Dr. Howard Smith Reports

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/UoXTh9OtlzA Electronically monitoring a child’s day-to-day breathing patterns and their responses to medicine improves asthma management.   Pediatricians at the University of Utah developed a smartphone app they call eAsthmaTracker and tested it with more than 300 children receiving care at 11 clinics statewide. The app tracks a child’s respiratory symptoms and peak flo...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/RVam3gGQvYI Broccoli and its cruciferous vegetable cousins can inactivate a gene that cancers use to overwhelm our immune systems and our bodies.   This latest finding comes from Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center’s Cancer Research Institute. We know that eating broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, collard greens, Brussel sprouts, and kale seems to reduce the ris...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/frbow4n-VoM This is a wake up call for the US, Britain, Ireland, Italy, and Australia that comes from Italy’s Bocconi University and Bruno Kessler Foundation.   Researchers there crunched the numbers using a computer model and simulated the characteristics of measles immunity between 2018 and 2050 in these countries as well as in South Korea and Singapore. The study pro...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/V6FqGGLJLo8 While the incidence of bowel cancer dropped in middle-aged adults 50+ over the decade ending in 2014, colon and rectal cancer is on the rise for younger adults.   This result is now reported in the journal The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology , and it is derived from a tabulation of cancer registry data from the westernized countries Australia, New Zeala...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/wvab4Bj4SIc We’ve known for years that coffee can be good for your digestion as it helps keep you regular,   reduces risk of gallstones, and keeps your liver humming along.   A new study from the University of Texas at Galveston explores that reasons for this conclusion.   Their studies were carried out in a rat model. These investigators found that, when exposed to cof...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/n-VPKjhnrRU If a child swallows a button battery that has passed into the stomach, a study to be presented to the Digestive Disease Week annual meeting concludes that the ingested object must be removed quickly to prevent damage to the gastrointestinal tract linings.   Current recommendations suggest wait and see to allow the battery to pass through the gastrointestinal...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/ZIK07yBWRcA A study just published online by the New England Journal of Medicine is challenging the way we manage asthma.   For decades, inhalation of the short-acting bronchodilator albuterol, sold as Proventil and Ventolin, has been the recommended treatment for attacks with the addition of an inhaled steroid for maintenance of easy breathing. A collaborative group fr...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/MtNakRwjYu0 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 and a selections of news from the past several weeks: Prophylactic Antibiotic Dose Improves Instrumented Vaginal Deliveries   How Much Coffee Is Too Much Sunscreens Won’t L...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/9DzvBHZ9CzU The author of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Matilda,” Roald Dahl, wrote in 1988 about his experience when his daughter developed measles.   "Olivia, my eldest daughter, caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its usual course I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it. Then one...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/CU2WZFt3CZ8 A planned ultrasound at 36 weeks will detect undiagnosed breech presentations in time to allow intervention and prevention of dangerous fetal distress and emergency c-sections.   This recommendation springs from a study by public health specialists at Britain’s University of Cambridge. The investigators screened nearly 3900 women during their first pregnanci...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/RvII1BZlmOU Pediatric sports medicine specialists at the University of Colorado report that a simple test, the Romberg test, can predict which children will suffer lasting effects from a concussion and would benefit from proactive therapy.   Their study was just published in the Journal of Neurosurgery;Pediatrics . The data from more than 350 children and adolescents wi...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/PqKyUnQe-Mc Need more reasons not to use e-cigarettes and to convince your children to avoid them?   Besides the fact that they spew addicting nicotine and toxic flavoring chemicals?   A study from the Harvard School of Public Health now finds bacterial endotoxins and fungal cell wall remnants in 75 popular e-cigarette products from 10 top-selling US brands. The investi...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/Xvpv230Tovc Starting the day with a moderate-intensity walking exercise session does help your mind function better.   The latest Australian study just published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, looked at more than 65 subjects of all genders and 55 to 80 years of age. The morning workout was associated with improved attention, concentration, executive function...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/v1aLm03-Ujg Neuroscientists at the University of California-San Diego’s Autism Center of Excellence now report that autism may be reliably diagnosed in babies as young as 14 months thereby permitting effective, early intervention.   The researchers studied more than 1200 toddlers who were first evaluated between their first and third birthdays and were then followed wit...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/KgQBWuFn7SM Eating walnuts instead of other sources of fat in a diet can lower your blood pressure.   This conclusion comes from a study of 45 overweight or obese subjects by nutritionists at Penn State just published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The investigation found that eating walnuts to replace at least 5 percent of the typical 12 percent satu...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/axAxR1HvtK8 Tadalafil, marketed as Cialis, is one of the popular drugs used for erectile disfunction (ED).   Now a study at Britain’s University of Manchester shows that cialis slows or reverses the progression of congestive heart failure. The study, just published in the journal Scientific Reports , was carried out in sheep since their hearts are physiologically simila...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/2ldqpbInV8s A new Mayo Clinic study shows that many breast cancers may be safely and completely removed without sacrificing the overlying skin and nipple.   This study is being presented to the American Society of Breast Surgeons annual meeting this month. The study looked at skin and nipple-sparing mastectomies in 769 women undergoing a total of 1300 surgeries.   At on...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/9719lEJfRc8 If you’re looking to suppress your hunger without “pigging out” and bumping up your daily calorie count, try substituting avocados for carbs in your diet.   Nutrition scientists at the Illinois Institute of Technology studied some 31 overweight and obese subjects and modified their diets. They replaced carbohydrate calories with fat calories from avocados on a...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/uZ8R9XqIQPA Ok college students!   Looking to bump up your GPA?   Get yourself signed up for intramural sports ASAP! A study of some 1800 Michigan State University freshmen revealed that those playing intramural sports earned a GPA average of 3.25 compared with the 3.07 GPA earned by the couch potatoes.   In addition, the data revealed that the athletes were less likely...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/yiNPfnT5xXA A study of 62 million persons in 26 US health systems shows that those who had an appendectomy for any reason were three times more likely to develop Parkinson’s Disease.   These results are being presented at the Digestive Disease Week 2019 meeting this month. This study represents yet another link between the gastrointestinal tract and the brain.   This is...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/ZSuPJ8F3dls Meditation is designed to relax you, but a new study from University College London finds that one in every four persons who regularly meditates experiences a decidedly unpleasant experience on a regular basis. The investigators surveyed more than 1200 persons who had regularly meditated for at least 2 months. The unpleasant experiences included anxiety, fea...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/DeihdcN1XFk With the rates of skin cancer including the deadly melanoma escalating, sunscreen is a must for beach goers and particularly vital for those with light complexions.   Since sunlight is a driver for Vitamin D synthesis in our bodies, some worry that sunscreen use will create a Vitamin D shortfall. A study just published in the British Journal of Dermatology s...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/R0U3fzU6TIw More than 6 cups of coffee a day drives blood pressure to dangerous levels and bumps up the risk of heart disease by 22%.   A new study from the University of South Australia derives this conclusion from a review of data from 347,000 Aussies between the ages of 37 and 73 years. Coffee has many beneficial effects including waking us up boosting our energy, an...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/RnDteFmdD5o Women who give birth via a vaginal delivery that requires an instrumental assist using either forceps or a gentle vacuum benefit from a single dose of a common antibiotic.   A just published study from the University of Oxford in The Lancet journal shows a significant reduction in post-partum infection after one intravenous dose of amoxicillin-clavulanic aci...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/OI5pnCcaYbc 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’s a run down of this weeks stories: The Healthiest Breakfast For Diabetics Kids’ Foreign Body Ingestions Double Over 20 Years Muscle Power Versus Muscle Strength Associated With Longer Life Smili...