Are you female, single and drawn to cats? Then you might have crazy cat lady syndrome.
There is something in real life called the crazy cat lady syndrome and it's the nickname
for the much harder to say toxoplasmosis. Actually toxoplasmosis is not that hard to
say. Toxoplasmosis is caused by ingesting a parasite called toxoplasma gondii. Not gondii
as in the really cool leader of Indian Nationalism but rather gondii G-O-N-D-I-I. A lot of times
humans ingest it by eating raw or undercooked meat and in fact if you are watching this
there is a decent chance that you have toxoplasmosis. Around 60 million Americans have it already
and it's just hanging out in our bodies but our immune system keeps it at bay. But some
evolutionary biologists are paying closer attention to this toxoplasma gondii to see
whether or not it is actually causing something called crazy cat lady syndrome in which humans
are infected by this parasite and then are sort of led to self-destruct. Toxoplasma gondii
can only sexually reproduce in a cat's digestive system and the way that it passes from host
to host is through cat poop. Gross. If we're that lucky cat owner, when we're changing
the litter box we accidentally ingest fecal matter. People infected with this T. Gondii
parasite have been found to act a little strangely: slower reflex times, higher likelihood of
getting in a car accident, they might even be more smell immune to the wretchedness that
is the odor of cat pee. And so some scientists think that these parasites have figured out
a way to actually highjack our brains so that we eventually kill ourselves so that those
loving cats that we have will eat us, thereby getting the parasites back into the feline
digestive tract so that it can reproduce. But allow me to do a little bit of crazy cat
lady mythbusting as related to this parasite. First of all there was a very compelling sex
difference in how men who were infected with T. Gondii acted compared to how women who
were infected with T. Gondii acted. Guys who were playing host to this not so nice parasite
tended to dress a lot more haphazardly and be really socially withdrawn and not want
to go out and kind of act like crazy cat guys. Women who were infected with this parasite
were a lot more fastidious in how they dressed. They cared a lot more about how they looked
and were more outgoing which does not sound like a crazy cat lady to me. Today in the
United States only 13% of cat owners are single women--and this has been cat statistics 10-meow-I'm
sorry. Finally for all you cat-lovers out there take heart because research so far has
shown that indoor cats in particular pose little to no threat of passing along T. Gondii,
like I said a lot of times the way that humans ingest it is through undercooked or raw meat
or unwashed vegetables, through our dietary choices rather than our pet choices. Side
note: keeping that litter box clean, it'll help. So is crazy cat lady syndrome real?
Yes but it's probably not the ownership of cats that's causing the crazy. And if you're
crazy for cats like I am you should definitely check out the new Animalist channel that has
all cats, all the time and other cool animals as well. Animalist is often going to be hosting
the new Lil Bub show which I'm going to be a crazy cat lady for. If you know any crazy
cat ladies, comment below and if you've ever been called a crazy cat lady let me know.
Let me know all your cat thoughts. Meow.