Causes or Cures

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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.

You can contact Dr. Eeks at bloomingwellness.com.
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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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Read Manic Kingdom here.
Listen to her short audio parody on the wellness industry here.
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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.

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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 with promising results. In fact, an application was recently submitted to the FDA for emergency use authorization as early treatment for COVID-19. (It has not been approved as of the publication of this podcast.)

 
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 may help bring an end to the pandemic. 

It's important to keep in mind that nothing yet is proven, and this is just a conversation about research and results.  

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We have heard a lot about mRNA vaccines in relation to COVID-19, but researchers are studying the technology to see if it can be used to make vaccines for other diseases. Lyme Disease is one of the most prevalent vector-borne diseases in the US that can have both short-term and long-term consequences, like chronic fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, arthritis, kidney dysfunction, constant muscle pains and more.
In this episode Dr. Erol Fikrig, an infectious disease expert and professor of epidemiology at Yale School of Medicine who runs a lab studying vector-borne diseases, explains his preclinical research on an mRNA vaccine for Lyme Disease. He explains what is in the vaccine; how it works (differently than ANY other vaccine out there), results from his research conducted in animals, current studies and whether or not he sees this as something that might come to humans.

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In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Ashley Tyrner, CEO of FarmboxRx, a company that helps get healthy and fresh foods to low-income and senior communities. Physicians can prescribe these food boxes for their patients, and Farmbox is partnering with a growing number of health insurance companies. Farmbox recently partnered with the USDA.
Ashley was a single, Hispanic mother who started out in fashion and struggled herself with access to healthy foods. Passionate about connecting marginalized communities to healthy, affordable foods that are shown to cut down on rates of chronic illness, Ashley went on to create Farmbox.
Here she discusses the beginnings of Farmbox, how the program works, the types of food in one box, successful case studies and current research, partnerships with health insurance companies and how anyone interested can sign up with Farmbox.


You can contact Dr. Eeks at bloomingwellness.com.
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Read Manic Kingdom here.
Listen to her short audio parody on the wellness industry here.
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In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with former CIA officer Marc Polymeropolous about his experience with the mysterious Havana Syndrome that has impacted many people in the intelligence community. Marc discusses when he was first impacted in Moscow, his symptoms, the CIA's response, what he thinks might have happened to him and what he hopes to accomplish by sharing his story.

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In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Suresh Kuchipudi about his newly published research on the presence of SARS-Cov-2 ( COVID-19) in white-tailed deer. He will discuss how they conducted the study,  its findings and what they could mean for viral transmission, the "spillover" of SARS-Cov-2 from humans to deer and how it most likely happened, the symptom profile in deer, how multiple hosts may complicate mitigation efforts, and what this may mean for the trajectory of the pandemic.

Dr. Kuchipudi is a clinical professor at Penn State University's College of Agricultural Sciences and is Associate Director of the Animal Diagnostic Laboratory where he oversees the microbiology department. He is a trained veterinarian and a board-certified specialist in virology and immunology. His research focuses on infectious diseases, zoonotic and emerging viruses, viral pathogenesis, diagnostic assay development and pathogen-host interactions. Currenty his lab is focused on SARS-Cov-2.  Recently he was named the prestigious Huck Chair of Emerging Infectious Diseases.  You can learn more about him and see his publications here.

You can contact Dr. Eeks at bloomingwellness.com.
Follow Dr. Eeks on Instagram here.
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Or Twitter.
Read Manic Kingdom here.
Listen to her short audio parody on the wellness industry here.
Subcribe to her newsletter here!

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