Evaluating your infectious burden
It is possible to identify the germs that make up a typical infectious burden, but it's not easy.
         For example, there are no easy, reliable tests to identify most of the middle-path germs you are carrying. Serology (IG) tests are inexpensive, and they work well to with acute infections like measles, but they give confusing and conflicting results when used to identify chronic infections. Only physicians with a lot of experience will be able to interpret the results of serology tests of middle-path germs such as Chlamydophila pneumoniae (CPN).
         Cultures can be used to identify some germs, but culturing CPN is very difficult. My giant health maintenance organization (HMO), with dozens of lab techs and millions of dollars worth of equipment, cannot culture CPN organisms.
         Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests can detect pathogens that can't be found any other way, but PCR tests require special facilities that are beyond most biomedical laboratories My giant HMO cannot do the PCR tests needed to find CPN organisms in white blood cells.
         Even if you have access to the necessary test facilities, there are hundreds of germs in the human body, and most of them are harmless. Which ones should you suspect as potential pathogens (disease-causing germs)?
         Dr. Hans-Jurgen Rupprecht did some research on infectious burdens in the late '90s. He used serology tests to test 1018 people for eight pathogens: herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2, cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, Haemophilus influenzae, Chlamydia pneumoniae, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and Helicobacter pylori. Those eight germs would be a good place to start
         You wouldn't necessarily have to test for all of Dr. Rupprecht's germs at the same time. My reading makes me think that CPN and cytomegalovirus (CMV) are the major culprits in obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Mycoplasma species might play a larger role in arthritis.
         Where can you get tested? I don't know. If you see an infectious diseases specialist, he or she should know where to get the tests done.
 

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