Dr. Howard Smith Reports

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/iJwiQp8uBiI   Aluminum cans containing drinks and foods that we all consume may be making us fat.   A study from NYU Medical School reports an association between childhood obesity and the bisphenol plastics used to line food and drink containers and produce thermal paper for cash register receipts.   The investigators compared data from the US National Health and Nutri...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/afcH5ANj4AU   Let’s say that you smoked heavily in your younger years but then quit. That’s good news for your health, but a new study just published from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health shows that your risk of circulatory problems in your legs goes on for up to 30 years after you quit.   The study looked at 13,355 subjects at Hopkins, the University of North...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/kx_55ON9oB4   The annual hospital academy awards are out!   The magazine US News & World Report has just released its picks for best overall hospitals.   They base their selections by analyzing public data from almost 5,000 US hospitals that covers treatment success rates, breadth of specialized services available, patient safety, patient and family satisfaction scores,...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/YfP0WefTOZs   Proactively reassuring students leaving the secure nest of elementary school for what seems to them insurmountable challenges of middle school improves their performance, attendance, and cooperation.   A just published study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison measured the effects of interventions crafted to convince fearful, anxious students that the...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/UR3ucjqx6hM   A new preliminary study from the University of Texas shows that endoscopic removal of clots from the arteries of stroke victims with large areas of affected brain tissue can assure better recovery.   This so-called Endovascular Thrombectomy is currently established treatment but only for those strokes with smaller areas of tissue damage.   The study includ...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/lYbltmFJsVg   Babies under the age of two show empathy for those who are victimized and expect that parents and teachers will intervene to put a stop to the bullying.   These related conclusions come from separate studies at the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign and Israel’s Ben Gurion University.   The Israeli study shows that infants as young as 6 months can rec...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/Nsoul9Pe0ds   A new study from The University of Buffalo’s pharmacology department suggests that a glass of red wine may contain not one but two calming ingredients that control sress.   We all know about the alcohol, but adding to its effect is the plant compound resveratrol that’s found in the skin and seeds of the grape.   The resveratrol works to relieve stress and...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/-4wzkOFZ-Z4   Moms-to-be better tamp down their coffee consumption during pregnancy.   A study using a rat model bully just published in the Journal of Endocrinology showed that pregnant animals consuming the equivalent of 2-3 cups of coffee a day gave birth to babies with impaired liver development as well as low birth weights and abnormal stress hormone levels.   The...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/eqmQvZlTNFc   Dartmouth and UC-Irvine mathematicians report that you learn faster if you picture it before you hear about it.   This universal principle of so-called object before label learning applies to everything from teaching kids their colors to learning foreign languages.   The researchers used formal testing to demonstrate that object before label learning is su...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/xEQ36KcDWw4   If you put the blue sweetener in your coffee or regularly chug cans of Diet Coke, listen up!   A British study just published in the Archives of Public Health raises new questions about the safety of aspartame.   A meta-analysis of the 154 studies that the European Food Safety Authority used to certify aspartame as safe in 2013 questions the validity of th...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/0o7pEsu1LAg   When the summer heat drives air temperatures north of 100˚F, sidewalks turn into hot plates that can burn your skin in a matter of seconds.   Surgeons from the University of Las Vegas studied some 173 pavement burn cases they treated over the past 4 years.   Eighty-eight percent of the mostly second degree burns occurred when air temps were 95˚F or hotter....

