1 00:00:01,480 --> 00:00:07,720 Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff you should know, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:11,119 --> 00:00:13,520 Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's 3 00:00:13,640 --> 00:00:17,640 Speaker 2: Chuck and Jerry's here too, and this is a good 4 00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:21,360 Speaker 2: old fashioned stuff you should know. Medical mystery episode. 5 00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:21,960 Speaker 3: That's right. 6 00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:25,120 Speaker 1: Look at Jerry were there. She's just sitting there. She's frozen. 7 00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:28,200 Speaker 1: And what you can do is, I don't know if 8 00:00:28,240 --> 00:00:30,360 Speaker 1: you know this, Josh, if you walk over to Jerry 9 00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:32,040 Speaker 1: and take her hand off the keyboard and raise it 10 00:00:32,040 --> 00:00:34,760 Speaker 1: above her head, she'll just keep it there until you 11 00:00:34,800 --> 00:00:35,480 Speaker 1: move it back down. 12 00:00:36,240 --> 00:00:40,120 Speaker 2: Why, Chuck, sounds a lot to me like Jerry might 13 00:00:40,240 --> 00:00:43,280 Speaker 2: have chronic encephalitic lethargica. 14 00:00:44,760 --> 00:00:45,680 Speaker 3: I think you might be right. 15 00:00:46,600 --> 00:00:48,440 Speaker 2: I might be right. I might be partially right. I 16 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:49,919 Speaker 2: think I would have been more right if I had 17 00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:55,320 Speaker 2: called it encephalitis lethargica. But that's probably what she has. 18 00:00:55,360 --> 00:00:57,120 Speaker 2: If those are her symptoms. 19 00:00:57,120 --> 00:00:57,560 Speaker 3: That's right. 20 00:00:58,160 --> 00:01:01,720 Speaker 1: File this under medical mysteries and also filing under a 21 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:06,320 Speaker 1: Julia jam But we're basically going to call it el 22 00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:09,720 Speaker 1: or encephalitis lethargica here and there. I was also known 23 00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:14,520 Speaker 1: as the sleepy sickness, sometimes the sleeping sickness, although there's 24 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:17,679 Speaker 1: a new sleeping sickness that is not to be confused 25 00:01:17,720 --> 00:01:18,959 Speaker 1: with the previous one. 26 00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:22,920 Speaker 2: No, it's spread by the tetsifly and it's epidemic. I 27 00:01:22,959 --> 00:01:26,319 Speaker 2: don't think it's endemic yet in Africa, and it has 28 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:29,160 Speaker 2: got a couple of similar symptoms, but they're in no 29 00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:30,920 Speaker 2: way related from what I understand. 30 00:01:31,319 --> 00:01:31,760 Speaker 3: That's right. 31 00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:34,280 Speaker 1: We're talking about an outbreak that happened in the early 32 00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:40,120 Speaker 1: twentieth century in Europe, starting in about nineteen sixteen, wherein 33 00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:43,040 Speaker 1: all of a sudden, people would kind of out of nowhere, 34 00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:46,880 Speaker 1: they would lose mobility, some people would fall into a 35 00:01:46,959 --> 00:01:50,120 Speaker 1: coma like state or a sleep like state. Many many 36 00:01:50,160 --> 00:01:54,360 Speaker 1: people would die within days, and it reached epidemic proportions 37 00:01:54,400 --> 00:01:58,520 Speaker 1: in at least four continents by nineteen nineteen, killed hundreds 38 00:01:58,520 --> 00:01:59,440 Speaker 1: of thousands of people. 39 00:01:59,840 --> 00:02:03,160 Speaker 3: And it's a medical mystery because we still don't. 40 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:06,840 Speaker 1: Know exactly why it happened or why it just kind 41 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:07,760 Speaker 1: of suddenly went away. 42 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:10,600 Speaker 2: Yeah, where it came from, what caused it? Nothing, We 43 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:13,520 Speaker 2: don't know almost anything about it. They just kind of 44 00:02:13,639 --> 00:02:17,919 Speaker 2: know the symptoms enough that when you see the very 45 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:21,679 Speaker 2: very very rare case come along these days, you can say, 46 00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:25,679 Speaker 2: I think this actually is encephalitis lethargica. And there was 47 00:02:25,720 --> 00:02:28,200 Speaker 2: something you said about people being struck into like a 48 00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:32,280 Speaker 2: coma or sleeplike state. The people who are struck with 49 00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:34,880 Speaker 2: in cephalites lethargica, they weren't like laying there like sleeping 50 00:02:34,880 --> 00:02:37,640 Speaker 2: beauty on their backs with like their hands crossed over 51 00:02:37,680 --> 00:02:40,560 Speaker 2: their chest like it was like you're saying, like they 52 00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:42,320 Speaker 2: might have their hand in the air and their mouth 53 00:02:42,320 --> 00:02:44,640 Speaker 2: open and like a silent scream and their eyes were open. 54 00:02:44,720 --> 00:02:47,960 Speaker 2: They just weren't moving at all and they were just 55 00:02:48,040 --> 00:02:51,639 Speaker 2: sitting like that. That's the kind of like horrible symptom 56 00:02:51,880 --> 00:02:55,600 Speaker 2: that you could suffer from for decades. Like once that started, 57 00:02:56,040 --> 00:02:58,120 Speaker 2: it might just keep going on for the rest of 58 00:02:58,160 --> 00:03:00,560 Speaker 2: your life, even though this happened to you and childhood. 59 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:03,919 Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly so. And there's a bit of a reveal 60 00:03:03,960 --> 00:03:05,960 Speaker 1: that we're going to hang on to here. But we're 61 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:08,679 Speaker 1: gonna start off with not a reveal because that's not 62 00:03:08,760 --> 00:03:10,480 Speaker 1: how you do things in the. 63 00:03:10,440 --> 00:03:13,000 Speaker 2: Three act structure, not in the podcast. 64 00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:14,520 Speaker 3: Biz no, no, No. 65 00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:19,400 Speaker 1: We're gonna start out nineteen sixteen with a doctor constantin Vaughan. 66 00:03:20,240 --> 00:03:25,280 Speaker 1: Is it economo or Economo? I? Like the first one 67 00:03:25,720 --> 00:03:29,280 Speaker 1: that's like saying is it economy or economy? 68 00:03:30,440 --> 00:03:35,960 Speaker 2: This sounds to me like a Cosmo Kramer alias why. 69 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:37,400 Speaker 1: Don't you just tell me the name of the movie 70 00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:39,840 Speaker 1: you want to see. 71 00:03:40,360 --> 00:03:41,560 Speaker 3: I'll never not laugh at that bit. 72 00:03:41,640 --> 00:03:42,560 Speaker 2: No, it's a good one. 73 00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:43,800 Speaker 3: Oh boy. 74 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:47,640 Speaker 1: So he was a doctor at the University of Vienna's 75 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:53,600 Speaker 1: psychiatric neurological clinic and he started seeing some strange cases 76 00:03:53,680 --> 00:03:56,960 Speaker 1: come through his office in nineteen sixteen where the symptoms 77 00:03:56,960 --> 00:04:00,360 Speaker 1: were you know, they had diagnoses on the charts, like 78 00:04:00,880 --> 00:04:04,000 Speaker 1: meningitis or MS or delirium, but the symptoms weren't matching 79 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:06,840 Speaker 1: these things or anything else that he could think of. Yeah, 80 00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:10,240 Speaker 1: and the first thing he did was ruled out neurological toxins, 81 00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:15,800 Speaker 1: infections and neurological disorders, and then was like, all right, 82 00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:18,760 Speaker 1: I'm open here. Let let's like, no one knows what 83 00:04:18,800 --> 00:04:20,560 Speaker 1: this is and we need to figure it out, so 84 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:22,400 Speaker 1: let's sort of put our minds to this thing. 85 00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:25,800 Speaker 2: Yeah, he dove in. He started describing it. He wasn't 86 00:04:25,800 --> 00:04:28,240 Speaker 2: actually the first one to describe it. I think he 87 00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:31,320 Speaker 2: was actually beaten by a couple of days, even though 88 00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:33,360 Speaker 2: some people say it was the opposite way around, by 89 00:04:33,400 --> 00:04:37,640 Speaker 2: a French physician named doctor Renee Cruschet. The difference was 90 00:04:37,760 --> 00:04:42,200 Speaker 2: doctor Crusette's take was that this was maybe a behavioral disorder, 91 00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:47,039 Speaker 2: and doctor Economo von Economo said, no, this is like 92 00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:49,480 Speaker 2: clearly some sort of infection or something like that. It's 93 00:04:49,480 --> 00:04:53,320 Speaker 2: an epidemic. It's transmissible. So that's why this is sometimes 94 00:04:53,400 --> 00:04:58,520 Speaker 2: called Economo encephalitis. It was essentially named after him because 95 00:04:58,520 --> 00:05:00,000 Speaker 2: he was the guy who said, this is what's going 96 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:02,040 Speaker 2: going on. This is what I think is going on. 97 00:05:02,320 --> 00:05:04,719 Speaker 2: Check out these nutso symptoms. 98 00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:07,440 Speaker 1: Right, not so nuts to at first, because when people 99 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:10,000 Speaker 1: would come in at first, they had basically looked like 100 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:15,120 Speaker 1: the flu, you know, fever, coughing, you know, kind of 101 00:05:15,160 --> 00:05:17,520 Speaker 1: what you would think of. Everyone said the flu, right, yeah, 102 00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:20,120 Speaker 1: I don't, I don't. Yeah, there you go. 103 00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:21,960 Speaker 2: That's I watched Zuelander recently. 104 00:05:22,279 --> 00:05:24,000 Speaker 1: You know, a picture is worth a thousand words. A 105 00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:27,160 Speaker 1: Josh impression of the flu was worth at least twenty 106 00:05:27,200 --> 00:05:28,200 Speaker 1: of my words. 107 00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:29,840 Speaker 2: All right, thanks? 108 00:05:30,320 --> 00:05:32,760 Speaker 3: Was that part of Zulander, did you? 109 00:05:32,839 --> 00:05:36,120 Speaker 2: Yeah? He had the black clung when he went back 110 00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:38,560 Speaker 2: home to mine coal with his dad. 111 00:05:38,880 --> 00:05:40,320 Speaker 3: Oh, I love that dumb movie. 112 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:42,919 Speaker 2: It is a really great dumb movie. I was like, 113 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:47,760 Speaker 2: this is pretty great still. 