Dr. Howard Smith Reports

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/bdtVe_7ksls A study just published by Cancer Research UK reveals that there are twice as many obese Brits as smoking Brits.   As many as one-third of the British are obese. Smoking is still the UKs leading preventable cause of cancer.   However, consider the fact that excess weight rather than tobacco abuse is the leading cause of 4 deadly types of cancers including tho...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/xGAirF0H81Y Two-thirds of patients hospitalized for treatment of pneumonia are receiving excess antibiotic therapy that puts them at risk for undesirable side effects and complications.   This finding is the conclusion of a study by the University of Michigan and the Michigan Hospital Consortium. The investigators reviewed the records of some 6500 pneumonia patients adm...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/V_ctJH6Fujc This definitive conclusion comes from a comprehensive meta-analysis of 277 clinical trials involving nearly one million participants just published in the Annals of Internal Medicine .   The study concludes that few of the 16 food supplements touted to improve your cardiovascular health did so.   Only omega-3 fatty acids seemed to reduce heart attacks.   Fol...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/US61BSXwDno Playing the Minecraft video game, indeed playing it without any instructions, appears to drive a higher level of creativity.   A just published study from the psychologists at the Iowa State University compared the effects of playing this popular game with playing a race car game or merely watching TV. The 352 college undergrads each spent 40 minutes playing...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/zw1NDorVPvA News has a greater impact where you view it on a larger screen versus on your smartphone.   Communication research at the University of Michigan and Texas A&M University measured the responses of participants viewing news stories on a 13 inch laptop and on a 5 inch phone. Using physiologic measurements of attention including heart rate variability and skin c...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/HZEdnMcBC_c If you’re trying to resist the siren song of alcohol, a juicy steak, or a huge chunk of cheesecake, that task will be far easier if your memory is clear, you aren’t fatigued, and you are not otherwise under stress.   This conclusion stems from a study of Welch participants recently published in the journal Psychological Science . Their data shows that the ab...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/jwYD2vhtFZU A dog at home to welcome a newborn will reduce that baby’s chances of developing skin allergies or wheezing by about half.   These are the findings of a University of Wisconsin’s pediatric department. Researchers there followed 275 at-risk children born to parents with an allergy history over a 3 year period.   Those exposed to dogs just after birth were 56% l...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/_xRxrqp7p5I A child who hates food with texture, rejects hot or cold foods, has very limited food preferences, or holds food in his or her mouth for extended periods are likely prime candidates for autism screening.   Studies at Penn State’s psychiatry department of some 2,000 children demonstrate that unusual eating behaviors are present in 70% of children with autism...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/-D4k4d_lERs Exercise will not only trigger needed weight loss, but it triggers better brain metabolism and executive brain function   for the overweight and obese.   A study from Germany’s University of Tübingen shows that an 8 week exercise program improves the brain’s insulin sensitivity and blood flow to brain regions critical for motor control and managing rewards....

