Dr. Howard Smith Reports

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/V3eQcWkwLWY   Information technologists from Utah’s Brigham Young University have a simple answer: NOT YET!   They studied 274 adult subjects to determine how they interact with digital assistants versus humans.   The researchers conclude that adults consistently code switch adding please and thank you to their requests of other human beings despite their tendencies to ba...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/oPpEHSrCrLs   Ok...be honest.   How often during the day do you take a break from report writing or tedious calculations by picking up your cellphone?   Management scientists at New Jersey’s Rutgers Business School are just out with new data that shows such cellphone breaks do not refresh your brain but just the opposite.   The investigators presented each of   more tha...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/yZ2lRytD7kw   Going on alcoholic benders is bad news for your liver, but a new study from the University of Missouri-Columbia suggests that women’s livers may be particularly vulnerable to alcohol injury.   The researchers employed a rodent model and gave both female and male rats three large rounds of drinks at 12 hour intervals.   The females’ do   blood alcohol level...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/A5oZaWBaabk   Insomniacs have a genetic association with coronary artery disease, heart failure, and stroke.   This conclusion stems from a Swedish Karolinska Institute study of more than 1.3 million individuals whose genetic characteristics were found in publicly available databases.   The investigators employed an epidemiological method called Mendelian randomization...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/wMLmrsA4nfc   If your child is a mild asthmatic, you need only use inhalers when symptoms arise.   If you do, your child child will likely receive 74% less steroid medication and you’ll save a bundle of money.   This strategy comes from Washington University-St. Louis study just published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology .   The researchers studied more...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/kj8WxgQ-ZS4   Thousands of young women are having unnecessary radiation exposure via mammograms prior to surgery to right-size their breasts.   A just published University of Michigan study of more than 52,000 women candidates for this surgery shows that one-third of them had mammography prior to the procedure.   The American Society of Plastic Surgeons stated 5 years a...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/eHlGf-j9ZaA   We know all about the dangers of second-hand smoke, those clouds of toxic fumes emanating from cigarettes, cigars, and pipe bowls.   Now a study from the University of Cincinatti and the Cincinatti Children’s Hospital hone in on the vapors that waft up from those yellow stains on walls, ceilings, carpets, upholstery and, yes, the fingers of smokers themsel...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/kj8WxgQ-ZS4   If you smoked or ate some weed over the weekend, will you flunk that pop drug test your boss springs on you Monday morning?   The answer depends on how much you consumed and the type of test you must take.   Either way, be forewarned that marijuana’s psychoactive agent, THC, is fat-soluble and definitely hangs around in your body longer than alcohol.   Smo...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/fTadT-9r9_k   Another goal for the #metoo movement is suggested by the latest study from Yale psychologists.   As research subjects observed a video of the very same child being subjected to the classic, old fashioned medical torture, the fingerstick, but identified as either Samuel or Samantha, the majority of observers, both men and women, believe that the girl Samant...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/ud9tvdV6Kus   School violence is on the rise but, surprise, it’s the bullies themselves who are most likely to be   seriously injured.   This the conclusion of a study by researchers at the University of Texas-Houston who studied of some 4300 5th, 7th, and 10th graders in Houston, LA, and Birmingham, Alabama.   In 5th grade, 17% of children sustained at least one violen...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/bZrgrEGpo-A   Women suffering preeclampsia during their pregnancies have a 30% higher risk of later stroke.   Columbia University neurologists studied 84,000 California teachers and found that low dose aspirin at least 3 times weekly virtually erases the greater risk of stroke for women before they reach the age of 60.   Once past 60, aspirin’s protective effect vanishe...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/WmKXvNLFi1Y   One or two hits of cannabis in any form does permanently affect the brain structure of young people.   New studies by University of Vermont psychiatrists looked at brain imaging for 46 teens experiencing cannabis for the first time and compared their brains with those of with non-users.   The data reveals greater gray matter volumes in cannabis-binding zon...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/x0ty9N1p3D4   Newborns and infants have very sensitive developing respiratory and gastrointestinal channels.   When parents have brought them to my pediatric ENT office, I found that their breathing issues were usually due to   airway irritation from refluxed feedings and dryness.   These observation became so common, that I began to offer 3 tips to every parent of a ne...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/50fbFNDy8bE   Repeated miscarriages, that is 3 pregnancy losses in a row each before 20 weeks of gestation, are usually thought to be due to maternal factors including uterine defects, infection, hormonal imbalances, and autoimmune disease.   A study from Imperial College, London, now suggests that flawed sperm may also play a key role in some miscarriages.   After anal...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/ANDsWahh5Ow   Metabolic syndrome is a nasty group of problems that might kill you but certainly will make your life miserable.   If you have any 3 of these 5 issues, namely central obesity or a body like a pear, high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, high blood triglycerides, or low high density lipoproteins, then you’ve got metabolic syndrome.   Metabolic syndrome...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/PGXT-Mn_Dwo   Food scientists at the University of Georgia report that cottonseed oil outperforms olive oil   in terms of blood lipid normalization during a 5 day trial diet of each.   The scientists studied 15 men using a crossover design study in which each subject followed a diet rich in one oil or the other for 5 days, enjoyed a break, and then followed a diet with...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/Dv5aEjVx7Hw   If you want to be more approachable, you might try tilting your head slightly.   Psychologists at UC-Santa Cruz studied this phenomenon using eye tracking equipment.   They found that a head tilt of as little as 11 degrees makes your eyes less threatening.   Their studies show that the tilt makes your conversational companion focus only on the upper eye, and...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/pIexMYNgSVc   A dramatic and shocking demonstation posted on Twitter by Isu-Isu Semasa and his mechanical smoking machine.   Here is Semasa’s time-lapse photography that shows you what is left in your throat and lungs after smoking 600 cigarettes.   https://mobile.twitter.com/homopoliticoos     #Smoking   #tar   #lungcancer   #copd   #quitsmoking   #radionews  

