Good Germs, Bad Germs: Health and Survival in a Bacterial World

“Snyder Sach’s capable overview may possibly hardly be more timely.”?Abigail Zuger, M.D., The New York Times

“Snyder Sachs brings the battle hostile to dirt firmly into the twenty-first century, when our worries focus less on hideous (and malodorous) dirt than on invisible, microscopic foes.”?Frances Stead Sellers, The Washington Post

“Snyder Sachs clarifies how our obsession with cleanliness led us to this top and details how science may still find a way past the danger.”?O, The Oprah Magazine

“All germs are terrible. Or are they? In Excellent Germs, Terrible Germs: Health and Survival in a Bacterial World, Jessica Snyder Sachs, a freelance science novelist, explores the symbiotic relationship that we, as humans, have with germs, and what has recently gone terribly incorrect with this relationship. With the ever increasing rise in food allergies, asthma, antibiotic resistance bacterial infections, and chronic, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases such as lupus, Chrohn’s disease, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. In the course of this engaging and to some extent scary study, Sachs chronicles the search for antibiotics and examines why they worked so well when they were first exposed?and why they no longer do so. She also devotes a significant part of this book to the exploration of the ‘Hygiene Hypothesis.’ This is a theory that many of today’s ills, including food allergies and increases in inflammatory diseases are a direct result of excellent sanitation and hygiene practices. Because of these, we, as humans, are no longer exposed to many of the germs that previous generations were. Therefore, the body is unable to build up a resistance to them, so when they do attack, the attack can be devastating. As well, our increased reliance on antibiotics has not only succeeded in killing the terrible microorganisms, but also the excellent ones that we need to maintain our overall health. From beginning to end Excellent Germs, Terrible Germs is a fascinating history of man’s report has it that ill-conceived battle hostile to our bacterial foes. This book also wonderfully illustrates just how interrelated man is with the world nearly, and within us. This is not but, just a history of what has come before. Sachs also looks toward the future and the steps we can take now to place our relationship with germs back into balance. She examines the future of antibiotics and new drugs and technologies that might be used to replace them and methodologies that will selectively target the terrible germs, even as leaving the excellent germs without a scratch. She also investigates the matter-of-fact applications of probiotics and their use in treating just about everything from chronic infections to inflammatory disease. Excellent Germs, Terrible Germs is an eye-opening and timely book that presents an authoritative overview of the ‘hygiene hypothesis’ as well as man’s development, use, and over use of antibiotics. This book is written in a narrative style that is aimed toward a general audience. Sachs clarifies all scientific and technical aspects referred to in a clear and easily understandable manner without talking down to the reader. As well, for those wishing to delve deeper into this intriguing theme, you’ll find Sachs’ endnotes a valuable source of in rank.”?Auggie Moore, History in Review

“Sachs’ fine book . . . starts with a real-life prologue about a college student who is well one day, and the next day rapidly goes into septic shock and dies. Throughout her narrative, Sachs interjects tales such as this, and herein lies much of the book’s hold on the reader . . . In the chapter ‘Life on Man,’ Sachs provides a fascinating description of the bacterial colonization of the human landscape. Just 24 hours after birth, our skin sports one thousand bacteria per square centimeter. At 48 hours, the number jumps to ten thousand. We hit the hundred thousand mark by six weeks. It is this dense forest of one hundred billion friendly bacteria on our skin that guards us from the rare, unfriendly sorts. Fifteen trillion essential bacteria line and protect our empty digestive tracts. We learn that the type and count of bacteria are affected by emotional states and, even more intriguing, that the bacteria can, and do, signal our cells to enhance these symbiotic relationships. One of the book’s strong points is its blend of the highly technical with the everyday. There is enough of the nonscientific to keep all but the most shameless technophobes slogging by the side of. Hang on through some subjects that just cannot be made any simpler, and you will be rewarded with tales that no one taught us in med school . . . Excellent Germs, Terrible Germs and books like it have something to teach a society dizzy with the hubris of science.”?Matthew Sleeth, Books & Culture

“Jessica Snyder Sachs successfully weaves tale?telling, history, microbiology and evolution into an exciting account of the two aspects of microbes for humankind?the excellent and the terrible. Through direct interviews and other primary sources, she provides the reader with up-to-date reporting in the areas of drug resistance, infection and new therapeutics.”?Stuart B. Levy, M.D., author of The Antibiotic Paradox: How the Misuse of Antibiotics Destroys their Curative Powers

“Jessica Snyder Sachs has a vital thought about our future health: we have to get to know our microbes better. They are not simple germs to be wiped out with a key drug, but complicated creatures whose existence is intimately intertwined with our own. In Excellent Germs, Terrible Germs, Sachs delivers one of the best accounts of the cold edge of microbiology I’ve read in recent years.”?Carl Zimmer, author of Parasite Rex and Evolution: The Triumph of an Thought

“If germs had hands you’d want to shake them?at least to thank them for the excellent work they do. That counterintuitive truth is just one of many in Jessica Snyder Sachs’s Excellent Germs, Terrible Germs, an alternately illuminating, fascinating and even amusing look into the curious world of microbes and how our very struggle to keep ourselves safe from them has place us in danger we never imagined. Sachs displays a rare gift for bright light into places you plotting you’d never want to explore and then making you glad you had the courage to peek.”?Jeffrey Kluger, Science Editor, Time, and author of  Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio

“Excellent Germs, Terrible Germs is incredibly well researched and contains a wealth of fascinating in rank.  It is absolutely up to date, integrating science and health with the newest thoughts on how microbes beneficially affect and even protect humans from disease.”?Dale Umetsu, Professor of Immunology, Harvard Medical School

“Jessica Snyder Sachs’s Excellent Germs, Terrible Germs is an outstanding introduction to a complex scientific topic, presented in extremely clear and vivid language. Her approach outlines not only the deleterious effects of microbes, with which we are all too familiar, but also the beneficial side to this vast array of organisms, without which human life would be impossible. The book is a must-read for anyone who wants to get ‘the huge picture…