Dr. Howard Smith Reports

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/joU9-5CEU4s   Extreme training drills inflicted on high school and college football players by over-zealous coaches produce more non-traumatic fatalities than game play.   This conclusion comes from a study of 187 such deaths occurring over the past 20 years and just presented to the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine’s Annual Meeting.   Football remains th...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/Ij4Np7YmIlc   A British meta-analysis of 21 studies and 4.4 million persons warns that adults who had been born prematurely are less likely than their full term peers to form romantic relationships, enjoy sex, or pursue parenthood.   These results were just published online in the journal JAMA Network Open .   Those born at 37 weeks or earlier or with low birth weights we...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/S9oKOm2pkOw   To kill your craving for booze, butts, and beer, convene with Mother Nature in the open green space of a park on a regular basis.   This is the bottom line from British study just published in the journal Health & Place.   The investigators surveyed nearly 150 subjects to determine their exposure to green spaces either in and around their residence or duri...

Vidcast: : https://youtu.be/j2dzIsHcqJs   Exposure to the dirty air that accompanies excessive automobile traffic leads to blockage of the coronary arteries escalating the risk of heart attack and sudden death.   University of Buffalo environmental health specialists studied nearly 8900 Chinese adults of all ages.   Because of China’s problematic air contamination, subjects were exposed to signifi...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/aSqAIaL7lFo   Before you can come to someone’s rescue in a true altruistic spirit, you must first imagine your plan of attack.   Psychologists at Boston College employed MRI scanning to study the brain activity of 18 young, healthy adults before and while they remembered and imagined helping others in distress.   Those participants whose scans indicate more powerful ima...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/oD9WB_S7kZc   Even if you’re at a normal weight or maybe a few pounds over, cutting an extra 300 calories out of your daily tally has significant health benefits.   A Duke University study of 218 young and middle aged healthy and non-obese subjects now shows that reducing your calorie intake by about 12% over a 2 year period will significantly improve your cardiovascula...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/mBkTDPeg6lI   Throughout life, we accumulate brainpower, known technically as Cognitive Reserve (CR), by participating in formal education, reading, writing, gaming, and having social interactions.   A new study from Sweden’s Karolinska Institute’s Neurobiology Department and Chicago’s Rush University Alzheimer’s Research Center tells us that this extra Cognitive Reserv...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/mLKKARFLkTM   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 : Warmer Screens At Night May Curb Your Appetite Odd Eating Indicates Autism Exercise Fuels Better Thinking For the Overweight Lassie May Prevent Childhood Allerg...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/F2wbdM4T7EA There is an epidemic of lies on the internet, and we are all confronted daily with so-called news that is, in fact propaganda.   Just as your brain can be conned, it is possible to train it to withstand these attacks with an electronic from of BS repellent. The UK’s University of Cambridge and its Social Decision-Making Lab have developed a browser game call...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/Mmr5bCArcSU Cannabis in its various forms does curb pain.   This is the conclusion of study from New York’s Einstein College of Medicine and the University of Miami just published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. The investigators studied 1000 user-customers of a Colorado dispensary with most being under the age of 50.   Nearly two-thirds of the group reported usin...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/pKHclU_qRSA Summer is a prime time for baby-making.   Before you take that plunge, you prospective moms, make sure your weight is under control.   A just released, frightening study from the University of Pittsburgh shows that children of women obese at the time of pregnancy were 57% more likely to develop leukemia before the age of 5.   The Pitt epidemiologists analyze...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/IfhsrH3V-X4 Toddlers nearing their second birthday learn new word associations better when they spend time with other toddlers rather than only adults.   A study published in the September edition of the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology comes from Canada’s University of Waterloo. The investigators studied 88 toddlers in two groups: those who spend their days wit...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/TDcZ0q1apbs It’s all over the news.   Sugar-sweetened drinks increase your risk of cancer.   Well let’s take a closer look at the data. The study comes from Sorbonne Paris’ Epidemiology and Statistics Research Center, and it reviewed health and dietary records from over 100,000 participants with a mean age of 42 years and followed over an 8 year period.   The investigat...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/tmSkorpdkQ8 If you’re a woman with bone density problems, you’d better watch the ingredients in your toothpaste, mouthwash, and soap.   A study just published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism shows that the common antibacterial triclosan, added to many consumer products, is associated with bone issues in women. The study reviewed data from more than...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/F6xnFH4gA-w Those who exercise with moderate to vigorous physical activity the same time each day more often successfully maintain their weight loss.   A study from Brown University was just published in the journal Obesity . Nutritional researchers there studied 375 adult subjects who had successfully maintained a weight loss of more than 30 lbs for more than one year....

