a Rare Brain-Eating Disease Is Becoming More Common ?

 As Japan's Population Ages, a Rare Brain-Eating Disease Is Becoming More Common.

Over the last 15 years, an extremely rare neurodegenerative disease that eats holes into the human brain has grown increasingly common in Japan.

The disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) can be caused by eating tainted meat but is more closely associated with seemingly-spontaneous cases linked to old age

CJD happens when proteins called prions, which form incorrectly, find their way into the brain. Prions have the unfortunate, destructive ability to deform the proteins around them as well. As the prions gradually eat away at neurons, they create sponge-like holes in the brain. This leads to dementia, loss of bodily function, and eventually coma and death.