Dr. Howard Smith Reports

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/NYR-gRXk22Y I’m Dr. Howard Smith   reporting from NYC with the Health News Roundup for the 1st week of MARCH, 2019.   This is Health News You Should Use, the latest medical discoveries that you can use in a practical way to keep yourself and your family healthy.   Here are the headlines for this weeks 15 top stories: THC and not CBD Drives Most Benefit From Weed Use Nicot...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/UtCOkUFVKyE You’ve likely savored a slice of delicious chocolate cake, a fine glass of wine, the smell of your brand new car, or a breathtaking sunset.   Savoring is focusing your mind so you linger for an extended period on a wonderful sensation. A study just published in the Journal of Language and Social Psychology explores the concept that we can and should savor vari...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/miGgyaFQSdw If you are having a baby, try to do it during the day on a weekday.   A new study from the Colorado State University reviews data from more than 2 million Texas births over a 5 year period and pinpoints the riskiest times to give birth. Obstetric complications are nearly 30% higher on holidays, about 20% higher during night shifts,   and 9% higher on weekends....

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/Wp6JvfrTXrk Keeping your head, hands, and body busy in middle age pays off big later in life.   The latest pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is that your risk of dementia drops by nearly 35 to more than 50 percent.   This finding comes from Sweden’s University of Gothenburg’s study of 800 women who were followed from their mid-forties well into their nineties. The p...

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/HlSz7GuNKNQ Teen hypertension doubles the risk of end stage renal failure later in life.   A study just published in JAMA Internal Medicine looked at more than 1.5 million candidates for Israeli military service.   Of this group, nearly 8000 were found to have elevated blood pressures. Those with hypertension were predominately male and half were overweight or obese.   T...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/nzwEnrwCHOo We all must screen for colon cancer.   New data suggests that   you might be able to use a simple chemical test at home to replace that nasty bowel prep followed by either colonoscopy under anesthesia or a CT scan.   A meta-analysis by Indiana University of some 31 studies testing more than 120,000 persons shows that the so called FIT test, the fecal immunoche...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/Efh0GI3jE1o There is an acute shortage of hearts for transplant, but the University of Pennsylvania’s transplant team is increasing the supply with a treatment that allows use of organs from donors infected with the Hepatitis C virus.   The clinicians treated a group of 10 heart transplant patients who developed positive tests for hepatitis C with a 3 month course of Zepa...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/3vS3ihs_e38 Want a mental boost in 20 short minutes?   It’s a simple as getting off your couch and visiting a nearby park.   If you prefer, you don’t even need to exercise to get the benefit. Researchers at the University of Alabama-Birmingham’s Department of Occupational Therapy document a significant improvement in emotional well-being for those who choose to visit one...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/5btUv84ceEY Parents who do drugs have kids that use them as well.   This the conclusion of a study from Columbia University’s psychiatry department that looked at 35,000 parent-child pairings. When a either parent is a user, there is a 30 percent chance that one of their children is also hooked.   The risk factor is even higher for mothers alone as 62 percent of drug-usin...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/oNGOsHFbQDA The rate of drug overdose deaths in the US is 27 times higher than those in Italy and Japan and twice as high as those for Finland and Sweden who have the highest rates next to ours.   A review from the USC also warns that our 3.5 times higher drug overdose death rate is lowering Americans’ average life expectancy compared with other industrialized and wealthy...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/yeOWPF7rmuE Food with lots of sugar and fat is associated with significant psychologic distress.   This conclusion comes from a study of nearly quarter million Californians participating in the California Health Interview Survey. The study showed that nearly 17 percent of Californians had psychological distress associated with frequently consuming unhealthy foods.   Other...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/jYta_STVrhg I hate to be a nag, but a new study from Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital now adds avoiding arthritis to the already long list of reasons to quit smoking or never start.   The researchers looked at data from nearly a quarter million women participating in the Brigham’s Nurse’s Study and focused in on the nearly 1500 with so-called rheumatoid arthritis (RA...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/j39J8Pg4EgQ Your soap or toothpaste, touted to be fortified with antibacterial powers, will ironically arm any bacteria entering your body to resist commonly prescribed antibiotics.   A new study from Washington University-St. Louis shows that the triclosan added to toothpaste, mouthwash, cosmetics, clothing, baby toys, and even plastic cards in hopes of reducing bacteria...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/QbvCjKTHBag Here’s another reason for you to put down that salt shaker.   Immunologists at the Technical University of Munich report that higher concentrations of sodium chloride, better known as table salt, turbocharges T cells increasing their production of the inflammatory mediators interleukin-4 and interleukin-13 and helping them go rogue. Such rogue T-cells are at t...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/nuCPMtRIhI4 Johns Hopkins investigators, surveying US consumer behaviors, reports that more than half of those questioned had key misconceptions about the date labeling found on food.   As a result, US Agriculture Department estimates nearly one-third of food is wasted at the retail and consumer levels. The latest standards for food labeling use the term “Best if used by”...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/TsI8ZjCiebU Our cells, like our homes, fill up with garbage very fast.   The latest research from Harvard Medical School reveals that vigorous exercise and even some fasting will help our cells with their housekeeping duties of removing damaged, toxic, and unnecessary proteins. Previous studies have shown that the signal for flushing your cells is the messenger molecule c...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/2qepToTtCWM Our shoulders take a lot of abuse, and the latest statistics reveal a 6-fold increase in shoulder replacement surgery over the past 20 years.   You’re probably thinking...so what.   We can replace any joint at will, and there is already a good track record for hip and knee replacements. The problem is that joint replacements don’t last.   They wear out, like a...

