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Good Germs, Bad Germs: Health and Survival in a Bacterial World
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.9041
EAN: 9780809050635
Edition: 1
ISBN: 0809050633
Label: Hill and Wang
Manufacturer: Hill and Wang
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: October 16, 2007
Publisher: Hill and Wang
Release Date: October 16, 2007
Studio: Hill and Wang
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Editorial Review:
Making Peace with Microbes
Public sanitation and antibiotic drugs have brought about historic increases in the human life span; they have also unintentionally produced new health crises by disrupting the intimate, age-old balance between humans and the microorganisms that inhabit our bodies and our environment. As a result, antibiotic resistance now ranks among the gravest medical problems of modern times. Good Germs, Bad Germs addresses not only this issue but also what has become known as the “hygiene hypothesis”— an argument that links the over-sanitation of modern life to now-epidemic increases in immune and other disorders. In telling the story of what went terribly wrong in our war on germs, Jessica Snyder Sachs explores our emerging understanding of the symbiotic relationship between the human body and its resident microbes—which outnumber its human cells by a factor of nine to one! The book also offers a hopeful look into a future in which antibiotics will be designed and used more wisely, and beyond that, to a day when we may replace antibacterial drugs and cleansers with bacterial ones—each custom-designed for maximum health benefits.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - If you have a body, read this book
Good/Bad germs may be the Silent Spring of this time. Not only does it read like a page turner, it explains the human-microbe and microbe-microbe interrelationships in a thoroughly understandable way, by a writer who clearly understands the subjects.
The author fleshes out the facts nicely with sketches illuminating the people and proses of discovery.
This book is critical reading for anyone who has a body.
I bought copies for my friends where a recommendation is not enough.
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Rating: - Very Well-Written Science for the Average Reader
I read the original 2007 hardcover. It is a gripping account of the relationship between bacteria and humans, from parasitic disease makers to necessary commensals. You will find in very clear and plain English much you need to know about the right balance of cleanliness, allergies and other autoimmune diseases, antibiotic treatment of livestock, resistance swapping of bacteria from the most different species and even cancer cure potentials via bacteria. (I do hope though, that this will not end in ... Read More
Rating: - My review is short, easy to read
As opposed to all the lengthy ones, let me just say this book is absolutely FASCINATING. I thought the detail level was just right, not too much, but enough to be convincing. READ THIS BOOK.
Rating: - 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 ... Read More
Rating: - 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 ... Read More
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