Dr. Howard Smith Reports

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/MBqNURsBkRg   Kids of regular smokers who continued puffing while pregnant were at least 40% more likely to develop scaly, psoriatic skin by age 11.   Children of smokers using nicotine replacement instead of cigarettes still had a 36% higher risk.   Public health researchers at the University of Copenhagen tabulated data on about 26,000 children.   The risk of psoria...

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/OmBtKu6rAc4   More than 70% of us watch at least one horror movie every 6 months and we love exercising our brain’s fight or flight centers as well as its emotional regions.   This from a Finnish analysis of some 216 subjects watching a collection of the 100 highest-rated horror movies.   The overwhelming sensation triggered was excitement followed by fright, anxiety,...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/qKHCTsn6kFo   A new, more sensitive anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) blood test can accurate predict a woman’s last cycle.   Reproductive biologists at the University of Colorado and Harvard studied 1537 women from 42 to 63 years.   The new AMH testing doubled the investigators’ accuracy in pinpointing a woman’s last menstrual cycle compared with the conventional methods us...

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/S8btzVNZkdQ   High protein diets like the Adkins, Stillman, and Scarsdale drive weight loss but could also trigger life loss.   Washington University-St. Louis researchers now show why high protein diets foster atherosclerotic heart attacks and strokes.   The researchers found in mice that increasing daily protein intake from a normal 15% to 46% of calories blocked no...

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/CFzqNunX8z8   PFAS, polyfluoroalkyl substances, the forever chemicals used to make Teflon cookware, cosmetics, and other consumer products, contaminates your drinking water.   These chemicals are unregulated and have been linked to thyroid disease, cardiovascular problems, infertility, obesity, and cancer.     The Environmental Working Group, EWG, compiled data on tap...

    Vidcast: https://youtu.be/NFAUtHE-P0I   Reporting from NYC, here are this weeks health news capsules as of January 26, 2020.   They include medical, health, and wellness news and urgent bulletins as well as recalls of drugs, medical devices.   Many thanks to the health news aggregators: ScienceDaily, Reuters, Medical News Today, Medical News Bulletin, MedScape, NewsMax Health, Medical Express,...

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/qvb61MWakWM   Not one of the 12 tests routinely ordered by big ticket executive screening programs at top US cardiology programs are recommended for generally healthy individuals by specialty societies or the US Preventive Services Task Force.   A review of such programs by cardiologists at Washington University and St. Louis Schools of Medicine.   These programs are...

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/wcpzB6nzRZo   Almost 90 percent of in-vitro fertilization clinics fail to report complete outcome information as they are required to do by the Society For Assisted Reproductive Technology.   This according to a unpublished Brown University study presented to the IVF scientific meetings last October.   The researchers reviewed 361 IVF clinic websites looking for adver...

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/JUoQWSUNjuA   Moderate intensity aerobic exercise improves your working memory in a manner similar to caffeine.   Exercise physiologists from Canada’s Western University and the University of British Columbia tested 59 participants half of whom never drank caffeine and half of whom drank it regularly   A 20 minute session of moderate aerobic exercise on a treadmill co...

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/I2f5U8Bykww   In a 2015 Harris poll, $ over 71% of parents thought tats were ok for pediatricians, 51% of millennials approved for any doctor, but only 35% of all adults felt comfortable with tattoos.     In a Hawaiian study the same year, more than half of the respondents expressed less confidence in doctors with tats or piercings.       A 2018 study of more than 900...

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/tcETWj5cQ8g   Keeping the surgeon’s knife away from your prostate in favor or using radiotherapy improves your sexual function by up to 15 % and your urine control by up to 23%.   These stats come from multi-site study of nearly 2000 men was just published in JAMA.   Groups with potentially operable prostate cancer received either watchful waiting, nerve-sparing prost...

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/Tn9a1v9C038   Wolfing down 2-3 ounces of walnuts a day is an excellent way to improve your gut microbiome and keep your heart healthy.   This from nutrition researchers at Penn State.   They studied 42 overweight or obese middle aged subjects and replaced the saturated fats in their diets with either vegetable oils or good ol’ walnuts.   When their fecal samples were...

