Martin J. BlaserReseñas

This is an amazing overview of the problems with overuse of antibiotics. The most obvious is that antibiotics, critical to treating bacterial infections, become less effective (and replacements are slower to come, for a mix of scientific and economic reasons). Less obvious is the harm caused by changing the balance of bacteria in humans and in the environment, leading to various illnesses, obesity, etc., well after the antibiotic treatment ceases. Clearly presented and from an authority in the field.

The strongest arguments are against early-childhood (especially age 0-2) use of antibiotics, due to great potential for long-term harm, and against routine agricultural use (due to environmental and other harm and limited benefit other than somewhat improved food yields). This seems like a well reasoned course of action, along with studying the use of antibiotics to treat infections and development of newer, more narrow spectrum antibiotics for use.

I detected a note of slight envy as Blaser describes the award of a Nobel prize to the WA pair of Marshall and Warren for; isolation of Heliobacter Pylori in pure culture, for establishing its association with gastritis and with peptic ulcer disease....he is very precise about this description and points out that it was not for "drinking bacteria and causing an ulcer thus proving the theory"...and there are still a lot of questions surrounding the role of Heliobacter pylori. As his story unfolds (and he mentions the need for a new paradigm about bacteria in our bodies) I get the impression that he is angling for a Nobel prize himself. Well maybe he is onto something.
Some of the chapters here are a bit tedious as they describe his experiments in turgid detail ...almost like a pop version of a scientific paper ....but he does make some very powerful points in my view:
1. That the importance and role of bacteria in our lives is hugely underestimated
2. That when we take antibiotics we knock out a lot of good bacteria as well as some troublesome ones.
3. That we have an incredibly diverse flora in, and on, our bodies that has evolved over 200,000 years (and, in reality, probably right back to early animals).
4. The role of Heliobacter pylori in our gut is probably more complex than just causing ulcers...it may have protective effects as well. Worth reading Jonothan Eisen's blog for some critical comment on the claims here. (Basically that causality hasn't been shown yet).
5. (Not too sure about how convinced I am on this point) .....There appears to be some linkages between taking antibiotics in childhood and the rash of "modern" diseases like obesity, asthma, celiac/gluten intolerance, irritable bowel syndrome, food allergies, autism, height of people. But Blaser doesn't seem to be carrying the bulk of the medical establishment along with his thinking. Though, this may not be surprising given the unholy alliance between medical research funding and big pharma.
6. We are running out of antibiotics and need to cut back on their usage and develop more targeted (rather than broad spectrum) antibiotics.
When I started reading the book, I was quite impressed thinking that I was going to learn a lot about the flora in our gut ...and we certainly get a good couple of chapters on the importance of bacteria in our lives: Humanity is just a speck in this massively bacterial world". The (genetic) distance between E. Coli and Clostridium - two common bacteria - is much greater than the distance between corn and us".
Our (body) microbes have millions of unique genes ...whilst our human genome has just 23,000 genes. So 99 percent of the genes in our bodies are bacterial and only about 1 percent are human. And maybe this diversity gives us protection....one of the bugs there might just swing into action when faced with some potentially toxic problem for our bodies.
Some other useful facts: our body is composed of an estimated 30 trillion human cells but is host to more than 100 trillion bacterial and fungal cells. Collectively these bacteria weigh about three pounds.....or about the same as our brains......I assume that this is "wet" weight in both cases
So where do I come out after reading his evidence? I guess that I'm convinced about the importance of our gut flora....though I was convinced about this before anyway. And there is clearly a huge amount to learn about the role of this microbiome. (Though also the role of our junk DNA in conjunction with this microbiome......and he doesn't mention junk DNA).
And his suggestion that dosing our kids with antibiotics may have a big role in triggering the "modern" diseases described above......sounds plausible though clearly needs a lot more work.
Also interesting is that I am reading this book in the midst of the Covid19 pandemic in 2020 and he was writing in 2014 about the dangers of something like this.....(though also something more "bacterial", rather than viral, in nature).
Overall I rate it as about 4.5 stars.½

I found this book to contain a great deal of well researched, interesting information about the effects of antibiotics (and their overuse) on our microbiome and how this impacts on our health. I do think the author needs to consider other aspects of our environment (e.g. pollution, endocrine disruptors, pesticides etc) than just antibiotics and the microbiome, but this does not seem to be part of the scope for this book. The writing is fast paced, and personable without irrelevant extraneous material. The science is easy to understand and summarised fairly well, however, I would have like more indepth details.

