An epidemic of absence : a new way of understanding allergies and autoimmune diseases / Moises Velasquez-Manoff.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 313-356) and index.

Meet your parasites -- Homo squalidus : the filthy ape -- Island of autoimmunity -- Parasites to heal the gut -- What is asthma for? -- Missing "old friends" -- Mom matters most -- The disappearing microbiota -- Community-wide derangement -- Multiple sclerosis : worms that never come, a tardy virus, and a brain that degenerates -- Modernity's developmental disorder : autism and the superorganism -- Beyond allergy and autoimmunity : inflammation and the diseases of civilization -- The hookworm underground : crowdsourcing "the cure" in an age of immune dysfunction -- Life with the American murderer, and the body's largest organ -- The collapse of the superorganism, and what to do about it.

Whether it is asthma, food or pollen allergies, type-1 diabetes, lupus, multiple sclerosis, or Crohn's 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, that's because it has--to levels never before seen in human history. These days no fewer than one in five, and likely more, Americans suffer from one of these ailments. We seem newly, and bafflingly, vulnerable to immune system malfunction. The author explains the latest thinking about this problem and explores new treatments in the works.