114 00:05:45,880 --> 00:05:48,760 Speaker 1: All right, So flu like symptoms at first, then just 115 00:05:49,279 --> 00:05:52,400 Speaker 1: a huge array of neurological symptoms that were really inconsistent 116 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:57,000 Speaker 1: among the patients, the severity of which was pretty inconsistent. 117 00:05:57,120 --> 00:06:00,200 Speaker 1: Sometimes it varied widely from one to another. But one 118 00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:02,760 Speaker 1: of the most common threads of these neurological symptoms was 119 00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:08,279 Speaker 1: something called hyper somnolence, which is just really really sleepy, 120 00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:11,839 Speaker 1: like feeling really sleepy, and then eventually it could lead 121 00:06:11,839 --> 00:06:14,360 Speaker 1: to that coma like state where you're just sort of 122 00:06:14,640 --> 00:06:15,120 Speaker 1: locked in. 123 00:06:15,720 --> 00:06:19,599 Speaker 2: So here's the thing. I so the sleep, the type 124 00:06:19,600 --> 00:06:24,040 Speaker 2: of sleep though that is common among people struck within 125 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:28,200 Speaker 2: cephalitis lethargica, is not what you would consider sleep. They're 126 00:06:28,240 --> 00:06:32,400 Speaker 2: not getting rest. You can wake them very easily. They 127 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:35,800 Speaker 2: are probably semi aware of what was going on around 128 00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:39,840 Speaker 2: them the whole time they were sleeping, but they couldn't 129 00:06:39,880 --> 00:06:43,520 Speaker 2: not fall asleep. Another thing that sometimes gets chalked up 130 00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:48,360 Speaker 2: under this hypersominolence is freezing mid action, like maybe they're 131 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:52,440 Speaker 2: taking a bite of broccoli. That's a bad example because 132 00:06:52,440 --> 00:06:54,760 Speaker 2: they probably are like, I can't make myself eat this brocoli. 133 00:06:54,760 --> 00:06:57,080 Speaker 2: It's so disgusting. But let's say they're eating like a 134 00:06:57,120 --> 00:07:00,880 Speaker 2: delicious animal cracker, and they stopped mid bite. They might 135 00:07:00,920 --> 00:07:05,480 Speaker 2: not move again, or they might like hear a song 136 00:07:05,600 --> 00:07:06,839 Speaker 2: or something like that, and all of a sudden they 137 00:07:06,880 --> 00:07:10,320 Speaker 2: start eating the animal cracker again. 138 00:07:10,720 --> 00:07:11,320 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not. 139 00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:14,520 Speaker 2: The point is it's called the sleeping sickness. It's not 140 00:07:14,760 --> 00:07:16,600 Speaker 2: sleep as you would understand it. 141 00:07:16,880 --> 00:07:18,520 Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, that's good to clear that up. 142 00:07:18,640 --> 00:07:21,800 Speaker 1: Thanks, because sleeping sickness sounds pretty good to me right 143 00:07:21,800 --> 00:07:22,200 Speaker 1: about now. 144 00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:23,960 Speaker 2: It kind of does. 145 00:07:25,160 --> 00:07:27,880 Speaker 1: Half of these cases, it was a pretty wide age range. 146 00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:30,520 Speaker 1: About half of them were in people aged ten to thirty. 147 00:07:31,760 --> 00:07:33,960 Speaker 1: Like I said, a lot of the patients died. Sometimes 148 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:36,680 Speaker 1: they died within like a week or two after onset 149 00:07:36,680 --> 00:07:39,560 Speaker 1: of symptoms. There was one case of a girl who 150 00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:44,600 Speaker 1: was walking home from a concert suddenly experienced a paralysis, 151 00:07:44,720 --> 00:07:47,640 Speaker 1: fell asleep within about a half hour, and died less 152 00:07:47,640 --> 00:07:48,400 Speaker 1: than two weeks later. 153 00:07:49,520 --> 00:07:52,440 Speaker 2: There was also some weird stuff, as we'll see, that 154 00:07:52,640 --> 00:07:56,040 Speaker 2: had to do a psychiatric system symptoms, where sometimes people 155 00:07:56,120 --> 00:07:59,280 Speaker 2: would be fine after you know, suffering from this for 156 00:07:59,320 --> 00:08:02,320 Speaker 2: a couple of weeks, but they will their personality would 157 00:08:02,360 --> 00:08:06,320 Speaker 2: have changed. There was one report of I guess a 158 00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:11,080 Speaker 2: study found four reports of people who developed kleptomania after 159 00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:15,200 Speaker 2: having suffered this and then ostensibly were cured from it. 160 00:08:15,600 --> 00:08:18,360 Speaker 2: So like, it could really mess with your head, essentially 161 00:08:18,400 --> 00:08:20,600 Speaker 2: in just about any way your head can be messed with. 162 00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:25,160 Speaker 1: Uh did win Ona Writer claim that was her? Remember 163 00:08:25,200 --> 00:08:26,240 Speaker 1: when she was stealing stuff? 164 00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:27,440 Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, I remember. 165 00:08:27,920 --> 00:08:29,160 Speaker 3: It was so weird. 166 00:08:29,240 --> 00:08:29,960 Speaker 2: It was a big deal. 167 00:08:30,320 --> 00:08:33,480 Speaker 3: She came back pretty strong, which I'm glad. I like 168 00:08:33,480 --> 00:08:36,040 Speaker 3: Winona Writer. She does a great job in Stranger Things. 169 00:08:36,160 --> 00:08:39,560 Speaker 2: Oh, she's awesome and everything she's ever been in. Heather's Dude, 170 00:08:39,679 --> 00:08:41,559 Speaker 2: just one of the all time great movies. She was 171 00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:44,880 Speaker 2: great Mermaids, and then yeah, all the way through to Beetlejuice. 172 00:08:45,320 --> 00:08:48,640 Speaker 2: I'm not gonna say Beetlejuice Beetle Juice, but definitely Beetlejuice. 173 00:08:48,760 --> 00:08:49,920 Speaker 2: And then Stranger thinks. 174 00:08:49,800 --> 00:08:54,120 Speaker 3: Sure, yeah, and a great crush of much of gen 175 00:08:54,360 --> 00:08:58,120 Speaker 3: X for sure. Both dudes and chicks. 176 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:01,559 Speaker 2: You got that straight. We're talking and dudes and chicks. 177 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:03,120 Speaker 2: Jen X says that. 178 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:05,440 Speaker 3: Yeah, they do, all right. 179 00:09:05,480 --> 00:09:09,040 Speaker 1: So Van Economo was studying all these people. He was 180 00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:13,720 Speaker 1: studying corpses of these people. He finally breaks it down 181 00:09:13,800 --> 00:09:18,120 Speaker 1: into its subgroups, the first of which is acute e 182 00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:21,120 Speaker 1: l That is the initial signals that you're going to get. 183 00:09:21,200 --> 00:09:23,320 Speaker 1: We talked about the fluey kind of stuff that you 184 00:09:23,360 --> 00:09:27,240 Speaker 1: get and all these neurological symptoms that are going to follow. 185 00:09:27,640 --> 00:09:30,640 Speaker 1: Then he broke those down into three forms, from most 186 00:09:30,679 --> 00:09:37,960 Speaker 1: common to least common, starting with the most common somnolent ophthalmologic. 187 00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:44,440 Speaker 1: How would you say that, ophthalmologic ophthalmoplegic, That's what I'm going. 188 00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:46,640 Speaker 3: With, all right, that's the most deadly form. 189 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:50,079 Speaker 1: More than half the patients die when they have this form. 190 00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:54,000 Speaker 1: This is a really overwhelming sleepiness, but like you said, 191 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:57,840 Speaker 1: you're aware, you're easy to wake up. The optimal part 192 00:09:58,040 --> 00:10:01,160 Speaker 1: is ocular paralysis, so you have you're not moving your eyes, 193 00:10:01,240 --> 00:10:03,800 Speaker 1: so if people come and they wave their hand in 194 00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:05,560 Speaker 1: front of your face, your eyes aren't moving or anything 195 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:09,319 Speaker 1: like that. And also those neuro psychiatric symptoms that you 196 00:10:09,360 --> 00:10:14,920 Speaker 1: were talking about, like delirium sometimes confusion, catatonius, stupor stuff 197 00:10:14,920 --> 00:10:15,240 Speaker 1: like that. 198 00:10:15,440 --> 00:10:18,640 Speaker 2: There was also the worst report that I saw, and like, 199 00:10:18,720 --> 00:10:20,760 Speaker 2: I didn't see anything like this, but I checked and 200 00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:22,800 Speaker 2: it does seem to have been a case report of 201 00:10:22,840 --> 00:10:27,200 Speaker 2: a girl from the thirties who basically had a psychotic 202 00:10:27,240 --> 00:10:29,600 Speaker 2: break because of it, and she pulled out all of 203 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:31,520 Speaker 2: her own teeth and ouch out both of her eyes. 204 00:10:31,760 --> 00:10:35,439 Speaker 2: A little girl did because of this. And again it's 205 00:10:35,480 --> 00:10:38,880 Speaker 2: just some weird outlier symptom. But as you see, when 206 00:10:38,880 --> 00:10:41,640 Speaker 2: we get further and further into this, it's just the 207 00:10:41,720 --> 00:10:47,080 Speaker 2: brain getting eaten up somehow someway in some fairly predictable regions. 208 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:51,000 Speaker 2: So it's creating this whole cascade or galaxy of different 209 00:10:51,440 --> 00:10:54,319 Speaker 2: symptoms that are just the worst things that can happen 210 00:10:54,320 --> 00:10:55,560 Speaker 2: to your brain happening. 211 00:10:56,240 --> 00:11:00,559 Speaker 1: Yeah, the next subgroup of the next least or I 212 00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:03,360 Speaker 1: guess the next most common depending on which way you're 213 00:11:03,360 --> 00:11:07,280 Speaker 1: looking at it, is hyperkinetic. That is mania basically is 214 00:11:07,280 --> 00:11:08,839 Speaker 1: the big part of this one. You have a manic 215 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:14,080 Speaker 1: phase in voluntary vocalizations and kind of herky jerky movements, 216 00:11:14,440 --> 00:11:16,920 Speaker 1: and then a hypomanic phase where there's a lot of fatigue, 217 00:11:16,920 --> 00:11:20,200 Speaker 1: a lot of weakness, you can hallucinate, you can have 218 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:23,040 Speaker 1: nerve pain in your limbs and in your face. And 219 00:11:23,840 --> 00:11:27,120 Speaker 1: this is one of the odder symptoms is your sleep 220 00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:30,880 Speaker 1: pattern will flip from day to night or I guess 221 00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:31,920 Speaker 1: night to day. 222 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:34,280 Speaker 3: If you were a factory worker or something. 223 00:11:34,679 --> 00:11:37,680 Speaker 2: And there's another thing with that sleeping sickness part, you know, 224 00:11:37,800 --> 00:11:40,800 Speaker 2: like your sleep is messed up. I also saw a 225 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:44,360 Speaker 2: chuck that in at least one of these people might 226 00:11:44,400 --> 00:11:47,200 Speaker 2: also be super sleepy but not be able to fall 227 00:11:47,240 --> 00:11:50,560 Speaker 2: asleep no matter how hard they try, which sounds worse 228 00:11:50,600 --> 00:11:52,320 Speaker 2: to me than most of the other stuff. 