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/5TpdeAWZZ5I   A2 Milk is in a line of dairy products with a unique milk protein.   Should you buy and try it?   A2 Milk: Breakthrough of Science or Marketing? Medscape - Aug 10, 2018. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/900365_2

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/I40hVVo4-9s   Smoking during pregnancy can produce genetic disease in their babies. Study reference in video.

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/AN2hJLSqiiU   I’m Dr. Howard Smith, PENTA Medical Network, reporting from NYC with the Health News Roundup for the 2nd week of AUGUST, 2019.   This is Health News You Should Use, the latest medical discoveries and commonsense advice that you can use in a practical way to keep yourself and your family healthy.     Here are this weeks stories : Whole Body Vibration Is Healt...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/H4mvftl5mrQ   If your teen daughter has headaches from adolescent stresses, she may want to pick up a paintbrush as part of art and mindfulness therapy.   A small study at the University of Washington just published in the journal Art Therapy shows the usefulness of this approach.   Therapists there intensely studied a group of 8 teen girls who each experienced 3 or mor...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/ixvp4So9CZM   If you’re one the the 80% of Americans suffering from an aching back, a recently published study from the University of Michigan suggests you try acupressure on yourself.     Researchers there report a preliminary study of 67 middle-aged subjects who were randomized into groups to receive 6 weeks of either acupressure or conventional physical therapy.   Ou...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/fovGVOV83o8   If you’re told that you must have cardiac surgery during the summer when the fresh crop of training doctors hit the hospital, you can go to the operating room with confidence that you are safe.   A study from Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital shows that the complication rates for the most common heart procedures were no higher July through September t...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/bfkDdLP53zs   If you were worried, a German study just published in the journal Neurology effectively dispels rumors that the common vaccines can trigger multiple sclerosis.   For added measure, vaccinations aren’t associated with Crohn’s inflammatory bowel disease or psoriasis either.   The study analysis included a dataset of over 200,000 subjects more than 12,000 of...