For all its astonishing complexity, however, the immune system can be easily compromised by fatigue, stress, toxins, advanced age, and poor nutrition-hallmarks of modern life-and even by excessive hygiene. It has been honed by evolution over millennia to face an almost infinite array of threats. Its legion of microscopic foot soldiers-from T cells to "natural killers"-patrols our body, linked by a nearly instantaneous communications grid. The immune system is our body's essential defense network, a guardian vigilantly fighting illness, healing wounds, maintaining order and balance, and keeping us alive.
Matt Richtel's An Elegant Defense uniquely entwines these intimate stories with science's centuries-long quest to unlock the mysteries of sickness and health, and illuminates the immune system as never before. Two women with autoimmunity discover their own bodies have turned against them. Extraordinary." -DOUGLAS PRESTON A National Indie Bestseller A terminal cancer patient rises from the grave. Explicates for the lay reader the intricate biology of our immune system." -JEROME GROOPMAN, New York Review of Books "One of those rare nonfiction books that transcends the genre. Magnificently reported and soulfully crafted, An Elegant Defense is an epic, first-of-its-kind exploration of the human immune system and the secrets of health, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist "Vividly told.
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