Dr. Howard Smith Reports

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/rBYdLg2PUlg Patients admitted to an ICU for any medical problem, whether it directly affects the mind or not, is likely to be discharged with a thought disorder properly labeled a neuropathy.   Neuroscientists at Ontario’s Western University report this result after studying 20 patients who entered their hospital’s ICU with non-neurologic problems. Each patient was assess...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/NsMPlTzykEk Psychologists have been debating over the past century whether or not smiling will actually make you feel happier.   Most thought that smiling was indeed a picker-upper until 3 years ago when a landmark study questioned that premise. Psychologists at the University of Tennessee now provide a more definitive answer to the question by performing a meta-analysis...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/jBofMI-f1Kw A long, healthy life with continued mobility depends on healthy, toned muscles, and many turn to weight lifting to achieve that goal.   Turns out, though, that not all types of weight lifting exercises do the trick. A study presented just last week at the congress of the European Society of Cardiology shows muscle power rather than muscle strength is the impor...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/6TU_86VpCwU The turn of the century has not been good for kids choking on and swallowing foreign bodies.   Data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System just published in the journal Pediatrics shows that twice as many kids are choking on and swallowing foreign bodies now compared with 20 years ago. A majority of ingestions involved infants and toddlers 1 t...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/RjgMACy-N8U Should you eat fruit with toast or eggs and ham for your first meal of the day if you’re a type 2 diabetic.   The answer comes from the University of British Columbia, and the eggs win hands down. Researchers there studied 23 adults with non-insulin dependent diabetes and randomly fed them a meal plan that contained identical numbers of calories and differed o...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/P7jQ9uSWZbA This is Health News You Should Use, the latest medical discoveries and some commonsense advice that you can use in a practical way to keep yourself and your family healthy.     Here are this weeks stories: Baby Sleeper-Rockers Kill Phone App Relaxes PTSD Victims Flossing Helps Prevent Dementia Medical Applications For Cannabis Teen Screen Time May Not Be Harmf...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/u65P0vJGT3Q Children as young as four can learn the principles of responsible philanthropy, and they are more than willing participants in the decision-making process. This is the finding from a study at Britain’s University of Kent. A group of 150 children aged 4 to 8 years were presented information about a series of charitable causes worthy of their donations.   They d...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/IvZRlvtWJ-o Walnuts can suppress the expression of genes in breast cancers.   In so doing, the nuts may be able stop breast cancer from growing locally and and spreading. Oncologist researchers from Marshall University just published a study in the journal Nutrition Research that conclusively demonstrates in both women with breast cancer and in a mouse model injected with...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/KpcGVJYjk-g The majority of American parents believe that young children should not be playing tackle football.   A study recently published in the journal Pediatrics tabulated the results of a nationwide survey. Over 1000 parents completed the survey.   Sixty-one percent definitely favored restrictions and another 24% were leaning toward bans on tackling for younger chil...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/pk5wJguNNLw Pregnant women with long work commutes may are more likely to experience a slow fetal growth rate and to deliver a low birth weight baby.   Health economists at Lehigh University drew this conclusion from New Jersey birth records and information about the lengths of the   associated maternal commutes. Each 10 miles of commuting distance over a 50 mile threshol...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/iasDGPN5naM The FDA has just issued a special warning that some e-cigarette users have developed seizures.   Nicotine toxicity can lower a persons seizure threshold. Seizures have previously only been reported in cases of accidental e-cigarette liquid ingestion.   Now case reports are coming in where seizures are occurring in those vaping for the first time but also in mo...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/nu3KJdwFFJw Nearly 20% of fatal strokes occurring in younger persons are due to illicit drug use and abuse.   This is the conclusion of a new study from Australia’s National Drug and Alcohol Research Center. The investigators studied 279 persons aged 15 to 44 years who died of stroke.   The most frequent drug implicated was methamphetamine.   None of the stroke victims we...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/_EiQgYiu9d0 Since we just learned that sugar will not sweeten your mood, we look to psychologists from the Iowa State University to provide an alternative to a Hershey bar or a glass of sangria.   