Antibiotic therapy for rheumatic diseases - Harris Poll results

I understand your reservations and don't deny any of that.  What concerns me is that, for people that have NOT found relief through very expensive medications like the biologics (and there are some on this site), that they might not be aware of something else that might help. There was a study done, and it didn't turn out well, but (as with the guaifenesin I take for FM), if the doses have to be so individually tailored that "one size doesn't fit all", it makes it harder to work with a large double-blind study.  There are so many different kinds of arthritis, and probably the reason the cause isn't known is because there are multiple causes, and interactions between the causes. 

     Discovery Health Channel told the story of an outbreak of salmonella in the northwest US - it stemmed from tainted milk that ended up in ice cream, because one milk truck didn't sterilize the tank between shipments (they only washed it).  Out of the many people who were affected, 3 teens ended up with permanent arthritis , affecting both joints & organs, because they had a genetic mutation that made them particularly susceptible to the salmonella bacteria.

     I've talked with two people in New York State that are on antiobiotics for rheumatoid arthritis (both sero-negative, which might be noteworthy), and very happy with it.  There are also people who either have had cancer and can't take medications like the biologics (or other reasons, I guess, like congestive heart failure), or who don't have the ability to pay for them.  I don't think any options should be left unexamined in situations where people are unable to function.

     There's a lot more written about this that involves much more than autoimmune diseases, such as cancer.  It's known that cancer can be triggered by viruses, and possibly bacteria as well.  Not all of it has been elaborated because it's very hard to detect the bacteria, they can morph into group form and films which don't respond like the individual cells.  But it's worth lookin into.  One book is Cell Wall Deficient Forms: Stealth Pathogens, Fourth Edition (Hardcover)  by Lida H. Mattman. 

This is fascinating.  I had a chat with Google and found this page with more on antibiotic treatments.  Seems that antibiotics can be helful for mild to moderate RA. I'm definitely going to ask my rheumatologist about this the next time I see her, just for research purposes.

As far as the user from Spain, she was asking about antibiotic treatments as that's what her doctor had prescribed.  Nothing much beyond that.

That's great that you found that page!   A much more comprehensive summary than I could give, or had available off the top of my head.  The Dr. Brown mentioned is the one referred to in the book I mentioned (The New Arthritis Breakthrough), and I had forgotten the term mycoplasma.  He was apparently quite successful at treating patients with antibiotics. 

I just remembered another line of thought & research on this.  One of the people I've personally talked with on the phone about the treatment, mentioned a site called www.cpnhelp.org.  One of the organisms they've found is Chlamydia pneumoniae (not the STD-type Chlamydia, this is one that affects the lungs, hence "pneumoniae").   She had her doctor get in touch with one of the main researchers to find out how to get her started on this, what tests to do, etc., and she's very positive about it.

    Since I had had pneumonia about 2 years before I was diagnosed with RA, I am kind of interested in this connection.  When the RA fatigue first hit (I was told it was just Fibromyalgia at that point, since the joints weren't obviously involved, and I had had a lot of tendinitis too), one thing I said to my doctor was, "I've never had this kind of fatigue, except when I had pneumonia" even though I didn't have pneumonia by that time!   But I had just had a colonoscopy, and I also wonder about the side effects of clearing out all the good digestive bacteria, along with the drugs I was given for sedation, etc.  I wasn't using yogurt or anything at the time, and also was feeling overwhelmed with emotional stress for unrelated reasons. (I was also having difficulty swallowing, due to an esophageal stricture.)  I've had a colonoscopy since, without those problems, thank Goodness!

Just wondering, if you can say.

E