Blooming Wellness
Dr. Eek's Health & Wellness Blog
Once upon a time, you could order heroin from Sears. Not a book about heroin. Not heroin-related paraphernalia. Actual heroin. View this post on Instagram A post shared by EeKs (@doctoreeks) Around the turn of the 20th century, Sears, Roebuck & Co. offered a kit containing two vials of Bayer Heroin, a syringe, two needles …
You buy a vape. You inhale. And the drug you’re inhaling is normally used to put people under anesthesia. A recent case report out of Singapore describes two young men who had been using vapes containing etomidate, a short acting anesthetic drug normally given intravenously for things like general anesthesia, rapid sequence intubation, and procedural …
Once upon a time, people thought tuberculosis was caused by vampires. Listen to the podcast here: In 1892, the Brown family of Exeter, Rhode Island, had been devastated by a mysterious wasting illness. Several family members had died, and another, Edwin Brown, was getting sicker. Neighbors began to suspect something supernatural. They believed one of …
If you’re somewhere in your 40s or 50s and feel like life has become unusually difficult, there may be more going on than the proverbial midlife crisis. Research suggests that today’s middle-aged Americans may actually be faring worse than previous generations, and worse than many middle-aged adults living in Europe. We’re talking about more than …
Anyone ever participate in a Swat the Fly campaign? ;) @dr..eeks In this episode of Public Health is Weird… Public health has tried a lot of things over the years. At one point, some communities literally paid kids to kill flies. I’m less interested in the campaign… and more interested in the person whose job …
Imagine walking into a train station. You’re thirsty. You spot a drinking fountain. Except…it’s not really a drinking fountain. It’s a single metal cup hanging from a chain. You take a drink. Hang it back up. The next stranger does the same thing. One cup. For everyone. It sounds like the setup for a horror …
What if health isn’t just about the body? That’s a question I’ve become increasingly interested in exploring—not because science has all the answers, but because it doesn’t. Throughout history, people across cultures have described experiences involving angels, intuition, healing, and spiritual encounters that exist outside the boundaries of conventional medicine and scientific explanation. Whether those …
Public health is weird. Sometimes really weird. And sometimes it makes you stop reading, stare into the distance for a few seconds, and say: “Wait…they did WHAT?” Welcome to Prohibition. When the United States banned alcohol in 1920, people didn’t suddenly decide they preferred celery juice. Instead, many turned to bootleg liquor. Some of that …
A rabid bat landed on a family’s dinner table. Not metaphorically. Literally. As reported in People, that’s what recently happened at the Yellow Deli in Vista, California. What would I have done? Probably just scoot my chair back a little. Growing up around my parents’ veterinary practice, I became oddly desensitized to wildlife. Bats. Rats. …
Did Victorian wallpaper really make people sick? Believe it or not, yes. @dr..eeks In this segment of Public Health is Weird: During the 1800s, some Victorian wallpapers were made with arsenic-based pigments, especially the vibrant greens. Over time, reports of unexplained illnesses—and some deaths—led investigators to suspect the wallpaper itself. Scientists now believe arsenic exposure …
@dr..eeks By now, you’ve probably heard of the Cyclospora outbreak investigation? Everyone keeps referring to "explosive diarrhea," so naturally my brain goes to: Is there an operational definition for explosive diarrhea? Like… a splash radius? Exit velocity? A peer-reviewed threshold? ;) As far as I could tell, there isn't a standardized definition. But everyone still …
Can bananas change the nutritional value of your smoothie? Bananas have long been considered one of the healthiest fruits you can eat. They’re packed with potassium, fiber, vitamin B6, and other nutrients, making them a staple in countless smoothies. But a recent study raised an interesting question: Could adding a banana to a berry smoothie …