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/hqzQO77p9yE   Common feeding guidelines from children’s hospitals and infant formula manufacturers lead to overweight babies before their first birthdays.   This striking conclusion comes from a study by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health..   The Hopkins investigators developed a computer model to see the result of feeding virtual babies from 6 to 12 months accor...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/SHRYPwngED4   No one likes the prospect of surgery.   If you’ve been diagnosed with an ovarian cyst and your doctors have recommended removal, a new study suggests that an operation may not be necessary for every cyst.   Ovarian cysts are little balloon-like bumps that arise on the surface of the ovaries.   They are discovered with ultrasound scans when abdominal pain o...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/qhaBlo6cVAE   An unexpected observation during a patient’s awake neurosurgery confirms that laughter leads to a sense of calm and happiness.   Surgeons at Emory University in Atlanta relate this fascinating, whimsical tale.   A young patient with difficult to control epilepsy was undergoing awake neurosurgery to pinpoint the seizure focus.   During the surgery, the surg...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/1NAm2wRL76E   Looking for a little warmth this winter.   Finnish and British scientists urge you to spend some time in the sauna and not only warm up but enjoy substantial health benefits.   Their report in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings demonstrates that regular sauna use reduces your blood pressure and risk of cardiovascular disease, improves lung function, energizes you...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/hMLMwnzMn9s   Restricting childrens’ sedentary screen time in favor of more physically active pursuits is the latest weapon in the war against childhood obesity.   New Canadian research just published in the journal BMC Obesity reminds us that parenting practices are key factors in their offsprings’ screen time.   Nearly 40 families with at least one child 18 monthS to 5...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/2vy8C8HHGdI   Half of the millions using the most common type of sleeping pills might never wake to escape a fire.   Taken to induce sleep and relaxation, the popular benzodiazepine medications or benzos for short include Restoril, Halcion, Ativan, Xanax, and Valium.   This class of drugs induces drowsiness but also suppresses emergency arousal.   Even newer drugs such...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/6PeLF8SxYHI Here’s a flash from the off-beat health news department.   Researchers in Sweden and Hungary report that the black and white striped design seen on Africa’s Zebras and copied into body painting by indigenous peoples protects against biting and blood-sucking insects including mosquitos and horseflies.     The scientists compared the frequency of horsefly atta...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/vDcsb8EVH6Y   Aspirin has now been shown to significantly improve survival for at least one type of cancer in those patients whose tumors have a specific genetic variant.   That cancer is squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck with an altered PIK3CA gene.   A study just published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine followed 266 patients after surgical resectio...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/hnuh7zTs1Lk   We doctors constantly repeat it and you constantly hear it: avoid all but healthy food during pregnancy.   Despite this mantra, nearly one-third of pregnant women believe that cannabis is safe for their developing babies.   The analysis by Canadian doctors of 6 US studies shows that, as years go by, more pregnant women are using marijuana.   Currently, at...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/fV5zjq6xVlA   Celiac disease may be initiated by an agent used to improve food texture and to literally glue together meat fragments into a more substantial, steak-like product.   The agent is microbial transglutaminase, and a review of data about the causation of celiac diease just published in Frontiers in Pediatrics suggests that the increasing amounts of this substa...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/Q_ysMuyhRLA   Electronic cigarette use is on the upswing, and their makers trumpet the latest studies showing that e-cigs help current tobacco smokers kick the habit.   In actuality, as older smokers quit more teens use e-cigs and move on to the nasty and dangerous habit that is tobacco cigarette smoking.   Besides the addicting nicotine, the e-cigs vaporize and spew a...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/Lwn3bMuGWHM   Are you a good or a bad boss?   Do you have a good or a bad boss.   The latest study shows management style definitely affects the bottom line. ______ An-Chih Wang, Chou-Yu Tsai, Shelley D. Dionne, Francis J. Yammarino, Seth M. Spain, Hsiao-Chi Ling, Min-Ping Huang, Li-Fang Chou, Bor-Shiuan Cheng. Benevolence-dominant, authoritarianism-dominant, and classi...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/vFDQ2QUXUC8   Fraudulent products, procedures, and people abound on the web.   Here are some ready strategies that will help prevent you from being taken. ____________ Victoria Perez, Seth Freedman. Do Crowdsourced Hospital Ratings Coincide with Hospital Compare Measures of Clinical and Nonclinical Quality? Health Services Research, 2018; DOI: 10.1111/1475-6773.13026  ...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/Bs963ywQHJE   The majority of American parents believe that young children should not be playing tackle football.   A study recently published in the journal Pediatrics tabulated the results of a nationwide survey.   Over 1000 parents completed the survey.   Sixty-one percent definitely favored restrictions and another 24% were leaning toward bans on tackling for younge...