The best book about bacteria you'll ever read

---

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #432123 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-16
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

---

Customer Reviews

Hitchhiker's Guide To The Body
Starting at birth, the new, innocent body becomes home to a host of microscopic invaders. These days, at that same instant, forces are brought to bear to stop or repel that horde. As Jessica Sachs explains in this comprehensive account, we are only learning the first lessons in what microbes mean in our lives.

Perhaps the first thing readers should take from this book is that "antibiotics" don't contend with viruses. Those costly drugs only fight bacteria, a more complex and elusive critter. Another difference between bacteria and viruses is that we generally need the former, but not the latter. Which means we'd best be cautious about trying to ravage them with chemicals. The number and variations of bacteria in our bodies seems countless as you follow Sachs' account of who they are and what they do. Or fail to do. Most of us grew up with the "bad germs" litany drummed into us. "Wash your hands before dinner!" and "Don't play in the mud!" still echo in our minds after many years. The point was to "prevent" germs from entering our bodies. It turns out that Mum's cautions weren't always on the mark - Mummy didn't know best after all. We needed those bugs - they help us stay healthy.

Jessica Sachs guides us through the findings of scores of scientists' work that has revised the approach we were taught about "germs" in our childhood. Eating mud, something many of us were at least verbally chastised for, turns out to be a good thing, even a necessity. From birth, the introduction of certain microbes initiate processes the body needs to keep going. For most people today, it's well known that microbes in our tummies are part of the process of digestion. Escherichia coli is known to be a true friend - in controlled numbers and certain strains. What's less known is how many other bacteria the body relies on to get certain jobs done. One of those jobs is keeping the immune system properly tuned. A lazy immune system is unresponsive or unable to react to invasion. An overly ambitious one can turn on its own body and destroy it.

Both friendly and destructive bacteria live in our mouths, eyes, skin and elsewhere. Over millions of years, the body has come to an accommodation with those creatures, generally striking a balance ensuring survival. This balance has been severely offset in recent years, due to a "cleanliness" obsession that arose when it became clear that some germs were responsible for diseases. This idea was effectively demonstrated by UK researcher David Strachan, whose research led to what is now called the "hygiene hypothesis" - respiratory illnesses result from lack of cross-microbe activity to build immunities. In short, rich, small families were more prone to allergies than large, poorer ones. As Sachs points out, humans in our society overreacted to the new knowledge about disease-causing germs and sought to eliminate them all. The imbalance has led to many tragic situations, and initiated a guarantee that more, perhaps worse, situations are in the offing. What are we to do about it?

At the end of a superb compendium of case histories, research investigations and depictions of the scientists themselves, Sachs arrives at glancing into the future. The path is vague and unclear, chiefly because we have changed the past so drastically in our present - particularly in North America. European research has offered some pointers, but the microbe population here has already been distorted beyond restoration to past conditions. This situation indicates drastic new approaches must be tried. Perhaps the most disturbing for many will be the development of bio-engineered treatments. The realisation that bacteria can not only pass antibiotic-resistant genes among their kin, but provide them to other species means "scatter-gun" forms of vaccines must be developed. We will likely have to imitate Nature, applying the gene transfer process to counter what human-produced "superbugs" are doing to us. Clearly, the suffering public must be kept fully informed about the options and their implications. The education process begins with this book. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Thoroughly professional; a little scary
I've read a number of books on microbes in recent years, including

Bakalar, Nicholas. Where the Germs Are: A Scientific Safari (2003)
Biddle, Wayne. A Field Guide to Germs, 2nd ed. (1995, 2002)
Ewald, Paul W. Plague Time: How Stealth Infections Cause Cancers, Heart Disease, and other Deadly Ailments (2000)
Heritage, J., and E. G. V. Evans, R. A. Killington Microbiology in Action (1999)
Karlen, Arno. Biography of a Germ (2000)
Murray, Patrick R., et al. Medical Microbiology (2002)
Oldstone, Michael B. Viruses, Plagues, and History (1998)
Shnayerson, Michael and Mark J. Plotkin. The Killers Within: The Deadly Rise of Drug-Resistant Bacteria (2002)
Tierno, Philip M. Jr. The Secret Life of Germs: Observations and Lessons from a Microbe Hunter (2001)

