Think twice before eating vegetables you haven’t scrubbed clean – or biting into meat that’s a little on the pink side – because it could put you at increased risk of committing suicide, according to a new study.
The danger, say researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, comes from a nasty parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii), which is commonly spread through dirty veg, undercooked meats and contact with cat faeces.
Scarily, about one-third of the world's population is infected with the parasite, which hides in cells in the brain and muscles, often without producing symptoms.
The link between the parasite and suicide came from studying 45,000 women in Denmark.
"We can't say with certainty that T. gondii caused the women to try to kill themselves, but we did find a predictive association between the infection and suicide attempts later in life that warrants additional studies. We plan to continue our research into this possible connection," said lead author Teodor T Postolache an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
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Professor Postolache told The Huffington Post UK that the risk to women and men is similar, but that the study focused on women purely for convenience.
E. Albert Reece, vice president of medical affairs at the University of Maryland and John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers, Distinguished Professor and at the institution, warned that many people wouldn’t even know they were carrying the parasite.
They said: "T. gondii infection is a major public health problem around the world, and many people don't realise they're infected.
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“Dr. Postolache is a leading expert on suicide neuroimmunology. Suicide is a critically important mental health issue.
"About one million people commit suicide and another 10 million attempt suicide worldwide each year. We hope that this type of research will one day help us find ways to save many lives that now end prematurely in suicide."
The T. gondii parasite thrives in the intestines of cats, and it is spread through cysts in their faeces.
All warm-blooded animals can become infected through ingestion of these cysts.
The organism spreads to their brain and muscles, hiding from the immune system within "cysts" inside cells.
Humans can become infected by changing their infected cats' litter boxes, eating unwashed vegetables, drinking water from a contaminated source, or more commonly, by eating undercooked or raw meat that is infested with cysts.
Not washing kitchen knives after preparing raw meat before handling another food item also can lead to infection.
Pregnant women can pass the parasite directly to their fetuses and are therefore advised not to change cat litter boxes to avoid possible infection.
The study found that women infected with T. gondii were one and a half times more likely to attempt suicide compared to those who were not infected.
The results of the study appeared online on Monday in the Archives of General Psychiatry.