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/ZA_KBqj9bAo   Tobacco smoke from a hookah apparatus causes blood to clot 11 times faster than normal.   A University of Texas-El Paso mouse study measured the effects on blood of hookah smoking that mimicked human exposures.   Fired by the usual charcoal, the hookah burned commercially-available, flavored tobacco the also included glycerin and molasses.   Platelet fun...

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/toWjhCqTov8   Body art is becoming increasingly popular and acceptable.   Even doctors and nurses, once forbidden by hospitals to have exposed tattoos or piercings, are decorating.   Younger patients seem to love it.   The dark sides to tattooing, body piecing, skin implants, earlobe stretching, scarification, and tongue splitting are infections, scarring, and allergi...

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/8G5yKjJ9gPU   A half hour of bright blue light every morning can help recovery from a mild traumatic brain injury.   A University of Arizona study of 32 victims who suffered head injuries was just published in the journal Neurobiology of Disease .   Just 6 weeks of 30 minute morning blue light sessions normalized flawed sleep patterns that occur after brain injury, an...

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/3P0NhdAFtBs   Guys obsessed finding the next men’s room are helped by behavioral therapy as much as by drugs.   A multisite study, just published in JAMA Internal Medicine , studied   204 men with jittery bladders who literally hit the urinals 9 times a day or more   Those men completing mind control studies teaching them to suppress their urges to go, tone their pelv...

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/mFT9bvU8Zng   Drugs in the proton pump inhibitor (PPI) family negatively impact the memory and thought processing of breast cancer survivors by a factor of 20 to nearly 30%.   This the conclusion of an Ohio State University behavioral medicine study of some 88 patients.   PPI users reported 20% more difficulties concentrating and 28% more impaired memory.   Users of t...

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/SBiSuettNcg   America’s favorite edible oil, known to drive obesity, fatty livers, and diabetes, now appears to negatively impact a key brain center.   Molecular biologists at UC-Riverside report their latest mouse model studies of soybean oil, frequently used to fry fast foods and nourish livestock.   The oil interferes with critical gene actions in the hypothalamus...

    Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/jUevWu4tDsQ   Reporting from NYC, here are this weeks health news capsules as of January 19, 2020.   They include medical, health, and wellness news and urgent bulletins as well as recalls of drugs, medical devices.   Many thanks to the health news aggregators: ScienceDaily, Reuters, Medical News Today, Medical News Bulletin, MedScape, NewsMax Health, Medical Expres...

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/-WNqh7g7GLc   Regularly eating hot peppers reduces deaths due to cardiovascular disease by over 40% and deaths from strokes by over 60%.   An Italian study just published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology followed nearly 23,000 men and women tabulating their eating habits and serious disease over more than an 8 year follow up.   Chili pepper eaters...

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/FmLGGpsgAGU   Focused protons kill cancers with fewer side effects and unplanned hospitalizations to treat complications.   A new study from the University of Pennsylvania reviewed data on nearly 1500 cancer patients with a variety of tumors undergoing simultaneous radiation and chemotherapy.   Those receiving proton beam suffered 42% fewer side effects and two-thirds...

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/_0E5ElQsAbQ   Mindfulness training with a smartphone app can effectively suppress a conditioned fear reaction.   A Scandinavian collaborative study of 26 predominately female subjects 35 yrs of age on average employed the Headspace meditation app to deliver mindfulness exercises.   The experimental fear trigger was a mild electric shock in association with an associat...

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/vFZPVymQHhU   Loneliness is one of the big three that will kill you.   The other two are smoking and obesity.   A newly published study from UC-San Diego outlines the causes and cures for loneliness.   The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 30 older adults, and pinpointed 2 causes of loneliness and one effective remedy.   Loss is the primary trigger for lo...

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/cpOEm4MaL74   Look no further than the corner convenience store for the cause of an obesity wave now sweeping our nation killing boomers and millennials.   A George Washington University review article now reports the causes.   Highly processed meats, snacks, and desserts contain emulsifiers that harm gut bacteria, raise blood sugar, and cause overeating.   Real food...

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/QqBcMTR5v4E   Those with increased exposures to urban air pollution in the form of nitrogen dioxide are a greater risk for developing schizophrenia.   This conclusion comes from a Danish study of more than 23,000 men and women just published in JAMA Network Open .   Those children exposed to higher levels of air pollution from birth to 10 years of age were significant...