My dentist informed my me adult tooth root resorption (the same process through which baby teeth fall out) is correlated with cat ownership during early childhood.
or maybe we, as a group, underestimate the impacts of chronic infection on the body and brain.
Otherwise “simple infections” are (likely, almost obviously) responsible for tons, including dementia, Parkinson’s, more,
and they’re the ones everyone ignores,
or struggle to even get a diagnosis for,
and instead say “it’s normal to not be able to squat once, or have any energy when you’re ‘getting older’!”.
These infections can drive…completely life-changing medical trajectories - without the patient ever noticing.
Everyone just thinks they won the “reverse—lottery” when cancer or dementia finally shows up…I’m becoming less convinced it’s a “chance” thing at all.
We just don’t see, nor monitor the beginnings - and if we do happen upon them, hey, “everybody has Staph, EBV, [insert bacteria or virus here] - nothing to be worried by! Very common!”
"Unless your cat lived a significant part of it's life as an outdoor cat, it is very unlikely to have the parasite (like any parasite). Most cat to human transmission (again, minority of total transmissions) comes from stray cats infecting gardens with their feces."
I think a more obvious candidate is self-selection. People with known mental issues that want a pet are wise to choose those that demand less maintenance. It's hard to go walk the dog while undergoing a mental breakdown. Cats, on the other hand, don't require people to walk them, and are mostly self-cleaning. They are a safer pick for people whose routines are subject to sporadic disruption.
