The Unidentified: Social Workers' Race to Name John and Jane Does at L.A.'s Busiest Hospital
The Unidentified: Social Workers' Race to Name John and Jane Does at L.A.'s Busiest Hospital
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Newsweek
3 days ago
- Newsweek
Mom Captures Happy Family Moment—Not Knowing Hours Later Life Would Change
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. After being couped up in the house with COVID, a mom captured a video of her husband running outside with their four children. It was a picturesque family day out, but she never could have imagined that just hours later their world would be forever changed. In March 2022, Tracey Gairns Brioux and her family were struck down by COVID. It started with her son, then it spread to her, her husband John, and their other three children. She told Newsweek that she was "incredibly sick for 10 days," and the family couldn't leave their home for around 10 days. When they were finally feeling well enough to go outside, John suggested going out for a 6-mile run. He and Tracey, both 45, were training for half-Ironman triathlons at the time, so peak fitness was imperative. "Everyone was so glad to be out of the house and was feeling pretty happy," Tracey, from Canada, said. Tracey (left) and John (right) pose outdoors with their four children prior to his stroke. Tracey (left) and John (right) pose outdoors with their four children prior to his stroke. @traceygairnsbrioux / TikTok Tracey captured a video of John running with his children, a clip she shared on TikTok (@traceygairnsbrioux) as it seemed like a celebratory moment. However, later that evening, John's health took a turn for the worse. He was reading a bedtime story to their 5-year-old son, but, when he stood up afterward, he collapsed. "He stayed conscious but said it was the most-intense pain in his head he had ever experienced. He managed to crawl into our bedroom and get into bed, then called for my oldest son to come get me. I found him lying in our bed holding his head," Tracey said. The pain was so severe that John even broke one of his teeth from clenching his jaw so hard. Tracey initially thought it was a migraine, so she asked her mom to come round and assess him, as she used to be a nurse. It was clearly more than a migraine, however, so Tracey called an ambulance. She recalled the events of that night were like "an out-of-body experience." She watched it all unfold but was completely powerless. A CT scan was done at the local hospital, and doctors suspected an aneurysm, requiring surgery. John had to be transferred to a hospital two hours away in New Brunswick. Tracey said: "My father drove me to the hospital as there was no room in the ambulance. When we got there, I ran in anxiously to see how he was doing, but I was met by security who told me I couldn't go in. I was shocked and told them I needed to make sure my husband was still alive, and I needed to speak to someone." Due to the COVID restrictions in place at the time, visitors were allowed in hospital rooms only if the patient was likely to die. Nurses told Tracey that her husband would remain in hospital for two weeks and that no one would be allowed in his room. When Tracey learned that she couldn't even be by her husband's side, she dropped to her knees. A devastating situation became even more difficult. She said: "When we finally got to talk to someone, the doctor said it was a brain bleed, a form of stroke, so he wouldn't need brain surgery, which was a huge relief. "We were able to eventually get his phone to him so we could FaceTime, and I stayed in a nearby hotel while he was recovering in ICU," Tracey said. John experienced a subarachnoid hemorrhage, which is bleeding between the brain and the membrane covering it. Various studies have drawn links between COVID and brain bleeds. A study published by the American Academy of Neurology in 2022 suggested that people with COVID who have an ischemic stroke may be more likely to suffer bleeding in their brain and worse outcomes during treatment. The study showed that COVID patients had an 80 percent higher risk of subarachnoid hemorrhage compared to those without it. A review published in 2021 also highlighted that COVID increases the risk of an intercranial hemorrhage compared to other respiratory viruses and is more common among patients who are older or critically ill. Brain bleeds in COVID patients may also lead to longer ICU stays, greater need for ventilation, and higher mortality rates. Tracey and John pose after he was discharged from ICU, left; and the husband sits at the stroke rehab facility, right. Tracey and John pose after he was discharged from ICU, left; and the husband sits at the stroke rehab facility, right. @traceygairnsbrioux / TikTok John's recovery hasn't been easy. Upon leaving the hospital, he had to rent a hotel room for two weeks just so he could have a space with complete darkness and no noise. Tracey said that any stimulation or loud noise was hard for her husband to process, and the best thing he could do was rest. The brain bleed significantly reduced his endurance and energy levels. He was a father of four training for an Ironman race, and suddenly having one conversation with someone was enough to leave him exhausted for a whole day. Any noise, lights or screens would cause John to experience headaches, dizziness, irritability, and overwhelm. "He was used to being busy in a classroom of students, coaching hockey to three of our kids, and being active. In those early days, when his energy reserves ran out, it was like his brain just stopped working," Tracey said. For months, John was confined to his bed and was off work for six months, before making a gradual return to teaching in September 2022. Thankfully, three years on, he is doing so much better. He can do almost everything he used to do, but he is more mindful of his body's limits. At the time, John asked his doctors why the brain bleed happened to him, and why then. They couldn't say, but that told him the reason he survived is because he was healthy, young, and active. From left: John and Tracey pose with their four children; and John stands with his eldest son after a hockey provincial. From left: John and Tracey pose with their four children; and John stands with his eldest son after a hockey provincial. @traceygairnsbrioux / TikTok Tracey has continued to struggle with the effects of long COVID, a chronic condition triggered by the infection. There is no universal definition, but the Mayo Clinic suggests that common symptoms of long COVID include extreme tiredness, brain fog, dizziness, shortness of breath, headaches, and digestion problems. Tracey often feels like she is running on empty or like her "body is faulty." After years of confusion, she said she finally recognizes why she constantly feels so unwell. Now, she hopes to raise awareness for anyone else who may be struggling. "A mantra I hold on to is that healing is never linear," Tracey said. "When we are well, our health is so easy to take for granted. Don't wait until you are forced or until the rug is pulled out from beneath you—do everything you can to protect it. "This virus can do lasting damage to your body and nervous system, but there are ways to try and undo it if you know what the culprit is." Is there a health issue that's worrying you? Let us know via health@ We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured on Newsweek.
