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AnonTechie [soylentnews.org] writes:

The other downside of antibiotics: Killing the useful bacteria. Author Martin Blaser looks at how antibiotics are reshaping our inner ecosystem.

Everyone has a pet theory to explain the rise of modern scourges, things that our forbears rarely had to contend with during their short, brutish lives: obesity, diabetes, celiac disease, autism, asthma, allergies, esophageal cancer, etc. Plastics, pesticides, and genetically modified crops are perennial favorites; wheat seems to be the darling of the moment.
Martin Blaser, the director of the Human Microbiome Program at NYU, thinks that these ills are due to the overuse of antibiotics. He uses his new book, Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues, to argue that the broad spectrum of antibiotics that is relied upon by modern medicine disrupt the microbiome, the diverse bacterial ecosystem that has been residing in human bodies ever since there were human bodies. The timeline corresponds; many of these disorders have exploded in prominence in the past few decades just as antibiotics began being prescribed almost indiscriminately because they always worked and "couldn't hurt."

http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/05/the-other-d ownside-of-antibiotics-killing-the-useful-bacteria / [arstechnica.com]

http://www.amazon.com/Missing-Microbes-Overuse-Ant ibiotics-Fueling/dp/0805098100/ref=zg_bs_227191_1 [amazon.com]

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