OWNING A CAT WON’T MAKE YOU MENTALLY ILL

New research has found no link between owning a cat and exhibiting psychotic symptoms. The University College London findings cast doubt on previous research, which suggested that people who grew up with cats are at a higher risk of mental illness. Cats are a primary host of the bacteria Toxoplasma Gondii, which is associated with mental health conditions like schizophrenia. There was a theory that the bacteria could transfer to children in a household with cats, and that it might lead to later development of mental illness. But the new study finds no evidence that cats pose a risk to children’s mental health. The research, which was published in Psychological Medicine, focused on nearly 5,000 people born in 1991 or 1992 who were followed up with until the age of 18. Just the same, the study recommend pregnant women should not to handle soiled cat litter.
* Yes, pregnant women – stop with those soiled cat litter facemasks and mud packs.
* Owning a cat won’t make you crazy? You don’t know my cat.
* And you don’t know my wife, whose cat it is.
* So don’t worry: Your kids psychotic symptoms are all just them.
* What about the neighborhood “cat ladies” who have 20 or 30 cats? Can that many cats give you the bacteria that makes you crazy? This is turning into a “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” thing.
* Even if cats do make you crazy, owning a cat lessens your risk of heart attack, so it’s not all bad.
* I thought my cat would be thrilled by the results here but then I remembered: my cat doesn’t do “thrilled.”
* Wait, how dare London University do a study about something that’s important?
* They’re going to screw up the research study game for everyone else.
* Quick, do your next study about why cats chase flashlight beams. Anything. There’s still time to save this thing.