When antibiotics fail: restoring the ecology of the body

Our attack upon the world of the germs has apparently left us weaker than our so-called enemies, and we are now beset by a whole new order of viral and bacterial infections. In this book, experimental pathologis Marc Lappé describes the far-ranging consequences of the overuse of antibiotics in human health care and livestock management. His thesis is that, far from curbing disease, scientists working on our behalf are carrying out an evolutionary event of staggering proportions in the world of bacterial organisms. We - not the germs - are the experimental subjects, in a vast breeding program that is bringing forth generations of antibiotic-resistant microbes. Lappé discusses the scientific, social, and global political implications of the problem, plus its possible solutions. He proposes, ultimately, a return to a reliance on the immune system and the basic human ecology in a thesis that embraces some of the most salient health problems of our day, including AIDS, candida, and other yeast infections, and the overall status of the body's defense mechanisms in a toxic environment.