229 00:11:52,960 --> 00:11:53,360 Speaker 3: For sure. 230 00:11:53,600 --> 00:11:56,600 Speaker 2: There's a third one that he said is the least common, 231 00:11:56,640 --> 00:11:59,240 Speaker 2: but it's also a way that it can present. It's 232 00:11:59,280 --> 00:12:05,520 Speaker 2: called hemiostatic akinetic, which is you can't move akinesis. And 233 00:12:05,600 --> 00:12:08,440 Speaker 2: this is kind of what the classic idea of what 234 00:12:08,840 --> 00:12:13,400 Speaker 2: encephalitis lethargica looks like, where you're just you're just sitting 235 00:12:13,440 --> 00:12:16,320 Speaker 2: there with like, yeah, your right arms in the air, 236 00:12:16,559 --> 00:12:20,559 Speaker 2: your left arms a little further down, your mouth's open. 237 00:12:21,040 --> 00:12:26,240 Speaker 2: You're basically a statue essentially, is how it's described. You're 238 00:12:26,400 --> 00:12:30,000 Speaker 2: frozen in place and you're not going to move until 239 00:12:30,120 --> 00:12:33,640 Speaker 2: somebody maybe put some slight pressure on your arm and 240 00:12:33,679 --> 00:12:35,800 Speaker 2: then maybe you'll move it down. But it's not that 241 00:12:36,040 --> 00:12:37,680 Speaker 2: they're just going to put pressure on your arm for 242 00:12:37,679 --> 00:12:39,760 Speaker 2: a second and then you move your arm down, like 243 00:12:39,800 --> 00:12:42,360 Speaker 2: they have to move your arm down. And this is 244 00:12:42,400 --> 00:12:46,640 Speaker 2: what's called waxy flexibility. You can pose somebody in this 245 00:12:46,800 --> 00:12:50,960 Speaker 2: state any way that you want them to, So you 246 00:12:51,040 --> 00:12:54,360 Speaker 2: have to be very kind when you're dealing with patients 247 00:12:54,440 --> 00:12:54,679 Speaker 2: like this. 248 00:12:55,480 --> 00:12:58,400 Speaker 1: Yeah, I could not help but think that waxyf of 249 00:12:58,440 --> 00:13:02,880 Speaker 1: flexibility sounds like an album title for sure, like Guided 250 00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:04,280 Speaker 1: by Voices or somebody. 251 00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:06,240 Speaker 2: Lips inc. 252 00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:08,640 Speaker 3: Is that a real band? 253 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:10,760 Speaker 2: Yeah, they're a function town people. 254 00:13:11,200 --> 00:13:16,679 Speaker 3: Oh oh okay, yeah, oh waxy flexibility. Sure nailed it. God, 255 00:13:16,840 --> 00:13:18,040 Speaker 3: why voice is? What was I thinking? 256 00:13:18,200 --> 00:13:22,760 Speaker 2: This is the the biggest part to me, I guess 257 00:13:22,840 --> 00:13:25,719 Speaker 2: part of all of this because of the sleeping part. 258 00:13:25,920 --> 00:13:28,840 Speaker 2: The people suffering this, including the people who are or 259 00:13:28,880 --> 00:13:33,120 Speaker 2: wax figures frozen in place for years or decades potentially, 260 00:13:34,400 --> 00:13:39,120 Speaker 2: are there mentally. They're not like locked in as in 261 00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:41,720 Speaker 2: locked in syndrome, where they know every single thing that's 262 00:13:41,720 --> 00:13:45,040 Speaker 2: going on around them at all times, right, But they're 263 00:13:45,160 --> 00:13:49,280 Speaker 2: essentially in the same boat where they're aware of stuff. 264 00:13:49,280 --> 00:13:52,400 Speaker 2: They're aware of time passing. There were people coming and 265 00:13:52,440 --> 00:13:58,080 Speaker 2: going and interacting with them. They cannot respond, they can't speak, 266 00:13:58,120 --> 00:14:00,800 Speaker 2: they can't change their position of their eye, they can't 267 00:14:00,960 --> 00:14:04,440 Speaker 2: focus their attention, they can't do anything that would suggest 268 00:14:04,520 --> 00:14:08,199 Speaker 2: to anyone that they are there in any way to 269 00:14:08,400 --> 00:14:12,280 Speaker 2: er form. And it wasn't until a genuine medical miracle 270 00:14:12,320 --> 00:14:15,680 Speaker 2: took place that we understood, Oh my god, these people 271 00:14:15,760 --> 00:14:18,200 Speaker 2: have been there in their heads the whole time. They're 272 00:14:18,240 --> 00:14:22,480 Speaker 2: not just like comatose, like just completely out of consciousness. 273 00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:24,040 Speaker 2: They're conscious. 274 00:14:24,320 --> 00:14:28,760 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, for sure. And you know, earlier I said 275 00:14:28,800 --> 00:14:30,960 Speaker 1: like they're locked in. I didn't mean the literal locked 276 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:33,000 Speaker 1: in syndrome. I just meant sort of, you know, look 277 00:14:33,080 --> 00:14:33,720 Speaker 1: like they're locked in. 278 00:14:34,600 --> 00:14:36,800 Speaker 2: Yeah. I didn't take it like that, Yeah, but I 279 00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:40,920 Speaker 2: think people might have. So, yeah, well, come on, guys. 280 00:14:41,520 --> 00:14:43,880 Speaker 1: We don't know how many cases there were. It was 281 00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:47,320 Speaker 1: a legitimate pandemic, though it's one of the things that 282 00:14:47,400 --> 00:14:48,359 Speaker 1: was hard to diagnose. 283 00:14:48,920 --> 00:14:50,680 Speaker 3: They think it was under diagnosed and. 284 00:14:50,600 --> 00:14:53,680 Speaker 1: Reported estimates run from five hundred thousand to more than 285 00:14:53,720 --> 00:14:56,320 Speaker 1: a million, but they think that maybe half of the 286 00:14:56,360 --> 00:14:58,440 Speaker 1: cases weren't even reported to who knows how many it 287 00:14:58,480 --> 00:15:01,640 Speaker 1: could have been. About a third of them died, a 288 00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:05,080 Speaker 1: third survived and we're kind of okay, And then a 289 00:15:05,120 --> 00:15:10,360 Speaker 1: third survived and then got it again later on, and 290 00:15:10,440 --> 00:15:13,000 Speaker 1: that is acute eel. So maybe we should take a 291 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:14,920 Speaker 1: break and talk about chronic el after. 292 00:15:14,720 --> 00:15:44,280 Speaker 2: This let's all right, We'll be right back, okay, Chuck. 293 00:15:44,360 --> 00:15:45,960 Speaker 2: So a lot of the stuff I was talking about 294 00:15:45,960 --> 00:15:49,640 Speaker 2: about people being frozen in place as if they were statues, 295 00:15:49,680 --> 00:15:54,120 Speaker 2: they had waxy flexibility, mutism, catatonia, They weren't able to 296 00:15:54,160 --> 00:15:58,320 Speaker 2: respond or move or anything. When I said for like 297 00:15:58,400 --> 00:16:02,520 Speaker 2: years or decades, more accurately, I would have been referring 298 00:16:02,560 --> 00:16:06,920 Speaker 2: to the chronic form of encephalitis lethargica, because it was 299 00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:10,160 Speaker 2: essentially it seems to me kind of like ammeostatic akinetic, 300 00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:14,320 Speaker 2: but for years and years. The scariest part about all 301 00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:19,080 Speaker 2: this was that you had gone through the standard case 302 00:16:19,520 --> 00:16:23,840 Speaker 2: of encephalitis lethargica, one of those three that we just 303 00:16:23,920 --> 00:16:28,560 Speaker 2: talked about, and got better. You may have died, You 304 00:16:28,640 --> 00:16:33,160 Speaker 2: may have gotten better, but maybe you had like behavior changes, 305 00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:35,480 Speaker 2: like you turned into a kleptomaniac or something like that. 306 00:16:36,160 --> 00:16:39,600 Speaker 2: Or you got better and thought everything was fine, but 307 00:16:39,720 --> 00:16:44,400 Speaker 2: then you suddenly suffered from being just a ton of 308 00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:46,160 Speaker 2: bricks being dropped on you, and all of a sudden 309 00:16:46,160 --> 00:16:48,040 Speaker 2: you can't move for the rest of your life, even 310 00:16:48,080 --> 00:16:50,200 Speaker 2: though it's been ten years since you had that case 311 00:16:50,440 --> 00:16:52,080 Speaker 2: of encephalitis lethargica. 312 00:16:52,680 --> 00:16:56,480 Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. The chronic is much the same as 313 00:16:56,520 --> 00:16:59,200 Speaker 1: the earlier but with a few added symptoms, one of 314 00:16:59,240 --> 00:17:02,880 Speaker 1: which is very, very strange. You can have mood swings, 315 00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:08,080 Speaker 1: pretty normal feelings of euphoria, and maybe even an increased libido, 316 00:17:08,240 --> 00:17:12,480 Speaker 1: which is not the weirdest thing psychosis in about thirty 317 00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:15,800 Speaker 1: percent of patients, again not the most abnormal thing in 318 00:17:15,800 --> 00:17:19,320 Speaker 1: the world, but excessive silliness in the use of puns 319 00:17:19,800 --> 00:17:22,640 Speaker 1: was an actual symptom that they saw over and over 320 00:17:22,720 --> 00:17:26,040 Speaker 1: again in acute cases. Yeah, isn't that bizarre or not 321 00:17:26,080 --> 00:17:28,000 Speaker 1: acute in chronic cases, right? 322 00:17:28,080 --> 00:17:31,840 Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, But again, the defining trait, the one that 323 00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:33,639 Speaker 2: people would point to and be like, oh, that person 324 00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:37,600 Speaker 2: has chronic encephalitis lethargica is that statue thing that I 325 00:17:37,600 --> 00:17:41,520 Speaker 2: was talking about, And that's more clinically called rather than 326 00:17:41,560 --> 00:17:46,199 Speaker 2: that statue thing, doctors tend to call it post encephalotic parkinsonism, 327 00:17:46,880 --> 00:17:50,760 Speaker 2: and parkinsonism is one of those difficult things to grasp 328 00:17:50,840 --> 00:17:54,520 Speaker 2: until you just stop trying to think too hard about it. 329 00:17:54,520 --> 00:17:58,960 Speaker 2: It's essentially a bunch of movement in neurological symptoms and dysfunctions, 330 00:17:59,720 --> 00:18:06,520 Speaker 2: and Parkinson's includes parkinsonism, but not all parkinsonism is Parkinson's disease. 331 00:18:07,359 --> 00:18:11,439 Speaker 2: That's right, Okay, it took me way longer than I 332 00:18:11,480 --> 00:18:13,760 Speaker 2: care to admit to finally just nail that down and 333 00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:16,440 Speaker 2: stop running in circles trying to figure it out. 334 00:18:16,840 --> 00:18:19,600 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think they even had. One of 335 00:18:19,600 --> 00:18:26,400 Speaker 1: the reasons they call it post encephalitic PARKINSONI is parkinsonism parkinsonism, Gez, 336 00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:28,439 Speaker 1: that's a tough one, I know, or PEP is to 337 00:18:28,520 --> 00:18:31,680 Speaker 1: distinguish it from Parkinson's isn't exactly the same thing. 338 00:18:31,840 --> 00:18:33,760 Speaker 2: Yeah, And one of the big things that distinguish it, 339 00:18:33,800 --> 00:18:36,119 Speaker 2: because a lot of that shares a lot of symptoms. 340 00:18:36,200 --> 00:18:39,720 Speaker 2: But one of the things that distinguishes post encephalatic parkinsonism 341 00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:45,119 Speaker 2: and Parkinson's disease is that Parkinson's disease progresses gradually in 342 00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:49,439 Speaker 2: a predictable pattern. Post Encephalatic parkinsonism, like I said, it 343 00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:51,879 Speaker 2: can come out of the blue. You could be again 344 00:18:51,960 --> 00:18:54,439 Speaker 2: sitting there eating an animal cracker, and all of a sudden, 345 00:18:54,600 --> 00:18:56,920 Speaker 2: you never finished eating that animal cracker for the rest 346 00:18:56,920 --> 00:18:59,720 Speaker 2: of your life. It just can suddenly come out of 347 00:18:59,720 --> 00:19:03,359 Speaker 2: no where and you're just living your normal life, and 348 00:19:03,359 --> 00:19:05,480 Speaker 2: then all of a sudden, you're in an institution and 349 00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:08,600 Speaker 2: you're bound never to move again unless you happen to 350 00:19:08,600 --> 00:19:10,800 Speaker 2: be in the right place at the right time in 351 00:19:10,840 --> 00:19:12,280 Speaker 2: the late nineteen sixties. 