Could Covid have altered our brain chemistry?
I noted before that a trial of an experimental drug for Parkinson's disease had to cancelled when one of the side-effects was that the subjects of the trial all became compulsive gamblers. Turns out, the drug stimulated some part of the brain that involved risk-taking. No doubt, casinos are now putting this in the drinks they serve!
But it isn't just that. Another study suggests that Toxic Plasmosis - a parasite you get from your cat's litterbox - might infect 1/3 of the population and that it causes people to become less risk-averse. Some speculate that "entrepreneurs" may suffer from this infection, which causes them to place more wild bets on technology and business.
And interesting thought. Are we really in control of our own destiny?
Funny thing to think about. When I started my own law practice - right out of law school - and bought several investment properties, we had three cats. As time went by, the cats passed away and I became more risk-averse. It makes one wonder - but then again, it is easy to confuse causation with correlation, particularly with anecdotal data.
Our brains are organs like any other in our body, and they are a collection of synapses connected together in neural networks. We can train these networks through stimulation - you read things online and it can "program" your brain to be a Bride of ISIS or - worse yet - a Republican. Perish the thought!
But in addition to training the network - which is its normal function - the network itself can be degraded. Brain damage and degradation can literally change the way we think. The discredited "Lobotomy" operation was just a crude method of creating brain damage in mental patients to "calm" them. Electro-shock therapy - also largely discredited, but still practiced - has the same effect, resetting the brain so to speak.
Speaking of which, I recall reading an article about people who were struck by lightning and how it changed them. One fellow was knocked out, but largely uninjured. He got in his car and took off. Weeks later, he woke up as in a dream. Apparently he stopped at a motorcycle dealer and traded in his car for a new Harley and took off across the American Southwest. He was pulled over when the temp tag on his bike disintegrated in a rainstorm. They called his wife and he sort of snapped out of it at that point, but remembered nothing of the last two weeks. The human brain is a weird thing.
Of course, we humans also intentionally alter the operation of our brains every day - and in fact, it is quite a popular thing to do. We wake up in the morning and prepare coffee to stimulate our brains (and as you get older, bowels). At the end of the day, we relax with a cocktail, glass of wine, or a beer, to "relax." And of course, others might smoke a joint, or do some "harder" drugs to create other effects on the psyche, from manic to depressive to hallucinogenic - or just to stimulate our pleasure centers.
Our brains can be altered in a number of ways, which means the way we think, act, and behave can be altered as well. The idea that we have a consciousness, an individuality, or a "soul" is brought into question. Are we some sort of intelligent, conscious beings, or just a bag of chemicals who think they are?
Heavy stuff for a 7th grader to think about, to be sure, but also relevant in today's wacky world, where it seems that everyone, worldwide is losing their minds. People we thought of as at least stable, are making very poor choices. People who we thought of as smart or intelligent, are going off the deep end. And those we already thought were wacky are taking wacky to a whole new level.
Fill in the blank of who - Putin, Trump, Kanya, Musk - those are just the ones in the headlines. There are thousands more that are just as unhinged if not moreso. It seems everyone is on the wacky bandwagon, either embracing fascism or outright communism. And yea, social media, trolled by the Russians and Chinese, is in part to blame - egging on people with postings and suggestions. But maybe there is something else.
Could it be CoVid?
Could the long game of long CoVid be brain damage to the point where entire countries are losing their minds? And - not to engage in conspiracy theories here - could it be that's the reason the Chinese are so paranoid about the spread of it? They are shutting down entire cities and ruining their own economy, just to prevent the spread. Vaccines and masks and social distancing are apparently not enough - they want to keep the infection rate at zero.
Maybe that's why the craziness has also been coming more from the right-wing - the folks who eschewed vaccination and mask-wearing to earn their "Herman Cain Award." But the survivors don't walk away scot-free. Organ damage throughout the body is possible, particularly the heart, lungs, kidneys and brain.
Wait, what?
So maybe it isn't a matter of "what if?" but what is. A lot of people have been infected with CoVid in the United States and indeed, the world. Many might not even know they had it. How does this affect their overall health down the road? Will we see life expectancy change as our generation gets older? Will there be an increase in heart and lung ailments, as well as kidney failure? Maybe a good time to invest in a dialysis company. But the brain - what sort of damage are we talking about? And does it cause particular changes in behavior like the experimental Parkinson's drug or Toxic Plasmosis does?
Questions, I have many. Answers few.
All I know is, this is a weird timeline, as the kids like to say. It seems the world has gone off the rails in the last few years and everyone is acting oddly, or if odd to begin with, acting even more oddly. Maybe there is a reason for this.
Or maybe not. Maybe humans are just assholes. Or maybe this is just the beginning of behavioral sink.