Vox
6 days ago
- Vox
The surprising origins of the 'wellness' boom
is the host of Explain It to Me, your hotline for all your unanswered questions. She joined Vox in 2022 as a senior producer and then as host of The Weeds, Vox's policy podcast. 'Wellness' is a word influencers use as a hashtag on videos of them pouring collagen into smoothies and as the theme of a celebrity chef's new cookbook. It's even an obsession of the US health secretary. But what does it mean to be well? That's the question we answer this week on Explain It to Me, Vox's call-in podcast that answers the questions that matter to you most. While the multibillion-dollar industry feels new, it's been over a century in the making. Jonathan Stea, a clinical psychologist and author of Mind the Science: Saving Your Mental Health From the Wellness Industry, says that a lot of wellness trends fill in gaps in health care. That cold plunge or super food may be harmless, but often the science behind the trends can be iffy. 'The problem is that one of the ways in which wellness promoters market their materials is by promoting quote-unquote 'science' or 'research' to support their claims,' he says. 'When you do a deeper dive into that research, what people will often find is that you can find a study to promote or to support any kind of treatment or claim.' How did the wellness trend even begin in the first place? And how should we be thinking about our health overall? Below is an excerpt of our conversation with Stea, edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. If you'd like to submit a question, send an email to askvox@ or call 1-800-618-8545. Where did wellness originate? We can trace the modern wellness industry back to about the late 19th century. That's when two prominent figures really played a role in shaping the modern wellness industry we see today. One of those players was a guy named John Harvey Kellogg. And what he and his brother Will Keith did is, they built something called the Battle Creek Sanitarium, which was a really huge famous medical center. It was a spa, it was a grand hotel, and it attracted a lot of wealthy, highly influential people. And what John ended up doing in that center was promoting a lot of his ideas about health and about how to treat diseases. They tended to really blend a lot of what he called Biologic Living, which is really just a kind of virtuous way of approaching our health and kind of blending that with some religious Christian beliefs. When I hear the name Kellogg, I admit that I think of my breakfast cereal. Was John Kellogg a scientist or an inventor of some kind? Kind of, yes. So his brother Will Keith actually started the cereal company. John was a physician, and he was a bestselling author. He had a magazine; he did lectures. His magazine was followed by millions of people. So was he the inventor of wellness as we know it today? Not quite. When he was promoting his ideas, it was before the term wellness as we use it today was formed. He was promoting a precursor to wellness called Biologic Living, which essentially promoted the idea that all diseases in all health conditions can be treated with basically a trifecta recipe of good sleep, good exercise, and eating a specific diet: vegetables and fruits, etc. Exercise, diet, sleep, eating fruits and veggies — that feels like something I hear from my doctor. Totally. That's a part of evidence-based care, and that's really foundational to what we do in the hospital. The problem is that what we see even in the modern wellness industry is when people sell these things as a cure-all, as a panacea for all health conditions. John had a lot of ideas that [suggested] if we weren't following a trifecta recipe of sleep, eating well, and exercise, and we were doing other things like drinking alcohol or eating meat or sugar, or even if people were overweight — he considered that to be non-virtuous, and essentially really bad behaviors. And he would view it in a very punitive way. Even masturbation was considered self-abuse by John Kellogg, and he thought that it would lead to things like mental illness and cancer and moral destitution. He would advocate treating people who would masturbate — in boys, he would recommend circumcision or bandaging their hands together, and in girls, he would recommend [applying] pure carbolic acid to the clitoris. And even its removal. Was John Kellogg the only person like this of his time, or was this more widespread? It was more widespread, and I would say that he was one of the most prominent ones. There was another huge player that played a role in the birth of the modern wellness industry: He was a guy named Bernarr MacFadden, who some consider the 20th century's first celebrity health influencer. This guy was equally eccentric to John. Macfadden would strut around New York barefoot so that his soles could absorb the earth's energy, and he would sleep on the floor so that his energy would align with the earth's natural magnetic rhythm. And he was very hostile to vaccines. So you're telling me that an anti-vaxx wellness influencer is not a new phenomenon. Very old, over a century old. Similar to Kellogg, you know, Macfadden would also sell this idea of health as a moral virtue, where it's all about virtuous eating. It's all about virtuous exercise. And the problem with these ideas is that health is not a moral virtue. What these ideas do is they promote an idea about health that ignores the science. And then they downplay the role of other important things that we know play a role in health, like