352 00:19:12,800 --> 00:19:15,080 Speaker 1: That's right, And this is the big reveal. If you 353 00:19:15,119 --> 00:19:17,080 Speaker 1: were hearing these symptoms and you think, hey, that sounds 354 00:19:17,080 --> 00:19:19,280 Speaker 1: awfully familiar. I think I saw a movie about that, 355 00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:23,160 Speaker 1: then you're correct. This is the movie from the book Awakenings, 356 00:19:23,760 --> 00:19:27,520 Speaker 1: based on neurologist Oliver Sacks' book of the same name 357 00:19:29,160 --> 00:19:31,800 Speaker 1: about his work with EEL patients in the nineteen sixties. 358 00:19:31,840 --> 00:19:34,000 Speaker 1: I think there were eighty chronic el patients he worked 359 00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:37,240 Speaker 1: with at Beth Abraham Hospital in the Bronx, New York 360 00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:39,359 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty six. 361 00:19:40,320 --> 00:19:42,760 Speaker 3: When this came around and Oliver Sacks was in there, 362 00:19:44,440 --> 00:19:45,760 Speaker 3: e L had gone away. 363 00:19:45,800 --> 00:19:48,120 Speaker 1: Basically, it was a medical footnote, and not a lot 364 00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:51,200 Speaker 1: of people in the nineteen sixties even knew much about 365 00:19:51,240 --> 00:19:53,280 Speaker 1: it because it was one of those things that they 366 00:19:53,320 --> 00:19:55,200 Speaker 1: never figured out what it was, or how it started, 367 00:19:55,280 --> 00:19:56,480 Speaker 1: or how to cure it or anything. 368 00:19:56,720 --> 00:19:57,760 Speaker 3: It kind of just went away. 369 00:19:57,800 --> 00:20:00,280 Speaker 1: So all the doctors were like, all right, God, I 370 00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:02,720 Speaker 1: guess we don't worry about that anymore, right exactly, And 371 00:20:02,960 --> 00:20:03,800 Speaker 1: they just moved. 372 00:20:03,600 --> 00:20:04,480 Speaker 3: On to their other work. 373 00:20:05,080 --> 00:20:08,440 Speaker 1: There was a nineteen eighty five NPR interview where he 374 00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:12,639 Speaker 1: was talking about this is a quote motionless figures who 375 00:20:12,680 --> 00:20:17,399 Speaker 1: were transfixed in strange postures, sometimes rather dramatic postures, sometimes not, 376 00:20:17,880 --> 00:20:20,800 Speaker 1: with an absolute absence of motion, without any hint of motion, 377 00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:24,679 Speaker 1: So everything looked frozen. And that was you know, Robert 378 00:20:24,680 --> 00:20:26,600 Speaker 1: de Niro's character in the movie Awakenings. 379 00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:30,959 Speaker 2: Yeah, and all the others that he eventually grabbed together. Yeah, 380 00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:33,280 Speaker 2: in assemble. When's the last time he saw Awakenings. 381 00:20:34,240 --> 00:20:36,439 Speaker 3: It's been a while. I think I remember thinking it 382 00:20:36,440 --> 00:20:37,680 Speaker 3: was a pretty good movie back then. Though. 383 00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:40,680 Speaker 2: It's a great movie. Yeah, I watched it last night. 384 00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:42,399 Speaker 3: Who directed that? Do you know? 385 00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:44,720 Speaker 2: Laverne? Oh? 386 00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:45,639 Speaker 3: Was that Penny Marshall? 387 00:20:45,760 --> 00:20:48,320 Speaker 2: Yeah? She did. It was great. I mean, like, I 388 00:20:48,359 --> 00:20:50,359 Speaker 2: don't remember if Tonio got an oscar or not, but 389 00:20:50,400 --> 00:20:54,320 Speaker 2: if you didn't, that's one of the all time great snubs. Yeah, 390 00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:58,159 Speaker 2: she did amazing. I forgot how wonderful Robin Williams is 391 00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:00,959 Speaker 2: to just man, what a great guy that dude was. 392 00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:03,560 Speaker 2: Great dude, great movie too. 393 00:21:03,600 --> 00:21:05,680 Speaker 1: Watching a thing with him this morning and very very 394 00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:06,280 Speaker 1: sad stuff. 395 00:21:06,359 --> 00:21:07,199 Speaker 2: Where were you watching? 396 00:21:08,720 --> 00:21:10,920 Speaker 1: It? Was an Instagram post of him with his mother 397 00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:14,520 Speaker 1: and his mother making him laugh, and I think the 398 00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:16,560 Speaker 1: whole point of the post was like, you rarely got 399 00:21:16,600 --> 00:21:20,440 Speaker 1: to hear Robin Williams like genuine laugh. And I heard 400 00:21:20,480 --> 00:21:21,840 Speaker 1: it and I was like, yeah, I don't know if 401 00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:23,479 Speaker 1: I really ever heard that. And his mom made him 402 00:21:23,520 --> 00:21:23,920 Speaker 1: laugh that hard. 403 00:21:23,920 --> 00:21:24,520 Speaker 3: It was really sweet. 404 00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:25,400 Speaker 2: Can you do an impression? 405 00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:27,880 Speaker 3: It was kind of a haha ha thing. 406 00:21:28,280 --> 00:21:32,119 Speaker 1: No, I mean, not like that, but it was exuberant, 407 00:21:32,160 --> 00:21:34,280 Speaker 1: but it was like ha ha ha ha, not. 408 00:21:34,200 --> 00:21:35,920 Speaker 3: Like my goofy childish laugh. 409 00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:39,479 Speaker 2: I got you. Yeah. So good movie, and it was 410 00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:42,680 Speaker 2: one hundred percent based on this so much so that 411 00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:46,119 Speaker 2: it's funny they went to the trouble of changing the 412 00:21:46,240 --> 00:21:50,119 Speaker 2: names of the change names that Oliver Sacks had in 413 00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:50,560 Speaker 2: the book. 414 00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:51,399 Speaker 3: Wow. 415 00:21:51,760 --> 00:21:56,040 Speaker 2: So yeah. So Wakenning's actually is pretty faithful in a 416 00:21:56,040 --> 00:21:57,480 Speaker 2: lot of ways. I mean there's a lot of like 417 00:21:57,560 --> 00:22:00,560 Speaker 2: movie stuff literary license in there, but yeah, the most part, 418 00:22:00,560 --> 00:22:03,440 Speaker 2: it's pretty faithful to Oliver Sax's book. And again it's nonfiction, 419 00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:06,560 Speaker 2: like Sex as a neurologist. Ory was a great neurologist 420 00:22:06,560 --> 00:22:08,879 Speaker 2: and a great writer too, so he didn't take a 421 00:22:08,920 --> 00:22:11,480 Speaker 2: lot of literary license as far as I understand. So 422 00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:14,240 Speaker 2: the movie. Being close to the book means the movie 423 00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:16,800 Speaker 2: was fairly close to real life. And one of the 424 00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:21,439 Speaker 2: tests that Oliver Sex conducted was he would demonstrate that 425 00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:28,640 Speaker 2: these people had demonstrated what's called paradoxical kinesia, where somebody 426 00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:32,199 Speaker 2: who seemingly can't move and hasn't moved for days, months, 427 00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:35,639 Speaker 2: however long it was since the last time somebody moved 428 00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:40,439 Speaker 2: them could suddenly move in a way that they just 429 00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:42,760 Speaker 2: should not be able to. And the way that he 430 00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:44,840 Speaker 2: demonstrates it in the movie, and I believe in the 431 00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:47,480 Speaker 2: book he did this too, was he would toss them 432 00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:50,199 Speaker 2: a ball, and all of a sudden, somebody who's just 433 00:22:50,240 --> 00:22:51,960 Speaker 2: sitting there with their hands in the air and their 434 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:55,800 Speaker 2: face frozen in this mass, this expressionless mask, just suddenly 435 00:22:55,880 --> 00:22:59,320 Speaker 2: moves their hand without even moving their eyes and catches 436 00:22:59,400 --> 00:23:03,240 Speaker 2: the ball. And that was, I think, again, at least 437 00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:05,920 Speaker 2: in the movie, I haven't read the book, how he 438 00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:09,960 Speaker 2: identified people in this what they call the chronic hospital 439 00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:14,320 Speaker 2: that he worked at in the Bronx by by finding 440 00:23:14,400 --> 00:23:17,320 Speaker 2: somebody who kind of fit these symptoms and then tossing 441 00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:19,760 Speaker 2: a ball at them. And there's a very cute, funny 442 00:23:19,760 --> 00:23:21,560 Speaker 2: part where he does it to one person and she 443 00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:23,240 Speaker 2: gets hit in the face and is like, ah, why'd 444 00:23:23,240 --> 00:23:28,000 Speaker 2: you do that? She clearly didn't have encephalitis lethargic as 445 00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:28,960 Speaker 2: pretty cute. 446 00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:31,400 Speaker 3: It sounded a couple of minutes ago, Like you said, 447 00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:32,480 Speaker 3: Oliver Sex. 448 00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:36,520 Speaker 2: I know, I didn't correct myself. You're an all time 449 00:23:36,560 --> 00:23:39,280 Speaker 2: great conversation analyst though for noticing. 450 00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:41,359 Speaker 1: That, well, I just I mean, that's a different movie altogether, 451 00:23:41,680 --> 00:23:42,560 Speaker 1: Oliver Sex. 452 00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:44,240 Speaker 3: Yeah, also called Awakening. 453 00:23:44,320 --> 00:23:46,680 Speaker 2: So yeah, God, was that a couple of minutes ago? 454 00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:48,920 Speaker 2: I've been Have I been talking that much? Oh? 455 00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:50,359 Speaker 3: I have no sense of time. It might have been 456 00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:51,080 Speaker 3: ten seconds. 457 00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:53,680 Speaker 2: That was amazing, Chuck, you've been killing it with the 458 00:23:53,760 --> 00:23:54,439 Speaker 2: jokes lately. 459 00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:55,080 Speaker 3: Oh. 460 00:23:55,119 --> 00:23:55,879 Speaker 2: Thanks. 