Missing Microbes

Martin J. Blaser MD., 2014, Bvtn 615.7922

Director of human microbiome project at NYU, president of Infectious Disease Society of America. Decades of studies of H. Pylori, proxy for hundreds of other gut species.

• p30 digoxin absorption depends on gut bacteria
• p31 New Guinea highlanders, 90% of diet is sweet potato, gut bacteria make amino acids.
• p76 MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), congressional testimony for legislation to develop new antibiotics
• p87 thalidomide for morning sickness, at least 10K to 20K birth defects in Europe (not FDA approved in the US)
• p89 DES (diethylstilbestrol) for menopause, stopping lactation, reducing breast enlargement. Increased vaginal cancer in daughters, increased genital problems in sons.
• p123, p130 H. Pylori eradication can lead to GERD, asthma
• p175 new celiacs 40% more likely after antibioltics, metronidiazole doubles the risk.
• p177 missing microbial diversity can lead to IBD inflammatory bowel diseases: Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis

• p115: ... contacted by Dr. Abraham Nomura, principal investigator of the Japan-Hawaii Cancer Study based in Honolulu. He and his colleagues had done pioneering work on the disease risks of Japanese-Americans living in Hawaii ...

• Between 1965 and 1968, more than 7,400 Japanese-American men born between 1900 and 1919 enrolled in the Honolulu Heart Study. These men, veterans of the 442nd Regiment who fought in the U.S. Army with great distinction during World War II, were heros of mine ever since I had learned about them from reading James Michener's book Hawaii as a boy. When Japanese-Americans were being rounded up and incarcerated on the West Coast of the United States, these men risked (and some lost) their lives and limbs to defend their country. The late Senator Daniel Inouye was one of them.

• By 1989, blood samples from nearly 6,000 of these veterans had been obtained and frozen. ...