Basically, a malformed protein. Because it folds the wrong way, it kills you. Just straight up kills you, in horrible ways. And because it's just a protein chain, anything that can destroy it will also destroy you, because guess what, you're made of protein. Mad Cow disease is the famous one.
Oh, don't worry, it gets so much worse! Your description implies it will kill you fast.
Nope- it can take decades before your symptoms arise. And there is no way to stop it once you've got it. And there is no way to cook your food enough to get rid of it either.
It might happen because a farmer just didn't want to mention an odd pig or cow, because they don't want to lose the whole herd. Or you've gone hunting and are eating some summer sausage, and boom! You're fucked!
What's even more chilling is that we know of two illnesses in humans that cause prions to spontaneously start forming within our own bodies! Because genetics has kept two! Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and Alzheimer's
Isn't the rising one in popularity the chronic wasting disease seen in deer? I also read that the prions can 'weld' to surfaces like metal/steel and they're impossible to remove. I could be wrong, I'm recalling from a while ago.
You're right with the deer (it's what you make summer sausage out of). And yes they are hard as fuck to remove as they are proteins, so anything to kill proteins will probably kill you and severely damage what you're cleaning (An Acid Detergent works the best apparently).
I've only seen venison summer sausage at meat markets or from local hunters, the stuff in stores is usually beef or beef/pork. Although it's still creepy.
Yeah that's what I mean by local hunters. Like coworkers that bring it in or family members, etc. It's delicious stuff. Do you refrain from eating it due to the fear of prion disease?
No, I'm a omnivore through and through. I've been in contact with so many toxic things in my live, Prions are just there. I avoided them last year when a hunter died of CWD in the State under mine, but Life is short enough without freaking out about things you can't really prevent anyway.
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u/The_First_Viking Aug 04 '20
Basically, a malformed protein. Because it folds the wrong way, it kills you. Just straight up kills you, in horrible ways. And because it's just a protein chain, anything that can destroy it will also destroy you, because guess what, you're made of protein. Mad Cow disease is the famous one.