Eeks

Weird, True Public Health Bits 🧐
On the Pathos Less Travelled🧳
Host of Causes or Cures🎤
& Eeks Briefs
Queen👸of the Mundane;
Voice for animals;

[Eeks @EeksMagic]

In this episode of public health is weird..

By the late 1990s, leaders at the CDC were warning that obesity had become an epidemic.

At the time:
• About 30% of U.S. adults had obesity
• About 14% of children and teens had obesity

Today, those numbers are even higher.

[Eeks @EeksMagic]

https://t.co/q9DBLeX7OA

[Eeks @EeksMagic]

An anesthetic. In a vape. What could go wrong?

Meet the so-called Zombie Vapes.

They’re showing up in parts of Asia, containing etomidate, a drug normally given intravenously to induce anesthesia.
But get this:
Etomidate can interfere with your adrenal glands and cause your potassium levels to drop.

In one Singapore case report, two young men using these vapes had low potassium without appearing particularly sick.

And preliminary screening data cited in the report found low potassium in roughly 40% of 122 patients screened for etomidate vape misuse. Most had no symptoms.

Which raises an interesting question: How many people could be walking around with abnormal potassium levels and have no idea?

And another: Could these vapes eventually show up in the United States?

In this episode of WTF Health News, I get into the science, the strange clinical clues, and why this is worth keeping an eye on from a public health perspective.

Because an illicit vape containing an IV anesthetic seems like something we should have on our radar.

Full episode below:
#etomidate #vaping #publichealth #healthnews

[Eeks @EeksMagic]

Who doesn’t love that smile?
Hat Thief for the Win!

[Eeks @EeksMagic]

https://t.co/5V7aphrGaG

[Eeks @EeksMagic]

We track our steps, sleep, heart rate, and just about everything else. So why are erections getting left out?

Dr. Elliot Justin invented FirmTech, a device that tracks erections. He’s now amassed data on hundreds of thousands of them.

He’s essentially the Library of Congress for erections.

He joined me on Eeks Briefs to demonstrate his invention and explain why he believes erections can tell us quite a bit about men’s heart, vascular and sexual health.

Somebody had to collect the data. 🍆 🤷‍♀️

[Grateful Dead @GratefulDead]

A previously unreleased live recording of “Peggy-O” is out now. Recorded at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles on October 10, 2016, the track features Bobby Weir on vocals and acoustic guitar, Matt Berninger on vocals, Steve Kimock and John Mayer on electric guitar, Josh Kaufman on Wurlitzer electric piano, Scott Devendorf on bass, Bryan Devendorf on drums and Jon Shaw on mandolin.

This performance is part of ‘Blue Mountain: 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition,’ arriving November 20 with unreleased studio recordings and live performances from Bobby’s fall 2016 Campfire Tour.

Listen to "Peggy-O" and pre-save 'Blue Mountain: 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition’ https://t.co/rfzdec7bvL

[Eeks @EeksMagic]

@MDW_USARMY @TT_Army_AD @WestPoint_USMA @JasonKelce Yeah.

[Eeks @EeksMagic]

https://t.co/3kwdsagtGV

[Eeks @EeksMagic]

An exorcist told me he receives text messages from demons.

Msgr. Stephen Rossetti has conducted hundreds of exorcisms. He’s also a licensed psychologist, which makes for an interesting conversation about demonic possession, mental illness, spiritual sensitives, and what actually happens during an exorcism.

He also graduated from the Air Force Academy. As a West Pointer, I tried not to hold that against him. ( Although it is BEAT AIR FORCE WEEK!)

I’m revisiting our conversation on Causes or Cures, one of my occasional adventures into the spiritual side of health. (This became a popular one!)

Ya know, a little supernatural never hurt anyone.

Well, that’s probably debatable. 👻

[Eeks @EeksMagic]

Our research accepted & presented at APHA 2026 in San Antonio.
Crossover design, script, training, palm cards, autonomy, conversations around vaccines, homeless service sites throughout LA.
Lots of moving parts, but overall a positive experience and intervention that could be tweaked & tested in other populations.

[Eeks @EeksMagic]

https://t.co/DRATEoxRYq

[Eeks @EeksMagic]

Hair straightening and kidney injury was not a connection I had on my WTF Health News bingo card.

And no, this one isn't about formaldehyde.

The chemical at the center of this story is glyoxylic acid, used in some hair-straightening products.

In one published case series from Israel, 26 people developed severe acute kidney injury within about 48 to 72 hours of hair-straightening treatments. Three needed temporary dialysis. Kidney biopsies found calcium oxalate deposits and acute tubular injury.

Then researchers started figuring out how something you put on your hair might end up damaging your kidneys.

One proposed route is a strange one:
Hair product → skin → bloodstream → oxalate → kidneys.

There are now multiple published case reports and case series, biopsy findings, repeat injuries after repeat treatments, and experimental evidence supporting a plausible mechanism.

That does NOT mean all hair straightening is dangerous, or that kidney injury is a common outcome. We don't know how often this happens.

When I started WTF Health News, I wanted to cover real health and science stories that make you stop and go, “Wait. What the eff?” Mostly because they're things most of us have never heard about before.

This one definitely qualified.

[Eeks @EeksMagic]

@nypost eh, anyone who can make a throuple work deserves a certificate.

[Eeks @EeksMagic]

@BirdCentralPark Wow! Great catch. Beautiful bird.

[Eeks @EeksMagic]

@afshineemrani Talked with researchers about this on my podcast way back when: https://t.co/TGCZIocc0H

[PETA @peta]

You read that right. Monkeys are deliberately turned into cocaine addicts in a U of Minnesota lab, & the university is letting it happen 😡
We wrote a letter calling on @UMNews to BAN Jan Zimmermann from experimenting on monkeys. Join us: https://t.co/NqUvkzKbmt

[Eeks @EeksMagic]

https://t.co/RW8gypc2Lq

[Eeks @EeksMagic]

Who has an air purifier?
Might be the best purchase yet.

Prof. Doug Brugge and his colleagues studied HEPA air filtration in people living near busy highways. The original study was designed to look at cardiovascular effects, including blood pressure, and participants received both real HEPA filtration and sham filtration so researchers could compare what happened.

And the blood pressure findings?

Significant.

Which is interesting because we tend to think of air pollution as a lung problem. Your cardiovascular system would like to be included in the conversation.

Doug is Professor and Chair of Public Health Sciences at UConn, and I talked with him about what HEPA filters actually remove, what the blood pressure research found, and the newer question his team decided to poke at:

Could cleaner air affect your brain, too? Posting the link to our conversation in the comments.

And, yes I have a couple air purifiers at home. 😉
#airpurifier #bloodpressure #hearthealth

[Manhattan Bird Alert @BirdCentralPark]

The Upper West Side Barn Owls visited their water tank and another nearby building on Saturday night. They were not seen exploring their new roost box, but that's as expected: they do not need it at night and the young should be off on their own soon.

[Eeks @EeksMagic]

Central Park does not disappoint in the Fall. 🍁🍁🎃🎃🍁🍁