A book should be assessed as a failure or success depending on whether it achieves its own goals, which is the key insight that must be kept constantly in mind when evaluating David Perlmutter’s new work Brain Maker: The Power of Gut Microbes to Heal and Protect Your Brain – For Life.
Perlmutter’s basic argument is that the human microbiome – the universe of especially bacterial organisms that live symbiotically inside of all humans – is housed primarily in the gut, and should be properly considered an “organ system” all to itself. All told, it contains nearly ten times the number of cells as the rest of the human body, weighs as much as the brain, elaborates neurotransmitters, synthesizes vitamins, and regulates nutrient and toxin access to the blood stream. Moreover, its “health” – that is, the diversity and type of species constituting the microbiome – is determined by human actions (especially our diet and intake of antibiotics). An unhealthy or deranged microbiome has been implicated in a surprising array of neurological diseases including autism, Tourette syndrome, Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The upshot is that it may be possible to prevent or treat many neurological diseases by nourishing our gut microbes.
At the very least, Perlmutter’s thesis is both interesting and surprising, since it so completely defies the conventional theories of disease pathogenesis. It is also not totally implausible, as the book is replete with scientific studies stacking evidence in support of Perlmutter’s claims.
But in writing Brain Maker, Perlmutter aims to be more than explanatory. His intention is to be sensational; to shock to astound his audience, to captivate and enthrall them. He recounts stories of children treated for autism by home, microbe-laced enemas; adults liberated from Multiple Sclerosis by fecal transplants. To be fair, Perlmutter stops short of branding these therapies as outright “cures,” but he comes close on a number of occasions. The effect of this almost unrestrained enthusiasm is to charge the book with energy and excitement, but simultaneously undermines its scientific credibility. Nevertheless, Perlmutter’s book probably succeeds in its primary objective: to introduce a new, strange idea into the general consciousness, and to generate maximal emotional appeal. This is not a work of original scholarly research, nor is it an objective review of the totality of evidence concerning the microbiome, but it is an intriguing introduction to a subject that has been unduly neglected, even by many physicians.