Less than a month ago (Nov. 29, 2022) an article was posted about a newly published study that looked at wolf behavior over the course of 26 years. (1) The article was about how wolves that are infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii are much more likely to break off from their pack and become the leader of a new pack. In fact, they are 46 times (4600%) more likely to do so. But there’s a catch…
The Toxoplasma gondii parasite comes from cat intestines, and it wants to return there. Animals that get infected with Toxoplasma gondii have a strong affinity to cats, and this could be a death wish if you are a small rodent for instance. In wolves, the ones that are infected with Toxoplasma gondii take much greater risks when it comes to having run-ins with cougars that share hunting territory. This increases the chances of wolves being killed and eaten by a cougar, and thus the parasite is happy. Who cares?
Well, it turns out that Toxoplasma gondii infects humans too. In an article from 2012 in Scientific American, it was stated that roughly 1/3 of the world (yes, 33% of all humans) have Toxoplasma gondii parasites in their head. (2) So I did some digging, and apparently the number for the world looks like it can go up to 50%. (3) The CDC reports that in the U.S., the percentage is closer to 11%. (4) But it looks like it could be anywhere between 13-22% in the U.S. (5,6). But even if the number is 11%, that means that roughly 36.5 million Americans are carrying the parasite (The CDC actually says the number is over 40 million (7)). Who cares?
Well, it turns out there are major risk factors if you are infected with Toxoplasma gondii. For one, the article from Scientific American reported on studies that definitively showed that Toxoplasma gondii increases the risk of suicide in people, even if they have no prior history of mental health conditions. Furthermore, the more the person is infected, the higher the risk for suicide. The article goes on to explain that other studies have found links between Toxoplasma gondii and neuroticism, and there is a well-established link between neuroticism and suicide.
So you might be saying “I’m not suicidal, so even if I have Toxoplasma gondii, clearly it’s not hurting me”. Stand by. There is apparently a laundry list of health issues that affect people with Toxoplasma gondii infections. The list includes many mental health issues including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and ADD, but also many different cancers, heart disease, GI problems, and even impaired reproductive issues. There is a list of issues related to Toxoplasma gondii in this link and all of the issues are referenced to existing research documenting the connection (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3963851/). (8) The list is in Table 2 in the article – it really is worth a look to see how many issues are associated with Toxopasma gondii.
And here is the kicker…ivermectin turns out to be a potent inhibitor of Toxoplasma gondii. (9) Not only that, but compared to the other known potent inhibitors of Toxoplasma gondii, ivermectin apparently has the best side effect profile (it happens to live on the WHO Essential Medicines list (10)). It is strange to me that the FDA spent so much time, money, and energy trying to stop people from using ivermectin for COVID-19. (11) Medical doctors are now suing the FDA over their efforts to stop the use of ivermectin (physicians are normally allowed to prescribe off-label drugs at their will and are even encouraged to as a way to improve efficiency). (12) But the FDA has responded by saying their efforts to stop ivermectin use was only a recommendation, not a directive. (13) Interestingly, ivermectin was listed as a treatment for COVID-19 on NIH’s website, but they have since removed it. (14) Now it is listed under miscellaneous drugs and even though the page expounds on the antiviral properties of ivermectin, it concludes that you should not use it for COVID or as an antiviral. (15) There are physicians who have been treating patients with COVID using ivermectin and there are mounting studies showing its effectiveness. (15, 16)
But regardless how the lawsuit ends and whether the FDA gets held accountable for a directive, or if it really was just a “suggestion”, the campaign against ivermectin had strong ripple effects. Physicians were scared or in some cases ordered not to prescribe it, pharmacists were ordered not to fill prescriptions that came in, and the average person was convinced that ivermectin was just for horses (it’s not, it won the Nobel Prize as an anti-parasitic for humans (17)).
I probably never would have looked up ivermectin as a potential treatment for Toxoplasma gondii had the FDA not tried to stop everyone from using it. The Streisand Effect is real. But not only is ivermectin an anti-parasitic for Toxoplasma gondii (which effects potentially half of the world and 40 million Americans and also comes with major health issues), but it is also a potent anti-viral which appears to cover a broad range of viruses. (19,20) But wait, there’s more. Ivermectin also apparently fights cancer. (21,22) Some of the big cancers include breast cancer, colorectal cancer, urinary system cancer, leukemia, reproductive system cancer, brain cancer, respiratory cancer, and melanoma.
