Dr. Howard Smith Reports

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/h7tCnOJJpvM   One-third of middle school and high school students are exposed to the lung-sickening toxins that spew from electronic cigarettes smoked by their peers.   This warning comes from Harvard’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the analysis of data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey for 2018.   The numbers of students who report inhaling the fumes generated...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/S9WDXawVQMQ   Systemic therapy with estrogens, progesterones, or a combination of both can more than double a post-menopausal woman’s risk of developing breast cancer.   This frightening warning comes from a collaborative study just published in The Lancet .   The research focused on nearly 107,000 postmenopausal breast cancer patients half of whom had received hormonal...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/JAh9odm_68c   Electric scooters are all the rage, but their use in the US and around the world has fostered an epidemic of injuries.   A study by surgeons at UC-San Diego shows that most scooter disasters occur when their users drink alcohol, use drugs, and fail to wear helmets.   The investigators tabulated eScooter-related admissions to their emergency department over...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/wbftavTqh_w   Eat nuts, virtually any type of nuts, twice a week, and you’ll cut your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by 17%.   That’s the bottom line from an Iranian study just presented to the World Congress of Cardiology.   Nearly 5500 participants 35 years or older who were disease-free at study onset were followed for 12 years.   Their consumption of waln...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/-I3_f7U00RU   The Impossible Burger, Beyond Burger and Beyond Sausage, and Tyson’s Raised and Rooted Chicken Nuggets are all the rage.   Besides the debate about the taste and the genetically-engineered content of these plant-based products compared with the meats they replace, a UK nutritionist sounds the alarm in the British Medical Journal that exclusive use of meatl...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/BTotDqF8O1U   Even if your parents suffered a heart attack at a young age, you can avoid that fate.   Lack of exercise, smoking, blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes are more important than genetic factors when it comes to the early development of cardiovascular disease.     This conclusion stems from a Portuguese study just presented to the European Society of Car...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/RU0P15Rlw1M   Women who are walkers, live near green spaces in temperate to warm climates, eat only moderate amounts of fish, and avoid BPA-containing plastic water bottles are more likely to have kids with normal blood pressures during mid to late childhood.   Spanish researchers just published these finding in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology .   The...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/uhyKeeSPw4o   Here comes another loud cheer for sleep moderation from the Harvard-MIT Broad Biomedical Institute, the University of Colorado-Boulder, and the UK’s University of Manchester.   Those sleeping fewer than 6 hours a night had a 20% higher heart attack risk, but sleeping longer than 9 hours was even more dangerous elevating the risk of heart attack by 34%.   T...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/5H_y0xIrTgo Health News You Should Use, the latest medical discoveries that you can use to keep yourself and your family healthy.   Here are this weeks stories : Listening Equal To Reading For Comprehending Information Dogs Help Your Heart Smartphone Use Not Driving Our Teens Crazy After All Polluted Air Kills You Faster Any Physical Activity Cuts Risk of Early Death A...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/T3LMa31YJEk   It’s all over the news: currently more than 200 mostly young people have been hospitalized with life-threatening respiratory illness.   At least one of them has died.     A new study from the University of Pennsylvania shows that even vaping once without any nicotine leads to significant blood vessel lining damage.   The study analyzed 31 healthy non-smoki...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/EoNbGsjDUns   A visit to your favorite park can give you a happiness boost equivalent to Christmas.   In a first-of-its-kind-study, a University of Vermont study analyzed the word contents of tweets from nearly 4700 users as a function of their publicly identified geolocation.   Those users in the largest green spaces with the most vegetation used the happiest words in...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/luh_-YXmVT8   Cannabis does relieve pain, the most effective pain relief comes from whole cannabis flower, and the products most likely to help with pain are those with the highest THC rather than CBD content.   These are the conclusions from a University of New Mexico study that analyzed data contributed by nearly 3000 users of the ReleafApp.     This Releaf app contai...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/z6pAYo_JlkU   Babies at risk for abnormal brain development showed improved tissue microstructure and better functional connectivity when their pregnant mothers consumed pomegranate juice on a daily basis.   