What sets science journalist Jessica Snyder Sachs' book apart from these fine books is the intense detail and focus that she brings to the work and the fact that her book is up to date with reports from the latest research. Written for a general educated readership, it gets a little dense at times and there's a lot to keep in mind and to understand. But I think the time and effort are worth it. I must warn you however, it does get a little scary. If you are prone to hypochondria or to paranoia, I would suggest you skip reading this since it appears that we are teetering on the edge of any number of possible microbial disasters.

At the same time there is also the promise of a level of understanding of how drugs, bacteria and our immune systems work together, or are at odds, that will lead to healthier lives for all of us.

Some of the topics covered:

--A bit of the history of medicine before the germ theory of disease rose with Pasteur to the balmy times circa 1960 when some authorities were predicting the end of infectious disease, to the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria that characterizes today's world.

--The interaction between bacteria in our intestinal tract and the fact that we could not digest our food or even live without the benign bacteria that help us. Sachs quotes Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg in this regard: "'It would broaden our horizons if we started thinking of a human as more than a single organism. It is a superorganism that includes much more than our human cells.' Lederberg calls this cohabitation of human and microbial cells the 'microbiome...'" (p. 238)

--The "hygiene hypothesis," in which certain diseases such as allergies, asthma and immune system disorders are thought to arise because we keep our homes too clean, and our children do not have the exposure to common germs early and often enough to build up a proper immune response. In the case of allergies and autoimmune diseases, apparently exposure when very young to would-be allergens "teaches" the immune system to regard them as harmless. Without this exposure the immune system may go wild. Sachs' treatment of this murky subject is the best I have read.

--Bacterial mutations, including the exchange of drug resistant genes between species within our intestinal tract. (Bacteria do have sex on occasion!) This rather sobering part of the book explains how bacteria manage to elude our best defenses and prescriptions. Implicit is the fact that we do indeed live in a bacterial world that has in toto a greater grasp of biochemistry than perhaps we will ever have. They've had two or three billion years to perfect their defenses, so we have our work cut out for us.

--Various new methods of dealing with microbes including new drugs, infecting bacteria with viruses, inculcating ourselves with good bacteria to keep the bad out, bioengineering new benign strains to replace the dangerous ones. This approach is called "probiotic," that is, "proactively replacing the body's trouble-prone bacteria with strains and species of our choosing, even of our own making." (p. 193)

--Enhancing the immune system so that it better fights harmful microbes while at the same time leaving its own tissues alone, checking inflammation and autoimmune disease.

Some interesting info:

Our intestine when empty of food harbors about 15 trillion microbes; when full, perhaps 100 trillion! (p. 44)

Babies typically get their first intestinal bacteria by riding face down out of the womb, picking up a bit of the inhabitants of mother's stool. (p. 53) Babies delivered by caesarian section have more allergies than vaginal birth babies and may have a tougher time setting up a stable flora in their digestive systems. (pp. 99-100)

It is now clear that healthy tissues in our bodies are not necessarily microbe-free. In fact, I learned here that the way the immune system works sometimes is to ignore resident bacteria that are not causing any trouble. Furthermore, our immune systems can get used to some pathogens and just leave them alone after awhile. In fact sometimes real trouble starts when the immune system goes into high gear and tries to rid the body of every last germ. A case in point is the plaque build up in the arteries of some people in reaction to the presence of harmless bacteria. In other people the immune system doesn't respond and there is no plaque build up leading to heart attacks.

The fact that "it's not bacteria that wreak the deadly damage of sepsis, at least not directly." Instead, it is "a person's own immune system...." (p. 221)

This is an outstanding book, engagingly written, meticulously edited and proofed, with a plethora of endnotes and an excellent index.