Beyond Antibiotics: Strategies for Living in a World of Emerging Infections and Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

(Paperback)

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"Beyond Antibiotics" offers practical solutions to a serious modern day health dilemma. At a time when emerging infections and antibiotic-resistant bacteria are rising sharply, the supply of new antibiotic drugs has been steadily decreasing. In addition, many in the health industry have failed to consider that our bodies are cloaked in a blanket of bacteria so pervasive that the bacterial cells outnumber our 'human' cells by a factor of ten. In short, we are living in a microbe's world and we cannot escape the fact that the potential for untreatable serious infections is very real. Author Michael A. Schmidt proposes a personalized medicine approach to address this health situation. He suggests that we must move beyond antibiotics in our thinking and instead focus on strengthening the host; we must begin to think of ourselves as a 'human-microbe hybrid'.In other words, we must take action to raise our defences, while preserving the integrity of the microbial elements that live on and within us. Drawing on a vast body of research from several scientific fields, Schmidt presents a strategy of personalized medicine that can be used to build and balance the system of immune defence and repair. Schmidt has devised a set of general recommendations that can be used to tailor programmes to individuals seeking to support health maintenance, prevent illness, fight active acute or chronic infections, and foster recovery from infections.

Reviews

Beyond Antibiotics is brilliant and well-researched. Dr. Schmidt offers a unique perspective on the skirmish between the outnumbered human host and the defiant bacteria. This riveting account is a valiant piece for our time.
Andrew H. Meyer, MD, Fellow, American College of Cardiology

Dr. Michael Schmidt is that rare enigma of intellectual genius and gifted storyteller. He has an uncanny gift for taking complex concepts and articulating them in laymans terms.
JLein Liese, PhD, President, Foundation for Global Leadership

"This focus on how natural immunity may be boosted without antibiotics and how to avoid antibiotics is key to our times."
The Midwest Book Review

Author Bio

Dr. Michael A. Schmidt is the author of Beyond Antibiotics, Brain-Building Nutrition, Childhood Ear Infections, and Tired of Being Tired. He did his Ph.D. research in molecular medicine and biochemistry within the Life Sciences Division at NASA Ames Research Center, with studies in neuroscience and metabolomics at Lancaster University. He teaches in the Metabolomics Training Program at the University of Colorado, and he works closely with the human disease modeling laboratory (3-D tissue analogues group) and with the human space flight initiative of the suborbital research group at NASA. He has applied his work in functional genomics and metabolomics to human disease states, as well as to methods to enhance human performance. Dr. Schmidt co-founded Sovaris Aerospace, which addresses problems of complexity in space biomedicine, along with Cyvia Neurosystems, which develops EEG-based neurophysiology tools. He is a gifted communicator, who has spent his career translating complex topics in science and medicine to general audiences.