I’ve not heard about them much until recently, where i keep seeing mention of them, what exactly are they?
In: Biology
Your body is full of proteins. Proteins are molecules that are good for you. They help your body work good.
Prions are proteins that are “misfolded” meaning they somehow took the wrong shape. Those misfolded proteins can affect the other proteins around them in a sort of slow avalanche of degeneration and cell-death.
Mad Cow disease and Chronic wasting disease are prion diseases in cows and deer respectively. Eating meat from animals infected by these prion diseases can potentially cause you to contract a prion disease. It’s very uncommon in humans, but not impossible. Basically, the prion dissolves your brain slowly until you die. That’s not good.
The thing is though, you really don’t need to worry about it. They’ve been around forever and they’re never going away. It’s so, so rare for it to transmit to humans. You can maybe get it from eating the brains of a creature, but I doubt You’re having a brain for dinner tonight. You won’t get kuru from eating a steak.
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