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Today, we’re going to talk about toxoplasma.

Toxoplasma is a parasitic disease spread by cats.

Most people don’t realize that cats can carry diseases.

80% of people are thought to have toxoplasma.

Toxoplasma can radically alter testosterone levels with infection and human behavior.

And most people don’t even know that they have it.

That’s mostly because it’s not yet clear exactly how people get toxoplasma.

But scientists have a list of possible paths to infection.

Here are a few possible toxoplasmosis causes:

• Eating undercooked, contaminated meat (especially pork, lamb, and venison).
• Accidental ingestion of undercooked, contaminated meat after handling it and not washing hands thoroughly (Toxoplasma cannot be absorbed through intact skin).
• Eating food that was contaminated by knives, utensils, cutting boards and other foods that have had contact with raw, contaminated meat.
• Drinking water contaminated with toxoplasma gondii.
• Accidentally swallowing the parasite through contact with cat feces that contain toxoplasma. This might happen by cleaning a cat’s litter box when the cat has shed toxoplasma in its feces, touching or ingesting anything that has come into contact with cat feces that contain toxoplasma.
• Accidentally ingesting contaminated soil (e.g., not washing hands after gardening or eating unwashed fruits or vegetables from a garden).

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So, while it’s not clear how people become infected, it’s clear that toxoplama has dramatic effects on those who are infected.

The parasite can have widespread effects on a patient’s behavior.

There’s even a name for these dramatic personality shifts, “toxoplasmosis schizophrenia.”

There are a host of toxoplasmosis symptoms in humans.

And it can make it almost three times as likely that they will have an auto accident.

This may be due to higher aggression resulting from higher testosterone levels.

Toxoplasma has been connected to causing these higher testosterone levels.

So let’s get to the bottom of this toxoplasma matter because it’s extremely interesting.

First of all, if you have Toxoplasma you may not know it.

The only reason that this study came about was by accident.

A researcher accidentally discovered the antibodies in large numbers of people in the Czech Republic.

Then he sent questionnaires to these people.

The results of the questionnaire showed that personality characteristics were different for people who were infected.

For example, they discovered that the motor skills of people infected with toxoplasma are not as good.

They also found that those infected are almost three times as likely to have auto accidents than people who are not infected.

The researchers noticed that men infected with toxoplasma had higher testosterone levels.

They were more likely to be rash, a bit irresponsible, to follow the rules, and maybe be a tad more aggressive.

These are common side effects of higher testosterone.

Researchers found that as men age, the effects get stronger and stronger.

They did minor social and psychological experiments on the subjects to see their reactions.

These experiments included things like inviting people to taste a strange liquid.

They may have been asked to hand over their wallet to an unknown experimenter.

Or they could even have been asked to sign an empty piece of paper.

They also checked unprompted behaviors such as whether a subject was late to the testing meeting.

They tested how accurate the participant’s guess was as to what he had in his wallet.

And the researchers measured the time it took to answer the questions.

A similar study was done in Turkey.

Researchers there found that of people in traffic accidents, almost 25% were infected with toxoplama.

But amongst non-infected people, only 6% had traffic accidents.

Also, men and women infected with toxoplasma were found to have a lower drive for what is called “novelty-seeking behavior.”

That is to say that the subjects were more closed to new things, new experiences and new ideas.

The researchers observed that testosterone levels were considerably higher amongst men infected with toxoplasma.

But it’s not clear how much higher these levels were.

What’s really fascinating is that a parasite can cause widespread behavioral changes by somehow infecting or affecting the nervous system.

And it does so in a predictable way that can be measured.

As we find out more and more about bacteria, parasites, and fungus in the human body, we are finding out how they affect us.

They affect our behavior, our feelings, and how we feel about ourselves.

We’re not conscious of it, but some or much of our behavior may be governed by the bacteria, parasites, and microbes that are living inside us.

How amazing is that?

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Matt Cook is editor-in-chief of Daily Medical Discoveries. Matt has been a full time health researcher for 26 years. ABC News interviewed Matt on sexual health issues not long ago. Matt is widely quoted on over 1,000,000 websites. He has over 300,000 daily newsletter readers. Daily Medical Discoveries finds hidden, buried or ignored medical studies through the lens of 100 years of proven science. Matt heads up the editorial team of scientists and health researchers. Each discovery is based upon primary studies from peer reviewed science sources following the Daily Medical Discoveries 7 Step Process to ensure accuracy.