Malnutrition as the cause of variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease.

The evidence used to support the hypothesis that variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (vCJD) is caused by eating meat from cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is unconvincing. It is postulated in this paper that the morphological symptoms of both diseases are caused by high concentrations of intracellular calcium (Ca(2+)); that in cattle the problem results from the ingestion of grass that contains mycotoxins, and in humans it results from the consumption of a diet abnormally low in protein.