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MARTIN J.BLASER (2014)
MISSING MICROBES: HOW THE PHiA Sapere Aude
(GZW2225)
OVERUSE OF ANTIBIOTICS IS
FUELING OUR MODERN
PLAGUES: A BOOK REVIEW
[Document subtitle]
, I am a Health Science student at the Faculty of Health, Medicine, and Life sciences,
reviewing the book by Martin J. Blaser: Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics is
Fueling our Modern Plagues. I am currently following the Policy, Management and
Evaluation of Healthcare (in Dutch: Beleid, Management en Evaluatie van Zorg (BMEZ))
track.
Introducing the author
Martin J. Blaser (1948) is best known for his research on Helicobacter pylori and its
relationship with human diseases, which he mentions several times throughout the book (See
chapters 1, 2, and 10). He has worked in the field of microbiology and its effects on human
diseases for over thirty years, since he graduated from New York University in 1973.
Therefore, Dr. Blaser could be called an expert in the field. He has served as the director of
the Human Microbiome Program at NYU and the president of the Infectious Diseases Society
of America.
Outline of the core arguments of Missing Microbes
A breakthrough in medicine was the invention of antibiotics. Before 1850, a quarter of
babies died in their first year due to cholera, pneumonia, and diphtheria. Now, only six out of
a thousand babies die due to improved sanitation, access to clean drinking water, widespread
vaccinations, modern medical procedures, and almost seventy years of antibiotics. In this
book, Dr. Blaser argues that the rising variety of health problems is caused by the overuse of
antibiotics in modern medicine and agriculture, which causes fewer beneficial microbes in
our bodies. He named this variety of health problems “modern plagues.” These modern
plagues, such as obesity, childhood diabetes, and asthma, are unlike a plague, chronic
conditions, which are causing a decrease in the quality of life for decades.
Dr. Blaser is trying to find a single solution to all these modern plagues. For example,
eating fewer calories can help combat obesity, though it will not result in combatting asthma.
So, he wrote the hygiene hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, the world is too clean,
which is causing our immune systems to be quiescent. We are now prone to false alarms and
friendly fires. That is why Blaser thinks we need to look at the microbes in our bodies, as he
mentions in the book: “It is your microbiome that keeps you healthy. And parts of it are
disappearing” (Chapter 1, pg. 5).
A core argument in the book is that the overuse of antibiotics is disrupting the delicate
balance of microbes in our bodies, the microbiome. He argues that our metabolism,
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