It is written by Alanna Collen who is a biologist. She looks at recent scientific research to determine microbes influence on weight, immune system, mental health and even choice of partner. Intriguing no? A little sensationalist with the title though.
Collen suggests that use of antibiotics kills the beneficial flora in our gut and promotes disfunction in our bodies.
Later she goes in to fecal transplants as a possible cure, which is a little gross and still not yet proven. And despite the danger with unknown treatments, a lot of people continue to try them and risk the consequences.
According to Amazon:You are just 10% human. For every one of the cells that make up the vessel that you call your body, there are nine impostor cells hitching a ride. You are not just flesh and blood, muscle and bone, brain and skin, but also bacteria and fungi. Over your lifetime, you will carry the equivalent weight of five African elephants in microbes. You are not an individual but a colony.
Until recently, we had thought our microbes hardly mattered, but science is revealing a different story, one in which microbes run our bodies and becoming a healthy human is impossible without them.
In this riveting, shocking, and beautifully written book, biologist Alanna Collen draws on the latest scientific research to show how our personal colony of microbes influences our weight, our immune system, our mental health, and even our choice of partner. She argues that so many of our modern diseases—obesity, autism, mental illness, digestive disorders, allergies, autoimmunity afflictions, and even cancer—have their root in our failure to cherish our most fundamental and enduring relationship: that with our personal colony of microbes.
Many of the questions about modern diseases left unanswered by the Human Genome Project are illuminated by this new science. And the good news is that unlike our human cells, we can change our microbes for the better. Collen's book is a revelatory and indispensable guide. It is science writing at its most relevant: life—and your body—will never seem the same again.
From google books: In this groundbreaking book Allana Collen explores the extraordinary world of the powerful microbes that make up 90% of the human body. You are just 10% human. For every one of the cells that make your body, there are nine impostor cells. You are not just flesh and blood, muscle and bone, brain and skin, but bacteria and fungi. You are not an individual, but a colony. Far from being passive, the trillions of microbes that live on and in you are intimately involved in running your body. As Alanna Collen explores, the modern epidemics of 'Western' diseases - obesity, mental health problems, gut disorders, allergies, autoimmunity, and even cancer - have their root in our failure to cherish our most fundamental and enduring relationship: that with our personal colony of microbes. Antibiotics, antibacterial cleaners, rapidly changing diets and our obsession with hygiene vastly reduced the microbe community we carry. Unlike our human cells, though, we can change our microbes for the better. '10% Human' provides a revelatory guide to the role of your body's microbes in health and happiness. This is popular science at its most relevant: life will never seem the same again.
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