More about pleiomorphic bacteria (CWDBs)

Bacteria in disguise

Chronic inflammatory diseases have until now been deemed incurable, as the name itself suggests. However, there is good reason to challenge this perspective. The American bacteriologist, Lida Mattman (1912-2008), professor in bacteriology at Wayne State University, devoted her entire life and professional career to studying bacteria. She published her work in a book, Cell Wall Deficient Forms, in 2001. * According to Mattman, the cause of chronic inflammatory diseases can be traced back to cell wall deficient bacterial forms – called pleiomorphic bacteria.

The results of her study also led Lida Mattman to conclude that the use of antibiotics aids and abets the development of these treatment-resistant, pleiomorphic bacteria. Once more, if this side effect were to be generally acknowledged, it would mean a complete revolution in today’s prescription-driven medical practice. A much more restrictive attitude towards prescribing antibiotics may not only encounter resistance from patients themselves - who largely expect a consultation with a doctor to be followed by a prescription for a pill - it would also have a dramatic negative impact on pharmaceutical sales.

Years after her findings were published, current medical protocol still requires the use of hundreds of separate and often expensive methods to even diagnose these individual diseases – when a relatively simple and cheaper option has been “gathering dust” in the wings.

As mentioned above, Mattman’s insights into the causes of chronic inflammatory diseases have not yet been applied in regular medical practice. Respected authorities have ignored her work entirely; as Lida Mattman ruefully admits in her book, they ‘simply did not want to know’. This is entirely feasible, as applying her results could be seen as a threat to the established order. Unfortunately, nothing has yet happened to alter this state of affairs. Unless the medical world accepts and applies these new insights, we will come no closer to an effective treatment for many chronic ailments. Ignoring this result has prolonged the extensive use of drugs designed to address the symptoms of these diseases, as the cause has been declared to be “unknown”. Patients still need to take symptom suppressing drugs - often with negative side effects - for the rest of their lives without the prospect of ever getting better. This is a situation that is only truly optimal for drug manufacturers.

Lida Mattman and her team have shown that the causal factor in chronic diseases is bacteria which by taking on many disguises can neither be “seen” nor eliminated by our immune system or by antibiotics. She predicted that it would be necessary to find a way to destroy their driving force, their DNA, to neutralize them properly. Her frustration that her ground-breaking work remained unrecognized in medical circles led her to declare that ignoring the existence of pleiomorphic bacteria and the significance of this find for medical practice was the biggest mistake that the medical establishment has ever made. It is now over to current and future generations to ensure that this omission will be made good. This is my hope and my aim.

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* Lida Holmes Mattman Ph.D. Graduated with a M.S. in Virology from the University of Kansas and a Ph.D. in Immunology from Yale University. Mattman taught Immunology, Microbiology, Bacteriology, Virology and Pathology. Dr Mattman was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1997.

reference Mattman, Lida H. (2001) Cell Wall Deficient Forms: stealth pathogens, (3rd edition) CRC Press Washington DC.