My attempt at an epidemiological look at US Revolutionary War deaths. Thankfully I had the work of giants like Ken Burns and PBS with great data to work off! #EpiSky #HistoricalEpi #IDSky #WarHistory open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...

After 30 years of decline, tuberculosis cases started rising again in the U.S. post-COVID and globally. One of the biggest lessons from epi history is simple: Diseases don’t disappear all that often, but the infrastructure keeping them at bay does. #IDSky #EpiSky open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...

Ever since I first played The Oregon Trail game as a kid I knew disease was the real killer on the trail. Years later it’s even clearer how the Overland Road functioned as a massive disease corridor across the continent. #EpiSky #IDSky #History open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...

Between 1791 and 1804, two mosquito-borne diseases destroyed the French expeditionary armies in Saint-Domingue. It also completely obliterated the conditions necessary for Napoleon’s planned empire in North America. #EpiSky #History #IDSky #SciComm open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...

The American Revolution was nearly lost to smallpox. ~8,000 Americans died in battle during the Revolution. Disease killed at least twice that number and possibly far more when including prisoners of war. Smallpox was the silent enemy during the Quebec campaign. open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...

New post: A tour of the infectious disease landscape in the pre-contact Americas. Helminths in the Arctic, treponemes across the continent, fungal disease in the Southwest, Chagas in the Mexican highlands. #History #EpiSky #IDSky substack.com/@theedgeofep...

The debate on the origins of syphilis has been raging for centuries. Ancient DNA has us closer than ever to an answer but not everything is totally clear yet. Here I go over the debate and current state of the evidence. #History #EpiSky #IDSky open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...

A parasite that shouldn’t survive cold climates somehow appears in 7,000-year-old Brazilian coprolites. No trace in the north, no easy route in. One of the most interesting mysteries in ancient disease ecology. #History #EpiSky #Hookworm #Anthro theedgeofepidemiology.substack.com/p/the-myster...

Archaeologists once found a perfectly preserved Viking turd the size of an iPhone. It turned out to be one of the most informative fossils ever discovered. We learn a ton from fossilized feces, including things about diet, environment, and pathogen load. open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...

What’re the oldest diseases we know of? Viral “fossils” >400M yrs old, cancer in a 240M-yr amphibian, worm eggs in Triassic dino poop, a 275M-yr infected jawbone. Life’s first battles were microbes sabotaging each other. #MedSky #EpiSky #History open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...

Somehow The Edge of Epidemiology just cracked Substack’s Top 50 in science. Huge thanks to everyone reading, sharing, and nerding out about the history of disease with me. New post: Humanity’s Deadliest Companions open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo... #EpiSky #History #MedSky #IDSky

We’ve lived with microbes for millions of years. They built our immune systems, rewired our DNA, and killed billions along the way. I tried to tally their bill: Humanity’s Deadliest Companions. #EpiSky #MedSky #History #Anthropology #Archaeology #IDSky open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...

Leprosy survived the empires that once tried to quarantine it. In the early 1900s, colonial governments across the Pacific built “islands of isolation”, of which some ended up being half hospital, half prison. On Makogai, patients made a world of our own. open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo... #History

In 1858, Staten Islanders burned down their own quarantine hospital in the name of “self defense” A short story about fear, fire, and public health: open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo... #EpiSky #PublicHealth #History

GLP-1 drugs started as diabetes meds, became weight-loss blockbusters… and now might prevent migraines by lowering intracranial pressure and calming neuroinflammation. When endocrinology and neurology collide, weird things happen. #Migraine #EpiSky #MedSky #GLP1 open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...

America isn’t dying young because of food dyes or seed oils. It’s fentanyl, drag-strip roads, and gunfire. Those three explain much of the 4-year U.S. life expectancy gap vs peers. Bad news: they kill a lot of people. Good news: they’re fixable. open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...

Single-dose lysergide (MM120) beat placebo for GAD and the effect lasted to 12 weeks without trial-provided therapy. Promising signal ≠ green light. We still need an active placebo, pragmatic eligibility (keep usual meds), and functional outcomes. #MedSky #lsd open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...

New post: The Doctors’ Riot (1788). When New Yorkers fought back against body-snatching medicine. Why cadavers were scarce, who got dug up, how “unclaimed” bodies became policy, and what that says about consent today. #MedSky #EpiSky theedgeofepidemiology.substack.com/p/body-snatc...

New post: Finding Risk Where History Put It: how founder effects + endogamy make some “rare” diseases locally common, and why community-led screening works. SLSJ as model; South Asia + NYC for scale/equity. Corrections more than welcome. #EpiSky theedgeofepidemiology.substack.com/p/finding-ri...

New post: how warmer weather and urban life are shifting mosquito, tick, and sandfly risk in 2025. maps, mechanisms, and what to do this week. #EpiSky #MedSky #InfectiousDiseases theedgeofepidemiology.substack.com/p/infectious...

Cool little accomplishment! Thanks to everyone who has read, subscribed, and shared! #EpiSky #MedSky open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...

Does lithium lower Alzheimer’s risk? I dug into RCTs, bipolar registries, Denmark’s water data, and a new Nature paper to see what is currently known. Its an interesting signal and definitely merits further study #EpiSky #MedSky #NeuroSky theedgeofepidemiology.substack.com/p/does-lithi...

New blog post: Paper Mills are Poisoning Science Science is being spammed with ghost written junk articles sold in bulk. A new PNAS paper shows how far this has gotten. pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.10… Blog link belowopen.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...os

I reviewed @erictopol.bsky.social’s book Super Agers. It’s a thoughtful look at what you can do at home to improve healthspan paired with a compelling view of how tools like whole genome sequencing and nextgen medications are changing the future of aging + medicine open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...

