Dr. Howard Smith Reports

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/5C8p2QDuUm4   Our shoulders take a lot of abuse, and the latest statistics reveal a 6-fold increase in shoulder replacement surgery over the past 20 years.   You’re probably thinking...so what.   We can replace any joint at will, and there is already a good track record for hip and knee replacements.   The problem is that joint replacements don’t last.   They wear out,...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/XaMm0m4v-NQ   Regularly smoking more than one pack a day may reduce your ability to see colors.   A study from New Jersey’s Rutgers University compared the visual prowess of more than 60 regular smokers with a similar number of controls who smoked fewer than 15 cigarettes in their whole lives.   Those smoking 20 plus cigarettes a day, every day, reported significant deg...

https://youtu.be/jO3AfALckJE A Danish study published in BMJ Open reports that short, standard acupuncture sessions will significantly reduce moderate to severe menopausal symptoms.   Investigators at the University of Copenhagen using a crossover protocol administered weekly acupuncture therapy for 5 consecutive weeks to a treatment group while the controls received no treatment.   Then, the cont...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/VgrYfoKJD6I   As our families add children, we parents turn to our older children and encourage them to be the new arrival’s big brother or sister.   The latest intelligence from psychologists at Britain’s University of Warwick reveals the worrisome intelligence that the older siblings instead tend to bully the younger ones.   The researchers tabulated data from nearly...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/3V6fqO7M0sg   Capuchin and Rhesus monkeys think outside the box better than people when it comes to problem solving.   Psychologists at Georgia State University pitted 29 monkeys against 60 college students in a computer game contest.   The monkeys figured out shortcuts to victory faster and used them more often than the students.   Other experiments show that chimpanze...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/HmUUF6hRgGw   A pregnant woman under emotional or physical stress is more likely to give birth to a male.   Epidemiologists and obstetricians at New York’s Columbia University report this association after analyzing data from 187 women.     In a general population, the chance of birthing a boy is 51%.   For women suffering emotional stress, marked anxiety, and depressio...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/guaG2awiXAM   Intense focus on the here and now that is at the heart of mindfulness techniques will help control cravings for pain killers as well as the pain that necessitates their use.   Rutgers University investigators studied 30 patients with opioid addiction due to chronic pain who were participating in a methadone withdrawal program.   The addition of mindfulness...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/Sjxtdv7Pix0   I’m attending the National Assn. of Broadcasters Meeting this week.   Here is some evergreen “Health News You Can Always Use.”   We’ve all heard about the narcotic epidemic.   The real news is that there are potent weapons to combat opioid use as close as our medicine cabinets.     Ibuprofen, generic or branded Advil or Motrin, either alone or with acetami...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/lCgarvg7Y1M   I’m attending the National Assn. of Broadcasters Meeting this week.   Here is some evergreen “Health News You Can Always Use.”   Marijuana use is spreading like wildfire, and the prevailing opinion is that its components are harmless.   Another of this weeks stories highlights its potential danger for those with heart problems.   Now a study from Britain’s...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/oit_IwHdblE   I’m attending the National Assn. of Broadcasters Meeting this week.   Here is some evergreen “Health News You Can Always Use.”   One study after another heralds the advantages of breastfeeding.   Some mothers turn to pumping their breast milk when their flow is sporadic or when they develop conflicts with sib childcare or the demands of work.   Do babies e...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/CmwdpRQqV_0   I’m attending the National Assn. of Broadcasters Meeting this week.   Here is some evergreen “Health News You Can Always Use.”   Exercise not only strengthens your heart, tones your muscles, and drives more blood flow to your brain, it also trains your fat cells to release healthy proteins into your blood that help keep your body humming.   New research fr...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/vOcrGIm3oYQ   I’m attending the National Assn. of Broadcasters Meeting this week.   Here is some evergreen “Health News You Can Always Use.”   Take out meals, just like sit-down restaurant offerings, are way too large with way too many calories.   A British fish n’ chip wholesale supplier cooperated with academic nutritionists at Newcastle University to design what they...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/wnjvya7f9iE   I’m attending the National Assn. of Broadcasters Meeting this week.   Here is some evergreen “Health News You Can Always Use.”   Eyeing that 10 layer chocolate cake or mile high apple pie before you select your main and side dishes will help you make a   more nutritious choice.   So says a study from the University of Arizona’s marketing department just pu...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/zIfLaqiW4cw   Children of mothers consuming fish during their first trimester enjoyed enhanced attentiveness at 8 years of age.   A Spanish study of 1641 mother-child pairs reviewed data capturing the pregnant mother’s dietary habits, the children’s food preferences at 1,5, and 8 years of age, and the child’s attention skills.   The 8 year olds with the best attention s...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/4xkbyO9LlJA   If you’re pressured to answer a question, you will answer with a response designed to please the questioner even if its a lie.   UC-Santa Barbara psychologists draw this conclusion after testing a total of 3,000 participants.   Research shows that the human mind has two processing components: the higher functioning, rational section and the more instinctiv...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/3DvjA_Fh_Kk   An antioxidant compound found in green tea can rearm a powerful antibiotic after its deactivation by the nefarious, multidrug-resistant bacterium Pseudomonas .   British and German pathologists and microbiologists collaborated on this discovery.   Epigallocatechin or EGCG is a natural anti-oxidant found in green tea.   The researchers found that EGCG works...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/LU8Tc9SLo7Q Smoking as few as 5 cigarettes a day creates lung damage not all that different from heavier smoking.   This wake-up call comes from a Columbia University Study of more than 25,000 participants representing teens, the middle aged, and elders.   The natural lung functional decline with aging is accelerated by smoking.   That acceleration rate for light smoker...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/0y7m2BjiOPI   Brothers and sisters of compulsive gamblers share impulsivity and dangerous risk-taking with their troubled sibs.   University of British Columbia psychologists report these findings after studying 20 gamblers and 16 of their siblings.   All participants underwent cognitive testing, MRI brain imaging, and surveys.   Both gamblers and their sibs acted irres...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/xqghazWllSg   Wolfing down those beers and donuts under the age of 40 can increase your risk of mid-life cancer by as much as 70%.   That conclusion and others from a large European study was just published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.   Data from 220,000 subjects showed that overweight women had a 70% greater risk of uterine cancer and overweight men a...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/c3VR2w0473s   The risk of developing CTE dementia rises by 30% for each year of tackle football played.   Neurologists at Boston University derive this conclusion from their study of brain samples from 266 American football players.   The data shows that the risk of developing CTE doubles for every 2.6 years of ball playing.   The risk of developing CTE or its severity...

