Your brain is probably infected with WHAT right now
Good morning from the Okanagan — the lake is calm, the vines are growing, and we have things to discuss. And folks, I just read something that genuinely made me almost spit out my perfectly brewed coffee. You know how everyone's always worried about *Naegleria fowleri* from swimming in warm lakes, that super rare brain-eating amoeba? Well, get ready for a new anxiety, because there's apparently a "brain-eating virus" that most of us are already carrying around. My yiayia would have a field day with this, probably blaming it on not eating enough horta.
### Brain-Eating… What Now?
Okay, but here's the thing nobody talks about: New research suggests this fatal brain infection, once thought to only happen if your immune system was basically non-existent, isn't so picky. It's called JC virus, and it's behind something called Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy, or PML. Sounds like a sci-fi villain, right? Apparently, a huge chunk of the population, like 80-90% of us, already has it chilling in our bodies, totally dormant. Until it's not.
* The virus usually just hangs out in your kidneys without causing trouble. * In some people, it can reactivate and travel to the brain. * Once in the brain, it attacks the white matter, causing PML, which is often fatal. * The new twist: it's not just profound immune suppression that triggers it.
The good news is that PML is still super rare. But the idea that something that sounds like a sci-fi horror movie is already living rent-free in most of our brains? That's… unsettling. You know, we’re all so busy worrying about the smoke season, or if the tourists are going to park illegally on Bernard Avenue, or if our favourite vineyard is going to get turned into condos, that you don't even think about the microscopic drama happening inside your own skull. It makes you wonder what other weird stuff is just lurking out there, waiting for its moment.
Stay safe out there, Kelowna. And maybe, just maybe, don't think too hard about what's in your brain when you're enjoying your morning coffee by the lake.
Nina Papadimitriou, MiTL Sports Desk, Kelowna.
Keith and the crew break down all the weirdness every single morning — catch it live at mornings.live.