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/m2k9SRjKqGA We know that too much blue light at night leads to poor sleep quality, but those tv and phone LED screens could also be triggering your craving for sweets.   This is the conclusion of a Dutch study in a mouse model from the Universities of Strasbourg and Amsterdam. After only one hour of nighttime exposure to LED blue light, the experimental animals chose a...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/3f5DYU6F4ZA 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 : Relieve Your Hot Pepper Heartburn Make A Date - Get A Free Meal CBD Kills Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Your Cell Phone Is Polluted With Bacteria Cheap Home Exerc...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/P1tlzAik8wY Relaxing yourself before going in that examining room will help you get much more from your visit.   Psychologists at the University of Michigan studied nearly 1500 subjects to determine if interventions that induced more positivity and openness to information would result in a more relaxed and productive health maintenance encounter. The study mimicked a do...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/-EFYrk5NLnM If you love falling asleep with the TV treating you to Law and Order or if you merely leave a light on in the room, you’d better watch that scale.     The NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences studied nearly 44,000 women in the so-called Sister Study of women’s disease.   The researchers questioned the participants about their sleeping ha...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/XMWrYblrEB4 Grapefruit and grapefruit juice may cause you to overdose on many popular prescription drugs.   The FDA now repeats its 2017 warning to us and asks us to carefully read the label on any drug you are taking to see if grapefruit can interfere with its function Grapefruit juice blocks the enzyme in the small intestine that normally breaks down drugs causing you...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/7YWEoizy0y4 Taking frequent vacations is associated with a lower risk of developing the metabolic syndrome, that deadly triad of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.   This welcome news comes from Syracuse University’s Department of Public Health. The study focused on 63 university workers, and the researchers compiled information about their vacations and health status...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/fN_v_Z1pldM When we comment about the taste of our food, the overwhelming conclusion is “it’s TOO SWEET!”   This is the “bittersweet" conclusion from tabulation of almost 400,000 food reviews by Philadelphia’s Monell Chemical Senses Center. The scientists there used artificial intelligence techniques to analyze data about the taste, texture, and smell of nearly 68,000 u...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/ZhRZAnOkg7c Taking music instruction and playing an instrument boosts high school students’ scores in their academic courses.   This study of some 112,000 Canadian high school students just published in the Journal of Educational Psychology is a biting indictment of local school boards that frequently vote to eliminate music programs in favor of taxpayer-supported sport...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/i340ytno-fs Giving kids ibuprofen, that is Advil or Motrin, rather than acetaminophen, Tylenol, after tonsillectomy with or without adenoidectomy more than doubles a child’s risk of serious bleeding that requires a return to the operating room.   This conclusion comes from a multi-center study of some 741 children aged 2-18 years coordinated by pediatric ENT specialists...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/2-t7Mb_teLA Drinking coffee will help you lose weight.   A new British study just published in Scientific Reports shows for the first time that the caffeine in coffee triggers a mitochondrial uncoupling protein which in turn increases calorie-burning brown fat cell activity in both cultured cells and in human volunteers.   More brown fat cell tissue versus white fat cel...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/lAf8hPSrMqw Imagine that you’re waiting for a biopsy report, a job offer, a college or grad school acceptance, or a colonoscopy.   You’re on pins and needles anxious. Just how do you cope?   A new study from UC-Riverside gives you a novel strategy: watching an awe-inducing or heart-tugging movie. The researchers studied a total of 729 subjects all stressed awaiting impo...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/EQ7EgP1MNSM It’s an old saw, but a French study just published in the journal Stroke puts yet another black mark next to the concept of overwork.   Working long hours, defined as 10 hours a day for at least 50 days a year will increase your risk of stroke by 29%.   If you consistently work long hours for 10 or more years, your risk of a stroke rises to 45%. You’re proba...

Vidcast:   tps://youtu.be/KAKxzmjoacw So you’re out of shape and finding your body toning workout impossibly grueling.   A   Canadian study just published in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise shows that listening to upbeat music as you work up that sweat will sweeten your experience. Music is a known dissociative influence that distracts you from the consequences of exercise including s...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/HHJZs5YRDXU You know you should exercise but you don’t have the time or money for a health club.   A British study just published in the Journal of Physiology shows that you can keep fit with three 20 minute home sessions a week using high intensity training and virtual but not direct supervision. The researchers studied some of the toughest cases, 32 obese adults at ri...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/dzrI4PAJc3E A Brazilian study just presented last week at the American Society for Microbiology reminds us just how contaminated our cell phones can be.   Forty percent of the phones carried by university students were infested with antibiotic-resistant Staph Aureus .   Even more frightening but not surprising is that fact that the majority of such phones were in the ha...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/QAUrV6t24sc The non-psychoactive component of weed may be one way to control menacing supergerms that are no longer sensitive to our strongest antibiotics.   Australian microbiologists presented their exciting findings at last week’s meeting of the American Society For Microbiology. Studies of topical CBD as treatment for a variety of skin conditions revealed that this...