Hamburg Toad Deaths found to be all in Toads' heads.

[Guest guest]

Update: 5/3/05

" Theories abound, but German conservationists struggle to find

convincing explanation for amphibian Armageddon "

Scientist say toads have been given Ige tests, MRI's, CT scans. They have

also been tested for MS, AIDs, carpel tunnel syndrome and all other testings

with high billing ratios. None of these tests have provided explaination as to

why thest toads chose to explode.

In a double blind placebo test, based on a resent study of Chronic Fatigue

Suffers, who also do not show illness based on the above referenced tests, it

has been concluded that the Hamburg toads simply think they are exploding.

In the recent CFS study, suffers of this syndrome were less likely to

imagine themselves well after receiving placebo than other nutcases who also

just

imagine their illnesses. Researchers determined this is because CFS suffers

are so certain in their dillusions of illnesses, that no amount of any type of

medicine would take away their irrational psychotic feelings of being

physically ill.

Similarly, the Hamburg toads did not respond well to a double blind placebo

test and continued to think they were exploding, even though medical testing

proved there was nothing to substanciate why these toads would explode.

The authors propose several possible explanations for the surprisingly low

placebo response revealed in the analysis. Perhaps toads have low expectations

due to the reality that exploding is very difficult to treat. Alternatively,

disconnects between how toads and doctors view the illness " may impede

development of a collaborative therapeutic relationship to get these toads to

stop

thinking they are exploding, " reviewers suggest. The authors say the reason

may be that many of the toads seen in specialist settings or self-help groups

" have a firm conviction that their illness is of physical origin " and thus

would have little faith in psychiatric/psychological treatments.

" It must be all in their heads " said Dr. Heduperas. " The frogs that are

living in the same environment are just fine. The only logical explaination is

that these toads are phychologically troubled. " The doctor went on to say, " If

we don't understand why something is happening and we have no testing to

confirm illness, then obviously, the illness does not exist. "

No further study or research will be done on the matter. Because everyone

now understands these Hamburg toads are just flat out crazy!

Original articles:

By Tony Paterson in Hamburg

(Filed: 01/05/2005)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?

xml=/news/2005/05/01/wtoad01.xml & sSheet=/news/2005/05/01/ixworld.html

On the grassy banks of Hamburg's newly-dubbed Pond of Death, Werner

Smolnik is surveying the aftermath of amphibian Armageddon.

Hundreds of blackened and dismembered corpses litter the ground,

barely recognisable as the bodies of toads.

Mr Smolnik is a senior figure in Hamburg nature protection but was

powerless to prevent - and even now cannot explain - the

extraordinary phenomenon of exploding toads which has plagued this

normally tranquil spot in recent days. It has left scientists and

naturalists baffled.

" I could hardly believe what I saw, " said Mr Smolnik, 55, who was

among the first to witness it.

" Dozens of toads were crawling out of the water. They were puffed up

to almost three times their normal size and making strange

screeching noises. Then they just started popping. Some just

went 'phut!' and their guts spewed out, but others literally

exploded, showering the place with bits of innards. My trousers were

covered in toad entrails. "

Alarm bells began to ring at the city hall, where officials

dispatched an emergency team equipped to clear up chemical accidents

to the scene of the disaster, believing that both toads and pond

must have fallen victim to industrial pollution.

The contents of the pond were pumped into a road tanker and exploded

toads sent to laboratories for examination. The pond was declared

off limits to the public as theories and rumour spread through

Hamburg: was the city in the grip of an epidemic similar to " bird

flu " , in which deadly toad viruses could be transferred to humans?

Last week, some two weeks after the first toad was seen to explode,

German biologists and wildlife conservationists were still uncertain

as to the cause of the carnage. An estimated 1,000 toads died in the

space of a week, but frogs were unaffected.

" All we know for sure is that the toads started exploding right in

the middle of their mating season, which only lasts about a week, "

Mr Smolnik said. " It seems to have occurred just after the creatures

went into the water to spawn, but now that the mating season is

over, it's stopped completely. "

Vets at the city's Environmental Institute for Hygiene carried out

exhaustive tests on the pond water but found no evidence of harmful

bacteria or fungal infections that could have affected the toads.

Anke Himmelreich, one of the vets who conducted the tests, suggested

that they might have been attacked by birds. The skin on all the

corpses they examined bore incision marks, she said, and most of the

amphibians had nothing left in their bodies but the heart.

" We think that birds may have attacked the toads and eaten much of

their entrails, " she said. " It is possible that the toads survived

the attacks and then filled up with water through the incision made

in their bodies. After that they simply burst open. "

A team of biologists in Berlin agreed that every corpse they

examined bore marks indicating pecking.