genetics, social factors, and just plain old bad luck. It's very interesting that all of this happened in the 19th century. I think of that as a time with a lot of advancements in science and in health. Totally. Around the same time that these wellness ideas were percolating, there was also something called the Flexner Report of 1910, and that really ushered in the dawn of modern medicine. What that report did was it essentially wanted medicine and medical schools to get their act together and make them much more scientific. It would encourage schools to either get rid of alternative medicine from their curriculum or just shut these schools down altogether. At the same time, [the report] really disadvantaged folks who were economically underprivileged. And what that did is it opened [a space] for alternative medicine or wellness to step in and to take on the role of listening, humanizing, and comfort. What about the term wellness specifically, though? When did that officially become a thing? Some consider the father of the modern wellness industry to be Halbert Dunn. He was a biostatistician, and he first used the term wellness as we use it today, publishing an article in the Canadian Journal of Public Health in 1959. What Dunn did is he distinguished good health, which he defined as freedom from illness, from what he dubbed high-level wellness, which is a kind of optimal functioning in one's environment. And I think his definition was quite thoughtful, but it really didn't stick.
NBC News
10-08-2025
- NBC News
On TikTok, warnings spread about the herbal tonic 'Feel Free'
Misha Brown was walking into his local Circle K gas station in Austin, Texas, when he says a teenage boy approached him and asked him to buy him 'Feel Free.' When Brown said no, he said he believed the boy tried to grab his wallet. Brown, 37, recounted the story in a TikTok last month that has over 23 million views. When he went into the store and told the attendant about the teen, she pointed to Feel Free — an herbal drink sold in small, blue, shot-size bottles that claim to offer 'relaxation, productivity and focus' — and told him that people were coming in around six times a day to purchase the product, he said in the video. 'It's so addictive and people lose their minds,' he recalled the attendant saying. Brown had never heard of Feel Free, but the video set off a wave of comments about the product. Young people were describing 'these devastating experiences with these products,' he told NBC News. Feel Free was launched by Botanic Tonics in 2020. Feel Free Classic contains kava root, which is touted for its relaxing effects, and kratom, a plant native to Southeast Asia that's known for its stimulant and opioid-like effects. It's the kratom in Feel Free that has experts and health officials concerned. The Food and Drug Administration declared kratom to be an opioid in 2018 and has taken steps to crack down on products related to it. Kratom is not federally regulated, though five states — Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Rhode Island and Wisconsin — have banned it, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service. Kratom 'is concerning to me,' said Dr. Robert Levy, an addiction medicine expert and an associate professor of family medicine and community health at the University of Minnesota Medical School. 'I've seen [kratom addiction] and treated it many times,' Levy said. John, of Columbia, South Carolina, has also shared videos on TikTok about Feel Free. The 35-year-old, who previously struggled with an addiction to heroin and meth, had been eight years sober when he learned about the drink. At the time, John, who asked that his last name be withheld for privacy, said 'everything just started to go bad' in his life, including losing his job at Aldi. After trying a sample of Feel Free from a sales representative at a local herbal store in early 2024, he said, he was hooked. 'I tried it and I liked it a lot,' John said. 'It made me feel warm. … It gave me good energy and I loved it.' Within eight months, John said he was drinking almost a case of Feel Free Classic bottles a day. To fuel his addiction, he started delivering for DoorDash, emptied all $8,000 out of his 401(k), and sold his PlayStation 5, gaming laptop and 'everything I had,' he said. When his money ran out, he resorted to stealing. He estimates that he spent around $30,000 in total. 'I was doing anything I could,' John said. 'It turned me into someone that I am not.' John and Brown aren't the only ones raising awareness about Feel Free. On Reddit, a group dedicated to quitting Feel Free has over 5,000 followers. 'Believe me when I tell you, you need to run away as fast as you can from this,' one Reddit user posted. Botanic Tonics, the maker of Feel Free, agreed to pay $8.75 million to settle a 2023 class action lawsuit that claimed it failed to warn consumers about the risks of kratom and because it advertised the product as a safe replacement for alcohol. The company did not admit any wrongdoing but did change its label to include information that the product could be habit-forming and people who have a history of substance abuse should consider not consuming it. Botanic Tonics said in a statement to NBC News that 'false and misleading claims are being made about feel free on social media and are being perpetuated on news outlets.' 