OTHER BOOKS

~ The Killers Within: The Deadly Rise Of Drug-Resistant Bacteria by Michael Shnayerson, Mark J. Plotkin

~ Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence and Survival? A Scientific Detective Story by Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, John Peterson Myers

~ Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA by Maryn McKenna

~The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health by David R. Montgomery & Anne Biklé

~ Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills by Russell L. Blaylock

~ This Is Your Brain on Parasites: How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape Society by Kathleen McAuliffe

How the overuse of antibiotics is fueling our modern plagues.

This book is essentially three parts: The opening, where the author lays out his case; the middle, where he offers the best evidence he can present to support his hypothesis; the closing, where solutions are offered. The quality of each part is very different. When laying out the case, he does a very good job of explaining his thinking. When offering evidence, he lost me a bit - actually, a lot - because the associations and causations don't seem that clear. With the closing, he shines, because the solutions are very practical, implementable, and include a discussion of FMT, which has blown my mind since hearing about it. That actually might ultimately be the best solution. So if he's right about the loss of the key parts of our microbiome, then the solution is very present. Unfortunately, even if he is 100% correct about his findings, it might take a long time to achieve consensus, and lives will be lost or compromised in the interim. He has lots of hard, outreach, PSA, clinical trial work to do, on top of what he's already done. The day is short, and the work is long.

A fascinating book that links the overuse of antibiotics to the astronomical rise of such chronic health problems as obesity, asthma, diabetes, celiac and Crohn’s diseases, food allergies, and possibly even autism. Blaser will even make you think twice about regularly using hand sanitizer. Accessible, engrossing, and convincing.

Oh look! Another book that makes intelligent decision-making even more difficult! You probably should not read this if you're easily freaked out by the end of the world. I am somewhat immune (pun intended) to being freaked out by certain things, since I'll never have children: I will not, for example, have to decide whether treating my six-month-year old with antibiotics for a painful ear infection is worth the risk of permanently throwing their microbiome out of whack, which may lead to a host of other difficulties down the road. My own microbiome is, I'm sure, thoroughly out of whack already, so I can remain somewhat fatalist about real life while very much enjoying the intelligent, well-written overview of human-relevant microbiology, history of antibiotics, and discussions of the author's ongoing scientific experimentation. I would recommend this to science nerds and any woman considering a C-section for any reason beyond that of life and death. (Or you can just take my word for it while I summarize that part of the book: Don't. Your baby will thank you.)

SAMPLE PARAGRAPH

So the British scientists took their efforts to Peoria, Illinois, where the new Fermentation Division of the Northern Regional Research Laboratory was gearing up studies about using the metabolism of molds (fermentation) as a source of new microorganisms. Its staff was experienced and had a substantial collection of molds, but few of their strains made penicillin, and none was prolific. Thus the call went out to everyone they knew: send us samples of soil, moldy grain, fruits, and vegetables. A woman was hired to scour the markets, bakeries, and cheese stores of Peoria for samples bearing blue-green mold. She did the job so well they called her Moldy Mary. But in the end, a housewife brought in a moldy cantaloupe that changed the course of history. This particular mold produced 250 units of penicillin per milliliter of broth. One of its mutants churned out 50,000 units per milliliter. All strains of penicillin today are descendants from that 1943 mold.

This review originally appeared on my blog, This Space Intentionally Left Blank

A book with critical and far-reaching implications for health and wellnes.

