Causes or Cures

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Andrei Gudkov and Dr. Joseph Wakshlag about their research on extending a dog's lifespan. They both are part of a group of scientists at Vaika, a non-profit medical research organization that is dedicated to extending the lifespan of domestic animals. In the podcast, they will discuss the aging process, how it might...

Send us Fan Mail On a topic near and dear to her, in this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with "misinformation scientist" Dr. Sacha Altay on what we are getting wrong about misinformation. This podcast will focus on his and his peers' paper published in the journal Social Media and Society   titled Misinformation on Misinformation: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Naveed Sattar, a clinician, researcher, and professor of metabolic medicine at the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow and a leading expert in diabetes and cardiovascular disease research.  In this podcast, he discusses the most accurate ways to measure body fat and why that matte...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Victor Tseng about his and his team's study on how AI (ChatGPT) came close to passing the United States Medical Licensing Exams (USMLE), tests that all medical doctors must take and pass in order to practice medicine in the US. The study was published in Plos Digital Health here. Dr. Tseng will tell us more about wha...

Send us Fan Mail Would you ever donate your kidney to a stranger? In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Elaine Perlman, Director of Waitlist Zero , an organization with the mission of representing kidney donors and ending the waitlist by making it easier for living donors to donate a kidney. Elaine will walk us through her journey (from start to finish) of donating her kidney to...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats wit Dr. Michael Santos about the A-PLUS trial , published in The New England Journal of Medicine, which looked at the effects of a cheap, widely available antibiotic, Azithromycin, in preventing sepsis and death in women during childbirth in low- to middle-income countries. Dr. Santos will explain the prevalence and life-threateni...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Brennen McKenzie, a veterinarian, epidemiologist and Director of Veterinary Medicine at Loyal, a clinical-stage veterinary medicine company developing drugs to prolong the lifespan and healthspan of dogs. He discusses the aging process in dogs, age-related biomarkers, and the link between dog size (big vs small) and lifes...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Anushka Ataullahjan about her research on the polio eradication efforts in Pakistan. Wild polio is still endemic in Pakistan, and Dr. Ataullahjan will discuss different eradication programs and initiatives they've tried over the years and the different barriers they've met, including threats of insecurity and  p...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with author Susan Salenger about her book, SIDELINED, How Women Manage & Mismanage Their Health. Some of the topics covered in the book and on this podcast include why women put themselves second when it comes to health issues, why "nice girls finish last," the shame and blame game for when women are hit with an illn...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Siwen Wang about her research published in JAMA Internal Medicine on the link between pre-infection healthy lifestyle factors and risk of Long COVID. She will talk about the 6 lifestyle factors they assessed and why, how they did the study and created a "healthy lifestyle score", and how they defined "Long...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Joseph Maroon about hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), what it is, and how it is administered. He will explain why he believes it is beneficial for improving brain health, particularly for helping people recover from traumatic brain injuries, strokes and PTSD. Dr. Maroon will also explain how it can be used to promote heal...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Sebastian Goetze on his and his team's discovery of fungi-killing compounds, which they subsequently named after the famous actor Keanu Reeves. (You can read the study here in the Journal of the American Chemical Society .) While the study has created a lot of buzz for being named after Keanu, in the podcast, Dr. Goe...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. James Giordano about narrowing in on the cause of Havana Syndrome, a mysterious illness targeting the intelligence community. Havana Syndrome was first identified in 2016, when diplomats and intel officers working in Havana, Cuba began experiencing a mysterious set of symptoms. Dr. Giordano was one of the experts tasked t...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Jay Shah about why he believes that high blood pressure is a silent epidemic affecting millions of people. Dr. Shah will first describe what blood pressure is and how we measure it, what high blood pressure is, and why he believes we are experiencing a silent epidemic of high blood pressure. He will also make the case for...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Nick Washmuth about how swearing (cursing, saying "bad" words, dropping "f bombs") can be used to help manage physical pain. He discusses the theories for why swearing helps with physical pain, the evidence for it, specific case studies, and how it might be used in a clinical setting. He also describes...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Madeline Li about Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying Law or MAID.   The Parliament of Canada passed MAID in 2016, allowing eligible Canadian adults to request medical assistance in dying. In 2021 the law was revised to allow for more chronic conditions to be included, and now they are in discussions to expand eligi...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Kyle Flanigan, CEO and co-founder of US Specialty Formulations about his company's work on creating a COVID-19 vaccine you can swallow. Basically, a vaccine you drink instead of a shot in the arm. He will discuss his company's vaccine platform, called QYNDR, and how it produces oral vaccines. He'll tell us...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Col Michael McGurk (Ret), Director of Research for the US Army's Center for Initial Military Training , about the Army's Holistic Health and Fitness System, or H2F. Col McGurk was instrumental in the development of the system and directs test implementation, standards and evaluation of H2F components for the US Army...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Karen Van Nuys and Dr. Neeraj Sood about the pricing of insulin in the United States. It's no secret that insulin is unaffordable for many Americans who need it. This discussion will center around how the price of insulin is set, all the players involved, and who is to blame for the high price of insulin in the US. W...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks sits down with medical historian Dr. Elena Conis, author of Vaccine Nation: America’s Changing Relationship with Immunization . Together they trace how U.S. attitudes toward vaccines (especially from the 1960s onward) have swerved with culture wars, political shifts, scientific discoveries, and biotech breakthroughs. From polio pride to...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Mandy Gulla about the PADs for Parkinson's Program , the first program of its kind in North America that teaches dogs how to detect an odor associated with Parkinson's Disease.  In the podcast, she will provide an overview of Parkinson's Disease, talk about a dog's sense of smell and how good it is, an...

Send us Fan Mail  In this episode of Causes or Cures , Dr. Eeks talks with Dr. Rachel Stein, Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at West Virginia University, about the Amish community’s experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Stein’s research focuses on community building and health in Old Order Amish communities, and she shares how she became interested in studying them. The co...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures , Dr. Eeks sits down with Dr. Thais Russomano to explore the fascinating topic of human health in space. Dr. Russomano will discuss the changes the human body undergoes in space, the health challenges of living on Mars versus the Moon, and how medicines might behave differently in these environments. She’ll also touch on the diagnostic tools requ...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Borja del Pozo Cruz, PhD, about his and his team's study recently published in JAMA Internal Medicine on the association between daily steps/step intensity and new cases of cancer, cardiovascular disease and death.  (To date, it is the largest population sample and analysis of adults wearing an accelerometer.) In the...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Emily Luisana about her recent study on dog bowl and dog food hygiene and the link to human and dog health published here. In the podcast, Dr. Luisana will discuss how she became interested in this topic and provide an overview of the potential bacteria/viruses that may grow on dog bowls and the potential impact for dog a...