POLITICS: Mad Cow in Cosmetic Implants?

Prompted by fears 'Mad Cow' could be spread by tissue implants, the British government is cracking down on cosmetic medicine. Lip and cheek implants often use human or cow tissue, and preliminary investigations have found tissue samples containing material from dead bodies and birds. Fillers made from human tissue are not covered by any type of regulations in Britain. Unlike the USA, Britain has a socialized medical system that is already heavily regulated, although prion diseases seem to have fallen through the cracks.




Most people think of meat when 'Mad Cow' is discussed, but many products we take for granted risk contamination with prions. Prion diseases are caused by infectious proteins and come in many different strains. Just 4-6 strains are recognized officially, and only in the later stages when the brain is directly infected.

Many scientists believe "subclinical" prion infections are common, and underlie epidemic rising rates of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and various chronic disabilities.

Even human tissues and fillers are a risk. All products used in cosmetic surgery should be regulated, at least for the offically recognized prion disease strains.


Background Information About Prions

Prion Information Primer



Related News Links:
www.newstarget.com
www.sundaymail.co. uk

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
SCI/TECH: "Mad Cow" Spreading in Deer and Elk
SCI/TECH: "Mad Cow" Disease Uses Immune System to Spread in Body
OP/ED: The Final Solution
NEWS: Mad Cow Disease Is Found In Goat

[edit on 5-2-2005 by Banshee]

All I can say that this whole thing is pretty unsettling. I avoid red meat for health reasons, but not entirely. I substitute chicken or fish where I can. This whole prion thing is pretty confusing, insofar as the idea is not universally accepted and the mechanism is hardly understood, at all. Given the incubation period of the prion diseases and the virtual indestructibility of the prions, the transmission rate is likely to rise, snowballing as it does, not to mention the unaccounted for jump of the prion disease from mule deer to white-tail deer.

In time, this dilemma will be solved. The questions are when, how and at what cost.

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
All I can say that this whole thing is pretty unsettling. I avoid red meat for health reasons, but not entirely. I substitute chicken or fish where I can.

I've known what's happening for some time - and I eat red meat, chicken, fish and everything. ...Every species has different prion strains - and they compete with one another - as I understand it, the different strains just get caught in a feedback loop, and our own proteins and cells come out ahead if we have several different strains in our body at the same time.

IMO - going vegan or vegetarian won't help, because the soil and water is contaminated and these little suckers cross species and kingdom lines like evolutionary lightning...

This whole prion thing is pretty confusing, insofar as the idea is not universally accepted and the mechanism is hardly understood, at all.

The idea of prions is accepted well enough that Stanley Prusiner got a Nobel Prize for discovering them, and well enough that Bush made them "select agents" under anti-terrorist legislation...

The mechanisms are understood far far better than we are told - Mad Cow and prion stories are squashed to "protect the beef industry" and to "prevent panic and economic chaos" - so international corporations make out like bandits, while small producers and ordinary people are left holding the bag.



.

I don't know much about prions but I come from a family in which red meat has been our main dish since I can remember, now for health reason I do not cook much red meat at all.

My parents and rest of my family in PR are meat eaters but fresh fish is also part of their diet due to PR being an Island.

This is scary.