461 00:23:56,720 --> 00:23:58,600 Speaker 1: One of the things you mentioned there is like they 462 00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:01,000 Speaker 1: could catch a ball or something. Thing that would happen, 463 00:24:01,119 --> 00:24:03,840 Speaker 1: Like he said that if there was an emergency, like 464 00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:06,080 Speaker 1: another patient falls on the floor, all of a sudden, 465 00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:09,480 Speaker 1: somebody who like previously has not moved for days or 466 00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:12,280 Speaker 1: weeks or months might just leap up out of their 467 00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:15,600 Speaker 1: wheelchair and assist them and then sit back down and 468 00:24:15,680 --> 00:24:18,919 Speaker 1: go back to their statue pose. And that phenomenon that 469 00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:22,080 Speaker 1: you're talking about is that's the big key difference between 470 00:24:22,840 --> 00:24:28,960 Speaker 1: PEP and Parkinson's disease is called kinesia paradoxical, where you're switching, 471 00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:32,040 Speaker 1: you know, between mobility and immobility, and that is not 472 00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:35,440 Speaker 1: something that happens generally in Parkinson's. 473 00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:37,680 Speaker 2: No, but I saw that it does some so yeah, 474 00:24:37,680 --> 00:24:40,040 Speaker 2: but I think for the most part it's more associated 475 00:24:40,040 --> 00:24:45,520 Speaker 2: with chronic encephalitis lethargica, right, Yeah, So the original things 476 00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:51,000 Speaker 2: where this disease, this mysterious disease, incephalitis lethargica, suddenly appeared 477 00:24:51,040 --> 00:24:54,520 Speaker 2: out of nowhere in nineteen fifteen sixteen, ravaged the world 478 00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:58,760 Speaker 2: for ten years, and then just vanished. And like you said, 479 00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:01,840 Speaker 2: let a whole generation of neurologists off the hook for 480 00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:07,800 Speaker 2: having to explain what it was like. They really tried, 481 00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:11,360 Speaker 2: like people like Economo really tried to figure this out. 482 00:25:11,359 --> 00:25:15,199 Speaker 2: I think nine thousand papers were written during this epidemic. Yeah, 483 00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:18,080 Speaker 2: and there were some things that they kind of were 484 00:25:18,119 --> 00:25:22,600 Speaker 2: able to pin down, but the big, big questions were 485 00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:26,480 Speaker 2: just left unanswered. We just don't know. Like one of 486 00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:28,920 Speaker 2: the big ones is how do you even catch this 487 00:25:29,200 --> 00:25:30,320 Speaker 2: terrible disease? 488 00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:33,320 Speaker 1: Yeah, like is it contagious or not? They still didn't 489 00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:36,040 Speaker 1: have a definitive answer at the end of their study 490 00:25:36,040 --> 00:25:40,600 Speaker 1: on that evidence on transmission was really really mixed. There 491 00:25:40,600 --> 00:25:43,000 Speaker 1: were a couple of anecdotal cases that kind of illustrate that. 492 00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:47,040 Speaker 1: One of them that was among seven members of a 493 00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:50,200 Speaker 1: family in a small apartment, only one family member got sick. 494 00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:53,200 Speaker 1: Another case, there was a girl living at something called 495 00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:58,240 Speaker 1: the Derby and Derbyshire Rescue and Training Home, showed signs 496 00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:01,439 Speaker 1: of el and then very soon within two weeks, twelve 497 00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:04,879 Speaker 1: of the twenty one residents got sick. So, you know, 498 00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:08,480 Speaker 1: both cases, like one looks clearly contagious, the other one 499 00:26:08,560 --> 00:26:10,119 Speaker 1: doesn't look like it's at all contagious. 500 00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:11,199 Speaker 3: So they didn't know. 501 00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:13,840 Speaker 1: Maybe they thought some people might be immune, maybe they're 502 00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:17,359 Speaker 1: different strains that were contagious or had different levels of contagiousness, 503 00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:20,800 Speaker 1: or maybe it's just something that they never figured out. 504 00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:23,399 Speaker 2: Yeah, and I was wondering too if the twelve of 505 00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:25,840 Speaker 2: the twenty one residents getting sick at that one home 506 00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:29,240 Speaker 2: was maybe just a case of mass hysteria or something interesting. 507 00:26:29,359 --> 00:26:29,879 Speaker 3: Yeah. 508 00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:32,160 Speaker 2: No, I think half of the people who got sick 509 00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:34,400 Speaker 2: died within ten days of falling ill, so they were 510 00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:37,959 Speaker 2: not Yeah, that was not mass hysteria, So that is 511 00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:41,200 Speaker 2: just a genuine mystery, right, Like, this just doesn't make 512 00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:44,560 Speaker 2: any kind of sense whatsoever. So they started trying to 513 00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:47,600 Speaker 2: rule out things they thought it wasn't right. One was 514 00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:51,359 Speaker 2: environmental causes, so that would make it toxic encephalitis. And 515 00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:54,000 Speaker 2: I don't even know if we said at the outset, 516 00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:56,240 Speaker 2: did you I think that encephalitis is swelling of the 517 00:26:56,280 --> 00:26:57,359 Speaker 2: brain and spinal cord. 518 00:26:58,040 --> 00:27:00,280 Speaker 3: Oh no, Okay, So. 519 00:27:01,040 --> 00:27:03,600 Speaker 2: I'm sure everybody got like a pretty good idea that 520 00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:06,200 Speaker 2: encephalitis is something bad that you don't want to have. 521 00:27:06,880 --> 00:27:09,200 Speaker 2: But what it is is a condition where your brain 522 00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:12,960 Speaker 2: and or your spinal cord swells and it can start 523 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:15,639 Speaker 2: taking on water, and from doing that, all sorts of 524 00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:19,320 Speaker 2: terrible things can happen. The thing is, encephalitis is not 525 00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:23,679 Speaker 2: just specific to encephalitis lethargica. A lot of different things 526 00:27:24,040 --> 00:27:28,000 Speaker 2: can make your brain and central nervous system swell. A 527 00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:30,320 Speaker 2: disturbing amount of things can make that happen, actually if 528 00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:32,360 Speaker 2: you stop and think about it. And one of those 529 00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:36,760 Speaker 2: things is environmental toxins. So that's toxic encephalitis. And that 530 00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:39,560 Speaker 2: got ruled out very quickly because there just was no 531 00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:46,679 Speaker 2: pattern whatsoever where everybody was exposed to you know, like 532 00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:50,919 Speaker 2: a Tesseract made of kryptonite or something like that for 533 00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:52,920 Speaker 2: our nerd fans. 534 00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:54,520 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's good. 535 00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:56,879 Speaker 2: I tried to touch you as bone just screwed it 536 00:27:56,960 --> 00:27:59,399 Speaker 2: up royally, So I'm sorry. I think I may have 537 00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:02,960 Speaker 2: just conflated did DC and Marvel and. 538 00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:04,880 Speaker 3: Uh yeah, yeah, distractice Marvel? 539 00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:07,040 Speaker 2: Dude, No, I love it. 540 00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:08,760 Speaker 3: I love it. 541 00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:09,080 Speaker 1: Man. 542 00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:15,200 Speaker 3: You should meld those Superman meets Thanos. Sure, I want 543 00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:16,080 Speaker 3: to see those dudes fight. 544 00:28:16,560 --> 00:28:19,000 Speaker 2: Oh it'd be great. I'm sure that would be a 545 00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:20,520 Speaker 2: really interesting fight to watch. 546 00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:22,680 Speaker 1: Somebody's going to write in and say, actually, guys, it 547 00:28:22,760 --> 00:28:24,880 Speaker 1: happened in nineteen eighty seven, when. 548 00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:28,840 Speaker 3: You know, dude put out a comic. 549 00:28:28,960 --> 00:28:30,879 Speaker 2: I suspect that those people aren't going to speak to 550 00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:32,640 Speaker 2: us any longer. I think you're right. 551 00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:35,760 Speaker 1: Uh So, like you said, they rule that out, the 552 00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:41,280 Speaker 1: toxic exposure. Then they moved on to an infectious kind 553 00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:46,640 Speaker 1: of possibility, infectious encephalitis in fact, and that can be 554 00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:52,120 Speaker 1: you know, and infectious and cephalitis is a thing, So 555 00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:53,800 Speaker 1: it's not like we're we think it's that that was 556 00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:56,760 Speaker 1: already a thing. It can be secondary to bacterial or 557 00:28:56,800 --> 00:29:01,640 Speaker 1: fungal or viral or parasitic infection to use virus, it's 558 00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:04,880 Speaker 1: the most common type of encephalitis. It could be like 559 00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:09,000 Speaker 1: from the herpes virus, or maybe measles or West Nile, 560 00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:13,240 Speaker 1: even influenza. And considering how this went on during the 561 00:29:13,280 --> 00:29:17,000 Speaker 1: Spanish Flu initially, which happened in nineteen eighteen, and there 562 00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:19,720 Speaker 1: were flu like symptoms, they thought that, you know, this 563 00:29:20,800 --> 00:29:26,640 Speaker 1: probably early on at least was an influenza led infectious encephalitis. 