Causes or Cures
Dr. Eeks
"For the Nerds and the Nerd Nots"Causes or Cures is a health podcast hosted by Dr. Eeks—an independent, grassroots show driven by curiosity and a passion for breaking down complex health topics into bite-sized, easy-to-understand insights. Dr. Eeks (ErinKate Stair, MPH, MD) works as a consultant in the realm of public health, applied epidemiology, and health communication. She's all about making science relatable and often uses a blue-collar sense of humor to drive the message home.On this podcast, Dr. Eeks talks with experts from around the world (doctors, researchers, public health pros, and more) to dive into the latest hot topics in health and research, all in a down-to-earth kind of way. She also includes people with compelling stories of healing and "characters" because life is too boring and short to leave out characters. ;)DISCLAIMER: Some topics are more controversial than others, so keep in mind that this is information only and not health advice. If you are battling an individual health issue, always check in with your doctor & don't run with anything on podcast as advice. Dr. Eeks doesn't endorse any of her guests' views, and despite a strict health routine, nor does she endorse any products, supplements, oils, magic socks or potions. (If an episode is sponsored by a company she likes, she will say so in the show notes.) While she has a MD, she does not practice medicine (she's a full-time public health nerd) so she does not give out medical advice nor should you treat anything on this podcast as medical advice. Causes or Cures is not a "news site." It's about having conversations, and Dr. Eeks is confident that she can have a respectful conversation with anyone, even people who think far differently than she does. (At least that's been her experience at hole-in-the-walls & on the NYC sidewalks.) The point is to not take anything here as Gospel. Sometimes Dr. Eeks' dog Barnaby makes his opinion known, but the good news is that he's a smart dog. Most importantly, she hopes this podcast encourages folks to stay curious, empathic, hopeful, compassionate, honest, open-minded, and engaged. Freedom of discussion is a beautiful thing, delightfully messy, and one that many take for granted.*The views on this podcast do not reflect the views of anyone she contracts with or consults for on various public health projects. You can help keep Causes or Cure independent and ad-free by hitting the "Support" button in the upper corner.You can contact Dr. Eeks through her website, bloomingwellness.com.SIGN UP for her Newsletter HERE: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/sl/xnqmy06
Episodes
Mentioned books
Aug 7, 2022 • 43min
A Potential Nasal Spray for COVID-19 in the Works, with Dr. Hector Aguilar-Carreno
Send us a textIn this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Hector Aguilar-Carreno about his and his team's research published in Nature, May'22 titled: A TMPRSS2 inhibitor acts as a pan-SARS-CoV-2 prophylactic and therapeutic. In the podcast, he will break down the study and in an easy-to-understand way explain what TMPRSS2 is and how it relates to COVID-19 infection; the inhibitors and how they work; results when tested on cells and mice; why a nasal spray would be the most ideal way to administer this; public health implications, and where they are at in the research process. Dr. Aguilar-Carreno is a virologist, professor and researcher with the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. You can contact Dr. Eeks at bloomingwellness.com.Follow Dr. Eeks on Instagram here.Or Facebook here.Or Twitter.Subscribe to her newsletter here!Support the show
Jul 20, 2022 • 32min
Naturally-Acquired Immunity against COVID-19 in Kids & Adolescents during the Delta Wave, with Dr. Tal Patalon
Send us a textIn this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Tal Patalon, head of Kahn, Sagol, Maccabi (KSM), the Research and Innovation Center of Maccabi Healthcare Services in Israel about her recent study (still in preprint), titled: Naturally-acquired Immunity Dynamics against SARS-CoV-2 in Children and Adolescents, which you can access here. Currently, this is the largest, real-world, observational study looking at this research question during the Delta wave in Israel, with hundreds of thousands of kids and adolescents included in the study. In the podcast, she will discuss why she was interested in this research question, how she and her team conducted the study, what they discovered, any differences observed between reinfection rates without symptoms vs reinfection with symptoms in kids and adolescents, and since she is also a practicing clinician in Israel, what she is seeing from a clinical perspective and if that coincides with her research findings. Hope you tune in to the conversation! :) You can contact Dr. Eeks at bloomingwellness.com.Follow Dr. Eeks on Instagram here.Or Facebook here.Or Twitter.Subcribe to her newsletter here!Support the show
Jul 17, 2022 • 45min
The Proof Pinnacle, A Deep Dive into the Evidence for Intermittent Fasting, with Dr. Krista Varady
