An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Diseases

From asthma to CrohnâÈçs 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, thatâÈçs because it hasâÈ'to levels never before seen in human history. These days no fewer than one in fiveâÈ'and likely moreâÈ'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 âÈêepidemic of absence,âÈë they must restore the human ecosystem. This groundbreaking book explores the promising but controversial âÈêworm therapyâÈëâÈ'deliberate infection with parasitic wormsâÈ'in development to treat autoimmune disease. It explains why farmersâÈç 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 diseaseâÈ'that a motherâÈçs 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.

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