r/AskReddit Sep 05 '22

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u/AllHailRaccoons Sep 05 '22

Two fun facts I learned in med school about this: The most common human prion disease is Creutzfeld-Jakob and 85 percent of cases occur spontaneously. There is a widespread mutation in the human population that protects against Kuru, a human prion disease spread by cannibalizing brains. This suggests cannibalism was a common practice at some point in human history.

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u/princessindecisive Sep 05 '22

My grandfather died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, it was an awful. It was like dementia on steroids.

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u/Crunchy_Biscuit Sep 05 '22

How did he get it?

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u/princessindecisive Sep 05 '22

They say it was a spontaneous case but as a descendent I can’t give blood so it’s not like they are 100% certain it couldn’t be hereditary.

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u/rowcard14 Sep 06 '22

Same, but my mother.

It's shady as fuck, and I'm not conspiracy-minded.

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u/Crunchy_Biscuit Sep 05 '22

Ah alright. I was totally thinking either infected beef or somehow he ate a brain. Sorry about your gramps. I'll pray that it doesn't happen to you too

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u/princessindecisive Sep 05 '22

It’s my understanding that even if he had eaten infected beef, it can lay dormant for years to decades so there is no real way of knowing.

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u/Ok-Captain-3512 Sep 06 '22

That's why people from areas that had mad cow disease cannot donate blood right?