Dr. Howard Smith Reports

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/Bmf-1znzk94 Don’t rush your newborn into the baby tub if you want immediate breastfeeding success.   A study from the Cleveland Clinic’s obstetric unit shows that delaying the traditional post-delivery dunk by 12 hours significantly increases a new mom’s chances of exclusively breastfeeding her baby. The obstetric nurses leading the study conjecture that the warmth and hi...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/Z3xovlAR4Cg The pop music in the soundtracks of Americans’ lives has become more sad and more angry over the past 7 decades.   Musicologists at the University of Michigan now report this conclusion from their computerized sentiment analysis of more than 6,000 songs on Billboard’s Top 100 from the 1950s through 2018.   Angry lyrics increased yearly except from 1982-84 an...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/_W3hoDgJfP0 Another goal for the #metoo movement is suggested by the latest study from Yale psychologists.   As research subjects observed a video of the very same child being subjected to the classic, old fashioned medical torture, the fingerstick, but identified as either Samuel or Samantha, the majority of observers, both men and women, believe that the girl Samantha f...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/Lb0OYyB-6P4 School violence is on the rise but, surprise, it’s the bullies themselves who are most likely to be seriously injured.   This the conclusion of a study by researchers at the University of Texas-Houston who studied of some 4300 5th, 7th, and 10th graders in Houston, LA, and Birmingham, Alabama. In 5th grade, 17% of children sustained at least one violent injury...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/rfr_xGLijiQ You may have heard about the ketogenic diet controversy.   Some including the popular fitness expert and Biggest Loser consultant Jillian Michaels insist that this high fat, low carb diet dangerously robs you of critical macronutrients including blood sugar. To fact check Michaels’ conclusion, a scientific analysis of the ketogenic diet by University of Alabam...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/fhEZX0VLIEs Cancer of the esophagus is so often asymptomatic that it it kills almost a half million persons around the world before they know what hit them.   From Johns Hopkins now comes a simple, non-invasive test that can diagnose this cancer early without the need for a formal endoscopic procedure. The test, called the EsophaCap, is a dissolvable capsule containing...

VidCast: https://youtu.be/ANgt3DTv5rE Women suffering preeclampsia during their pregnancies have a 30% higher risk of later stroke.   Columbia University neurologists studied 84,000 California teachers and found that low dose aspirin at least 3 times weekly virtually erases the greater risk of stroke for women before they reach the age of 60.   Once past 60, aspirin’s protective effect vanishes. P...

Vidcast : https://youtu.be/olxRebs_d5M 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 least...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/Gu_bP7t1WyA Muscular development during our younger years provides the building blocks for strength maintenance as we age.   This the conclusion of a literature review from UMass-Amherst.   Biology professor Lawrence Schwartz reminds us that, during the first decades of our lives, our muscles not only grow in size but generate more and more cell nuclei, the local brains o...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/8pv8A-fRs78 Most of our brain’s horsepower, so called general cognitive ability or GCA, develops early in life.   An international team led by those at UC-San Diego now report that 99% of our intellectual abilities measurable at age 62 have already developed by age 20.   Said another way, the higher education, job challenges, and various intellectual pursuits that we purs...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/rOPNUtRcBY4 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 resection of t...