Send us a textIn this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Krista Varady about the evidence base for intermittent fasting (IF). Dr. Varady has conducted numerous randomized controlled trials on intermittent fasting and is with the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Her recent review on IF was published in Nature Reviews Endocrinology, which you can read here. You can follow her on Instagram here. In the podcast, she will discuss the evidence for intermittent fasting, its relationship to weight loss, if it helps with certain disease states, long-term results vs short-term results, different results in adults vs kids, if there is something "unique" about IF or if any health benefits come down to calorie restriction, and if she thinks it's a better diet to follow than others. Tune in! You can contact Dr. Eeks at bloomingwellness.com.Follow Dr. Eeks on Instagram here.Or Facebook here.Or Twitter.Subcribe to her newsletter here!Support the show
Jun 28, 2022 • 59min
How the Food Industry Influences Public Health Policy & Nutritional Guidelines, with Dr. Melissa Mialon
Send us a textIn this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Melissa Mialon about how the food industry influences public health policy and nutritional guidelines. She will describe the many characters of the food industry, what corporate political activity is and how they use it to influence health policy and nutritional guidelines, food labels, conflicts of interests involving decisionmakers of important nutritional guidelines, how the industry biases the scientific evidence base and what we can do to make sure the system is not biased towards food industry interests and profits. Dr. Mialon is a food engineer, a Research Assitant Professor at Trinity College, Dublin and an honorary Research Fellow at the University of San Paulo in Brazil. She is also an independent consultant currently working in France. She works for many health and consumer organizations, including the WHO, Blommberg Philanthropies and the Ministry of Health Ghana and is the co-cordinator of the Governance, Ethics and Conflicts of Interestin Public Health. She is highly published in the area of how the food industry influences health policy in numerous countries and is the author of a recent book, Big Food and CIE. You can learn more about her and read her publications on her website here. You can contact Dr. Eeks at bloomingwellness.com.Follow Dr. Eeks on Instagram here.Or Facebook here.Or Twitter.Subcribe to her newsletter here!Support the show
Jun 25, 2022 • 46min
Weighty Whispers: How Chemicals in Everyday Products Fuel Obesity, with Dr. Jerry Heindel
Send us a textIn this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Jerry Heindel about his and other researchers' recent reviews published in Biochemical Pharmacology on how chemicals in everyday products may be fueling the obesity epidemic here in the US and elsewhere. He will discuss what these chemicals are and how we get exposed; what the term "Obesogen" means and why that term should be on our radar; the potential mechanism of actions for how these chemical lead to obesity; when getting exposed to these chemicals puts us more at risk; the current evidence base for these chemicals fueling obesity, and things that we can do on both the individual and population level to reduce or mitigate our exposure. Dr. Heindel has his doctorate in biochemistry and worked in the area of reproductive biology and toxicology while a faculty member at the University of Texas Medical School and the Univeristy of Mississippi. He worked for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) for 25 years where he focused on the potential impact of environmental chemicals on the developmental origins of health and disease. He is currently the director of the Healthy Environment and Endocrine Disruptor Strategies (HEEDS), an organization that is funded by grants and personal donations, not corporate interests. You can contact Dr. Eeks at bloomingwellness.com.Follow Dr. Eeks on Instagram here.Or Facebook here.Or Twitter.Subcribe to her newsletter here!Support the show
Jun 16, 2022 • 45min
The Monkeypox Outbreak that Started in Nigeria in 2017 & Lessons for the World, with Dr. Ogoina
Send us a text In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Dimie Ogoina about the human monkeypox outbreak that started in Nigeria in 2017, after the country had not seen a case for approximately 40 years. Dr. Ogoina is an infectious disease specialist and president of the Nigerian Infectious Disease Society whose hospital saw the first (index) case of human monkeypox in 2017. He has published several papers on this topic which can be found here. In this episode, he will describe the beginning of the monkeypox outbreak in Nigeria in 2017, symptoms, thoughts on transmission and things that struck him as unusual. He will talk about how Nigeria tried to warn the rest of the world that they were seeing something unusual. He will discuss similarities between what he observed (and treated) in Nigeria to what many countries around the world are now experiencing. He will also discuss the rate of mutations in this particular monkeypox virus, possible animal reservoirs, the link to the smallpox virus and what we can do better going forward as a global health community when it comes to addressing outbreaks. You can contact Dr. Eeks at bloomingwellness.com.Follow Dr. Eeks on Instagram here.Or Facebook here.Or Twitter.Subcribe to her newsletter here!Support the show
