronic wasting disease in wildlife like deer, bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cows, and Creuztfeldt-Jakob disease in humans) came to be known. Included are the stories of the researchers, what is known to this point, and how it is spread including the details of the outbreak in England. We would be wise to heed to warnings of this book, in light of the recent confirmed case of mad cow in the U.S. The author also makes the link between misdiagnosed Alzheimer's disease and Creuztfeldt-Jakob disease.

This book beautifully written and reads like a thrilling mystery, but is much more scary because it is real. I commend the Dr. Kelleher for his research on this topic and providing citizens with this overview. This is a must read for anyone concerned about the politics and safety of food.

C.J. Wong, M.S.(Biology), M.S. (Lib. Info. Sci.)
Editor, Organic Family Magazine

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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yikes! This is Frightening, January 4, 2005

By	D. Buxman "A Seeker of Truth" (Pueblo, CO United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This book has caused me to re-examine my thinking about eating non-organic meat. First of all, let me state that I am not a vegetarian and, having been raised on a farm, have always been a beef eater. However, this book's analysis of the possiblity of a prion-tainted meat supply has caused me to explore other options to store purchased meat. While much of the evidence is anectdotal, it is compelling nonetheless. The author looks at brain wasting diseases among humans in New Guinea, sheep and cattle in Britain and deer and elk in America. He demonstrates a potential link between Mad Cow-like illnesses and the increase in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease in the United States, and has an interesting theory on outbreaks of cattle mutilations. Given the fact that these brain wasting diseases can take years to manifest themselves and that we are relying on a testing scheme by the USDA that covers less than one percent of the beef supply, it seems prudent to look for alternatives and press for more safeguards. The author points out that by turning herbivore cattle into cannibals by feeding them rendered beef byproducts as a low cost protein source, we may be responsible for an epidemic of Biblical proportions. I couldn't put this book down.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Emotion not science
Will being a vegetarian make you healthier? - Yes.
Will using an emotional argument to claim prions in meat is the cause of the majority of dementia be well recieved? Read more

Published 16 months ago by G. Porat

5.0 out of 5 stars Brain Trust
This is an excellent book and I believe it is an important book for anyone that wants to learn about the meat industry, health, and the government that is supposed to make sure... Read more

Published 17 months ago

5.0 out of 5 stars Great insight into prion disease
This was a great story as well as being enlightening. The last few chapters were a little bit noisy and not as refined as the rest of the book. Read more

Published 22 months ago by Matthew Stokes

2.0 out of 5 stars Not very original, not very well-written
The majority of what's in this book appears to be a rather poor retelling of things wriiten by other authors. Read more

Published 23 months ago by Redmond Geek

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Research...Few Questions though
This is a very well researched and extremely convincing book showing how our nations food supply (and overall wildlife) may have been compromised with an Infectious Protien... Read more

Published on April 21, 2006 by Phil Commander

5.0 out of 5 stars Please Pass the Kuru Burger
Whoa! This scientist has written a story that builds with suspense worthy of Hitchcock. If you dine on this planet you will want to know about this. Read more

Published on September 25, 2005 by Michael Brady

5.0 out of 5 stars damned convincing.
I'm a pretty hard-core skeptic but this book flipped me out. I expected something wild but it appears to be well-documented and convincing -- lots of references and details... Read more

Published on April 7, 2005 by Thomas W. Ritchford

5.0 out of 5 stars Every Mother Needs To Read This!
To take care of one's family, to provide healthy and safe meals, and to be conscious of the eating choices of your children is all part of being a mom. Read more

Published on February 11, 2005 by Erinellene Dayl

4.0 out of 5 stars It got my attention!
Most of us know someone who has suffered from Alzhiemer's Disease. Alziemer's disease, especially early adult onset (Alzeimer's disease that occurs in people before the age of... Read more

Published on December 31, 2004 by Teri Shors

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating story
Reading Colm Kelleher's book was like reading a real-life detective novel. It begins with the story of a bizarre disease found among indigenous people in Papua New Guinea and the... Read more

Published on December 13, 2004 by E. Cull

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