According to 19th century records, Addison`s disease is ALWAYS due to TB. However, modern commentators keep speaking of "Autoimmune" - a condition known in dogs. One medical dictionary even cites the baldness of the kidneys as evidence of autoimmune disease - the adrenals having vanished COMPLETELY.

It seems to have escaped their notice that the kidneys, even of the healthy, are ALWAYS bald. Wilks, in the footnote to page 25, states: "I might also remind readers (although I should hesitate to do so were it not absolutely necessary) that the supra-renal capsules are not attached to the kidney..." so that doctors are forever being deceived by their own incomplete knowledge.

The finding at AUTOPSY will always be APLASIA. That means that if it was tuberculosis, the bacilli will have EATEN UP the tissue. Similarly, if it is autoimmune, antibodies will have caused the T-cells to EAT UP the tissue. There is always DEBRIS of some kind - never complete baldness.

Steroids, however, will SHRINK the cells WITHOUT destroying them - so steroids lead to ATROPHY. There will be no debris.

The "BALD KIDNEY" story is adequately explained by Wilks, who says that the adrenal glands were left behind in the body when the kidneys were tugged out.

Greenhow cites 128 uncomplicated cases, with 57 cases complicated by TB. Tuberculosis in Europe always originated from tuberculosis in cows. The humans drank the milk, and "carried" the disease, often without being affected. However, often the bacteria would form a colony in the bones, and often in the lungs. When a lung-TB victim coughed, he might spread the condition. The processing of milk, and the treatment of the sick, led to the progressive disappearance of TB in Europe from the nineteen-sixties onward.

Greenhow states that sometimes, when there is a tear in the tissue near to the adrenals, Addison`s disease may follow. Today, we would say that because the adrenals are poisonous to germs - due to their steroids - they require the tuberculosis germs to mutate until they have adapted to the environmental niche. A small colony NEAR TO the adrenals would be the ideal agency by which germs may be mutated and "streamed" towards the adrenals until a new mutant takes hold. Such a mutant would then flow from the one adrenal to the other - where it would find a matching environmental niche.

This, then, is the mechanism of the UNCOMPLICATED cases. In those COMPLICATED by TB, it is not just a small colony near one adrenal gland that starts the process, but an active infection in the bones or lungs. Complicated cases are only complicated in the sense that it is harder to decide WHAT KILLED THE PATIENT - Addison`s disease worsened by TB or TB worsened by Addison`s disease.

There is just one other common cause of Addison`s disease - which is itself rare. That is the cytomegalovirus in AIDS sufferers. APLASIA would again be the autopsy finding. Evidence of fungal forms of Addison`s disease has never been found by the author, despite his extensive search. All things are possible - but there seem to be no reliable academic PROOFS of this.

In the year 2001, a Pakistani presented himself at the University Clinik in Berlin. He had hyperpigmentation, nausea and vomiting. He had a past history of lung tuberculosis. Tuberculosis of the adrenals was suspected.

ACTH levels were found to be high. The hydrocortisone was found to be low. Ultrasound images revealed a "lumpiness" in the adrenal region on both sides. It was, however, the X-RAY TOMOGRAPH that provided the definitive proof.

Here we see how the opacity of calcium in the calcified adrenals causes a conspicuous lightening of the X-RAY. The large white arc at the bottom centre is the spine - bones are pure white. However, the absolute clarity of the lightening in the adrenal regions shows that the lesions are without doubt TUBERCLES.

It has since been pointed out that there were prior examples of CT-scans revealing tubercles since 1980, and even of X-Rays showing tuberculosis prior to that. The author has been unable to find academic papers authorised for publication. Professor Wermke gave permission for these images to be incorporated in this website. If earlier provable examples are made available, the site will be updated.

It had never before been achieved to give an UNEQUIVOCAL diagnosis. The method previously used was to collect up a catalogue of symptoms and compare them with the list of known Addison symptoms. The result was a "medical opinion". As the catalogue of "known" symptoms began to be corrupted by the inclusion of those of steroid addiction, the chances of obtaining an unequivocal diagnosis deteriorated.

This, then, is the first UNDOUBTABLE diagnosis in a living patient known to the author. You can read the report by following the link below. That report itself contains a link to the site in Switzerland where it was found. Use BACK to return from Switzerland.

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(C) 2001 Charles Douglas Wehner.
Use freely but do not plagiarise.