Jun 2, 2022 • 46min
Unlocking the Depths: The Surprising Cognitive Brilliance of Fish, with Dr. Vera Schluessel
Send us a textIn this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Vera Schluessel about her work on the cognitive abilities of fish, with a specific focus on her latest study published in Nature Scientific Reports, "Cichlids and Stingrays can add & subtract 'one' in the number space from 1 to 5. " Basically, she is going to tell us about fish doing math! In the podcast she will discuss why she started researching the cognitive abilities of fish, why the general public rarely considers it and wrongly assumes "fish are dumb", some of her unique fish studies and results, and the overall message she hopes to convey to the general public. Dr. Schluessel runs the Schluessel Cognition Lab at the Institute of Zoologie at the University of Bonn in Germany. You can contact Dr. Eeks at bloomingwellness.com.Follow Dr. Eeks on Instagram here.Or Facebook here.Or Twitter.Subcribe to her newsletter here!Support the show
May 26, 2022 • 59min
Pharma's Grip: Unpacking Drug Companies' Influence on Patient Gropus, with Dr. Lisa Parker & Dr. Joel Lexchin
Send us a textContinuing the exploration of industry's influence on healthcare and health policy, in this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Joel Lexchin and Dr. Lisa Parker about the influence drug companies have over patient groups. They will describe what patient groups are (why they are needed & the variety of work they do), why drug companies have a vested interest in patient groups, how drug companies fund and influence the groups (and sometimes even create them) and how the groups influence healthcare policy. They will also discuss practical things that can be done to make the overall health system put patients over profit. Dr. Lexchin is a professor at York University, where he teaches pharmaceutical policy, an emergency medicine physician, a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, a member of the Ontario Drug Quality and Therapeutics Committee and was chair of the Drugs and Pharmacotherapy Committee of the Ontario Medical Association. Dr. Parker is an honorary senior lecturer at the School of Pharmacy at the University of Sydney and on the faculty of medicine and health. She is a clinician who practices in the field of oncology(cancer) and her research focuses on public health ethics and policy.You can contact Dr. Eeks at bloomingwellness.com.Follow Dr. Eeks on Instagram here.Or Facebook here.Or Twitter.Subcribe to her newsletter here!Support the show
May 10, 2022 • 58min
Tripping through Time, Psychedelic Medicine's Past and the Promising Paths Ahead, with Dr. Dave Smith
Send us a textIn this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. David Smith about the history and future of psychedelic medicine. He will discuss early research on psychedelics (including experiments the CIA ran), the potential health benefits and disorders they may treat, any potential side effects we should worry about, the current state of research, and why he remains cautiously optimistic. (You'll also hear about some of your favorite bands and how their contributions kept some of the earliest clinics open.) Dr. David Smith is one of the founders of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics, founded in 1967 during the Summer of Love. He is a recognized national leader in the treatment of addictive disease and the psychopharmacology of drugs. Now in his eighties, he continues to serve as medical director for several medical centers and is chair of addiction medicine for a residential center for teens with substance abuse. He is a diplomat of the American Board of Addiction Medicine and the California Society of Addiction Medicine and founding editor of the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. You can contact Dr. Eeks at bloomingwellness.com.Follow Dr. Eeks on Instagram here.Or Facebook here.Or Twitter.Read her bookSubcribe to her newsletter here!Support the show
May 8, 2022 • 30min
Cerebral Slimdown: Cracking the Code of Brain Proteins in Weight Control, with Dr. Schmidt and Dr. Gassen
Send us a textIn this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Mathias Schmidt and Dr. Nils Gassen about their recent research published in Science Advances that involves a protein in the brain that may link autophagy to metabolism to weight control and the fight against obesity. In the podcast, they will discuss why they are interested in obesity research, why they have a specific interest in this protein, what they knew about the protein before the study and what they learned, what autophagy is, how it is linked to the specific protein, how autophagy is linked to metabolism, and what their research might mean for weight control and the fight against obesity going forward.. Dr. Schmidt is the Research Group Leader of the Neurobiology of Stress Resilience at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany and Dr. Gassen is a Research Group Leader at the University of Bonn Medical Center in Germany. You can contact Dr. Eeks at bloomingwellness.com.Follow Dr. Eeks on Instagram here.Or Facebook here.Or Twitter.Subcribe to her newsletter here!Support the show
