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Posted by lewww 1/11/2026

A battle over Canada’s mystery brain disease(www.bbc.com)
195 points | 148 commentspage 3
mitchbob 1/11/2026|
https://archive.ph/nItn1
cperciva 1/11/2026||
The only common factor between these patients is Dr. Marrero.
culi 1/11/2026||
It was a number of doctors that were baffled by their patients that referred them to Marrero. Besdies, he's not the only one convinced there's an environmental factor at play:

> In an October 2023 email exchange with another PHAC member, Coulthart, who served as the federal lead in the 2021 investigation into the New Brunswick illness, said he had been “essentially cut off” from any involvement in the issue, adding he believed the reason was political.

> Coulthart, a veteran scientist who currently heads Canada’s Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance System, did not respond to a request for comment by the Guardian. But in the leaked email, he wrote that he believes an “environmental exposure – or a combination of exposures – is triggering and/or accelerating a variety of neurodegenerative syndromes” with people seemingly susceptible to different protein-misfolding ailments, including Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

> Coulthart argues this phenomenon does not easily fit within “shallow paradigms” of diagnostic pathology and the complexity of the issue has given politicians a “loophole” to conclude “nothing coherent” is going on.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/03/canada...

graeme 1/11/2026|||
Hadn't heard that angle, found this article worth a read. Apparently few patients had a second evaluation.

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165181/allier-marrero-...

jacquesm 1/11/2026|||
And the general area they live in.
SanjayMehta 1/11/2026||
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yyyk 1/11/2026||
Compare to Havana syndrome - another disputed 'mystery brain disease'.
culi 1/11/2026||
CHUPPL did a deep dive on this one I highly recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqE0ltifQ2M
whimsicalism 1/11/2026||
functional disorders like ME, CFS, Havana syndrome, chronic lyme are very common, particularly since the emergence of patient communities enabled by the internet.
nickhodge 1/11/2026||
FND == neurologist gaslighting the patient. Formerly known as hysteria.
whimsicalism 1/11/2026|
FND is a useful label because it helps provide clarity, feeling of responsiveness, and direction towards effective treatments like CBT, rather than calling a patient experiencing real discomfort/disability ‘hysterical’.

i do think we have to think hard about how we want to deal with the rapid expansion of FNDs and social contagion.

maximgeorge 1/11/2026||
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wormx99 1/11/2026||
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timwalz 1/11/2026||
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greggoB 1/11/2026|
Elaborate?
octoberfranklin 1/11/2026||
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oefrha 1/11/2026|
If this reporting is accurate then it certainly paints a picture of cult-like behavior. Personal charisma, empathetic and caring, "strangely conspiratorial" behavior during appointments cementing an us (one lone doctor and helpless patients) against them (wealthy and powerful people) narrative, etc. are very effective on distressed people. On top of that it seems that apart from being tested over and over again and being told they have a "mystery illness", the patients aren't really treated whatsoever? Whether there's a true cluster disease or not, evidence seems to suggest that he's just adding a lot of totally non-mysterious cases to his cluster. Evading pretty mundane questions like how many of his cluster cases actually show elevated levels of environmental toxins just adds to the suspicious signs. Plus

> The couple waited eight months to get important test results from Marrero, Strickland said, as April's condition worsened. Soon Strickland could no longer manage her care. But to get her a place in assisted living he needed a letter of support from Marrero. "I think I waited four months for that letter," Strickland recalled. "I kept phoning and asking."

just sounds like medical malpractice. You shouldn't keep five hundred patients hanging if you can't handle five hundred. Makes all the talk about being empathetic and caring sound like bullshit. I feel bad for those who are probably misdiagnosed but refuse to get a second opinion thanks to the successful mental subjugation.

atombender 1/11/2026|
The article describes one patient getting multiple treatments, none of which worked.