Bacteria - Gabe Mirkin Drivel again

[Austin Powers]

HM wrote:

> Does mycoplasma, chlamydia, and
> ureaplasma cause prostatitis? See
> attached article page l and page 2.

Firstly, why don't you just provide a link instead of posting all this
regurgitated, misinformed crap here?

Secondly, Gabe Mirkin, the author of this eclectic and unbalanced
rehash of bits of research and dollops of opinion, is a well known
idiot who posts this stuff at his site in an entirely unethical way.
See Dr Shoskes' opinion of him:

http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=372945748

Mirkin takes controversial topics and theories publishes web pages
about them as if the theory is accepted fact, when in fact only a
tiny, TINY minority of MDs would agree with him. Take the case below:

> Mirkin spouted:

> The only way that you will be cured is
> for your doctor to suspect an infection with
> these germs and for you to take
> long-acting erythromycin or tetracyclines for
> several weeks, months or years.

This is not an accepted mode of treatment in medicine, despite a few
idiosyncratic characters pushing the concept.

> They are the most common cause of
> venereal diseases and are a
> common cause of muscle and joint pains,
> burning in the stomach, a chronic
> cough, and chronic fatigue. They can cause
> transverse myelitis (paralysis of the
> spine); gall stones; a chronic sore throat;
> red itchy eyes, pain on looking at
> light and blindness; arthritis; brain and
> nerve damage with symptoms of
> lack of coordination, headaches and passing
> out; spotting between periods or uterine
> infections; kidney stones testicular
> pain; asthma; heart attacks; strokes ;
> cerebral palsy; premature birth;
> high blood pressure; nasal polyps; stuffy
> nose in newborns; chronic fatigue;
> belly pain; muscle pain; confusion,
> passing out and death; coughing; bloody
> diarrhea; and anal itching and
> bleeding.

Yes, and they also cause burping, nightmares and teething pains, to
say nothing of the "pinging" sound in my car's engine!

> Mycoplasma, chlamydia and
> ureaplasma infections are extraordinarily
> difficult to diagnose and treat.

Not if you are called Dr Mirkin. Then, whatever the disease, just
treat for a few years with antibiotics. What a charlatan!

> No dependable tests are available to most
> practicing physicians that will rule infections
> with these bacteria in or out,

How useful! So really any disease which is difficult to diagnose could
be a candidate, eh? Dickwad.

> and most doctors will not prescribe antibiotics to
> patients unless they have results of
> a laboratory test that confirms a specific
> infection.

Thank god, although unfortunately that's not true, and many MDs hand
abx out like candy.

> If you feel sick and your
> doctor is unable to make a diagnosis
> because all laboratory tests and
> cultures fail to reveal a cause, you could be
> infected with mycoplasma,
> chlamydia or ureaplasma and will be cured
> only by taking long-acting
> erythromycin or tetracyclines for many
> months.

It's outrageous that he's able to get away with publishing this
unproven, controversial, unsubstantiated BS on the 'net!

> Usually the first
> symptoms from chlamydia, ureaplasma and
> mycoplasma are burning on urination, a
> feeling that you have to urinate all
> the time, terrible discomfort when the
> bladder is full and vaginal itching,
> odor or discharge. Other first symptoms
> include itchy eyes, a cough or a
> burning in your nose. The bacteria are
> transmitted through sexual
> contact, or you can be infected when an
> infected person coughs in your
> face, or you touch nasal or eye secretions
> from an infected person and put
> your finger in your nose or eye. Your
> chances for a cure are high if you
> are treated when you have only local
> symptoms; but after many months,
> the infection can spread to other parts of
> your body and make you sick or
> damage nerves, joints and muscles.
>
> Once these infections are
> allowed to persist for months or years, they
> are extraordinarily difficult to cure and often
> require treatment for many
> months.

There is scant support for this theory, most of it coming from a
husband and wife team promoting this idea from their "clinic" in
California. No believable corroborating research exists as far as I
know.