We have an extreme environmental crisis happening right under our noses - literally. Author Martin J Blaser is sounding the clarion call that something drastic and detrimental is happening to the microbal population of the human gut. Dr. Blaser has made his life's work the study of the microbes and their effect on human health particularily in regards to the human digestive system. He began to notice a trend of microbal die-off, in some cases so drastic that whole species were in danger of becoming extinct. Along with this trend he also noticed the increase of modern illnesses such as diabetes, asthma and obesity. Could the two be related? Dr. Blaser's research gives a strong argument that the answer is Yes. Having extensively studied the H. plyori microbe (implicated in the causation of ulcers) Dr. Blaser discovered that this microbe can switch from causing illness to becoming immune enhancing depending on it's environment; an environment that has been undergoing fundemental changes from a combination of assaults including extensive antibiotic use, modern medical practices and sweeping changes in the food system. These changes have either destroyed beneficial microbes along with harmful ones or have had the effect of not 'seeding' the gut with the beneficial microbes that are necessary to proper function. Dr. Blaser alerts us to what is happening and how to either minimize or reverse this damage.

I will go out on a limb and say that is is possibly the most important health related topic of our times and this book explains and clarifies this issue perfectly. Calling this book the SILENT SPRING of the microbal world would not be an exaggeration. While the information is complicated, Dr. Blaser makes it completely accessable and clear. The methodical stating of his case of how severe this problem truly is leads to the final chapter of solution suggestions. Implementing these solutions would require a sea-change of attitude as it would challenge many firmly intrenched ideas and protocols plus, in some cases, there is a strong disgust factor (I will leaveit to you to discover the details of that yourself - just remember it is gut bacteria that is being discussed). Important book, critical topic - recommmended for anyone who cares about health and human survival.

la description du concert microbien des premières heures d'un être humain (pp. 93-96) est riche scientifiquement et poétiquement
les chapitres 9-13 sont plus techniques

la notion de biodiversité est d'habitude valuée en fonction de la proximité de l’espèce homo sapiens ; l'attention est attirée sur l'importance de la biodiversité de nos micro-organismes en amphibiose (ce terme est ambigu, il lui arrive de désigner ce qui caractérise la vie amphibie —comme l'homophobie vise la discrimination des homosexuels— ici, dans une lexicographie plus rigoureuse, il désigne une notion proche de la symbiose)

malgré les espoirs de la fin, le tableau est très inquiétant pour le futur de l'espèce humaine, si des mesures ne sont pas prises

NB : dans cette édition, il n'y a pas d'appel de note dans le corps du texte, j'ai créé une collection

A relaxed easy read, with a well crafted development supporting you all the way into unknown territory. This is a seminal book that you really must read, your view of life, of your body and how you care for it will change. There will be no going back. Once you get your mind around the ancestry, diversity and sheer mass of bacteria then the next step of understanding that it we that are parasites living in a bacterial world becomes easier. Parasites that some bacteria have evolved to encourage and support, defending their host from all the pathogens out there. All the time Martin Blaser draws on his life experiences to illustrate, illuminate and lead us forward. Experiences founded in leading edge bacteria researches. This could so easily be a heavy academic book but it is not. Running against the accepted medical doctrine never wins friends or converts. Yet we get to see and understand the inevitability of his line of reasoning. Why then is this new insight not widely accepted? If I have a criticism it would be just that, the absence of the counter argument, any exploration of alternatives. A one sided argument is begging the question, what are the other explanations? But then this is a book aimed at the casual reader so must not confuse.
With such an important new view of human biology, some tub thumping is forgivable. As is muted railings against fellow academia who fail to see the significance of the insight his research has proven. The offered final conclusions seem weak and limp, particularly as they were all so many times pre-trailed. Martin Blaser's research into the biology of the stomach may have narrowed his focus. I have no doubt at all that with his insight into the significance of bacteria in the regulation of the health and well-being of our bodies, whole new areas of primary significance are going to emerge. Make no mistakes, this is an important book. Read it and change your view on life and health.

The argument that antibiotics are overused in today's America should be widely accepted. Sadly, it is not.

Dr. Blaser presents multiple chapters outlining the various ways we are tampering with our microbes that are harmful. He also provides a basic outline on the good antibiotics have done and how they can be used judiciously. Every American should be interested in this topic, but I cannot see there being a wide audience for this book. Most who need to be educated on this subject will not take the time to dive intro such a detailed tome. At times I found it difficult to follow. This was especially true in the chapters on H. Pylori - pro and con. The author was starting to confuse me.

