TOXIC BRAIN

Researchers are finding that toxic proteins, including tau, may be the cause of Alzheimer's disease.

A defect that causes a plaque build-up on the brain could cause patients to lose all memory.

But what takes the place of those lost memories.

We really do not know because Alzheimer patients lack the communication awareness to explain what is happening to them. They become a version of an adult newborn.

The Others were quite keen on using drugs to ward off the effects of the island's "illness," a disease which at least attacked the fetus and the pregnant woman.  Claire was given shots by Juliet in alleged attempt to save her baby from the disease.

However, many people believe the disease was a hoax, as Desmond found out after leaving the Hatch to find his co-worker stealing his boat.

Using fear of a deadly disease to manipulate other people is a powerful weapon. You get the intended victims to surrender their free will and decision making if you offer them a cure. A snake oil salesman was the older version of this kind of con-man predator.

But what if there was some truth in the tall tale of the island illness.  The island's unique electromagnetic condition could lead to neuro-chemical disruptions in normal human brain activity. This could mimic the adverse affects of sustained memory loss. It could also have the effect of causing hallucinations, illusions and paranoia (all elements shown in the show).

The island itself could have started as a laboratory to test the bio-chemical warfare tools of a prior era, but were released into this limited environment to mutate into a psycho-tropic drug.  Claire was left in the deep jungle, and she turned bat crazy just like Rousseau.

What if the characters that left the island carried with them the island illness?

Could it be passed to the general population like an epidemic virus?

Or is it contained within the brain matter of each victim, so as to slowly cause them to go deeply insane?

Or the reverse, the deeply insane were the "test" subjects sent to the island to see if the illness could reverse their behavior which conventional treatments, including electro-shock, could not.

The concept that the island was a loony bin laboratory has some appeal, especially if the viewers were put into this sinister loop. But we were not let in on the real secret of the island and its past purpose.