PrefaceAs a ten-year old, I'd often return home after the final school bell of the day to prepare a hot dog for a tasty snack. One evening, to pay tribute to the mad scientists in sci-fi movies I'd find myself cheering on, I dropped one of the hot dogs into a jar filled only with some flat cola. Screwing on the lid tightly, I let this experiment take its course overnight on the kitchen counter.The next morning, I removed the hot dog from the soda and found it crawling with little, soft, pudgy white worms. But instead of losing my breakfast, I was captivated. What were these creepy things? Where did they come from? Those worms were parasites, which were drawn out of the hot dog by the sugar in the cola.I look back on the hot-dog incident as the birth of my fascination with the highly adaptable and tenacious creatures called parasites. Eventually, my investigations branched out to include other pernicious invaders as well -- viruses, bacteria, and fungi.As I read more and more and eventually began my formal medical training, I saw just how destructive some microbes are and how little most people know about them. The statistics are sobering. Infectious diseases are the third leading cause of death in the United States after heart disease and cancer claiming more than 100,000 lives annually and costing more than $30 billion in direct treatment expenses alone. Infectious diseases are responsible for a quarter to a third of the 54 million deaths globally each year and are the world's leading cause of death among children and young adults.We may think we have infectious disease under control, but we don't. Yes, we have made tremendous progress against these diseases, including smallpox,diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, and rubella. But we can't afford to be complacent.Since the eighteenth century, seven recorded pandemics of influenza have occurred worldwide. Perhaps the most alarming incident was the three waves of highly virulent strains of flu between 1918 and 1919 that spread aggressively to every nation on the planet, killing 20 million people. During the fall of 1918, 20,000 people in New York City alone died from influenza, while Western Samoa saw 20% of their population die from it. Medical science blamed the epidemic on everything from dirt and dust to closed windows and cosmic factors. Each year, infectious disease-related deaths in the United States nearly double, standing at approximately 170,000 for the 1990s. In fact, influenza kills more than 30,000 Americans each year, and epidemiologists agree that it is not a question of "if but rather "when the next killer flu pandemic will occur.Twenty well-known diseases -- including tuberculosis (TB), malaria, and cholera -- have reemerged or spread geographically since 1973, often in more virulent and drug-resistant forms. At least 30 previously unknown disease agents have been identified since 1973, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Ebola, and hepatitis C (of which an estimated 4 million people are carriers), and there is no known cure for any of these.While improvements in sanitation and infection control since the early 1900s have substantially restrained widespread outbreaks of contagious diseases, you will see that evidence supports the suggestion that the degenerative diseases of aging -- namely, heart disease, cancer, stroke, and mental decline -- may be adverse effects ofinfectious disease, rather than illnesses in and of themselves.As a physician, not a day goes by that I fail to read a shocking scenario of someone who has suffered with infections for years without his or her doctor ever discovering the source of the problem. Today, as the president of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, I recognize that immunity is one of the pillars of life-enhancing, life-extending medical care. Our immune system keeps us healthy. When it fails, we start coming down with aging-related disorders. You may be one of the thousands of people suffering from undiagnosed maladies overlooked by traditional medicine. "Infection Protection shares important insights into diseases that could needlessly reduce the length and quality of your life. This book shows you how to recognize situations that may put you at risk and discusses the preventive measures you should follow.There is no end to the damage parasites and other microorganisms can wreak on the human body. These bugs will weaken you physically and mentally, suck the life out of healthy cells, nibble your liver for lunch, gnaw at your kidneys and brain, blast your immune system to smithereens, and cause you to become terribly old before your time. By reading this book, I hope you begin to understand the profound importance of strengthening the immune, respiratory, reproductive, and digestive systems, each of which are integral defenders from infectious disease. In fact, the knowledge you glean from "Infection Protection may be all you need to start feeling like your young self again.Ronald M. Klatz, M.D., D.O.
Chicago, Illinois