There is one last twist to all of this. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is the DOD’s research arm. This is the agency that basically invented the internet. (23) DARPA gets involved in some of the most cutting edge research. In 2018, EcoHealth Alliance, the firm at the center of the gain-of-function coronavirus research, submitted a proposal to DARPA that includes information about how EcoHealth planned to modify bat coronavirus to make it be able to infect humans. (24) The article from the Intercept that reported the proposal, also states that DARPA rejected the proposal, but clearly they were aware of the ideas that were in play. But that isn’t the most interesting issue. DARPA documents that apparently were obtained by Project Veritas, show that they had identified that…
“ivermectin (identified as curative in April 2020) works throughout all phases of illness because it both inhibits viral replication and modulates the immune response. Of note, chloroquine phosphate (hydroxychloroquine, identified April 2020 as curative) is identified in the proposal as a SARSr-COV inhibitor, as is interferon (identified May 2020 as curative).” (25)
Interestingly, the literature on ivermectin stopping viruses states the same thing that DARPAs documents state, and the NIH website also lists interferons as a treatment for COVID but not ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine (remember they did have ivermectin up as a treatment but took it down later). The article on DARPAs documents also shows that they acknowledge COVID as man-made by EcoHealth Alliance at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The person who posted all of this to Twitter, Eric Weinstein (who has a blue checkmark for what its worth) has stated that he will only take this down from Twitter “if, and ONLY if, it represents misinformation from Project Veritas or is misleading in a gross fashion.” He acknowledges that the information could be fake and that he is just sharing it for others to see. It is still on twitter.
I happen to keep my tin-foil hat close by and I like putting it on frequently to consider different hypotheses and ask “why” and “what if” questions. It is hard to ignore the possibility that the FDA would want to attempt to scare the public away from using ivermectin because of its potential to fight parasites, viruses, and cancers as a singular wonder-drug with a very safe side-effect profile (virtually none unless you overdose which is possible). People in some countries take ivermectin regularly as a preventive. I actually became infected with a skin parasite on my face (demodex mites) after doing a rescue swimmer training with the fire department. I was prescribed topical ivermectin from a dermatologist but after some research, I found that - low and behold - oral ivermectin works wonders for demodex mites. I asked the dermo to give me a prescription for oral ivermectin and was denied. I asked my primary care physician the same, and was denied. I obtained some and my infection went away in 3 weeks, as opposed to the expected 6 months to a year with the topical ivermectin. I had no side effects at all.
I wonder what would happen to the mental health issues, virus issues, parasite issues, and cancer issues in the U.S. if all Americans were to take ivermectin for 3 weeks once or twice a year? Ivermectin is incredibly inexpensive to make (pennies). How much money would not get spent towards medical treatment of disease if people took ivermectin? It makes me wonder…
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3963851/
https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/toxoplasmosis/epi.html#:~:text=Toxoplasmosis%20is%20caused%20by%20the,have%20been%20infected%20with%20Toxoplasma.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4047742/
https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/154/4/357/62015
https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/toxoplasmosis/gen_info/faqs.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3963851/
https://list.essentialmeds.org/?query=ivermectin
https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/why-you-should-not-use-ivermectin-treat-or-prevent-covid-19
https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/doctors-sue-fda-over-unlawful-attempts-to-prohibit-ivermectin-use/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/11/outrageous-fda-backtracks-trial-now-claims-not-taking-ivermectin-covid-19-merely-recommendation/
https://web.archive.org/web/20220901093543/https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/therapies/antiviral-therapy/
https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/therapies/miscellaneous-drugs/ivermectin/
https://covid19criticalcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/SUMMARY-OF-THE-EVIDENCE-BASE-FINAL.pdf
https://c19ivm.org/
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2015/press-release/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41429-020-0336-z-
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7539925/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7505114/
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2021.717529/full
https://theintercept.com/2021/09/23/coronavirus-research-grant-darpa/
https://www.healththoroughfare.com/disease-medicine/prevention-treatments/darpa-covid-bomb-military-documents-about-covid-19-and-treatments-are-leaked-official-confirmation-required/42424
https://www.sciencealert.com/mysterious-link-between-owning-cats-and-schizophrenia-is-real-study-says
You don't say...
Check this out. Interesting analysis:
https://veryvirology.substack.com/p/curing-the-incurable-cancer