Easier to understand for the lay audience were the chapters on the widespread and damaging use of antibiotics in animals at sub-clinical doses. He also provides good thinking material in the chapter on C-Sections and the differences in accepted medical practices in Europe vs. the United States.

I found his concluding chapter to be the most useful for the average reader. He outlines concrete steps that can be taken by individuals, scientists, the medical community and governmental agencies. (The first I would like to see is the outright ban on the use of antibiotics in animals except to treat illness.)

This book looks at the harm that is being done to the human body by modern medicine, especially by the overuse of antibiotics, one of the greatest health discoveries of the last century.

First of all, if a person is suffering from some major ailment, and antibiotics have been shown to work in the past, then don't hesitate to take them. But, taking antibiotics for every sniffle and sore throat is a terrible idea. Penicillin, for instance, is a broad-spectrum antibiotic. That means that it does not just kill the "bad" bacteria, it also kills beneficial bacteria (yes, there is such a thing). Out of, say, a million cold germs, at least one will be resistant to penicillin. With the "good" bacteria, that may have neutralized all of those cold germs, out of the way, that penicillin-resistant germ is now free to multiply without restrictions. Maybe it turns into penicillin-resistant flu, or even worse, pneumonia. What does the person do now?

According to the author, overuse of antibiotics starts in early childhood. A baby spends nine months in a sterile environment before being born. It's first exposure to beneficial bacteria and microbes comes from going through the mother's birth canal. Wiping babies clean, as soon as they are born, while understandable, is a bad idea. Taking a baby by caesarian section, purely for convenience, totally bypassing the birth canal, is an even worse idea (if the life of the mother or the baby is in danger, then, by all means, do a c-section).

Nearly all types of farm animals are fed antibiotics to keep them healthy, or fatten them up for slaughter. Some portion of those antibiotics will end up in the milk you drink, or the meat you eat. The lack of "good", disease-fighting, bacteria in the human body may be behind the recent huge rise in allergies, digestive diseases, asthma or some types of cancer.

This is a huge eye-opener, and it will give the reader plenty to consider. It is very highly recommended for everyone.

This book, written by Dr. Martin Blaser, one of the leaders in the field of microbiome research, serves as an introduction to the biology of the human microbiome, and how and modern medical practices are changing human-bacterial interactions. Blaser's presentation of the ongoing research in this field is well-written and accessible to the general science reader. Yet there is also much to be gained here for readers in health care, although the first few chapters may seem overly simplistic to those with formal training in medicine or bacteriology.

Blaser's basic thesis is that many modern ailments, including obesity, asthma and other immunopathology, and inflammatory bowel disease, may be related to the alterations in the human microbiome, brought on by such practices as overuse of antibiotics and the increased frequency of Cesarian section births. This is a developing and active field of research, with new findings being published practically every day. Blaser's review is fairly comprehensive, and he does a good job describing the methods and findings of specific studies to allow the readers not only to hear the conclusions, but see how those conclusions were reached. However, I do think that he is sometimes a little overzealous in his presentation of the human clinical applications of the research findings, sometimes taking things one or two steps further than the data specifically supports to emphasize what he imagines the future impact will be. Also, because this is an area of active research, I wish that he had spent more time describing the what future research is needed to translate the basic science findings into actual human heath applications. In a time of limited science funding, I think that Blaser misses an important opportunity to describe the process of translational science to the general public, and garner support for what is an increasingly "hot" topic in human health.

Overall, this is a very strong book. Perhaps most importantly, it presents one of the more well-articulated and accessible arguments for limiting antibiotic use that I have ever encountered. As a health professional, I can only hope that many of my patients will read this book and come to the office ready to engage in an informed discussion of the risks and benefits of choosing antibiotic treatment.

The thesis of this book is that antibiotics are overused in routine medical use, which leads to a bunch of issues from obesity to asthma to allergies and also resistant bacteria.