564 00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:30,880 Speaker 2: Yeah, and that was I think von Economo's leading theory, 565 00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:32,880 Speaker 2: which makes a lot of sense because they tracked with 566 00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:36,040 Speaker 2: one another, like you said, at least the start. So 567 00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:40,160 Speaker 2: was this just some horrible strain of Spanish flu that 568 00:29:40,200 --> 00:29:43,840 Speaker 2: managed to continue on for years after Spanish Flu? And 569 00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:50,520 Speaker 2: I think that was incontrovertibly proven incorrect, because actually, in 570 00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:52,440 Speaker 2: when I did The End of the World, I talked 571 00:29:52,440 --> 00:29:54,920 Speaker 2: about this guy who went up and dug up the 572 00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:57,440 Speaker 2: corpse of an Inuit woman who had died from Spanish 573 00:29:57,480 --> 00:29:59,920 Speaker 2: flu to get enough of the genome of it to 574 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:02,800 Speaker 2: so bring the Spanish flu back to life to study it. 575 00:30:02,800 --> 00:30:06,480 Speaker 2: It's one of the most breathtakingly arrogant moments in all 576 00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:09,600 Speaker 2: of science for somebody to do that. But the reason 577 00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:13,760 Speaker 2: we know that encephalitis lethargica wasn't caused by the Spanish 578 00:30:13,760 --> 00:30:16,360 Speaker 2: flu is because we had the Spanish flu genome and 579 00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:21,640 Speaker 2: we couldn't find any Spanish flu RNA in like collections 580 00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:24,640 Speaker 2: of tissue samples of brains of people who definitely died 581 00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:29,080 Speaker 2: from encephalitis lethargica, Spanish flu wasn't there. Ergo, it wasn't 582 00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:30,920 Speaker 2: Spanish flu. 583 00:30:31,160 --> 00:30:33,880 Speaker 1: And because Josh is always too humble to say so. 584 00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:36,280 Speaker 1: After an End of the World reference everyone if you 585 00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:40,640 Speaker 1: don't know, Josh had a great solo album, a eight 586 00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:41,600 Speaker 1: part or ten part. 587 00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:46,720 Speaker 2: It was a ten part subtitled Waxy Flexibility. 588 00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:49,920 Speaker 1: The End of the World with Josh Clark, where he 589 00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:55,800 Speaker 1: one episode at a time, examined ten I can't think 590 00:30:55,800 --> 00:31:01,080 Speaker 1: of the word existential risks that could humanity, some of 591 00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:02,960 Speaker 1: which are currently underway. 592 00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:05,440 Speaker 2: Thanks a lot, Chuck, I appreciate that was really nice 593 00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:05,600 Speaker 2: to say. 594 00:31:05,640 --> 00:31:06,920 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeh, very great. 595 00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:09,080 Speaker 1: You got to be a smarty pants, But even if 596 00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:10,600 Speaker 1: you're not as smarty pants, you should still give it 597 00:31:10,640 --> 00:31:12,200 Speaker 1: a shot. I think because I gave it a shot 598 00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:13,320 Speaker 1: and I'm not as smarty pants. 599 00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:16,160 Speaker 2: Hey, you are smarty pants, but yes, smarty pants are no. 600 00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:19,000 Speaker 2: I think everybody can be equally scared by this. 601 00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:21,320 Speaker 1: Yeah, you did live shows too, So if you have 602 00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:22,840 Speaker 1: a time machine on your hands, go back and see 603 00:31:22,840 --> 00:31:23,800 Speaker 1: one of those while you're at. 604 00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:26,160 Speaker 2: It, and come talk to us. If you have an 605 00:31:26,200 --> 00:31:28,560 Speaker 2: actual working time machine as well, it'd be pretty neat. 606 00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:34,680 Speaker 1: Streptococcal infection was another possibility. At one point there was 607 00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:39,800 Speaker 1: some data that showed infection with streptococo bacteria was in 608 00:31:39,840 --> 00:31:42,200 Speaker 1: front of some of these cases of el and In 609 00:31:42,280 --> 00:31:47,120 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty one, our old pal, doctor von Ekonomo, did 610 00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:53,120 Speaker 1: an experiment and streptococcus vaccination actually led to el and 611 00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:55,160 Speaker 1: el like condition and dogs. 612 00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:58,800 Speaker 2: Yeah it's just sad, but yeah, the thing is the 613 00:31:58,840 --> 00:32:01,200 Speaker 2: thing that makes it even more sad. It wasn't definitive. 614 00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:04,160 Speaker 2: They weren't like, oh, it's a strep infection. It was like, 615 00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:08,040 Speaker 2: I guess it could have been. There was another group 616 00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:13,720 Speaker 2: called the Mathieson Commission that studied encephalitis lethargica. Because a 617 00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:16,560 Speaker 2: guy was sensibly by the last name of Mathieson, I 618 00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:19,560 Speaker 2: couldn't find who it was. He was a wealthy businessman 619 00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:23,080 Speaker 2: from America who had been struck down by encephalitis lethargica. 620 00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:27,680 Speaker 2: Believe he had gotten better, but not fully, and so 621 00:32:27,800 --> 00:32:29,680 Speaker 2: he used some money to try to get to the 622 00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:32,800 Speaker 2: bottom of this and funded this commission for thirteen years. 623 00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:36,880 Speaker 2: They put out four different reports and basically at the 624 00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:40,320 Speaker 2: end said maybe herpes. We don't know, And he said, 625 00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:45,440 Speaker 2: your finding's cut off. I've gotten into Sherlock home societies. 626 00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:47,320 Speaker 2: That's who I'm finding now. 627 00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:49,640 Speaker 1: At the end of all that dough for that many years, 628 00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:51,160 Speaker 1: you come back with maybe herpes? 629 00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:51,840 Speaker 3: Are you kidding me? 630 00:32:52,280 --> 00:32:56,920 Speaker 2: At give me herpes too? That reminds me when I 631 00:32:56,960 --> 00:32:59,000 Speaker 2: was a kid. I'll never forget one of the first 632 00:32:59,040 --> 00:33:01,920 Speaker 2: headlines that ever sunk in with me because I was 633 00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:04,880 Speaker 2: a Who's the Boss fan a little bit at the time. Okay, 634 00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:07,040 Speaker 2: it had to be The Inquire or something, but it 635 00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:11,960 Speaker 2: was Tony Danza gave me herpies. And I looked, like 636 00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:15,080 Speaker 2: just yesterday to see if Tony Dance I actually had 637 00:33:15,120 --> 00:33:18,200 Speaker 2: ever given anyone herpes, and it does not seem to 638 00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:20,600 Speaker 2: be the case. I don't believe Tony Dance it has herpes, 639 00:33:21,080 --> 00:33:24,200 Speaker 2: So that that headline was totally made up, and I 640 00:33:24,200 --> 00:33:26,520 Speaker 2: hope Tony Danza got some money from that for suing 641 00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:27,200 Speaker 2: the Inquirer. 642 00:33:27,760 --> 00:33:29,880 Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, we should issue that correction too. But you 643 00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:33,360 Speaker 1: got that Tony Danza band name wrong? 644 00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:33,880 Speaker 2: Oh I did? 645 00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:35,200 Speaker 3: In the metal episodes. 646 00:33:35,280 --> 00:33:37,120 Speaker 2: What do you know what the correct one was? 647 00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:38,720 Speaker 3: Well, what do you what did you call it? 648 00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:41,480 Speaker 2: I think I called it the Tony Danza tap dance Experience. 649 00:33:41,560 --> 00:33:42,160 Speaker 2: Is that not it? 650 00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:44,640 Speaker 1: I think if that's what you said, I think it 651 00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:48,760 Speaker 1: was a tap dance extravaganza. Okay, or it's the other 652 00:33:48,800 --> 00:33:50,800 Speaker 1: way around. Whichever one you said was. 653 00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:52,520 Speaker 2: Wrong, that's fine. I can live with that. 654 00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:54,560 Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, we had a few metal people right in 655 00:33:54,640 --> 00:33:54,960 Speaker 3: about that. 656 00:33:55,040 --> 00:33:57,320 Speaker 1: So can't you know, can't not correct the Tony dance 657 00:33:57,320 --> 00:33:58,520 Speaker 1: a tap dance extravagance. 658 00:33:58,560 --> 00:34:00,840 Speaker 2: I bet they were nice though, Like to person, pretty 659 00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:04,480 Speaker 2: much all the metal fans that wrote in. Yeah, yeah, 660 00:34:04,480 --> 00:34:06,640 Speaker 2: I said, even the ones correcting us really cute. That 661 00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:07,120 Speaker 2: was great. 662 00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:10,319 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the metal way it is. All right. Shall 663 00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:11,360 Speaker 3: we take our other break? 