Eddie,
There absolutely can be a connection with these conditions. I’ve been posting about the pathologies of spine diseases for years now; I fear some people are tired of it and have serious considered the implications of the citations in the long topic Also see this page I just found.
In my opinion, there’s no question that mycobacteria plays a role in spinal diseases and arthritis. Remember, pathogens that cause certain arthritic conditions were discovered 75 years ago; many other types have been found since then. Equally as important, some can be successfully treated with antimicrobial therapies.
In the meantime, the pharmaceutical companies are making a killing (pun intended) on treating millions of arthritis patients with dangerous immune-suppressive drugs.
As you will see when you start reading and learning about this phenomenon, it gets pretty thick with complexity pretty fast. And spine doctors generally don't like to discuss this kind of thing; so finding a good rheumie doc is good advice.