Dr. Howard Smith Reports

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/mdLlLwEvCyk The latest answer from Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Britain’s National Heart and Lung Institute is a resounding NO!   They analyzed data from more than 8000 participants in the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial. The tabulated results indicate that both non-fasting and fasting lipid levels had similar correlations with coronary events in...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/YB7O_b3T2bs This warning comes from neurologists and ethicists at Vancouver’s University of British Columbia.   Searching online, they found 19 brain stimulating devices and 22 measuring devices with mind links that are currently being hawked and directly sold to the general public. We’re talking about so-called transcranial direct current stimulation devices, galvanic...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/JY5nRSzsOdw If you sleep less than 7 hours each night, you are deficient in the microRNA regulators that permit your genes to refresh your heart tissues and maintain good vascular health.   This warning stems from work at the University of Colorado at Boulder that studied 24 healthy middle-aged men and women measuring their microRNA concentrations and tabulating their s...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/1XFfgZZr-ZU At least half of those seen in the ED and diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury are left with significant functional limitations at one year post-injury.   This surprising statistic comes from a nationwide, multi-center study just published in JAMA Neurology . Those with positive findings on brain CT had a 61% incidence of long-term disability.   But ev...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/o-D_Vw8oCRA Using a bit of formula to assist breastfeeding and trigger a healthy weight gain has for years been considered a no-no.   Lactation consultants advise that this use of formula destroys the child’s interest in breast feeding. A study from the University of California - San Francisco now labels this warning an urban myth.   Pediatricians there and at Penn Stat...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/bOqsCE8pmJY A new German study concludes that those on blood pressure control medications enjoyed a 10 to 25% lower incidence of dementia.   Researchers from the University of Leipzig studied a total of nearly 25,000 patients half of whom suffered from dementia and the other half served as matched controls. All classes of anti-hypertension drugs were associated with a r...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/T3iMfBq7uok Researchers from Norway’s University of Bergen now deliver conclusive proof that bacteria hiding in dental plaque and causing gingivitis move from mouth to brain and there produce a toxin that kills brain cells. Several months ago, I presented a study in mice that demonstrated this same gum-brain connection.   The Norwegian researchers now prove it in humans...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/vHPivGIBS9Q This week the   FDA released warnings that vinpocetine, available in the USA over-the-counter as a dietary supplement and around the world as the prescription drug Cavinton, can harm a developing baby causing miscarriage or birth defects.   Vinpocetine is readily available online via Amazon and other outlets.   It is also called Periwinkle Liquid Extract. Vi...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/xUVxPZ6K6pE The egg debates continues, and, if you love eggs, you’ll love the latest Finnish study just published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition .   They conclude that an egg a day will not increase your risk of stroke. The study looked at nearly 2000 men 42 to 60 years of age.   Over a 21 year followup, the risk of stroke was not increased by a moderate...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/c5Y0tyBw3Lk Staggering numbers of children risk irreversible injuries to their developing brains everyday as they climb on a variety of wheeled play vehicles.   A new study from The University of   Michigan surveyed over 1300 parents of children from 4 to 13 years to assess their children’s use of protective helmets and defensive measures in the streets. Parents admit t...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/ldtCbVQLkSc Those who tend to be anxious have a 6 th sense superpower that effectively protects them from danger.   A new study from Caltech’s cognitive neuroscience department shows that anxious individuals more effectively flee from subtle dangers. The study participants were challenged with a series of virtual reality threats characterized as slow that are impending...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/UhNuAmT-254 Many Americans, some 20% of our friends and neighbors, take glucosamine for the pain and disability of arthritis.   Like many food supplements, we only know that it is probably safe.   No well-designed studies have proven that it works for joint problems.   One study of knee osteoarthritis published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed a glucosamine...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/s4PxSI92nGc The air in our largest cities is destroying our arteries.   A study recently published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives studied over 6600 otherwise healthy adults in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore, St. Paul and Winston-Salem. Over more than a decade during which the subjects’ carotid arterial thickness, carotid plaque quantity...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/A3FZGwlqq_g Playing video games that feature guns and swords leads children to handle real guns.   This is the conclusion of a Ohio Statue University study of 220 eight to twelve year olds. Of the children playing a video game shooting guns, 62% touched a real handgun, of those playing a game with sword violence, 57% touched a handgun.   Of the control group of kids pla...

Vidcast:   h https://youtu.be/2hn9iZ29Z3k Despite the many public campaigns and manufacturers efforts over recent years to make these pods look less like candy, a new study from the Nationwide Children’s Hospital shows that pod poisonings have actually increased for children older than 6 and only slightly diminished for younger kids.   Every 42 minutes a poison control center gets a frantic call a...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/35EBOOTfQ2Q 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 : IVF and Heart Failure During Pregnancy   Weed Use In Adolescence Numbs The Adult Brain Overweight Teen Boys Risk Later Heart Failure Premies Brains Develop Better...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/FUVxNDRAE_c Advertising that touts electric hookah smoking to be safer than charcoal hookah smoking is a scam. Chemists and engineers at the American University of Beirut studied waterpipe smoking of tobacco heated by these two methods. The study measured toxin emissions by three commercially available electric hookahs and compared them to emissions from charcoal-heated...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/GV9b0yDqklU Banking tissue with sperm-producing cells may be an alternative for those boys and even older males too young or too sick to bank sperm prior to medical treatments that threaten their later fertility.   This conclusion comes from an 8 year study recently published in the journal Human Reproduction. As many as 2,000 boys and young men undergo sterilizing chem...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/SMdWVe6wd0U Parental reading to toddlers improves their behaviors and reduces the need for escalating disciplinary measures.   Pediatricians at Rutgers Medical and Public Health Schools studied nearly 2200 parent-child pairs across 20 US metropolitan areas. The study found that shared reading enhances the child’s communication skills and emotional development, and it en...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/KIZUEQ9_8YY Children and adolescents with continuing obesity show significant stiffening of their arteries toward the end of their teen years.   This is the frightening finding in a study of more than 3400 Swedish kids just published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal. Childhood obesity and a high fat mass tends to foster high blood pressures, elevated lipi...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/JZXcwKbysIw Babies born weighing less than 1.5 kg or 3.3 pounds are four times more likely than normal birthweight infants to suffer reduced pulmonary capacity when they reach their teen and young adult years.   This conclusion comes from an international meta-analysis of 11 studies and over 1700 subjects by Australian OBGYN researchers. Those with low birth weights, fr...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/wA3BlzJz0Gc If you’re having an ACL repair, don’t plan on getting back into the action for at least a year following the surgery.   This is the recommendation that springs from a study at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg. Sports medicine researchers there studied some 729 athletes undergoing repair of their anterior cruciate ligaments following game injuries.   Those w...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/ZhsT6oQ4B5s Exercise during pregnancy keeps moms fit and their weight gain under better control.   It also has beneficial effects on placental function and development of the baby. A study from Washington State University, performed in a mouse model and just published in the Journal of Physiology , shows that consistent exercise helps placental vascularization and norma...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/NVHQsaoGaCE Urban legend has it that fainting while pregnant is no big deal.   A study just published by Canadian cardiologists and epidemiologists finds that fainting, the common term for syncope, while pregnant is a bad prognostic sign for both the mother and her developing baby. The researchers studied more than 480,000 babies and their mothers.   Though fainting is...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/-5G0axMe2LQ Those with tell-tale heart attack symptoms wait on average 3 hours before seeking emergency help.   That shocking statistic comes from a study by Swedish cardiologists at the Karolinska University Hospital that investigated the reasons for such a life-threatening delay. Their study followed 326 patients having either a first or a second heart attack.   Some...