664 00:34:18,520 --> 00:34:20,719 Speaker 2: Yeah sure, all right, we'll be right back. 665 00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:50,560 Speaker 1: Wait, all right, So we mentioned some people studying, you know, 666 00:34:50,680 --> 00:34:53,719 Speaker 1: different causes back in the day. They never could find 667 00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:55,960 Speaker 1: anything out, like we said, and for about thirty years 668 00:34:55,960 --> 00:34:58,000 Speaker 1: they just kind of left it there, and it was 669 00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:01,759 Speaker 1: in the late nineteen sixties when neurology researchers that we're 670 00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:05,920 Speaker 1: working on Parkinson's really hit on it when they developed 671 00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:11,160 Speaker 1: el dopa or levo dopa, which is a substitute for dopamine, 672 00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:14,839 Speaker 1: which is the missing neurotransmitter and Parkinson's disease. And it 673 00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:18,400 Speaker 1: was released in nineteen sixty seven and it brought akinetic 674 00:35:18,560 --> 00:35:22,120 Speaker 1: Parkinson's disease patients back to life. And if you've seen 675 00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:26,239 Speaker 1: the movie Awakenings, that's basically a big storyline. That's where 676 00:35:26,239 --> 00:35:30,640 Speaker 1: it picks up is when Oliver Sacks scores some el dopa. 677 00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:34,160 Speaker 2: He did off a guy selling it on the corner 678 00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:39,000 Speaker 2: below Beth Abraham Hospital exactly. Yeah. So he finally starts 679 00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:42,280 Speaker 2: with Leonard Low, who's Robert de Niro, not the patient's 680 00:35:42,280 --> 00:35:47,160 Speaker 2: real name, obviously. But there's just this amazing transformation where 681 00:35:47,160 --> 00:35:49,279 Speaker 2: all of a sudden, these people again, who are these 682 00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:52,520 Speaker 2: frozen statue like people and have been for decades of 683 00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:57,200 Speaker 2: their lives, suddenly are like aware and talking and like 684 00:35:57,320 --> 00:36:00,360 Speaker 2: focusing their attention on you. And one guy's playing the 685 00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:02,839 Speaker 2: piano and they're like going out on field trips. Now 686 00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:05,480 Speaker 2: it's like they were just completely broad out of it, 687 00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:10,040 Speaker 2: and that's supposedly was very much the case with people 688 00:36:10,080 --> 00:36:14,760 Speaker 2: with actual Parkinson's disease, like they responded beautifully to el dopa. 689 00:36:15,239 --> 00:36:17,480 Speaker 2: But one of the reasons, one of the indicators that 690 00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:23,200 Speaker 2: post encephalatic parkinson ism and Parkinson's disease are different, is 691 00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:29,000 Speaker 2: that the people in Awakenings, the people with encephalitis lethargica, 692 00:36:29,360 --> 00:36:32,120 Speaker 2: they responded well for a little while and then they 693 00:36:32,160 --> 00:36:36,880 Speaker 2: started to show other symptoms that really kind of for 694 00:36:36,960 --> 00:36:39,640 Speaker 2: some of them, it basically meant you can't take al 695 00:36:39,680 --> 00:36:43,320 Speaker 2: dopa anymore, and incredibly sadly, like one of the most 696 00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:46,560 Speaker 2: sad things I can think of, they were left to 697 00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:50,960 Speaker 2: just go back to yeah, frozen statue state again. And 698 00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:55,000 Speaker 2: don't forget there is a great level of consciousness within 699 00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:57,600 Speaker 2: them when they're in the state. So they came out 700 00:36:57,640 --> 00:37:00,000 Speaker 2: of that state in which they were conscious, came to 701 00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:02,880 Speaker 2: full consciousness and full interactivity and maybe even left the 702 00:37:02,880 --> 00:37:04,920 Speaker 2: hospital on a field trip and then had to go 703 00:37:05,040 --> 00:37:08,560 Speaker 2: back to their frozen statue stay again conscious of this 704 00:37:08,640 --> 00:37:09,560 Speaker 2: whole experience. 705 00:37:10,040 --> 00:37:11,759 Speaker 3: Yeah, very heartbreaking to see. 706 00:37:11,840 --> 00:37:15,720 Speaker 1: In that movie, there was one case of a woman 707 00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:18,400 Speaker 1: who is this the rose of which you spoke of 708 00:37:18,960 --> 00:37:19,200 Speaker 1: to me? 709 00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:19,760 Speaker 3: Privately. 710 00:37:20,560 --> 00:37:24,359 Speaker 2: Yeah, that was Rose and then Lucy was her name 711 00:37:24,400 --> 00:37:25,760 Speaker 2: in the movie for some reason. 712 00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:30,480 Speaker 1: Okay, well, this woman just one of the cases of 713 00:37:30,560 --> 00:37:34,520 Speaker 1: Oliver Sacks. She came out of it, and she basically 714 00:37:34,600 --> 00:37:37,839 Speaker 1: described like being aware of everything that was happening for 715 00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:42,520 Speaker 1: decades and understanding what was happening, but just not feeling 716 00:37:42,560 --> 00:37:45,160 Speaker 1: a connection to it, like there was this weird disconnect. 717 00:37:46,239 --> 00:37:49,600 Speaker 1: She knew about Pearl Harbor, she described knowing about the 718 00:37:49,640 --> 00:37:53,839 Speaker 1: assassination of Kennedy John f that is, and she said 719 00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:55,600 Speaker 1: that it just didn't seem real. She said, nothing has 720 00:37:55,640 --> 00:37:57,560 Speaker 1: seemed real since nineteen twenty six when I got the 721 00:37:57,640 --> 00:38:00,360 Speaker 1: encephalitis and came to a stop. I know him sixty 722 00:38:00,360 --> 00:38:03,520 Speaker 1: four now, and this is nineteen sixty nine, and that 723 00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:05,920 Speaker 1: I'm an elderly woman in a bizarre situation in a 724 00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:08,600 Speaker 1: chronic hospital. But I feel like I'm twenty one and 725 00:38:08,640 --> 00:38:10,160 Speaker 1: I feel like it's nineteen twenty six. 726 00:38:10,360 --> 00:38:12,440 Speaker 3: Yeah, man, can you imagine? 727 00:38:12,520 --> 00:38:14,520 Speaker 2: Yeah, And very sadly, she was one of the ones 728 00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:18,680 Speaker 2: who did not like have her symptoms with al dopo 729 00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:22,040 Speaker 2: or too extreme to continue on taking al dopa. 730 00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:25,799 Speaker 1: Yeah, and some people you know, came out and were 731 00:38:25,840 --> 00:38:29,080 Speaker 1: just overjoyed and elated with this kind of thing, obviously, 732 00:38:29,160 --> 00:38:32,120 Speaker 1: and some people came out, and obviously you could also 733 00:38:32,120 --> 00:38:34,920 Speaker 1: see it had a very hard time with lost decades. 734 00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:38,480 Speaker 1: It could not have been an easy thing to accept 735 00:38:38,760 --> 00:38:42,480 Speaker 1: either way. The movie that there is good news. There 736 00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:44,239 Speaker 1: is a bit of a silver lining because the movie 737 00:38:44,239 --> 00:38:48,160 Speaker 1: does not cover the fact that after this a lot 738 00:38:48,160 --> 00:38:52,040 Speaker 1: of the patients finally regulated with the el dopa and 739 00:38:52,239 --> 00:38:55,480 Speaker 1: were able to leave at least lead compared to sort 740 00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:59,120 Speaker 1: of their previous life, a somewhat healthy life, like they 741 00:38:59,120 --> 00:39:02,399 Speaker 1: weren't in that statue s locked in state. They might 742 00:39:02,440 --> 00:39:05,120 Speaker 1: not have fully recovered, but they led an okay life. 743 00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:08,560 Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, And they do mention that at the end, 744 00:39:09,200 --> 00:39:14,399 Speaker 2: and those I guess postcripts where they talk about how 745 00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:17,600 Speaker 2: they continued on experimenting and some people kind of worked 746 00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:19,719 Speaker 2: out with a little bit so, but they don't they 747 00:39:19,719 --> 00:39:21,760 Speaker 2: don't show it in the movie. The movie's all sad 748 00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:26,600 Speaker 2: at the end. It's so sad, and yeah, oh my god, 749 00:39:26,719 --> 00:39:29,680 Speaker 2: just go watch Awakenings again. I even watched it. I 750 00:39:29,719 --> 00:39:32,560 Speaker 2: accidentally watched Patch Adams first, and I wanted to watch 751 00:39:32,840 --> 00:39:36,680 Speaker 2: Awakenings so bad. I still watched it after Patch Adams 752 00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:39,799 Speaker 2: after Zoolander, and then I finally watched The Awakenings. I was 753 00:39:39,840 --> 00:39:42,319 Speaker 2: up till like four in the morning today last night. 754 00:39:42,320 --> 00:39:46,000 Speaker 3: I never I never saw Patch Adams. It's that was 755 00:39:46,040 --> 00:39:47,279 Speaker 3: sex too there right, and then. 756 00:39:47,320 --> 00:39:49,719 Speaker 2: No, it was just what it was Williams too. It 757 00:39:49,760 --> 00:39:52,000 Speaker 2: was Awakenings. I'll tell you that. 758 00:39:53,920 --> 00:39:55,600 Speaker 3: Yeah, I need to check that out. It's funny. 759 00:39:55,640 --> 00:39:58,080 Speaker 1: I met a guy named Leonard Lowe one time years ago, 760 00:39:58,680 --> 00:40:01,279 Speaker 1: and the only thing I could think in my head was, 761 00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:04,560 Speaker 1: my name is Leonard Lowe? Like I just remember Daniro 762 00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:07,640 Speaker 1: saying that you didn't say that to him, no, because 763 00:40:07,640 --> 00:40:10,319 Speaker 1: I figured, you know, like our listener Robert Paulson, he's 764 00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:11,360 Speaker 1: probably side of his jokes. 765 00:40:11,440 --> 00:40:14,040 Speaker 2: I never stopped saying that to Robert Paulson. I can't 766 00:40:14,040 --> 00:40:14,640 Speaker 2: help myself. 767 00:40:16,040 --> 00:40:18,440 Speaker 1: Uh so, what about these days? What do we think 768 00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:20,400 Speaker 1: about el of medically speaking? 