Aspirin Can Help Cure Cancer Most Brainpower Develops During Childhood and Adolescence Muscle Power Banked During Youth Supports Later Vigor Weed is Fetal Poison A Short Delay Bathing Newborns Enhances Breastfeeding Low Dose Aspirin Prevents Preelampsia-Associated Stroke A Simple Swallow Can Detect Esophageal Cancer The Ketogenic Diet Is Safe It’s Karma: School Bullies Sustain More Injury Than Vic...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/YFe2s7g4drk from www.goodnewsNetwork.org Kate, not her real name, has epilepsy.   Late once night, she began suffering seizures and went to the ER.   She stabilized and was discharged at 4 in the morning.   She called a Lyft to get home as she could not drive.   Here’s her first person account:  I called a Lyft to pick me up and hoped against hope that it would be someone...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/DgFFJMe2_no 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 attacks...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/RldzY17lQUQ Acupressure can give breast cancer survivors significant relief from pain, anxiety, depressive symptoms, fatigue and sleep problems.   A continuing study at the University of Michigan reports a news analysis of 288 patients. Two different type of Eastern medical acupressure, relaxing acupressure and stimulating acupressure, were compared with standard relaxati...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/p-LdqwUqtPg The wearable foot sensors that many serious runners think may prevent devastating stress fractures are measuring the wrong forces.   Engineers and orthopedic specialists at Vanderbilt University now report that muscular forces on the leg bones rather the force of the foot striking the running surface are the principal causes of the incapacitating, tiny cracks...

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/js0YBT86Omo Mmmmm.   Smell that fried dough!   Doesn’t that whiff of pepperoni pizza get your juices flowing?   Businesses peddling less than healthy treats have been blowing fragrances of warm cinnamon rolls and buttered popcorn in our faces for years knowing that its tough for us to resist.   Marketing gurus from the University of South Florida’s college of business n...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/cnqHqgpqycE Someday soon, high-tech tattoos may replace blood testing for continuous monitoring.   Bioengineers at MIT and Harvard Med School as well as at the University of Colorado’s ATLAS Institute are combining nanoparticles with tattoo technology to create color changing indicators deep in the skin. The Harvard-MIT team developed sensor inks that can signal levels of...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/ohUzmKKBY_I One or two hits of cannabis in any form does permanently affect the brain structure of young people.   New studies by University of Vermont psychiatrists looked at brain imaging for 46 teens experiencing cannabis for the first time and compared their brains with those of with non-users. The data reveals greater gray matter volumes in cannabis-binding zones of...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/9JV0SLJuclE Standing, walking down the hall or room to room, even going to the kitchen....for water, ANYTHING BUT SITTING, will add years to your healthy life.   This health tip comes from New York’s Columbia College of Physicans and Surgeons as an ongoing study follows nearly 8,000 middle aged men and women using wearable activity monitors. Swapping just 30 minutes of si...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/A1dV3YvCf8w Newborns and infants have very sensitive developing respiratory and gastrointestinal channels.   When parents have brought them to my pediatric ENT office, I found that their breathing issues were usually due to   airway irritation from refluxed feedings and dryness.   These observation became so common, that I began to offer 3 tips to every parent of a newbor...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/ZG9QzEod8iY Victims of bullying and sexual exploitation are more likely to suffer a lower quality of life than those with current heart disease, diabetes, and mental illnesses.   This is the conclusion of an Australian study of some 3,000 persons of all ages and socioeconomic levels. The researchers used the presence of multiple self-destructive behaviors including smokin...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/NXeOBr57VNY Beware of missing those doctors’ appointments.   Now, I’m not shilling for my colleagues but merely reporting a warning from the latest and largest study of its kind from Britain and Scotland.   After reviewing the appointment histories of one-half million persons, researchers report that patients with continuing medical issues of all kinds who missed 2 or mor...

  Vidcast: https://youtu.be/IyL2_-NFP3w   Missed Doctors’ Appointments Can Be Deadly Social and Sexual Abuse Drive Substantial Health Decline HELP: 3 Tips Every Infant’s Parent Should Know Bursts of Any Physical Activity Add Years First Uses of Marijuana Trigger Permanent Brain Changes FutureMed: Smart Tattoos Aromas of Fattening Foods Can Stir or Curb Appetite Runners’ Wearable Sensors Will Not P...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/MJwjbyGChDU Disabled veteran Marc Walsh was frantic and disheartened when he noticed that his wallet, filled with cash, credit cards, and difficult to replace identification cards, was not in his pocket.   Meanwhile, two teen sisters, walking along a snow-covered West Detroit street, saw the wallet and picked it up.   Opening the wallet, Walsh’s military ID card immediate...