CONSTITUTIONAL FACTORS IN ARTHRITIS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO INCIDENCE AND RÔLE OF ALLERGIC DISEASES

Abstract

There is a constitutional background and a widespread disturbance of the general physiology in arthritis. There is an hereditary tendency to allergy, arthritis, longevity and a hereditary resistance to essential hypertension and glomerular nephritis. Arthritis may be aggravated by foci of infection in the teeth, tonsils, sinuses, gall bladder, but may exist without these foci. The type of reaction in the joint suggests an allergic reaction which is more probable since there is almost universal presence of manifestations of specific sensitization in other tissue: in over 90% of author''s cases there was the presence of disturbance in the bowel due to specific sensitization to food. These reactions in the bowel make it more permeable and cause the body to be flooded with an excessive amount of antigens from the bowel to which the joint structures are sensitized.