Cats are adorable, unless you’re a die-hard dog person, but they may be linked to mental illness, according to a new study.
New research suggests that cats could increase our risk of mental illness, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, due to a parasite they carry in their intestines called Toxoplasma gondii, according to Medical News Today.
More than 60 million people in the U.S. are reportedly infected with the parasite without even knowing it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“These findings suggest that T. gondii infection is associated with several psychiatric disorders and that in schizophrenia, reactivation of latent T. gondii infection may occur,” wrote the authors of the study.
Although most people will never develop symptoms of a T. Gondii infection, those with weakened immune systems could develop an illness called toxoplasmosis, according to TIME. Toxoplasmosis could reportedly lead to miscarriages, fetal development disorders, a flu-like illness, blindness and in extreme cases, even death.
The recent research reportedly examines whether cat ownership in childhood is significantly more common in families in which the child becomes seriously mentally ill in the future.
“Cat ownership in childhood has now been reported in three studies to be significantly more common in families in which the child is later diagnosed with schizophrenia or another serious mental illness,” the authors of the study said in a statement.
Cat-lovers can reportedly protect their children from possibly getting infected.
“Children can be protected by keeping their cat exclusively indoors and always covering the sandbox when not in use,” stated study author E. Fuller Torrey of the Stanley Medical Research Institute.
