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An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Diseases
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About An Epidemic Of Absence: A New Way Of Understanding
Product Description A brilliant, groundbreaking report on the dramatic rise of allergic and autoimmune disease, and the controversial therapies scientists are developing to correct these disorders. 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. Review “Remarkable…Moises Velasquez-Manoff draws together hundreds of studies to craft a powerful narrative carrying a fascinating argument.” ― Wall Street Journal “A reportorial journey into a frontier of science and health.” ― Wired About the Author Moises Velasquez-Manoff covered science and the environment for The Christian Science Monitor, and his work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and Slate, among other publications. He graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism’s Master of Arts program, with a concentration in science writing. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. An Epidemic of Absence Mother, it is no gain, thy bondage of finery, if it keep one shut off from the healthful dust of the earth, if it rob one of the right of entrance to the great fair of common human life. —Rabindranath Tagore, Bengali poet and Nobel laureate One chilly November morning, I head south from San Diego in a bottom-tier rental car. The standard journalistic paraphernalia—a digital recorder, camera, notepad, and pencils—accompany me in the passenger seat, as well as directions to my meeting point: the last exit before Mexico. I also have a printout of my recent blood work, proof that I’m not anemic, not infected with hepatitis or HIV—that I’m healthy enough for the coming experiment. As I drive, the radio announcer conducts a gruesome tally of the most recent violence in Tijuana, where I’m headed: two bodies hung from a bridge, a third decapitated, a fourth shot. More than this terrible, ongoing brutality, however, parasites occupy my mind—worms that migrate through flesh, burst into lungs, crawl down throats, and latch on to tender insides. Any traveler might fret over acquiring such hangers-on while abroad. But I’m heading to Mexico precisely to obtain not just one, but a colony. Today in Tijuana I’ll deliberately introduce the hookworm Necator americanus—the American murderer—into my body. And for this dubious honor, I’ll pay handsomely—a onetime fee of $2,300. If I receive twenty of the microscopic larvae, that’s