> Even if your doctor is willing to
> prescribe antibiotics, treatment
> can be difficult. Often patients do not take
> the medication long enough to
> be cured, or they may have a close contact
> with an infected person and
> become reinfected.

Useful copout. If you don't get better after months of abx then it's
your fault or you are "re-infected" even though your diet consists of
abx with breakfast, lunch and supper.

> Many physicians disagree
> with these recommendations, so check with
> your doctor to see if you may
> be a candidate for this treatment.

You're darned tootin'! It's be difficult to find one who agrees with
this treatment!

> Reactive and Rheumatoid
> Arthritis
>
> Most rheumatologists refuse
> to treat their rheumatoid arthritis patients
> with antibiotics even though all five
> controlled prospective studies
> conducted to date show that minocycline
> drops the rheumatoid factor
> towards zero and helps to alleviate the pain
> and destruction of rheumatoid
> arthritis.

The moron Mirkin hasn't heard how abx act as anti-inflammatories in RA
through non-antibacterial means. If anyone wants to see the studies,
just ask and I'll post them here again.

> There are two major types of
> arthritis: osteoarthritis, also called
> degenerative arthritis; and reactive arthritis,
> which includes rheumatoid
> arthritis.

Actually, Reactive Arthritis does not include Rheumatoid Arthritis.
They are completely separate entities medically. If he can make this
basic mistake in medicine, how can you trust a word this idiot says?

> Most scientists
> agree that an infection initiates rheumatoid
> and other reactive arthritides
> and most think that the germ is still there
> when symptoms start.

Wrong, and wrong.

1) RA has no known cause - any
textbook can confirm this. Look at
Medline - 99% of research into RA
is on issues which exclude bacteria.
Here's an interesting example, which
has some application to CPPS:

| Am J Clin Nutr 1999 Sep;70(3 Suppl):594S-600S
|
| Rheumatoid arthritis treated with vegetarian
| diets.
|
| Kjeldsen-Kragh J
| Department of Immunology and Transfusion
| Medicine, Ullevaal University Hospital, Oslo.
|
| [Medline record in process]
|
| The notion that dietary factors may influence
| rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been a part of
| the folklore of the disease, but scientific
| support for this has been sparse. In a
| controlled, single-blind trial we tested the
| effect of fasting for 7-10 d, then consuming
| an individually adjusted, gluten-free, vegan
| diet for 3.5 mo, and then consuming an
| individually adjusted lactovegetarian diet for 9
| mo on patients with RA. For all clinical
| variables and most laboratory variables
| measured, the 27 patients in the fasting and
| vegetarian diet groups improved significantly
| compared with the 26 patients in the control
| group who followed their usual omnivorous
| diet throughout the study period. One year
| after the patients completed the trial, they
| were reexamined. Compared with baseline,
| the improvements measured were
| significantly greater in the vegetarians who
| previously benefited from the diet (diet
| responders) than in diet nonresponders and
| omnivores. The beneficial effect could not be
| explained by patients' psychologic
| characteristics, antibody activity against food
| antigens, or changes in concentrations of
| prostaglandin and leukotriene precursors.
| However, the fecal flora differed significantly
| between samples collected at time points at
| which there was substantial clinical
| improvement and time points at which there
| were no or only minor improvements. In
| summary, the results show that some
| patients with RA can benefit from a fasting
| period followed by a vegetarian diet. Thus,
| dietary treatment may be a valuable adjunct
| to the ordinary therapeutic armamentarium
| for RA. PMID: 10479237, UI: 99408702

2) "reactive arthritides … most think
that the germ is still there when
symptoms start."

Harrisons (the Medical Bible for PCPs)
says : "… in a sizable majority [of reactive
arthritis patients] … no evidence of an
antecedent infection can be found."

I think I have proved that Mr Mirkin (can't really call him "Dr") is
an absolute idiot with no credibility whatsoever.

\|/ ____ \|/
@~/ .. \~@
/_( \__/ )_\
\_ U_/