Good Germs, Bad Germs: Health and Survival in a Bacterial World Jessica Snyder Sachs
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

The book is all about bacteria. Our fear of “germs” has caused us to use antibacterial soaps and sanitizers. Sachs JS, Good Germs, Bad Germs, Health and Survival in a Bacterial World, Hill and Wang, New York 2007. Anti-bacterial products, when overused, effectively kill both bad microbes and the good ones humans, and especially children, need to strengthen their immune systems. And with widespread overuse of antibiotics and anti-bacterial products comes something very serious: supergerms, i.e. Bach JF, The Effect of Infections on Susceptibility to Autoimmune and Allergic Diseases, NEJM 347, 2002:911-20. When the good bacteria are Cultures around the world all included fermented foods, often on a daily basis, which ensured the intestinal tract would be populated with good bacteria. We also would eat as well as the bad. Germs that can survive exposure to anti-bacterial products and, even worse, antibiotics. While they are often necessary to kill off bad “bugs,” these lifesaving drugs also wipe out the good bacteria in the gut, which wreaks havoc on the entire digestive system. That's what I took away from Good Germs, Bad Germs by Jessica Snyder Sachs. Last month the Book Club read Jessica Snyder Sachs' Good Germs, Bad Germs: Health and Survival in a Bacterial World.