Dr. Howard Smith Reports

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/9W6waH_s72k Even a one hour variation in your day to day sleep pattern can wreak havoc on your body’s metabolism putting your health and life at risk. This conclusion stems from comprehensive study by sleep scientists at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in collaboration with those at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Previous studies have shown that i...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/jWWe90490ss When children and teens use food supplements for weight loss, muscle building, and energy stimulation, 40% of the adverse events that occur are associated with severe disability and death.   This sobering statistic comes from studies at the Harvard School of Public Health that reviewed the details of nearly a thousand adverse event reports that were compiled...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/9VpiXVEBhHA Using the internet can produce temporary but also permanent negative changes in your brain’s abilities to focus attention, create and sustain memories, and promote social bonding.   An international collaborative team from Australia’s Western Sydney University, Britain’s Universities of Oxford and Manchester, and Boston’s Harvard Medical School just released...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/Umk5s22qXZw The pronouns you use on a first date recounting stories of your past love lives exposes your emotional attachment style for all to see.   Psychologists at the University of California-Riverside have decoded the formula after aggregating 1400 observations derived from seven studies. The repeated use of the “I’ or “me” words reveals an anxiously avoidant perso...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/nGnwNFZs32g The all too common sight of smog reminds us that outdoor air is often hazardous.   A just published study from Washington State University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering now alerts us to indoor air pollution dangers. As our homes become increasing air-tight with more chemical-laden dry wall and insulation, the air we breathe indoors beco...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/yjztmrDgqnc If you love to eat and you want to enjoy the most flavorful food, take a seat!   If you must consume foul tasting medicine or somewhat bitter vegetables, you’d better stand.   A new study from the University of South Florida’s marketing department studied the ways in which our balance system and our posture during eating affects our perception of food taste....

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/D9VspX8CT00 Nearly 30% of people have constipation and don’t even know it.   This is the conclusion of a study from King’s College-London just published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology. It seems like a simple issue, but public health authorities can’t even agree on how many of us do suffer from constipation.   Estimates range from 3% to more than 10 times th...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/xAilVbLJ0fg A teen boy’s obsession with body building and strengthening can be every bit as dangerous to his health as a teen girl’s obsession with her weight and shape.   This warning comes from the Departments of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the University of California-San Francisco. In contrast to girls’ dangerous practices of gorging and purging, boys tend to over...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/JPD_AErq2wQ When you chomp down on a chocolate bar or daintily take a bite of that truffle, the package that tasty tidbit came in has much to do with its perceived flavor.   Aussies at the University of Melbourne’s School of Agriculture and Food presented 75 study subjects with the same piece of chocolate wrapped in 6 different packages that cried out a variety of messa...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/_JJ0_t-I2wk 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 : Laundry detergent Pods Continue To Poison Children Video Game Weapons Make Kids Handle Real Ones Large City Air Pollution Clogs Your Arteries Arthritis Supplement Helps Y...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/mdLlLwEvCyk The latest answer from Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Britain’s National Heart and Lung Institute is a resounding NO!   They analyzed data from more than 8000 participants in the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial. The tabulated results indicate that both non-fasting and fasting lipid levels had similar correlations with coronary events in...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/YB7O_b3T2bs This warning comes from neurologists and ethicists at Vancouver’s University of British Columbia.   Searching online, they found 19 brain stimulating devices and 22 measuring devices with mind links that are currently being hawked and directly sold to the general public. We’re talking about so-called transcranial direct current stimulation devices, galvanic...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/JY5nRSzsOdw If you sleep less than 7 hours each night, you are deficient in the microRNA regulators that permit your genes to refresh your heart tissues and maintain good vascular health.   This warning stems from work at the University of Colorado at Boulder that studied 24 healthy middle-aged men and women measuring their microRNA concentrations and tabulating their s...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/1XFfgZZr-ZU At least half of those seen in the ED and diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury are left with significant functional limitations at one year post-injury.   This surprising statistic comes from a nationwide, multi-center study just published in JAMA Neurology . Those with positive findings on brain CT had a 61% incidence of long-term disability.   But ev...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/o-D_Vw8oCRA Using a bit of formula to assist breastfeeding and trigger a healthy weight gain has for years been considered a no-no.   Lactation consultants advise that this use of formula destroys the child’s interest in breast feeding. A study from the University of California - San Francisco now labels this warning an urban myth.   Pediatricians there and at Penn Stat...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/bOqsCE8pmJY A new German study concludes that those on blood pressure control medications enjoyed a 10 to 25% lower incidence of dementia.   Researchers from the University of Leipzig studied a total of nearly 25,000 patients half of whom suffered from dementia and the other half served as matched controls. All classes of anti-hypertension drugs were associated with a r...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/T3iMfBq7uok Researchers from Norway’s University of Bergen now deliver conclusive proof that bacteria hiding in dental plaque and causing gingivitis move from mouth to brain and there produce a toxin that kills brain cells. Several months ago, I presented a study in mice that demonstrated this same gum-brain connection.   The Norwegian researchers now prove it in humans...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/vHPivGIBS9Q This week the   FDA released warnings that vinpocetine, available in the USA over-the-counter as a dietary supplement and around the world as the prescription drug Cavinton, can harm a developing baby causing miscarriage or birth defects.   Vinpocetine is readily available online via Amazon and other outlets.   It is also called Periwinkle Liquid Extract. Vi...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/xUVxPZ6K6pE The egg debates continues, and, if you love eggs, you’ll love the latest Finnish study just published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition .   They conclude that an egg a day will not increase your risk of stroke. The study looked at nearly 2000 men 42 to 60 years of age.   Over a 21 year followup, the risk of stroke was not increased by a moderate...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/c5Y0tyBw3Lk Staggering numbers of children risk irreversible injuries to their developing brains everyday as they climb on a variety of wheeled play vehicles.   A new study from The University of   Michigan surveyed over 1300 parents of children from 4 to 13 years to assess their children’s use of protective helmets and defensive measures in the streets. Parents admit t...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/ldtCbVQLkSc Those who tend to be anxious have a 6 th sense superpower that effectively protects them from danger.   A new study from Caltech’s cognitive neuroscience department shows that anxious individuals more effectively flee from subtle dangers. The study participants were challenged with a series of virtual reality threats characterized as slow that are impending...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/UhNuAmT-254 Many Americans, some 20% of our friends and neighbors, take glucosamine for the pain and disability of arthritis.   Like many food supplements, we only know that it is probably safe.   No well-designed studies have proven that it works for joint problems.   One study of knee osteoarthritis published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed a glucosamine...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/s4PxSI92nGc The air in our largest cities is destroying our arteries.   A study recently published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives studied over 6600 otherwise healthy adults in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore, St. Paul and Winston-Salem. Over more than a decade during which the subjects’ carotid arterial thickness, carotid plaque quantity...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/A3FZGwlqq_g Playing video games that feature guns and swords leads children to handle real guns.   This is the conclusion of a Ohio Statue University study of 220 eight to twelve year olds. Of the children playing a video game shooting guns, 62% touched a real handgun, of those playing a game with sword violence, 57% touched a handgun.   Of the control group of kids pla...

Vidcast:   h https://youtu.be/2hn9iZ29Z3k Despite the many public campaigns and manufacturers efforts over recent years to make these pods look less like candy, a new study from the Nationwide Children’s Hospital shows that pod poisonings have actually increased for children older than 6 and only slightly diminished for younger kids.   Every 42 minutes a poison control center gets a frantic call a...