Martin Blaser - One of Time Magazine's 'Most Influential People' - to Speak at Iona College

Dr. Martin Blaser, one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People,” will speak at Iona College Thursday as part of the school’s Thomas G. Bullen, CFC, Ph.D., Lecture Series. The event is scheduled for noon in the school’s Christopher J. Murphy Auditorium, and it is free and open to the public.

In his current book “Missing Microbes,” Dr. Blaser “reaches back to the discovery of antibiotics, which ushered in a golden age of medicine, and then traces how our subsequent overuse of these seeming wonder drugs has left its mark on our systems, contributing to the rise of what Blaser calls our modern plagues: obesity, asthma, allergies, diabetes, and certain forms of cancer,” according to the school.

Blaser’s studies suggest antibiotic use during early childhood poses the greatest risk to long-term health, and, alarmingly, American children receive on average seventeen courses of antibiotics before they are twenty years old. At the same time, C-sections deprive babies of important contact with their mothers’ microbiomes.

“Taking us into the lab to recount his groundbreaking studies, Blaser not only provides elegant support for his theory, he guides us to what we can do to avoid even more catastrophic health problems in the future,” school officials said.

Click here for more information on the Bullen Lecture Series.

Photo: Dr. Martin Blaser. Photo credit: New York University

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