Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues Author: Martin J. Blaser | Language: English | ISBN:
0805098100 | Format: EPUB
Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues Description
A critically important and startling look at the harmful effects of overusing antibiotics, from the field's leading expert
Tracing one scientist’s journey toward understanding the crucial importance of the microbiome, this revolutionary book will take readers to the forefront of trail-blazing research while revealing the damage that overuse of antibiotics is doing to our health: contributing to the rise of obesity, asthma, diabetes, and certain forms of cancer. In Missing Microbes, Dr. Martin Blaser invites us into the wilds of the human microbiome where for hundreds of thousands of years bacterial and human cells have existed in a peaceful symbiosis that is responsible for the health and equilibrium of our body. Now, this invisible eden is being irrevocably damaged by some of our most revered medical advances—antibiotics—threatening the extinction of our irreplaceable microbes with terrible health consequences. Taking us into both the lab and deep into the fields where these troubling effects can be witnessed firsthand, Blaser not only provides cutting edge evidence for the adverse effects of antibiotics, he tells us what we can do to avoid even more catastrophic health problems in the future.
- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (April 8, 2014)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0805098100
- ISBN-13: 978-0805098105
- Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
As most of us know, the medical community has been over prescribing antibiotics for some time now, and there is a call for the practice to end. There is no need for the use of antibiotics in many cases, and the use of them could be curtailed significantly without harm to public health. In addition, the author of this book presents compelling evidence that the overuse of antibiotics is not just causing resistance in microbes, but may also be contributing to the alarming increase in a number of diseases.
The book begins with several chapters that explain microbiology and how microbes are aligned with the human body. For instance, there are millions of microbes living in your intestinal tract, but they are not harmful; in fact they may be very beneficial. Early and frequent use of antibiotics can disrupt this natural ecosystem causing a myriad of problems.
There is also information on how we obtain our microbiological flora. For instance, microbes are passed from a mother to a baby during birth. As the baby exits the birth canal, it is coated in the naturally occurring bacteria that is found there normally. In addition, the newborn will pick up bacteria from nursing and from being handled by the mother. All of this is normal, and healthy, but overuse of antibiotics maybe causing disruption of the normal process.
In information presented that was startling, the author has linked a bacteria found in the stomach, and thought to cause ulcers, to an increase in the number of cases of gastrointestinal esophageal reflux disease. When it was first proven that the bacteria in question was responsible for ulcers, doctors went on a spree to eradicate it from adults.
The over-prescription of drugs isn’t exactly newsworthy … in fact, I’ll bet you can’t even watch a half-hour show on network television without at least one commercial dedicated to a drug that allows the suffering masses to better endure some miserable malady. Living in a world that promises a solution for every problem seems to have led to the “I-Med” path were currently on (“there’s a pill for that”). With his book, MISSING MICROBES, Dr. Martin Blaser explains how the unnecessary overuse of antibiotics (arguably the world’s most reliable and necessary medicine) may be leading to the onset of so many of modern society’s ailments: GERD/acid reflux, obesity, allergies/asthma, etc.
Blaser, a M.D. with 30 years of experience researching bacteria in diseases provides readers with useful background information on the role microbes play in life on earth before diving into the nuts and bolts on the overuse of antibiotics. I found the information touched-on in the first few chapters (microbes, human micro biome, pathogens and the development of antibiotics) to be the most interesting and informative parts of the book. The manner in which he lays out the basic biological elements of the human body and overall diverse function of its 100 trillion microbes is simply fascinating. While the major organs may get all the attention, the battle between the good and bad microbes is a perpetual struggle in which the outcome dictates healthiness over illness or life over death. Blaser effectively translates his fluency of medical science into a manner that is easy to digest for us “regular folk” … a big plus.
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