Tuberculosis Infections Prominent in Septic Arthritis

A new diagnostic test has enabled medical doctors to confirm that arthritis can readily be the result of tuberculosis bacteria infecting the joints.

This is newsworthy because for years, conventional medicine argued that arthritis could not be a result of infection outside of septic arthritis – following a body-wide bacterial infection spreading throughout the body’s tissues and joints.

Arthritis patients tested

Illustrating the weakness of such a theory, researchers from India’s Lok Nayak Hospital in New Delhi tested 32 arthritis patients with the Amplified Mycobacterium tuberculosis Direct Test (AMTDT). These were all patients who were at the preliminary stages of their arthritis and showing signs of possible joint infection.

After applying the test, the researchers found that eight of the 32 patients indeed tested positive for the Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection within their joint fluid – the synovial fluid.

For many years, conventional medicine has assumed that the synovial capsule covering the joints provided some a sterile environment, and thus arthritis could not be associated with bacterial infections outside of rare septic cases. Yet this study showed that the joints can harbor an early infection of bacteria that invade the body.

This also means that bacteria can travel through the bloodstream – another notion that many conventional doctors have argued against for many decades. Their assumption has been that the bloodstream and lymphatic systems are too sterile to allow bacteria to migrate to the joints.

The Indian medical researchers suggested in their conclusion that the use of these diagnostic measures “in all suspected cases is helpful in the early diagnosis of knee joint tuberculosis.”

The test proves what many natural medicine experts have said for decades: That arthritis can readily be the result of an infection of bacteria in the joint.

Infective bacteria and arthritis

Because bacteria can readily enter some people and not enter others, this points to a healthy constitution being a preventive strategy for infection. For years, natural health experts have argued that keeping the blood and saliva pH optimal through dietary strategies will help prevent internal infections.

The ability to allow infective bacteria into the bloodstream also arises from those bacteria getting through the body’s mucosal membrane defense mechanisms. Healthy mucosal membranes contain a significant amount of probiotics and immune cells that help protect the body from invading bacteria.

Other research has linked bacteria and arthritis.

The risk of tuberculosis infection has become more critical over the past decade, as multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) infections have been increasing – even though infections and deaths from TB overall have fallen off slightly due to earlier medical attention. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 8.8 million people contracted tuberculosis worldwide in 2010 and 1.4 million people died from TB around the world.

Learn more about infective arthritis and natural strategies for arthritis:

REFERENCES:

Aggarwal VK, Nair D, Khanna G, Verma J, Sharma VK, Batra S. Use of amplified Mycobacterium tuberculosis in tubercular synovitis diagnosis and early arthritis of knee joint. Indian J Orthop. 2012 Sep;46(5):531-5.

Adams C. Arthritis – The Botanical Solution: Nature’s Answer to Rheumatoid Arthritis, Osteoarthritis, Gout and Other Forms of Arthritis. Logical Books, 2010.