Nutrition
It’s unquestionable that Alexander Fleming’s invention of penicillin in 1928 remains one of the greatest discoveries in medical history. It had the potential to prevent the entire Great Plague of London that wiped out nearly a quarter of the European population. However, we’ve now entered a very different era — a time of over-diagnosis and over-treatment. An estimated 20-50 per cent of all antibiotic use now is inappropriate, resulting in increased costs, side effects, and antibiotic resistance to bacteria. But, perhaps the greatest cost is the damage caused to the vitally important community that live in symbiosis with us, the microbiome.