The Bartonella Epidemic: Your Cat Can Give You Mental Illness
An estimated 26.2% of adults in the U.S. suffer from one or more “mental disorders”. Roughly 6% (1 in 17) suffer from a “serious mental illness”. Such epidemic rates of mental illness have already been well associated withchronic Lyme infections, which some Lyme experts estimate infect 1 in 17 Americans as well. Now another chronic infection known as bartonella is becoming highly implicated. Though there are many ways to get the infection, domesticated cats may be the largest vector.
Humans often contract both Lyme and bartonella (and other infections) in the same bite from an insect, scratch from a cat, etc. Bartonella is usually referred to as a “coinfection” of Lyme. Dr. James Schaller, a leading bartonella researcher, believes that bartonella may be more common than Lyme and that it may be more appropriate to consider Lyme as the coinfection. Dr. Schaller states:
“…the routine testing done at routine labs and even some specialty labs misses this infection routinely. There are just so many species that some labs are giving up looking for Bartonella at the species level, and are going to try PCR at the larger genus level. It is amusing to read that 40-60% of USA cats carry this infection, when this is based on junk lab testing. The numbers are much higher in my opinion.”
An astounding 34.7 million Americans own at least one cat. Infected cats can expose their own household as well as neighboring households. Fleas can also carry the infection from cats to humans. It is easy enough to see that the entire U.S is at risk for contracting bartonella.
Like Lyme disease, bartonella can cause virtually any illness. An abridged list of possible signs and symptoms include:
All psychiatric disorders, numbness or loss of sensation, dizziness, headaches, tremors, irritability, agitation, aggression, impulsivity, oxygen deprivation, panic attacks, fainting, muscle spasms and/or weakness, joint pain, upper and lower G.I. tract disorders, kidney, bladder, and urogenital disorders, fatigue, sleep disorders, memory problems, drowsiness, lumps in the skin, many types of rashes, polyps in or on major organs, ocular disorders, e.g., blurred vision, depth perception, and retinal damage.
In any mental disorder bartonella should be a suspect. A serious indication that someone may be suffering from the disease is when an observer can see that a person “just isn’t the same as he/she used to be”. The personality can change over the course of years and become inexplicably negative, pessimistic, confrontational, disagreeable, irritable, anxious, depressed, narcissistic, etc.
Dr. Schaller gives many anecdotes about patients who have suffered from bartonella.
A married couple was about to divorce, but after treatment for bartonella could no longer imagine what they were about to do.
A mother could not think clearly or stop drinking and accidentally let her baby drown. She recovered after treatment for bartonella.
A man needed heroin just to “feel right”. He got off all drugs after treating bartonella.
A man would intentionally go to a bar just to pick fights. His generally rude behavior got him fired. He was diagnosed with bartonella.
A pastor’s wife got a “flu” and needed antidepressants ever since. She started swearing. She stopped all medications and recovered her personality after treating bartonella.
A happy priest suddenly started getting depressed. After trying many treatments, he committed suicide. His blood tested positive for bartonella.
A man adopted two kittens. Two months later he inexplicably and severely assaulted his girlfriend. He had bartonella.
No one likes to hear gloom and doom. But the fact is that bartonella is an epidemic that is behind millions of illnesses, especially “mental” illnesses. Since when does 1 in every 4 people have a “mental disorder”
