Dr. Howard Smith Reports

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...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/K3jUwpv4zXE A viewer on YouTube asks the following question: I am not type two diabetic but my doctor has given me farxiga for weight loss cause I am 225 lbs and 5' 2 with a bmi of 39.9. Would you consider this drug safe for just weight loss? I responded to her with the following: Farxiga is not FDA-approved for any use in non-diabetics.   There are no published experimen...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/e4ZbolZk2_g Eating foods high in antioxidants will lower your risk of developing age-related cataracts.   This is the conclusion of a meta-analysis from Australia and China recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The investigators reviewed 20 studies from as many world nations.   Their data indicates that eating citrus fruits, carrots, tomatoes,...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/gBkcwslZo1w Tired of shelling out 3 bucks for that Starbucks Latte.   You might just derive some of the same emotional and psychological effect by looking at a picture of it. Management researchers at the University of Toronto’s Rotman Management School studied responses to seeing even glimpses of coffee-related images.   Called priming, such images caused the subjects to...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/EyLBqke2qcI Here’s a quickie exercise routine that can lower your blood pressure, reduce your risk of heart attack, boost your fitness, and sharpen your brainpower.   The best part is that there is no weight lifting, jogging, or sweating involved. Integrative physiologists at the University of Colorado reported to the recent Experimental Biology scientific meeting that ex...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/B8MTjm8lgMQ Building on increasing evidence that the bacteria residing in our gastrointestinal system influence our brain function, a team of biotechnologists at Arizona State University report beneficial effects of gut bacterial manipulation on the behavior and GI symptoms of autistic subjects. Their latest report in the journal Scientific Reports catalogs the long-term...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/3YqEXRoSpzw Usin whitening strips to wipe away those coffee and nicotine stains from your dental enamel makes your teeth sparkle.   But…..the chemical reactions that occur beneath the surface could trigger a time bomb.   This warning comes from biochemical studies at New Jersey’s Stockton University that were presented last week to the American Society for Biochemistry an...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/IUS_Wp0n4yk CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the disease caused by repetitive head trauma is typically only diagnosable by autopsies.   It was discovered by post-mortem brain examinations of professional football and soccer players that sustained repetitive head trauma.   CTE may soon be routinely diagnosable in the living.   Radiologists at Boston University’s med...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/z99bXE9KVcI The drugs in question are those that make men’s urine flow and their hair grow.   Many men take finasteride, better known as Proscar and Propecia, to shrink their prostates to improve urine flow and others take the same medicine help hair grow on their scalps.   A new study from Scotland’s University of Edinburgh reveals that this drug and its cousin dutasteri...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/YuySgR0brbM If you are trying to teach yourself new skills, either physical or mental, give your brain a short break during the learning process.   Neurophysiologists at the National Institutes of Health make this recommendation after analyzing the brain activity of volunteers as they master the task of reproducibly pressing a series of keys. The scientists noted that bra...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/PVtH56EdCSQ Nasty bacteria are everywhere, and petting zoos turn out to have some of the nastiest.   An Israeli study of some 8 randomly selected petting zoos in that country reveals that an alarming number of animals are carrying drug resistant E. coli that can and do spread to human visitors. These results were presented this week at a meeting of the European Society of...