These startling results of a preliminary study are being rushed into publication by neonatologists at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.   The team there condu...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/qpSt1Nj92lM   When parents simply their speech by using single word replies, shorter sentences, and fewer new words, infants develop language faster.   This observation comes from a Cornell University study just published in the Journal of Child Language.   Pediatric behavioral specialists there studied the vocalizations of 30 infant-mother pairs on two consecutive days...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/ippJoLK0hZU   I learned in med school and then read over and over again that women have different and more subtle heart attack symptoms compared with men.   Cardiologists often warn not to expect the crushing left-sided chest and arm pains if you want to make a clinical diagnosis in women.   A Scottish study, just published in the Journal of the American Heart Associati...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/Z2X7Kvrpd9U   Zinc boosts the body’s immune response to Streptococcus pneumoniae , the bacterium that causes   most community-acquired pneumonia.   A just-published Australian study used a mouse model to find out just how zinc works its magic.   Finding that zinc-deficient animals fell victim to Pneumococcal pneumonia 3 times faster than normal mice, the researchers wer...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/aOaBxMvc6dE   Gobbling sugar may trigger diabetes but also cancer.   A study from California’s City of Hope Medical Center, investigating the link between type 2 diabetes and cancer, discovered that the high blood sugar levels seen in diabetics can trigger DNA damage and prevent repair.   The studies of both diabetic mice and human type 2 diabetics showed not only marke...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/Wuw8pTzG7KA   Men and women infected with HIV should avoid drinking to excess.   This recommendation comes from immunologic studies completed at the Boston University School of Medicine.   The researchers there tested a group of HIV-positive subjects and determined their immune competence by assessing 3 individual processes: systemic inflammation, monocyte activation, a...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/fRevpx6l9UQ   In the search for pain control in light of the current opioid epidemic, you need look no further than your significant other.   A small study just published in the Scandinavian Journal of Pain shows that even the passive presence of your partner will help you better cope with pain.   The researchers studied 48 heterosexual couples and assessed the response...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/Fo8xdLfLWwE   Moving your body regularly, even slowly and casually, will double your chances of avoiding early death.   This good news comes from a Norwegian meta-analysis of 8 studies covering more than 36,000 subjects.   Compared with those who reported negligible extra physical activity, those with some, say routine walking enjoyed a mortality reduction of 52%,   tho...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/bGmAxYkLFr4   In the largest study of its kind just published in The New England Journal of Medicine , multinational public health researchers prove that even short term exposures to inhaled pollutants is associated with higher mortality rates.   The study looked some 652 urban areas in 24 countries and regions evaluating their air quality data and 30 year death rates d...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/ypwilC6A8ec   A number of studies indict smartphone use for triggering an adolescent mental health decline.   Not so fast say a group of university psychologists in a study just published by the journal Clinical Psychological Science .   The investigators closely followed a group of 388 kids 10-15 years of age, both socioeconomically and racially diverse, who attended N...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/VT_6z3ohyks   Dog owners are more likely than owners of other pets or non-pet owners to have a healthy heart and to keep it that way.   This conclusion comes from a study just published by the Mayo Clinic’s Division Of Preventive Cardiology.   Looking at nearly 1800 subjects without a history of heart problems, the investigators tabulated their cardiac risk factors includ...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/nXAsJvs5q4k   You’ll absorb just as much information from listening to a book as reading it.   This is the conclusion from a UC-Berkeley in which researchers used MRI scans of participants to create so-called 3D semantic maps that represented the brain’s processing of word-based information.   When the captured data was decoded, the investigators were surprised to find...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/Lpgg9Nl5I10   I’m Dr. Howard Smith, PENTA Medical Network, reporting from NYC with the Health News Roundup for the 3rd week of AUGUST, 2019.   This is Health News You Should Use, the latest medical discoveries that you can use to keep yourself and your family healthy.   Here are this weeks stories : Medicate Mildly Asthmatic Kids Only When Needed Those With Sleepless Nigh...