'Botanic Tonics has sold over 129.7 million servings of feel free to date. We have received fewer than 1,000 consumer adverse event complaints total across all categories, with zero complaints involving severe addiction,' the statement said, adding that this represents 'an exceptionally low complaint rate that contradicts sensationalized social media anecdotes being reported as representative of our customer experience.' What is kratom? Kratom, also known as Mitragyna speciosa, has been grown in Southeast Asia for centuries, said Oliver Grundmann, a clinical professor at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy. Grundmann said he first got involved in kratom research in 2016 at a time when the market for kratom products was 'much smaller.' He soon discovered rising demand, which he attributed to kratom's stimulant, pain-relieving and possibly sedative effects. The FDA says that kratom is 'not appropriate for use as a dietary supplement' and that there's 'inadequate information to provide reasonable assurance that such ingredient does not present a significant or unreasonable risk of illness or injury.' It's often used to self-treat conditions including anxiety, depression, pain, opioid use disorder and opioid withdrawal, the agency says. Continuous use of kratom has been linked to gastrointestinal issues, including nausea, vomiting, constipation and diarrhea, experts say. Larger amounts can also lead to elevated heart rate and sweating, Grundmann said. The Drug Enforcement Administration says that kratom users have experienced weight loss, insomnia, seizures and hallucinations. Chronic use is also associated with liver damage, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Last month, the FDA recommended that the Justice Department classify 7-OH, one of the two main chemical compounds found in kratom, as an illicit substance due to its potency — a move that would restrict or prohibit access to 7-OH products. 7-OH is naturally occurring in kratom, but synthetic versions of the compound are also sold, usually in highly concentrated stand-alone forms. The FDA was focused on these synthetic, highly concentrated forms of 7-OH, not plant-based kratom. Feel Free contains plant-based kratom, not synthetic 7-OH, Botanic Tonics said in a statement. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said 7-OH should be classified as a Schedule I substance alongside drugs like heroin, ecstasy and marijuana, meaning it has no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. In 2016, the Drug Enforcement Administration said it planned to classify the compounds in kratom, including 7-OH, as Schedule I drugs. It dropped those efforts after significant pushback from kratom advocates. Levy, the addiction medicine expert, said that compared to kratom, 7-OH is a 'much more powerful opioid,' and products sold as '7-OH' are almost completely artificial. Marc Swogger, an associate professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, said kratom tends not to be addictive when taken in low doses, but that people may develop a tolerance and need to take more to feel the same effects. When people stop taking kratom, some may experience withdrawal. Is Feel Free safe? Feel Free comes in 2-ounce bottles, but a serving size is half of that. The label says that people should not drink more than 2 ounces within 24 hours. The label also warns that the product can become habit-forming and recommends that people who have a history of substance abuse consider not consuming the product. A recovering addict's brain can heal but never fully returns back to normal, Levy said, comparing it to someone in remission from cancer. A small bit of irritation, like a Feel Free drink, can trigger addiction to come back. 'You're playing with fire,' Levy said. 'As an addiction medicine doctor, I would never suggest that somebody consume that [Feel Free] that's in recovery.' (He added he also wouldn't recommend it to anyone in general because it's not regulated.) Mac Haddow, a senior fellow in public policy for the American Kratom Association, said, 'We're concerned about any product that has an addiction liability that is classified as causing serious adverse events.' 'We strongly support very tough regulations on kratom products,' he added. 'We are aware of the reports that people in the Feel Free space are reporting about addiction, as we have people in the kratom space.' Utah has banned the sale of Feel Free products. 'State law prohibits the sale of any kratom product that is mixed with other ingredients in a way that alters its quality or strength to the extent that it could be harmful to consumers,' said Caroline Hargraves, the public information officer for Utah's Department of Agriculture and Food. After trying to quit Feel Free multiple times, John began sharing videos of his intense withdrawal symptoms on TikTok. These included intense body tremors, sweating, difficulty breathing and foaming from the mouth, he said. In February, John's withdrawal was so bad that he was hospitalized. He said the only other drug in his system was marijuana. He was placed on a ventilator and later developed pneumonia, according to notes from the hospital staff when he was admitted that were reviewed by NBC News. 'They thought I was going to die,' John said. John said he posted his videos because 'I just want to try to help people and make a difference.' Brown, who posted the TikTok talking about his experience at the gas station, said he is a former drinker. 'Addiction is something that affects a lot of people,' he said. 'If [Feel Free] is something that's just so easily attainable and is marketed as, like, an alcohol-free substitute or like an energy drink, I think that it's pretty dangerous.'