Firstly, I think the author really overlooks the benefits of medical usage of antibiotics. Rarely do doctors ever encounter secondary problems from things like strep throat. Very severe infections that killed many of people 100 years ago are pretty much unheard of nowadays, thanks to antibiotics.

Secondly, many of the authors correlations of antibiotic use to things like obesity, etc, are mostly just correlations. Many of his stories are anecdotal, and most of the studies were performed on mice. Which are not human.

Most of the author's issues with antibiotic resistance, which is truly a big problem, are not explored in the context of routine medical use. Agricultural use of antibiotics, which is the number one usage of antibiotics in the United States, is given just a short chapter without much follow up.

Certainly the context of our unique bacterial microbiomes is important and should be researched. In fact, many important studies have been done. I just don't see how routine medical usage of antibiotics, that save countless lives every day, is causing all of the problems that the author states. And when it comes down to it, wouldn't you rather be alive and possibly asthmatic than dead?

Blaser has the background, decades of passionate research, and the ability to make complex research easily understood. He has these things and a fascinating & timely theme to take this book a long way. Best part for me: this is what I'm looking for in science writing!

Before reading this book I hadn't considered microbes or understood the vast microbiome-this unseen world of apparent great influence in our lives. Only because of my interest in antibiotics did I offer to read & review this book. I'm so glad I did; I gained a lot from reading Blaser's book.

Each chapter starts with a personal story of his own or a patient's that helps us relate with the chapter. They weren't a boring stretch that an author tried desperately to make relatable either. He's had typhoid fever and signed himself up for endoscopies as a subject of his own research. Throughout the book, when he didn't share a personal story, he provided useful examples to convey messages in an interesting way. For example, using the extinction of wolves from Yellowstone to explain the balance of H. pylori or the sequencing of specimens and learning about their communities by comparing them to professions (e.g., taxi drivers, tax lawyers, and taxidermists).

The first four chapters help to explain this relatively unknown world. Then, the next few chapters gave a great history into the development of antibiotics and demonstrated with one example after another about their life-saving and life-altering capabilities. I continue to be disgusted with modern agricultural practices, especially around the inhumane treatment of animals. So, I was already familiar with the use of low-dose antibiotics in animals being raised for food by big agra. Yet, I really appreciated the inclusion of this chapter from a medical authority since so many people seem to be unfamiliar with this hugely widespread practice.

Then, the book covered everyday medical procedures that I never knew. As a woman, I should probably be ashamed about how little I know of American birthing practices. I had no idea about the high numbers of elective C-sections. I certainly had no idea about the bacterial transfer or "wash" of vaginal births. So interesting! The chapters after that one then covered the unusual but seemingly well-documented link between early antibiotic use and taller, fatter, and sicker young people. My husband and I both work with young people (he K-12, me university) and we often discuss how people might be living longer, but they sure are sicker at an early age. This book offers possible links and future possible solutions that I have not heard or read of anywhere else! For this fact alone, I'm really thankful to have received this book.

For anyone who wonders where obesity, autism, diabetes, IBD, and general malaise might be traced back to, this book offers a great historical picture and a short chapter on the end about possible next steps. On a personal level, I couldn't be more thankful for this book. After a serious bronchial issue twice within 6 months and 2 treatments with broad spectrum antibiotics, I ended up having severe GI issues and my doctors ordered all sorts of tests. Eventually, they were sure that I had C. diff. Well, thankfully, I didn't but still never received a sure diagnosis and this even after a colonoscopy. I wish that just before that procedure, the hospital staff would have said that someone my age getting that procedure was a total anomaly. After reading Blaser's book, I know that it can't be uncommon and my strong hunch that the antibiotics were the cause all along might be more grounded in research than I'd imagined. I also learned that it's very lucky that I didn't have C.diff and now I can't believe that my doctors/hospital staff never engaged me in a discussion about antibiotics and microbes. Guess who I'm gifting this book to: my primary physician!

