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An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Diseases Paperback – September 17, 2013
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From asthma to Crohn’s disease, everyone knows someone who suffers from an allergic or autoimmune disorder. And if it appears that the prevalence of these maladies has increased recently, that’s because it has—to levels never before seen in human history. These days no fewer than one in five—and likely more—Americans suffers from one of these ailments. We seem newly, and bafflingly, vulnerable to immune system malfunction. Why? One possibility is that we have systematically cleaned ourselves to illness; this belief challenges deeply entrenched notions about the value of societal hygiene and the harmful nature of microbes. Yet scientists investigating the rampant immune dysfunction in the developed world have inevitably arrived at this conclusion. To address this global “epidemic of absence,” they must restore the human ecosystem.
This groundbreaking book explores the promising but controversial “worm therapy”—deliberate infection with parasitic worms—in development to treat autoimmune disease. It explains why farmers’ children so rarely get hay fever, why allergy is less prevalent in former Eastern Bloc countries, and how one cancer-causing bacterium may be good for us. It probes the link between autism and a dysfunctional immune system. It investigates the newly apparent fetal origins of allergic disease—that a mother’s inflammatory response imprints on her unborn child, tipping the scales toward allergy.
An Epidemic of Absence is a brilliant, cutting-edge exploration of the dramatic rise of allergic and autoimmune diseases and the controversial, potentially groundbreaking therapies that scientists are developing to correct these disorders.
- Print length415 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateSeptember 17, 2013
- Dimensions5.5 x 1.04 x 8.38 inches
- ISBN-101439199396
- ISBN-13978-1439199398
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“A reportorial journey into a frontier of science and health.” ― Wired
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Product details
- Publisher : Scribner; Reprint edition (September 17, 2013)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 415 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1439199396
- ISBN-13 : 978-1439199398
- Item Weight : 13.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 1.04 x 8.38 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #454,908 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #68 in Multiple Sclerosis (Books)
- #117 in Immunology (Books)
- #188 in Microbiology (Books)
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While the idea that we are now no longer exposed to enough pathogens and therefore our immune system is beginning to attack our bodies is certainly not new, the author has provided a comprehensive review of the lots of new evidence supporting this hypothesis.
This area of research is growing rapidly and as an active research scientist in this field, I found this book to be a terrific compilation of almost all the most important studies out there. Through interviews with most of the leading scientists in this field, the author has been able to synthesize their thoughts into laypersons terms.
I gave this book to my parents after reading it, because it explained to them the concepts behind the type of research that I was doing now. Indeed, if I were to have the time, this would have been the book that I would have liked to write. There are very few things missing in it, and indeed many more ideas and stories that I had never come across.
The book is also livened up by personal stories of individuals who have taken matters into their own hands by infecting themselves with parasites to treat their symptoms of auto-immunity. Indeed, the author chronicles his own voyage in this regard. His writing captures the personalities of some of these individuals very well and reminds us that these autoimmune diseases are devastating many lives in our modern world.
The author starts by describing how the environment we live in has undergone rapid changes from the perspective of the microbes that we are exposed to and then begins to examine, one disease at a time, how these diseases may be linked with exposure to microbes. What has revolutionized this field over the last few years has been the increased appreciation of how our commensal gut bacteria affect our immune systems and this book will bring you up to date with the most recent studies in this field.
Through interviews with scientists, a picture is painted of how parasites and microbes may provide protection against diseases like inflammatory bowel disease, asthma, multiple sclerosis and so on. A particularly interesting idea is put forward regarding the effects on pregnancy and autism, which was also discussed in a New York Time opinion piece.
This book is a terrific read for anyone interested in how the immune system interacts with pathogens and commensals, providing a laypersons explanation for the rise of diseases where the immune response is dysregulated. This hypothesis is now in the main stream of science and no longer a fringe idea and is a very exciting place to be as a research scientist.
It fails on the task of integration - what lessons should we take from each of these essentially self complete examples/stories. After about the half way point I wanted to scream "OK, I got it, lets move on". The conclusion offers little clarity or relief, perhaps not wanting to take the risk of practicing medicine without a Licence? However, an opinion from such an informed researcher would have been interesting. On timing: is it parental epigenomics/immunology; fetal transfer; early life; later life; exposure that matters most? On agents: is it worms (helminths), virus, bacteria; is it special individuals within one of these groups? Of course, the true answer is that no one really knows yet, but some more muscular integrative hypotheses would be a big help.
In spite of all that, this is a field largely dominated by quack and fad medicine, and this book stays well away from all that nonsense. Net, an important and useful study of the field of the super-organism, ie humans and our parasites.

