Rheumatoid Arthritis: The Infection Connection {Targeting and...

Reader Reviews
This is a book written in a fever with the enthusiasm of a born-again true believer so that the mass of information and associations come streaming out like water from a fire hose. The effect on the reader is somewhat marvelous since it is obvious that Dr. Poehlmann, a systems engineer who has a PhD in Health Science, is onto something important. The key idea in this enormously detailed and intensely researched volume, updated and revised from her doctoral dissertation, is that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other chronic diseases of unclear etiology are actually caused by microorganisms. In particular mycoplasmas and/or L-shaped bacteria, stealthy pathogens only a little larger than viruses, are to blame. This is a revolution in medical thought. RA, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel syndrome, Gulf War Illness, etc., have long been thought to be autoimmune diseases, that is, diseases caused by the body's immune system attacking the body itself. What Poehlmann is saying is that mycoplasmas cause these diseases and make them chronic because these minute pathogens are able to hide from the immune system within the body's tissues. They are able to strategically slow down their growth and to lie dormant for months or even years only to erupt when conditions suit them, typically when the body is weakened by fatigue, stress or another illness. By stopping their growth temporary the pathogens are able to dodge antibiotics. By changing their shapes, especially by going without an outer cell wall (the immune system identifies pathogens by their surfaces), they are able to fool the immune system. Consequently they are extraordinarily difficult to pin down, or to even identify, and of course even more difficult to get rid of. Incidentally, routine blood tests apparently do NOT test for mycoplasmas. (p. 171) The medical establishment, as Poehlmann points out, has been slow to embrace this theory for a number of reasons, not the least of which is simply an inability to accept new ideas that go against the conventional wisdom. The germ theory of disease was thought some decades ago to have nearly exhausted its potential as medical theorists looked to the environment and a malfunctioning immune system as causing chronic illnesses. But the germ theory of disease is back stronger than ever, and a revolution in the way we think about chronic disease is taking hold. It was in an article in the February, 1999 edition of The Atlantic Monthly, written by Judith Hooper, that I first heard about the possibility that chronic diseases were caused by pathogens and not by genetic defects or environmental stresses. Not only heartburn--known to have been caused by bacteria since the forties (but, amazingly enough, forgotten for decades by the medical establishment!)--but also heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's and even schizophrenia, are now thought to be caused or triggered by pathogens. Poehlmann credits Dr. Thomas McPherson Brown as first proposing in the 1940s the theory that the primary cause of RA was bacterial infection. (p.xxvii) One of the people responsible for igniting the current revolution is evolutionary biologist Paul W. Ewald, author of Plague Time: How Stealth Infections Cause Cancers, Heart Disease, and other Deadly Ailments (2000) which I recommend as a companion to this book. Ewald's argument is that "Genetic traits" unfavorable "to an organism's survival or reproduction do not persist in the gene pool for very long. Natural selection, by its very definition, weeds them out in short order." Furthermore, as Hooper notes in her article, if an environmental cause cannot be found, "then we must look elsewhere for the explanation." Poehlmann's research shows that microbes are the best suspects because it is these organisms that have lived in, on and around us since long before we were human, even long before we were mammals. These parasitic creatures have formed a relationship with larger organisms through what is referred to as the "evolutionary arms race" of pathogen and host. This is the so-called Red Queen hypothesis (from Alice in Wonderland), in which both host and pathogen stay in the same place relative to one another by running as fast as they can. What Poehlmann adds to the literature is a demonstration of the interconnectedness of chronic complaints through a focus on rheumatoid arthritis from which she has personally suffered and from which she is now free of debilitating symptoms. She is also trying to show that the differing illnesses can be caused by the same pathogens, pathogens that may have changed form (going one up on the immune system in the evolutionary arms race). Again and again she makes the telling suggestion to the medical establishment that more research is needed. In Chapter 5, "Infections other than Mycoplasma," Poehlmann gives us an in-depth look at a number of other chronic diseases, especially Lyme Disease and how it is transmitted and how it may be related to RA. She also looks at HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculous, Dengue Fever, amoebic infections, hepatitis, etc., and shows what they have in common. Included is an examination of household molds and how they can bring about RA-type symptoms and what can be done about them. There is so much more here that warrants comment, but I am running out of space. In another review I hope to concentrate on the treatments and lifestyle modifications that Poehlmann recommends especially in Chapter 7, "Natural Methods to Revitalize the Immune System," a chapter that contains some of the best nutritional and lifestyle information that I have ever read anywhere. By itself, it is worth the price of the book. In short, Poehlmann's exciting book is a tsunami in a rising tide of information that is beginning to swamp the old ideas. It is hoped that Poehlmann's call for the medical establishment to wake up will be heard and that there will be a major shift in research toward identifying the microbial basis of chronic disease so that we can work toward cures instead of just treating symptoms.