Final thoughts...I appreciate dreamers and the final chapter reads like this book is written by a dreamer. He admittedly notes that his proposed treatments require retooling the profit-driven world of pharmaceuticals and promotes great but unrealistic ideals of paying pediatricians more money and advocates longer visits with more preventative & immediate diagnostics. Well, these changes alone would drastically change medical care in America, but I'm not holding my breath for it. All the same, this book gives great insight into the move forward to avoid an antibiotic winter and to look to phages and microbes as the medicines that they can be.

Have never read another book like this and I'm so glad that I'm more knowledgeable about microbes. Since I won't wait for American medical practice to change as it needs to, I will follow his advice and be very cautious before accepting antibiotic prescriptions, will wait a little bit longer before treating our cool, coastal winter coughs with drugs, and will continue drinking the water kefir that felt like a lifesaver during my odd GI problem-laden year (even though he does rightfully question the "wild west" of probiotics).

Every now and then when I finish a book I have to sit back and take a long breath and reflect. Martin J. Blaser’s Missing microbes : how the overuse of antibiotics is fueling our modern plagues is one of those books. I requested it from LibraryThing.com’s Early Reviewer program as soon as I saw it offered. For the last few years I have been studying the last 200+ years in medical history. Germ theory has existed for only a little more than half of that time. I was interested in what Dr. Blaser considered missing microbes. I had also heard a story on NPR a few months ago that stuck in my head because of its ingenuity and grossness. Some people with severe digestive disorders have been treated with a , uh, well they have the gut bacteria from a healthy donor transported into their gut. It works, their symptoms clear up.

Blaser points out that all life started out microbial and slowly formed colonies that specialized into multicellular life, into more and more complex forms of life and that all that time the multicellular life co-existed with single cell life forms. Some of them are dangerous. If Vibrio cholerae takes up residence in your gut it produces a chemical that mimics one your body naturally uses to signal the intestinal walls to move water out of the body. Cholera caused such severe diarrhea, moving water out of the body into the gut, that it could kill a health person in less than a day. Luckily most of the microbes in and on our bodies are harmless or even helpful. At least one digests food we are unable to use into forms that we can use. How many microbes are there that provide us with benefits that we don’t know about?

The star of the book is Helicobacter pylori, a spiral shaped bacteria first discovered in the early days of germ theory and quickly forgotten about. It was found in everyone's stomach and it was impossible to grow in the lab with the existing technology. Many years later it was rediscovered in the stomachs of some people and it was blamed for very bad things ranging from ulcers to stomach cancer. How did it go from being in everyone's stomach in the late 19th century to only some stomachs in the mid to late 20th century? Wide spectrum antibiotics.

The book makes a very good case for the theory that our overuse of antibiotics, over prescribing and using in animal feed, is not only creating Multi Drug Resistant, MRD, bugs but it is killing off potentially helpful bacteria that has co-existed with human beings for ages. After demonstrating a correlation between acid reflux disease, which can progress into nasty throat cancer, and the lack of H. pylori Blaser asks if the modern rise in allergies, asthma, autism, obesity,* and type 1 diabetes are the result of a missing beneficial bacteria.

In my opinion in a hundred years this book will be considered a major turning point in medical science. I don’t know how the medical establishment will look at it today. There is so much money wrapped up in the status quo that any change, even for the better, will be resisted. I have never been a fan of hand sanitizer and after reading this I will question my doctor about the necessity of any antibiotics he offers me. You need to read this book.

* low dose antibiotics have been given to farm animals for over 50 years to speed their growth, antibiotics are undoubtedly one factor in the obesity problem.

A rather short book of just 200 pages on an important issue on the overuse
of antibiotics. The author's position is that overuse of antibiotics is basically
destroying the good bacteria in our bodies.

“Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics is Fueling Our Modern Plagues,” by Martin J. Blaser, is a fascinating—and honestly quite alarming—story of the author’s lifelong quest to study the significance and purpose of the microbes that live in and on our human body. The author’s main focus is on bacteria and what happens when we kill them indiscriminately with broad-spectrum antibiotics, driving many to brink of extinction. The book supports his thesis that our overuse of these antibiotics may be fueling (note: not causing) many of our modern plagues. These plagues include not only common gut diseases such gastroesophageal reflux disease, celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis, but also seemingly unrelated ailments such as autism, obesity, type-1 diabetes, hay fever, asthma, food allergies, and eczema.