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/bdtVe_7ksls A study just published by Cancer Research UK reveals that there are twice as many obese Brits as smoking Brits.   As many as one-third of the British are obese. Smoking is still the UKs leading preventable cause of cancer.   However, consider the fact that excess weight rather than tobacco abuse is the leading cause of 4 deadly types of cancers including tho...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/xGAirF0H81Y Two-thirds of patients hospitalized for treatment of pneumonia are receiving excess antibiotic therapy that puts them at risk for undesirable side effects and complications.   This finding is the conclusion of a study by the University of Michigan and the Michigan Hospital Consortium. The investigators reviewed the records of some 6500 pneumonia patients adm...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/V_ctJH6Fujc This definitive conclusion comes from a comprehensive meta-analysis of 277 clinical trials involving nearly one million participants just published in the Annals of Internal Medicine .   The study concludes that few of the 16 food supplements touted to improve your cardiovascular health did so.   Only omega-3 fatty acids seemed to reduce heart attacks.   Fol...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/US61BSXwDno Playing the Minecraft video game, indeed playing it without any instructions, appears to drive a higher level of creativity.   A just published study from the psychologists at the Iowa State University compared the effects of playing this popular game with playing a race car game or merely watching TV. The 352 college undergrads each spent 40 minutes playing...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/zw1NDorVPvA News has a greater impact where you view it on a larger screen versus on your smartphone.   Communication research at the University of Michigan and Texas A&M University measured the responses of participants viewing news stories on a 13 inch laptop and on a 5 inch phone. Using physiologic measurements of attention including heart rate variability and skin c...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/HZEdnMcBC_c If you’re trying to resist the siren song of alcohol, a juicy steak, or a huge chunk of cheesecake, that task will be far easier if your memory is clear, you aren’t fatigued, and you are not otherwise under stress.   This conclusion stems from a study of Welch participants recently published in the journal Psychological Science . Their data shows that the ab...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/jwYD2vhtFZU A dog at home to welcome a newborn will reduce that baby’s chances of developing skin allergies or wheezing by about half.   These are the findings of a University of Wisconsin’s pediatric department. Researchers there followed 275 at-risk children born to parents with an allergy history over a 3 year period.   Those exposed to dogs just after birth were 56% l...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/_xRxrqp7p5I A child who hates food with texture, rejects hot or cold foods, has very limited food preferences, or holds food in his or her mouth for extended periods are likely prime candidates for autism screening.   Studies at Penn State’s psychiatry department of some 2,000 children demonstrate that unusual eating behaviors are present in 70% of children with autism...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/-D4k4d_lERs Exercise will not only trigger needed weight loss, but it triggers better brain metabolism and executive brain function   for the overweight and obese.   A study from Germany’s University of Tübingen shows that an 8 week exercise program improves the brain’s insulin sensitivity and blood flow to brain regions critical for motor control and managing rewards....

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/m2k9SRjKqGA We know that too much blue light at night leads to poor sleep quality, but those tv and phone LED screens could also be triggering your craving for sweets.   This is the conclusion of a Dutch study in a mouse model from the Universities of Strasbourg and Amsterdam. After only one hour of nighttime exposure to LED blue light, the experimental animals chose a...