They just published a study in the Journal of Happiness Studies that suggests a very good alternative. The researchers had groups of college students test 3 potentially mood-ele...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/ZNIoRMpE1Po Does sugar really turbocharge you and improve your mood?   A study by British and German psychologists just published in Neuroscience and Behavioral Reviews says absolutely not. The researchers performed a meta-analysis of 31 studies covering nearly 1300 adults.   The investigations looked at how the quantity and type of sugar ingested affected alertness, fati...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/CXEY8458XWQ Kids whose parents read 5 books a day to them enter school with exposure to 1.4 million more words more than those children who parents did not read to them.   Even reading one book a day to your child will give them almost 300,000 more words as they begin kindergarten. This data comes from Ohio State’s Center For Early Childhood Research and Policy.   With th...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/5GktQvHI9Lc It’s no secret that the USA has the most expensive healthcare in the world, but a new commentary by clinicians at Cornell and the University of Texas-San Antonio suggests our specialty-driven clinical practice guidelines may be at fault.   This perspective comes from a panel of doctors who have practiced in other wealthy countries before coming to the US to li...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/tVWdIgOWwEs So you have celiac disease, the most severe form of gluten sensitivity, and exposure to the wheat protein can make you terribly sick.   You avoid any wheat products at home, and you carefully choose restaurants that certify their food to be gluten-free.   Just how good is their certification. Not very good say studies just published by gastroenterologists at C...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/CbOcuLIEkkw The debate continues!   The latest multi-country study of nearly 18,000 kids in England, Ireland, and the US analyzed the effect of screen time on adolescent well-being.   When the data were tabulated, no negative effects could be found. The University of Oxford investigators looked at the duration of screen time and its proximity to bedtime.   They scrutinize...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/C3A3taMtQIg Medical marijuana now legalized in 33 states and the District of Columbia, and many of you probably have questions about its uses.   I came cross this excellent article published this week in the British Medical Journal, and I want to pass it on.     The article reviews the available types of medicinal but also non-medicinal cannabis products and by-products,...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/MCs-vrn_2io Keeping your gums healthy may help you maintain a sharp mind as well as a full set of teeth throughout your life.   A study from the University of Louisville’s dental school shows that a bacterium that frequently causes gingivitis and periodontitis can travel to your brain and help to trigger your mental decline. The nasty bug in question is Porphyromonas ging...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/GF0b2eu17dM Young people and adults with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder suffer from flashback-induced anxiety attacks that send the entire body into orbit.   Controlling the breathing rate using an electronic device helps those with PTSD relax, suppress anxiety, and better manage their symptoms. Clinical researchers from Atlanta’s Emory University reported their success w...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/6n6RFpV2k1w Babies are dying in these infant rocker-sleepers when they roll over or twist their airways and suffocate.   The death count is a reported 32 infants, but that count likely under estimates the number.   The device all over the news is the Fisher-Price Rock ’n Play Sleeper but amazon.com alone lists more than 40 similar products made by Fisher-Price, a division...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/SW0ORYzGoY4 This is Health News You Should Use, the latest medical discoveries and commonsense advice from me that you can use in a practical way to keep yourself and your family healthy.   Here are this weeks stories: You CAN Prevent Childhood Drownings Pregnancy Illness Triggers Preventable Childhood Brain Ills ACL Repair Improved By Reducing Blood Flow Gut Bacteria Wre...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/z8IdZ7-cD-w Chugging those 6 packs and downing those jelly shots depresses the growth of the developing brain.   The skyrocketing alcohol consumption by teens and young adults may well be sapping the collective brainpower of our country. Neuroscientists at the Oregon Health and Science University studied this phenomenon in 71 rhesus monkeys allowed to binge on alcoholic b...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/s44du_Y3pjo If you bicycle or walk home from work, go out of your way to use the side streets.   Urban scientists at England’s University of Surrey collaborated with colleagues in England, the Netherlands, and Brazil to measure air pollution during the morning and evening commutes. The scientists studied black carbon levels in these 3 cities on both the most heavily traff...