The author demonstrates that the enormous diversity of our microbiome is absolutely essential to our overall health. In particular, the book focuses on the importance of maintaining a diverse microbiome in the early, first few years of life. If the microbiome at that time is assaulted with too many broad-spectrum antibiotics, and significant diversity is lost, it can “fuel” (again, not cause) the possibility that the child may grow up to develop one or more of these modern plagues.

He stresses that we must all recognize that our human microbiome forms an important “third arm of our immune system.” We should no longer mess with it indiscriminately. Without diversity in our microbiome, we lay ourselves wide open to a host of modern plagues. Naturally, we must still use antibiotics, but we must learn to use them wisely, with far greater discrimination.

The book is designed to be read by interested readers without significant scientific background. The author provides technical background information along the way, as necessary. Overall, the book is scholarly in tone and organization (e.g., there are considerable annotated footnotes), but it is also nicely balanced by many human-interest stories that add a lively social context to the scientific research being discussed and presented. The book always held my interest. I was eager to finish it. I read it slowly, and with much pleasure, over four days. My copy is full of marginal annotations. This is generally a clear sign that I found the book fascinating and enjoyable. And, indeed, I did. For me, this is a very important book and I plan to recommend it to most of my friends.

An incredible 99.9 percent of all the unique genes in our body are bacterial, and only about 0.1 percent are human. The author emphasizes that our microbes are not mere passengers in and on our body, they are also metabolically active and essential for our very life. Without them, we would die. If we destroy a large proportion of our diverse ancestral microbes through broad-spectrum antibiotics, we significantly destroy the balance of microbes in our body and the important biological niche that each microbe evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to fill. Currently, he estimates, most people in the United States have already lost about 40% of the diversity in their microbiome. I find that extremely alarming.

I am confident that Blaser has focused on one of the major health issues of our time: the importance of our human microbiome. This is a very significant book. All libraries, public and academic should buy it. Doctors should read it. This should be essential reading for anyone interested in what it may take to stay healthy in the modern world.

The title 'Missing Microbes' and the subtitle implied that the book was going to look at antibiotic resistant in general terms. However, the bulk of the book was about Dr. Blaser's research into H. pylori and its apparent connection to acid re flux, obesity, and asthma. In this case the book provided an interesting and thorough explanation of these relationships. It was not until the end of the book antibiotic resistance discussed in more broad situations. A good book, just not what I expected.½

Really enjoyed this book on a fascinating topic. Great food for thought on the neverending battle against infectious disease and the potential for misusing and overusing antibiotics. The author believes that all actions have consequences, and although antibiotics are a necessary and useful weapon in our arsenal, using them when not 100% necessary can lead to all kinds of other problems, including the imbalance of the patient's existing microbiome, which consists of millions of helpful and/or harmless bacteria. It can also contribute to the growing concern over antibiotic-resistant infections.. We should consider the full ramifications of our actions before using antibiotics - and also work on developing more targeted antibiotics, which can attack harmful bacteria while leaving most of the rest of the patient's microbiome intact.

The author delves into other related issues, such as the prophylactic use of antibiotics in farm animals, and how being born by C-section could put babies at a disadvantage in terms of their microbiome, or even how the overuse of antibiotics could be contributing to the rise of obesity in modern societies. As others have noted, some of this is proven and cited, while some of this is speculation, but the author is pretty good about identifying which is which, which I appreciated. All in all, a great read if you have any interest in human biology and/or public health.

Missing Microbes covers a topic that I have been very interested in lately. You are probably aware of the sudden rise in antibiotic-resistant diseases, as it is covered in the media with increasing frequency. We know (for the most part) that overuse of antibiotics is leading to this resistance, which makes perfect sense. However, Martin Blaser wants to elaborate a bit more on why this is happening, and like any good scientist he thinks his field of study has everything to do with everything.