Health News You Should Use, the latest medical discoveries that you can use in a practical way to keep yourself and your family healthy.     Here are the headlines: Shoulder Replacement Surgery Needs Repeating Exercise Helps Your Body Take Out The Trash You May Be Throwing Away Good Food Salty Food May Trigger Allergy Common Over-The-Counter Antibacterial Deactivates Antibiotics Junk Food Will Dri...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/6c2OtDkNREE Exposing autistic children to situations they instinctively avoid in a safe, virtual environment permits at least 45% of them to conquer their fears and phobias.   A study from Newcastle University just published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders utilizes an immersive projection video environment called the Blue Room with images the kids the...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/OeVhgDxUB-g Vaginal yeast infections are all too common and during pregnancy are frequently treated with oral fluconazole or the branded Diflucan.   New data from over 400,000 pregnancies in Quebec reviewed at the University of Montreal shows that any dose of oral fluconazole is associated with a higher incidence of miscarriage. Fluconazole is known for its induction of l...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/3byI8yHsefY From the “you can’t legislate common sense or morality” department, a study just published in the International Journal of Drug Policy reveals no reduced consumption of marijuana in countries where cannabis use is illegal.   The investigators tabulated World Health Organization data covering more than 100,000 teens living in 38 countries including the US, UK,...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/HKIK6qwIJo8 One enduring challenge in human organ transplantation is detecting rejection crises early enough to save the transplanted organ with the administration of anti-rejection drugs such as high dose steroids.   Typically, rejection is diagnosed with biopsies. By the time a biopsy shows conclusive changes, much of the organ is often destroyed.   A new technique bein...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/TjHd38TFH9A A Danish study just published in BMJ Open reports that short, standard acupuncture sessions will significantly reduce moderate to severe menopausal symptoms. Investigators at the University of Copenhagen using a crossover protocol administered weekly acupuncture therapy for 5 consecutive weeks to a treatment group while the controls received no treatment.   Th...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/q7JCrK5kziY Regularly smoking more than one pack a day may reduce your ability to see colors.   A study from New Jersey’s Rutgers University compared the visual prowess of more than 60 regular smokers with a similar number of controls who smoked fewer than 15 cigarettes in their whole lives. Those smoking 20 plus cigarettes a day, every day, reported significant degradati...

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/DU53tdHmq6Q We now know that drinking two or more artificially sweetened beverages a day may trigger strokes, heart disease, and untimely death for middle-aged women.   This from a study of more than 80,000 post-menopausal women participating in the Women’s Health Initiative . Those women who did drink the two a day regularly, when compared with controls who never drank b...