When Antibiotics Fail: Restoring the Ecology of the Body

When Antibiotics Fail documents the problem noticed in the mid-eighties of the over-reliance of the medical establishment on antibiotics. Biologist and toxicologist Mark Lappe was among the first medical professionals to sound an alarm aabout the effects of ignoring the natural defenses of the immune system and our tendency to substitute the shot-gun use of broad-spectrum antibiotics. This book describes this tendency for busy physicians to fall into inappropriate use of antibiotics. Lappe explains how antibiotics work, why resistance develops, and what we can do to control bacteria and reactivate the body's own natural defenses.

Mark Lappe's work in health policy and ethics has focused in recent years on toxic substances and hazard evaluation. His most recent book is Evolutionary Medicine: A Radical Rethinking of the Origins of Disease. He lives in Northern California.