mad cow disease

[Guest guest]

mad cow disease is on the rise again. check out this ny times article

at

http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/health/072500hth-mad-cow.html

 

I wonder how TCM would explain mad cow disease. It comes from eating

infected meat, but also has a very long latency period (decades). Could

this be understood as some from of gu (worm) or fu xie (hidden evil)?

Given the mental sx of this disease, gu syndrome is an appealing way to

categorize mad cow disease, perhaps. There may be as many as 500,000

cases in Britain alone in the next 25 years. The disease also manifests

only in particular genetic clusters, suggesting zheng qi factors, as

well. And chronic gu syndrome always involves vacuity. An evil that

" literally eats holes in the brain " is no ordinary xie qi. In fact,

that imagery of something boring around in the head also smacks of

worms. Not to say that there are actually worms in the heads of mad cow

disease victims, but that perhaps worm (gu) therapy might be a place to

start.