Cannibalism

As you may have already guessed, yes, cannibalism is in fact, not the healthiest option. Even though the mere thought of eating human flesh is absolutely ghastly, the actual morality and ethics that govern these feelings of ours are not as simple as they first appear. There is a lot of complexity that is there in the minds of us human beings.

Reasons For Cannibalism

Cannibalism has been in existence for many years in several species and has also taken place in the human culture for thousands of years. In some cases, cannibalism would mean eating the body parts of enemies so as to gain their strength and powers. In some tribes, the eating of another human's flesh had a more ritual meaning behind.

Examples Of Cannibalism

When some tribes go through a very rough and desperate time, they often go back to their cannibalistic ways to survive. For example, there were a lot of reports about people committing cannibalism while the North Korean famine struck in 2013, the siege of Leningrad during the 1940s, and China's "Great Leap Forward" between the 1950s and 1960s.

Cannibalism As Medication

In Europe, following the 14 century till the early 18th century, human body parts were openly sold and bought as medications. They would usually sell or buy bones, blood, and fat. Even priests and royalty would make it a custom to eat human body products to try and dial down their health issues like headaches, epilepsy, and even nosebleeds to gout.

Eating Loved Ones

In other cultures, there are rituals that involve consuming the body parts of a loved one when they die, so that they sort of become a part of you. To "civilized" minds, this practice is indeed vile, but to the minds of the people that are up for these "transumption" practices, the thought of maggots eating away a family member or partner is equally disgusting.

Everyday Cannibals

As we slowly unmask the reason why we recoil to the slight thought of cannibalism, you will be more than surprised as to how complex it is. Some of us eat our fingernails while some mothers eat the placenta of their babies, right? So what about these people, are they not cannibals? Today we will not be talking about the benchmark that determines the levels of cannibalism but we will speak about the ill effects it has on health.

Any Negative Effects?

In the majority of the civilizations, cannibalism is the final port of call. It is made use of only when the alternative is certain death. So if this has been going on for all these hears in the history of humans, there must be some benefits, right? Then again, we all feel a little uneasy thinking about eating body parts of people around us, so does it have a negative impact on health and well-being?

Health Implications

Even if cannibalism seems "wrong," the good news is, eating cooked human flesh is equally as dangerous as eating the cooked flesh of other species of animals. This is the same case for the consumption of the other body parts of a human. The health implications have proven to be the same as that of eating any other omnivore of any kind.

Consuming A Brain

But having said that, there is one thing that should be avoided by all means. The body part to be avoided is the brain. The Fore people of Papua New Guinea, although they have stopped recently, have been practicing transumption which is eating deceased relatives. These group of people has proven the effects and implications of consuming a human brain.

What Is Kuru?

Have you ever heard of Kuru? Well, allow us to explain what Kuru is. It is actually a unanimously fatal, transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. Kuru is a prion-based disease similar to BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), which also has another name called mad cow disease.

PrP

Prion diseases are caused due to the formation of abnormal glycoprotein also called prion protein (PrP) in the brain. PrP is a natural phenomenon that takes place specifically in the nervous system. The function it has health-wise has not been fully comprehended as of now. But, PrP has been noted to take part in several diseases like Alzheimer's disease.

Laughing Sickness

The Fore people are the only population to ever be hit by an epidemic of kuru and it reached an all-time high in the 1950s. The women belonging to the Fore tribe were dying at an alarming rate and even some of their nearest neighbors were affected. The word "kuru" in Fore language means "to shake." Kuru aka "laughing sickness" causes a pathologic burst of laughter in the affected people.

First Reports

The first conversation about kuru in the Western ears happened from Australian administrators who were traveling through the lands of the Fore: "The first sign of impending death is a general debility which is followed by general weakness and inability to stand. The victim retires to her house. She is able to take a little nourishment but suffers from violent shivering. The next stage is that the victim lies down in the house and cannot take nourishment, and death eventually ensues."- W. T. Brown

Women And Kids

During the most extreme times, 2% of deaths in the Fore villages were because of kuru. The disease mostly affected women and kids where some villages have lost almost all of their women. Fore men had been taught that eating the deceased during wars and conflicts made them weak, so mostly children and women are the dead. Even further, kids and women took care of the dead bodies so the chance of infections was higher.

Symptoms Of Kuru

Kuru is known to have a long incubation period during which it does not show any symptoms. This asymptomatic period usually goes on for about 5-20 years, but, for some cases, it could drag on for over 50 years. When the symptoms start to appear in the physiological and neurological, it can be separated into three phases.

3 Phases

The symptoms that show that someone has kuru can be split into three phases.

Headaches

Joint pain

Shaking

Loss of balance

Deterioration of speech

Decreased muscle control.

Sedentary stage

Become incapable of walking

Loss of muscle coordination

Severe tremors

Emotional instability - depression with outbursts of uncontrollable laughter.

Terminal stage

Cannot sit without being supported

Virtually no muscle coordination

Unable to speak

Incontinent

Difficulty swallowing

Unresponsive to surroundings

Ulcerations with pus and necrosis (tissue death).

Death During 2 Years

Usually, the person getting infected by this disease will expire between 3 months and 2 years after the symptoms begin to show. Before the symptoms show, the people affected by kuru do not show any signs of weakness or unusual behavior. The ultimate death is also mostly caused by pneumonia or infected pressure sores.

More Or Less Disappeared

Kuru has more or less fully disappeared. In the 1950s, The colonial law enforcement of Australia and Christian missionaries contributed to the reduction of the death caused by cannibalism of the Fore people. After they could get the people to stop with their ill practices, the infection between members of the tribe was lessened. The last victim that died of kuru passed away back in 2005.

Sparking New Interest

Even if all signs point towards kuru not being so much of a threat to the health and well being of humanity, this epidemic has served as a good learning tool for medical researchers. It has given them a good idea of what this disease is and what it does. The relatively recent issue faced with BSE and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease has resulted in a new interest in Kuru.

Research And More Research

Kuru has become the only known human prion disease. After learning and doing an extensive research, doctors may finally be able to treat it and they might be able to design ways to prevent, or at least reduce, the possibility of future neurological prion-based epidemics.