Healthy Eating Curbs Depression Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/VjM2hztw-ow   Eating a healthy, balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, fish and lean meat for only 3 weeks can dramatically elevate the mood of depressed young adults.   Australian psychologists studied 76 depressed participants accustomed to eating a nutritional substandard diet.   The half eating the healthy diet had significantly fewer d...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/tCxpIO3okw4   The red pigment in tomatoes, lycopene, seems to heal “sick” sperm, the cause of infertility in up to 50% of couples. Britain’s University of Sheffield researchers announce this phenomenon after a double blind study of 60 volunteers.     Half of them received lycopene in the form of LactoLycopene, a commercially available supplement that improves gi lycopen...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/-vMbpu34c_M   Syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia cases have spiked.   The CDC warns that the big 3 sexually transmitted diseases have reached an all time high.   In one year, between 2017 and 2018, syphilis cases increased 35% overall to 115,000 cases, the highest number in 27 years.   Worse, there was a 40% jump in newborn syphilis.   Gonorrhea increased 5% to more tha...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/U5Y1T5rCICY   Pulling that all-nighter test cramming or finishing your PowerPoint will drive you to those chips, cookies, and donuts.   Neurologists at Northwestern University studied 29 subjects and their food choices after only 4 hours of sleep versus a complete night’s rest.   The studies showed that sleep-deprived persons craved energy dense foods chock full of carb...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/nuu9aGWbPPo   Endurance running with a resistance band connecting your shoes can increase your running efficiency by over 9%.   Mechanical engineers at UC-Santa Barbara clocked runners with and without latex surgical tubing connecting their feet.   The tubing stores kinetic energy as the legs move past one another, and that energy helps power the next cycle.   The resul...