For the most part, I think his theories are solid. The problem with overusing antibiotics is not only that they create stronger pathogens through natural selection (of a sort), but taking them is like carpet bombing your systems. Broad-spectrum antibiotics kill all life forms, even key microbes required for the human body to function. Blaser fears that constant exposure to antibiotics could lead to the extinction of critical parts of our 'microflora,' which he believes is already resulting in some of the modern plagues we are seeing today, such as obesity, asthma, diabetes, and allergies.

I'm a little skeptical of a lot of the author's claims, but the key argument that antibiotics are being overused is absolutely spot on. Obviously they are necessary for those who are ill, but the idea that healthy people are continuously being exposed to them for no reason, and constantly having their microflora wiped out, seems rather unnecessary, really!

I do wonder why it was never considered that good microbes could also become antibiotic-resistant, but it doesn't change the fact that antibiotics are going to become increasingly less effective the more we are exposed to them, and surely that is reason enough to sensibly restrict them to those who actually need them to fight off infections.

Full disclosure - in my youth I found Paul de Kruif's book, Microbe Hunters, one of the most captivity books and for awhile considered becoming a pathologist. I eventually was captured by the electronic technology bug but never lost an interest in our invisible biology. This is important for Martin Blaser's new book, Missing Microbes. If you are a germophobe or squeamish about the fact that we are colonized by billions of bacteria in every crevice of our body, inside and out, then this book isn't really for you.
However, if you are concerned about what may be happening to our bacterial ecosystem through the extensive and inappropriate use (Blaser position) of antibiotics in our food and as medical treatments; then you will find Missing Microbes compelling book.
Blaser starts off modestly with some personnel history and evolutionary history of homo sapiens along with our bacterial brethren. The human microbiome that consists of 10 times more cells than our entire body and weighs a staggering 3 lbs! Blaser describes the rise of pathogens and our response with the creation of "wonder drugs", antibiotics.
Much of the book addresses our gut bacteria, H. pylori. H. pylori is the cause of ulcers and contributes to stomach cancer but also has therapeutic benefits!
The book's main theme is our use/over use of antibiotics in modern life and the implications for human health. For example, in our food, livestock are given large doses of subtherapeutic antibiotics for rapid weight gain. If this treatment works for livestock does it have a similar effect in us? Does ingesting these antibiotics in our food supply (use in the EU is band) affect our microbiome?
I found Blaser's description of the relationship between a mother's microbiome and the birth process one of the most interesting discussions. Blaser roundly condemns elective C-section births and post natal antibiotic treatments as endangering babies for life of health complications.
Much of the book addresses our gut bacteria, H. pylori. H. pylori is the cause of ulcers and contributes to stomach cancer but also has therapeutic benefits!
Blasser even addresses heartburn and acid reflux (GERD). Isn't it fundamentally plausible that if we are impacting our microbiome with antibiotic use then there would be a price to pay in our digestive processes?
In summary, Martin Blaser has laid out sound arguments based on his own studies (and others) that our indiscriminate use of antibiotics is contributing to many of modern maladies. The reader is cautioned however that Blaser does freely speculate and frequently extrapolates to more general conclusions than is supported by current data. In his defense, however, Blaser does indicate his opinion or the need for further investigations in these cases. It is left to the reader to carefully note these author speculations.½

Missing Microbes explains that bacteria is not always a pathogen (disease causing). Beneficial bacteria are not only helpful but an essential component of the biosphere. While antibiotics are the key to treating infections, overuse in medicine and farming is producing drug resistance in microbes and could be responsible for other chronic health problems in humans.

Dr. Blaser's medical background in research and credentials carry a lot of weight in making this a rational and acceptable book. Any of his statements are backed up with studies and not merely his opinion. And he offers solutions to this problem. Have the federal government ban animal feed laced with antibiotics and educate patents on the dangers of prescribing antibiotics for minor infections such as colds/flu symptoms.

I like that the author takes a holistic approach to medicine. He offers compelling reasons why Caesarian sections are bad for a newborns immune system. And why a normal and balanced gut flora is needed for proper digestive health. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in learning more about infectious diseases and the field of medicine.½