769 00:40:20,760 --> 00:40:22,959 Speaker 2: Well, so, one of the things that we did learn 770 00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:25,560 Speaker 2: that we still don't fully understand, but was something that 771 00:40:25,600 --> 00:40:30,040 Speaker 2: they recognized with el dopa and the study of the 772 00:40:30,080 --> 00:40:34,120 Speaker 2: patients before they were administered al dopa is that while 773 00:40:34,160 --> 00:40:38,360 Speaker 2: you're in a like this frozen state, like like I 774 00:40:38,400 --> 00:40:40,440 Speaker 2: said earlier, somebody like throws a ball at you, or 775 00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:43,120 Speaker 2: like you said, somebody sees an emergency, they can suddenly 776 00:40:43,160 --> 00:40:45,319 Speaker 2: move like normal and then they go back to that 777 00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:48,560 Speaker 2: frozen state afterward. They found that it's not just like 778 00:40:48,880 --> 00:40:51,319 Speaker 2: an emergency like a ball coming at you or your 779 00:40:51,360 --> 00:40:53,759 Speaker 2: friend laying on the floor because they fell down, but 780 00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:58,759 Speaker 2: things like music, human touch, even like obnoxious sounds like 781 00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:02,040 Speaker 2: a siren or something can basically prompt the person to 782 00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:04,839 Speaker 2: start moving again and like come back out of that 783 00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:10,160 Speaker 2: frozen catatonia mutism. And that was one of the things 784 00:41:10,200 --> 00:41:13,879 Speaker 2: that they found people could do on al dopa too, 785 00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:19,000 Speaker 2: Like even with the extreme like tremors or inability to 786 00:41:19,560 --> 00:41:22,680 Speaker 2: control the movement of your mouth or eyes, those could 787 00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:26,080 Speaker 2: be tamed by the same things by stimulating your brain 788 00:41:26,160 --> 00:41:28,759 Speaker 2: in some other way. And there is the story of 789 00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:31,279 Speaker 2: a guy who was a cobbler by trade before he 790 00:41:31,360 --> 00:41:35,280 Speaker 2: had gotten sick. Oh yeah, and the after el dopa 791 00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:37,279 Speaker 2: came along, he asked for like a cobbler's bench, and 792 00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:39,440 Speaker 2: the hospital staff got him one, and when he was 793 00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:41,839 Speaker 2: working at his cobblers bench, he was able to like 794 00:41:41,880 --> 00:41:44,480 Speaker 2: hold like nails in his teeth and like nail the 795 00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:47,000 Speaker 2: heel of the shoe with these little tiny nails and 796 00:41:47,040 --> 00:41:51,040 Speaker 2: just work and control the symptoms because there's something in 797 00:41:51,080 --> 00:41:55,040 Speaker 2: the brain that was overriding the symptoms. We have no 798 00:41:55,120 --> 00:41:57,400 Speaker 2: idea why. We just know that that was part of 799 00:41:57,440 --> 00:42:00,640 Speaker 2: this whole thing. There's some some way that the these 800 00:42:01,160 --> 00:42:04,279 Speaker 2: problematic symptoms can be overridden by some other region of 801 00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:08,759 Speaker 2: the brain taking importance or precedents over that, which is 802 00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:12,200 Speaker 2: just bizarre. Like from start to finish, this is one 803 00:42:12,239 --> 00:42:14,560 Speaker 2: of the most bizarre diseases in history. 804 00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:18,640 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Did you also watch Tremors by accident? 805 00:42:19,960 --> 00:42:21,800 Speaker 2: Now? That would have been very pleasant. That's one of 806 00:42:21,840 --> 00:42:22,640 Speaker 2: my favorite movies. 807 00:42:23,200 --> 00:42:24,640 Speaker 1: All of a sudden, the sun's coming up and you 808 00:42:24,719 --> 00:42:30,480 Speaker 1: still haven't seen awakenings. So getting back to the modern 809 00:42:30,520 --> 00:42:33,320 Speaker 1: perspectives and what we think medically these days. In the 810 00:42:33,400 --> 00:42:35,600 Speaker 1: last seventy five years, like I said, it completely in 811 00:42:35,760 --> 00:42:37,719 Speaker 1: a way, they kind of don't know. In the last 812 00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:39,799 Speaker 1: seventy five years, there has only been about eighty case 813 00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:43,759 Speaker 1: reports where it looks like it might be el They 814 00:42:44,160 --> 00:42:48,120 Speaker 1: call it like an eel like presentation, you know, the 815 00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:53,200 Speaker 1: hyper somnolence, maybe ocular paralysis, maybe some of those neuropsychiatric symptoms. 816 00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:57,240 Speaker 1: But they're really not sure because you know, the cases 817 00:42:57,239 --> 00:42:59,800 Speaker 1: are pretty varied, and the symptoms are pretty varied. And 818 00:43:00,360 --> 00:43:02,120 Speaker 1: again they you know, all they have is sort of 819 00:43:02,280 --> 00:43:05,560 Speaker 1: these case studies from before. They never landed on anything, 820 00:43:05,600 --> 00:43:08,640 Speaker 1: so it's hard to tell if this is still going 821 00:43:08,680 --> 00:43:11,680 Speaker 1: on at all or not. There's no like effective treatment. 822 00:43:12,400 --> 00:43:14,480 Speaker 1: You know, they still use al dopa I think, right, Yeah, 823 00:43:14,480 --> 00:43:17,120 Speaker 1: and that's still in the scene. Yeah, so for the 824 00:43:17,160 --> 00:43:20,960 Speaker 1: tremors and rigidity and stuff like that sometimes ect for 825 00:43:21,280 --> 00:43:26,120 Speaker 1: if you have like pretty extreme psychiatric symptoms. But for 826 00:43:26,760 --> 00:43:31,319 Speaker 1: Van Economo's work, he got he never won, but he 827 00:43:31,360 --> 00:43:33,280 Speaker 1: was nominated three times for a Nobel Prize. 828 00:43:33,280 --> 00:43:35,080 Speaker 3: Pretty good, yeah, for sure. 829 00:43:35,400 --> 00:43:38,319 Speaker 2: And remember he also originally suspected that it was some 830 00:43:38,320 --> 00:43:41,880 Speaker 2: sort of infection. Yeah, he thought Spanish flu wasn't Spanish flu. 831 00:43:42,239 --> 00:43:46,279 Speaker 2: But they do think that it's probable now that it 832 00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:50,840 Speaker 2: is the result of an autoimmune disorder triggered by an infection. Yeah. 833 00:43:50,960 --> 00:43:54,640 Speaker 2: So what that would amount to is that you are 834 00:43:54,680 --> 00:43:56,960 Speaker 2: infected by maybe it is tripped, maybe it is herpes, 835 00:43:56,960 --> 00:44:00,399 Speaker 2: maybe it is influenza. We don't know. But something that 836 00:44:00,520 --> 00:44:06,720 Speaker 2: resembles proteins found in different regions of your brain trains 837 00:44:06,719 --> 00:44:09,640 Speaker 2: your body to attack those proteins in your brain. So you, 838 00:44:09,920 --> 00:44:12,960 Speaker 2: it triggers an autoimmune disorder, and those proteins are only 839 00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:16,399 Speaker 2: found on specific regions of the brain that when you 840 00:44:16,440 --> 00:44:19,120 Speaker 2: step back and look at what those regions do, they 841 00:44:19,360 --> 00:44:25,200 Speaker 2: control the symptoms that you see in people with encephalitis lethargica. 842 00:44:26,400 --> 00:44:29,160 Speaker 2: I just sounded like Tim Curry and Rocky Horror Picture Show. 843 00:44:29,840 --> 00:44:32,320 Speaker 3: Get on the slab. 844 00:44:33,320 --> 00:44:36,200 Speaker 2: That's good. I forgot how good your impression is of 845 00:44:36,719 --> 00:44:37,680 Speaker 2: doctor Frankenfurter. 846 00:44:38,040 --> 00:44:40,560 Speaker 3: Oh, well, you know I met the man. He held 847 00:44:40,600 --> 00:44:40,920 Speaker 3: my cat. 848 00:44:41,040 --> 00:44:43,680 Speaker 2: That's right. He said your cat was naughty. 849 00:44:43,360 --> 00:44:45,600 Speaker 3: Right, I said he had dramatic ears. 850 00:44:45,880 --> 00:44:48,720 Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, but also naughty. 851 00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:54,319 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, naughty. Get on the slab, laurn. I got 852 00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:54,879 Speaker 3: nothing else. 853 00:44:55,480 --> 00:44:58,640 Speaker 2: Oh okay, let's see. I guess I got nothing else either. 854 00:44:58,760 --> 00:45:00,680 Speaker 2: That's it. We don't we I don't know they answer 855 00:45:00,719 --> 00:45:02,480 Speaker 2: to all of this, and I don't know when we 856 00:45:02,520 --> 00:45:06,279 Speaker 2: ever will. But it's just it's so fascinating that you 857 00:45:06,280 --> 00:45:09,040 Speaker 2: have to stop and remind yourself like this actually happened 858 00:45:09,040 --> 00:45:12,880 Speaker 2: to people, and that do you realize how terrifying the 859 00:45:12,920 --> 00:45:17,080 Speaker 2: whole thing really is? Yeah, well, Chuck said yeah twice 860 00:45:17,320 --> 00:45:21,080 Speaker 2: within seven seconds, which automatically means, oh well, no, he 861 00:45:21,360 --> 00:45:24,600 Speaker 2: derailed it. You have to say yeah one more time, 862 00:45:24,680 --> 00:45:27,839 Speaker 2: hurry yeah, Okay, now we're back on to listener, ma'am. 863 00:45:30,480 --> 00:45:33,719 Speaker 1: Uh this is you're gonna like this one, Josh, I think, hey, guys, 864 00:45:33,760 --> 00:45:36,160 Speaker 1: it is about the A trax. I always learned something 865 00:45:36,160 --> 00:45:38,719 Speaker 1: from you sometimes unexpectedly, you guys and the A track 866 00:45:38,840 --> 00:45:42,759 Speaker 1: short stuff. You talked about kart being short for cartridge 867 00:45:43,040 --> 00:45:46,160 Speaker 1: and sparked a memory. I'm from Buffalo, you see, and 868 00:45:46,320 --> 00:45:48,640 Speaker 1: I used to listen to a radio announcer called Iron 869 00:45:48,719 --> 00:45:54,920 Speaker 1: Mike Benson. He famously had what he called and Jamie says, 870 00:45:55,520 --> 00:45:59,279 Speaker 1: sorry to you, specifically Josh about this, okay, where Mike 871 00:45:59,480 --> 00:46:02,400 Speaker 1: Iron Mike ben would say that he had the heinous 872 00:46:02,400 --> 00:46:06,040 Speaker 1: anus fart cart and he would use it to play 873 00:46:06,120 --> 00:46:08,880 Speaker 1: various part sounds and strategically place them over top of 874 00:46:09,280 --> 00:46:11,160 Speaker 1: the top of whatever song's happened to be getting played 875 00:46:11,160 --> 00:46:13,359 Speaker 1: on the air at the moment. Always imagine the word 876 00:46:13,440 --> 00:46:16,160 Speaker 1: kart at the time was referring to like a basket 877 00:46:16,200 --> 00:46:18,360 Speaker 1: on wheels that contained a bunch of separate tapes. 878 00:46:18,640 --> 00:46:19,800 Speaker 2: Yeah, of fart. 879 00:46:19,680 --> 00:46:20,919 Speaker 3: Sounds, now it all makes sense. 880 00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:23,680 Speaker 1: It was a tape recording, but because it was a 881 00:46:23,719 --> 00:46:26,359 Speaker 1: looped tape with multiple tracks on it. He could cue 882 00:46:26,360 --> 00:46:29,799 Speaker 1: whatever selection he wanted much quicker than you could with 883 00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:33,200 Speaker 1: a linear cassette tape. So it was the analog way 884 00:46:33,239 --> 00:46:35,520 Speaker 1: to do that sort of thing before a digital soundboard 885 00:46:35,600 --> 00:46:38,880 Speaker 1: was used and invented. Thank you for all the useless interest, 886 00:46:39,040 --> 00:46:44,120 Speaker 1: grabbing information and uselessness in quotes, by the way, Okay, 887 00:46:44,480 --> 00:46:46,680 Speaker 1: that is only useless until you can relate it to 888 00:46:46,719 --> 00:46:49,520 Speaker 1: something else. Podcasts have come and gone, but your show 889 00:46:49,600 --> 00:46:51,600 Speaker 1: is the one I haven't gotten tired of. 890 00:46:52,080 --> 00:46:54,279 Speaker 3: And my sister Ashley agrees. Keep it up, boys. That 891 00:46:54,400 --> 00:46:56,880 Speaker 3: is Jamie Lynn Bayer awesome. 892 00:46:57,040 --> 00:46:59,640 Speaker 2: Thank you, Jamie Lynn, and thank you to your sister Ashley, 893 00:46:59,680 --> 00:47:03,000 Speaker 2: who sensibly listens as well. And the whole Bear clan. 894 00:47:03,080 --> 00:47:03,560 Speaker 2: How about that? 895 00:47:04,160 --> 00:47:06,480 Speaker 1: Yeah, the clan at the Cave Bear. 896 00:47:06,800 --> 00:47:10,000 Speaker 2: I thought that as well. Yeah, if you want to 897 00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:11,880 Speaker 2: be like the clan of the Cave Bear and write 898 00:47:11,880 --> 00:47:14,080 Speaker 2: in to let us know how much you like our 899 00:47:14,160 --> 00:47:17,680 Speaker 2: show and or we triggered some memory in you that 900 00:47:17,719 --> 00:47:20,520 Speaker 2: helped you put things together, and or whatever else you 901 00:47:20,600 --> 00:47:23,040 Speaker 2: want to say. We love that kind of thing. You 902 00:47:23,080 --> 00:47:26,000 Speaker 2: can send it to us via email at stuff podcast 903 00:47:26,120 --> 00:47:30,480 Speaker 2: at iHeartRadio dot com. 904 00:47:30,640 --> 00:47:32,959 Speaker 3: Stuff You should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. 905 00:47:33,440 --> 00:47:36,640 Speaker 1: For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 906 00:47:36,840 --> 00:47:39,760 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.