Every human body is home to a unique mixture of bacteria that help maintain health, a fact that has received increasing media coverage in the past year. Recent books like The Microbiome Diet claim that cultivating the right mixture of gut bacteria can promote weight loss, while Missing Microbes contends that “the overuse of antibiotics is fueling our modern plagues.”
It’s true that antibiotics can disrupt people’s personal microbial ecosystems, and even lead to serious illness in some cases. “If you take antibiotics, take probiotics,” the comedian Tig Notaro advised in a popular comedy set about her experiences battling cancer and the microbial infection C. diff.