Their explanation, however, failed to convince Mr Smolnik. " About

1,000 toads were affected in this way, " he said. " If birds were

responsible we would have seen them attacking the toads en masse,

but we saw nothing of the kind. "

He and fellow naturalists believe that the toad explosions were the

result of a foreign virus or fungus that may have entered the pond

via a stream flowing into it which runs through a nearby trotting

race course.

" Several of the race horses are imported from South America and we

suspect that they may have inadvertently infected the pond, " he said.

Late last week, the Pond of Death remained cordoned off, festooned

with " Keep Out " signs. " We are still not one 100 per cent sure of

the cause, " said Heidi Mayerhoefer, who is co-ordinating the toad

investigation for the city authorities.

She said that only one other instance of exploding amphibians had

been recorded in Germany. In the eastern state of Brandenburg, a

smaller outbreak occurred in the early 1990s which was attributed to

hungry birds.

Should the bird theory prove true, it will doubtless heighten

Hamburg residents' anxieties about the feathered creatures. Two

years ago, the city's crows gained notoriety after they mysteriously

attacked joggers, Hitchcock-style, in a Hamburg park without warning.

In the worst incident, about 20 crows " dive-bombed " passers-by,

sending one woman screaming from the park with birds clinging to her

hair, pecking at her face and ears. As with the toads, the cause

remains a mystery.

Chronic Fatigue Patients Show Lower Response To Placebos

Date: 2005-04-21

_http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/04/050420090825.htm_

(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/04/050420090825.htm)

Contrary to conventional wisdom, patients with chronic fatigue

syndrome respond to placebos at a lower rate than people with many

other illnesses, according to the first systematic review of the

topic.

According to the new analysis by Dr. Hyong Jin Cho of King's

College London and colleagues, 19.6 percent of patients with chronic fatigue

syndrome improved after receiving inactive treatments,compared with a widely

accepted figure of about 30 percent for other conditions.

Because the placebo effect seems to be strongest in diseases with

highly subjective symptoms, some medical professionals believed it

could be as high as 50 percent among CFS patients.

The review, reported in the current issue of Psychosomatic Medicine,pooled

data from 29 studies in which 1,016 people with CFS received various placebos.

CFS is a complex illness that has no known cause or cure. Myriad

symptoms include severe malaise, muscle and joint pain, sleep and mood

disturbances and headache. The symptoms continue for at least six months and

cannot be explained by any other medical conditions. The Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention estimate that as many as 500,000 Americans may have CFS

or

related conditions.

With so many mysteries surrounding CFS, a great deal of controversy

exists among both doctors and patients as to whether its origins are

primarily psychological or physiological. Current evidence suggests that

emotional

or social stresses such as bereavement or problems at work, combined with

other triggers such as common viral infections,contribute to the disorder.

Additional factors, such as avoidance of physical activity, may cause the

symptoms

to become chronic, says Cho.

The authors propose several possible explanations for the surprisingly low

placebo response revealed in the analysis. Perhaps patients have low

expectations due to the reality that CFS is very difficult to treat and often

persists

for many years. Alternatively, disconnects between how patients and doctors

view the illness " may impede development of a collaborative therapeutic

relationship, " reviewers suggest.

The study also showed that the placebo response is 24 percent for

medical interventions but only 14 percent for

psychiatric/psychological treatments. The authors say the reason may be that

many CFS sufferers seen in specialist settings or self-help groups " have a

firm conviction that their illness is of physical origin " and thus would have

little faith in

psychiatric/psychological treatments. This finding supports the idea that

the placebo response is greatly influenced by patients'

expectations of improvement.

According to the review, behavioral therapy and graded exercise

therapy have benefits, and if patients were more aware of them, says

Cho, they might be " more open, more optimistic, and more

collaborative with the professionals, and the overall outcome of the

treatments could be enhanced. "

Dr. Lucinda Bateman, an internist who specializes in CFS and

fibromyalgia and serves on the board of the American Association for

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, has worked with about 500 CFS patients over

the past 15 years.

" In my clinical experience, I have found that CFS is among the

most difficult conditions to improve at all, with either physical or

psychological interventions. " This is true in part, she says,

because there is a great deal of variation among patients diagnosed

with CFS, and Bateman believes that ultimately CFS may be found to

involve more than one disease.

In the absence of a cure, Bateman has found that the most effective

treatment for CFS combines improving symptoms with medication, helping

patients retain physical conditioning when possible and using

psychological and psychiatric interventions to help patients adapt to

living with chronic illness.

She doesn't discount the placebo effect, however. " When you

say to people, `I believe you, I will help you manage your

symptoms, I will advocate for you,' that hope and feeling of

control

over their disease could be considered placebo effect, but it's an

important part of delivering medical care. "