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In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Lisa Parker on her research about how drug companies influence DTC (Drug and Therapeutic Committee) decisions at hospitals in Australia. She describes who is part of a DTC and what it does, conflicts of interest with industry, ways DTCs try to decrease industry's influence and the things drug companies do to get around those mitigation efforts. Finally, she makes suggestions for improving the system.

Dr. Parker is a honorary senior lecturer in the school of Pharmacy at The University of Sydney and on the faculty of medicine and health. Her research focuses on public health ethics and policy, specifically the influence of values, evidence and industry on healthcare policy. She is also a practicing clinician and works in the field of oncology.

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In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Trine Tetlie Eik-Nes about her new intervention for obesity with binge eating disorder (BED) that was recently tested in a feasibility study and published here. Obesity is an epidemic affecting many developed nations, and rates only increased during the pandemic, for both adults and kids.

In the podcast she will discuss in detail her intervention, called People Need People (PnP), along with the link between obesity and binge eating disorder. She will also discuss the relationship of obesity and binge eating disorder with stigma, shame and our attachment style, and why it is crucial to address those issues in order to help someone recover.

Dr. Eik-Nes is an Associate Professor at the Department of Neuroscience and Behavioral Medicine at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). She completed her MSc at NTNU and has her PhD in public health. She has worked as a clinician for 20 years in the mental health sector and also conducts research with a special interest in adult psychopathology, the epidemiology of obesity, weight disorders, eating disorders, body image and stigma.

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In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Tonya Winders, CEO of the Allergy and Asthma Network, an organization that represents millions of Americans, about the relationship between asthma and COVID-19. The relationship has been "confusing" to decipher from news articles, so she will shed light on that for us.
She will also discuss what her organization prioritized during the pandemic to address COVID. In addition, she will provide information on the types of tools her organization offers for folks struggling with asthma and allergies and talk about advances being made in research, the social determinants of health that lead to worsening asthma and her thoughts on lifestyle changes and steroid treatments.

You can contact Dr. Eeks at bloomingwellness.com.
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In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Guillermo Barrios Morales about his recent research that modeled the effects of Mealses-induced "Immune Amnesia" while another outbreak is happening simultaneously. In this podcast he will discuss what immune amnesia is and its association to Measles, his predictive model and the assumptions he made, and the impact immune amnesia could have on the immune system's ability to fight off other viruses, both at the individual and population level. Could Measles wipe out herd immunity for another virus? Find out.
Dr. Barrios Morales is a scientific researcher and physicist affiliated with the Universidad de Granada in Spain. A link to his study on measles and immune amnesia is here.

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In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dave Hickey, president of Life Sciences at BD about their new AI-powered, smartphone-enabled, at-home test for COVID-19 called BD Veritor. We discuss the importance of testing, how accurate the test is, cost and accessibility, which are two current and concerning barriers for many people. You can visit BD's website here.

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In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Blima Marcus, an oncology nurse practitioner at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and an Assistant Adjunct Professor at the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing, about her community-level, grassroots initiative to address concerns about childhood vaccines in her religious orthodox community that experienced a Measles outbreak not too long ago. (In general, there have been concerns about increases in Measles outbreaks in various countries due to lower vaccination rates during the pandemic.) Blima will discuss why she pursued this initiative, what "PIE" is, her approach to people who think differently than she does about vaccines, the type of feedback she's been getting and how she handles negative feedback. Blima has a doctorate degree in nursing and is also the president of EMES, where you can go and learn more about her "PIE" initiative and even get a copy for yourself.


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In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Nathorn Chaiyakunapruk about his recent study on intermittent fasting, published in JAMA Network here.  He will discuss his study, what he and his research team learned about intermittent fasting when it comes to health benefits and health associations; the health differences between intermittent fasting and plain ol' calorie restriction; what the evidence says about intermittent fasting working for specific diseases and most importantly, if there is enough evidence to say that we should try intermittent fasting in our battle against a growing obesity problem.
Dr. Chaiyakunapruk is a researcher and professor in the Department of Pharmacotherapy at the University of Utah College of Pharmacy in Salt Lake City. He earned his Doctorate of Pharmacy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his PhD in Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research and Policy Program from the University of Washington.  You can read his full bio and research publications here.

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In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks interviews Dr. Azza Halim MD, a board-certified anesthesiologist and doctor who specializes in aesthetic, regenerative and anti-aging medicine. She is a national medical director for several aesthetic startup companies and runs her own medical consulting company. You can learn more about her and follow her on Instagram here.

You can contact Dr. Eeks at bloomingwellness.com.
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In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Israel's Dr. Ariel Israel, MD, PhD about his new study that resulted in the creation of a web-based calculator for determining your risk of hospitalization and death once infected with COVID-19. While the study is still in preprint and not peer-reviewed, statistical tests show that the predictive model is accurate. Anyone can access the calculator here and put in his/her risk values to determine overall risk of hospitalization and death. (Keep in mind that nothing is written in stone yet.)
In this podcast, Dr. Israel discusses the study that resulted in the formation of the COVID calculator; what the predictive model tells us in terms of risk of hospitalization and dying of COVID-19, and he also discusses the current COVID and vaccine situation in Israel, along with what early treatment drugs they are using and how they assess vaccine safety vs how the US does.
Dr. Israel is Director of Leumit Research Institute in Israel and has been highly published throughout the pandemic. He has an MD and PhD degree and his expertise is in Data Mining and Analytics, Bioinformatics, Human Genetics, Computational Biology, Machine Learning, Database and Network programming, Mobile Applications development, VPN and Network Security.

You can contact Dr. Eeks at bloomingwellness.com.
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Fluvoxamine is a cheap, generic, oral drug that is classified and used as an antidepressant. That said, recent trials have tested its use as early, at-home treatment for COVID-19 and so far, the results look extremely promising. So promising that an application was recently submitted to the FDA for emergency use authorization as early treatment for COVID-19.
In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Eric Lenze, a psychiatrist and clinical trialist at Washington University in St. Louis, who ran one of the randomized controlled trials on fluvoxamine. His study was published here in JAMA. In this episode, he will discuss what fluvoxamine is, why he and his team decided to study its use against COVID-19, results of the trial and subsequent trials, dosing issues, side effects, concerns about withdrawal and how the drug can help bring an end to the pandemic.

You can contact Dr. Eeks at bloomingwellness.com.
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