🧠 Do you get migraines 3+ days/month? We’re running a remote UC Irvine study on migraine & memory. Ages 18–75, US only. Just 10 min/day for up to a month. More info + sign up: faculty.sites.uci.edu/neuroinforma... #MigraineChat #Migraine

🧠 Do you get migraines 3+ days/month? We’re running a remote UC Irvine study on migraine & memory. Ages 18–75, US only. Just 10 min/day for up to a month. More info + sign up: faculty.sites.uci.edu/neuroinforma... #MigraineChat #Migraine

Migraine can interfere with memory, attention, language, and processing speed, even between attacks. I wrote about the cognitive effects across the migraine cycle and how meds can impact cognition: theedgeofepidemiology.substack.com/p/migraine-and…#EpiSkyk#MedSkyk#NeuroSkyky

I reread The Meme Machine recently and realized: memetics didn’t die, it just ended up subsumed by other fields. After being trained in epidemiology, the metaphor isn’t even a metaphor anymore. Memes spread like pathogens. “Memetics is Dead, Long Live Memetics” open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...

New meta-analysis of unblinded psychedelic clinical trials vs antidepressants: psychedelics work as well as open label antidepressants for depression. #EpiSky #MedSky open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...

In August of 1951, something toxic ripped through the town of Pont-Saint-Esprit in southern France. Hundreds were poisoned, dozens were committed to psychiatric hospitals, and at least seven died. open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...

All over the world, kids are growing up faster, and not just emotionally or socially, but biologically. Puberty is showing up earlier and for years, scientists have been trying to figure out why. open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...

How do we know that COVID boosters work? Using the test-negative design. Curious what that is? Read more here: open.substack.com/pub/epiellie...

I’ve spent 5 months working in a migraine research lab. It’s more common than asthma or diabetes and nearly half go undiagnosed. This post covers the epidemiology of migraine regarding who it hits hardest and when, and who gets missed. theedgeofepidemiology.substack.com/p/migraine-w...

I’ve spent 5 months working in a migraine research lab. It’s more common than asthma or diabetes and nearly half go undiagnosed. This post covers the epidemiology of migraine regarding who it hits hardest and when, and who gets missed. theedgeofepidemiology.substack.com/p/migraine-w...

Hello! Our Neuroinformatics lab at UCI is recruiting for our study on migraine and cognition! If you wouldn’t mind bumping this so we can reach our goal of 200 participants, we’d greatly appreciate it! Our screening survey can be found here. uci.questionpro.com/a/TakeSurvey... #EpiSky #MedSky

1/ When I was a teenager, I took melatonin almost every night. Sometimes more than 30mg. I thought more would mean better sleep. Nobody told me it wasn’t a sleep drug. It’s a hormone. And most people are using it wrong. A thread on what melatonin is and who it actually helps 🧵

1/🧵 WAR EPIDEMIOLOGY: ATHENS The year is 430 BCE. Sparta has invaded. Athenians crowd behind their city walls. But it won’t be Spartan swords that break them. It will be something far smaller. A thread on how a plague helped unravel a democracy. 👇

The public health establishment believes the public can only handle "clear, simple, and actionable messages", and concepts like risk are "too technical and academic". I disagree. If you, like me, believe understanding public health is important, check out my newsletter: epiellie.substack.com

Dopamine is incredibly misunderstood as a molecule. Here i go into some of the nuanced around it. open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...

Most books on bias just list our flaws. The Scout Mindset teaches how to reason better and why it’s worth it. My review and why it shaped my blog: open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo...

Measles isn’t just a rash and a fever. It can erase years of your immune system’s memory. The virus doesn’t just make you sick—it makes you forget how to fight off other diseases you already had immunity to. I wrote about immune amnesia, the Texas outbreak, and what we’re not talking about enough:

New Post: “Rethinking Nuclear Power: Reliable Energy for an Uncertain Future.” (Link below!) Is nuclear really dangerous, or is fear overshadowing facts? I break down the safety, sustainability, and energy security questions around nuclear. #NuclearEnergy #SustainableFuture #EnergySecurity

I recently wrote about my personal experience with #epilepsy and some research on the disease throughout the globe, the #publichealth challenge it truly is, and the stigma of seizure disorders. theedgeofepidemiology.substack.com/p/between-se...

New at Edge of Epi: the latitude gradient in Multiple Sclerosis. theedgeofepidemiology.substack.com/p/ms-increas... #EpiSky #NeuroSky #PHSky #GeoSky

Thank you to Andrew Cutler for the inspiration behind my latest post on medical mythology and snakes! From Asclepius to Ayurvedic remedies, serpents have slithered through medical history in fascinating ways. theedgeofepidemiology.substack.com/p/serpentine...

New post on migraine! Share it around, odds are you know someone with migraine. theedgeofepidemiology.substack.com/p/understand...

New at Edge of Epi! An introduction to the multidisciplinary field of neuroepidemiology. theedgeofepidemiology.substack.com/p/neuroepide... #EpiSky #PublicHealth #MedSky

Excited to share that I’ll be joining UC Irvine as an Assistant Specialist in the Department of Neurology, working at the intersection of machine learning and epidemiology to study migraine disorders! Looking forward to contributing to research that advances our understanding of neurological health.

New post out at Edge of Epi! I cover the transmissible cancer spreading in bivalve species. theedgeofepidemiology.substack.com/p/transmissi... #Cancer #Episky #IDSky #Ecology #Zoology #VetSky

Part 2 of my phages series is out now! Non-medical uses in environmental science, agriculture, water treatment facilities and more! open.substack.com/pub/theedgeo... #Agriculture #PublicHealth