Food Irradiation, Neurological Damage, Cats, Pseudoscience, and Us

by Heidi Stevenson

30 April 2009

According to scientists who have done research pseudoscience on cats that have eaten irradiated food:

• Irradiated food causes neurological damage in cats, but that has no bearing on humans.
• Something that is true of cats has nothing to do with humans.

• Cats naturally heal from the neurological damage, so humans may be able to heal from neurological damage, too.
• Something that is true of cats may be true of humans.

The scientist, Ian Duncan, who recently published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences⁽¹⁾ on the subject of cats healing from nerve damage caused by irradiated food, said, "We think it is extremely unlikely that [irradiated food] could become a human health problem. We think it is species specific." Yet, he also claims that cats' ability to heal from such nerve damage may apply to humans. The logic behind his thinking? Well...that part isn't explained.

While you're still trying to make sense of that, let's get on to the study itself. Cats that have eaten irradiated food suffer from demyelination of nerves. This means that the sheath on nerves is damaged and disappears, which is a hallmark of multiple sclerosis. The study found that cats with nerve damage from irradiated food spontaneously and naturally heal themselves, without intervention.

Ian Duncan commented, "The fundamental point of the study is that it proves unequivocally that extensive remyelination can lead to recovery from a severe neurological disorder. It indicates the profound ability of the central nervous system to repair itself."

A big dollop of hope is handed out to sufferers of multiple sclerosis, since it had previously been assumed that, once gone, the myelin sheath could not be rebuilt and nerve damage is irreversible. Of course, the researchers are not assuming that humans will spontaneously heal themselves of multiple sclerosis. They are, instead, going to push for another sort of research—finding drugs that do for human nerves what cats do for themselves.

With the logic the researchers use to relate cats and humans, though, one must wonder about the likelihood of anything beneficial coming out of such research...Well, on second thought, there are a couple of benefits. Just imagine the amount of money that will be funneled to researchers! If they come up with something—no matter how dubious—that they claim will benefit multiple sclerosis sufferers, just think of how much money Big Pharma will rake in! And how much doctors will make by pushing the pills!

The real question here is: What message should we take from this? Gaia Health suggests the following:

• Until proven otherwise, assume that the support for any mainstream medical claim is pseudoscience.
• Do not believe that irradiated food is safe. It has never been proven so, and the fact that cats were knowingly given irradiated food for the purpose of causing neurological damage documents that researchers are fully aware of that fact.
• When modern medicine says that something is so, don't assume it's true. As this pseudo-research clearly shows, the idea that nerve damage cannot be undone is nothing more than an assumption.

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