Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/TDcZ0q1apbs It’s all over the news.  Sugar-sweetened drinks increase your risk of cancer.  Well let’s take a closer look at the data. The study comes from Sorbonne Paris’ Epidemiology and Statistics Research Center, and it reviewed health and dietary records from over 100,000 participants with a mean age of 42 years and followed over an 8 year period.  The investigators looked at some 3300 food products. Drinking just 3 ounces more 3 z.of sugary drinks a day increases the overall risk of any cancer by 18% and breast cancer in pre-menopausal women by 22%.  Drinking the same amount of 100% fruit juices increases the risk of any cancer by 10%.  Let’s look at the fine print.   But let’s look at the fine print.  Carbonated, sweetened drinks like Coke or Pepsi did not increase the risk.  Artificially-sweetened drinks, carbonated or not, did not increase the risk.  Drinking sugary drinks did not increase the risk of lung cancer, colorectal cancers, pancreatic cancer, or prostate cancer. Do

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/tmSkorpdkQ8 If you’re a woman with bone density problems, you’d better watch the ingredients in your toothpaste, mouthwash, and soap.  A study just published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism shows that the common antibacterial triclosan, added to many consumer products, is associated with bone issues in women. The study reviewed data from more than 1800 women participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.  Those women found to have higher levels of triclosan in their urine samples had a higher incidence of bone issues including osteoporosis of the thigh, hip, and lower spine. Triclosan is simply bad news.  Earlier this year, I reported to you that it can also inactivate certain antibiotics including amoxicillin and ciprofloxacin.  You should avoid it in all products by checking the ingredients before you buy. Shaofang Cai, Jiahao Zhu, Lingling Sun, Chunhong Fan, Yaohong Zhong, Qing Shen, Yingjun Li. Association between urinary triclos

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/F6xnFH4gA-w Those who exercise with moderate to vigorous physical activity the same time each day more often successfully maintain their weight loss.  A study from Brown University was just published in the journal Obesity. Nutritional researchers there studied 375 adult subjects who had successfully maintained a weight loss of more than 30 lbs for more than one year.  Of this group, 68% report consistently exercising at the same time of day.  In addition, this time of day consistency was associated with more daily exercise sessions per week as well as a significant increase in duration of each session.  Almost 48% of the participants reported early morning exercise sessions. Vigorous exercise is wonderful for your body and soul.  Pick a time, any time, for a daily workout, and you will be able to better control your weight and enjoy better health. Leah M. Schumacher, J. Graham Thomas, Hollie A. Raynor, Ryan E. Rhodes, Kevin C. O’Leary, Rena R. Wing, Dale S. Bond. Relationship of Co

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/bdtVe_7ksls A study just published by Cancer Research UK reveals that there are twice as many obese Brits as smoking Brits.  As many as one-third of the British are obese. Smoking is still the UKs leading preventable cause of cancer.  However, consider the fact that excess weight rather than tobacco abuse is the leading cause of 4 deadly types of cancers including those in the gastrointestinal tract, the kidneys, the ovaries, and the liver. The British health system is now launching a all out campaign to attack overeating and junk food intake from childhood on. But wait.....I buried the lead.  Here in the USA, obese persons are almost three times as common as smokers with those same cancer risks as well as risks of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.  Americans as well as Brits need to stop eating and start exercising. Cancer Research UK. "Obese people outnumber smokers two to one." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 2 July 2019. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190702211335.htm http

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/xGAirF0H81Y Two-thirds of patients hospitalized for treatment of pneumonia are receiving excess antibiotic therapy that puts them at risk for undesirable side effects and complications.   This finding is the conclusion of a study by the University of Michigan and the Michigan Hospital Consortium. The investigators reviewed the records of some 6500 pneumonia patients admitted to Michigan Hospitals.  Over 90% of the excess antibiotic therapy was due to extra antibiotics prescribed at discharge.  The clinicians prescribing discharge medications failed to properly account for in-hospital days of antibiotic therapy. Typical therapy for community acquired pneumonia is a minimum of 5 days and therapy is continued until you are free of fever for 3 days.  Complicated infections may require 10-14 days of therapy. Unnecessary antibiotic therapy places patients at risk for developing antibiotic resistance, the outgrowth of so-called opportunistic bacteria such as Clostridium difficile, better k

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/V_ctJH6Fujc This definitive conclusion comes from a comprehensive meta-analysis of 277 clinical trials involving nearly one million participants just published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.  The study concludes that few of the 16 food supplements touted to improve your cardiovascular health did so.   Only omega-3 fatty acids seemed to reduce heart attacks.  Folic acid seemed to have some benefit for reduction of strokes.  Furthermore, only 1 of the 16 so-called heart-healthy diets was legitimately helpful, and that dietary modification was reducing ingested salt. The food supplement industry operates in the Wild West with no FDA regulatory authority to test the safety or effectiveness of the products being sold to an unsuspecting public.  My advice is simple and direct: DON’T BUY THIS CRAP! Khan SU, Khan MU, Riaz H, Valavoor S, Zhao D, Vaughan L, et al. Effects of Nutritional Supplements and Dietary Interventions on Cardiovascular Outcomes: An Umbrella Review and Evidence Map.

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/US61BSXwDno Playing the Minecraft video game, indeed playing it without any instructions, appears to drive a higher level of creativity.  A just published study from the psychologists at the Iowa State University compared the effects of playing this popular game with playing a race car game or merely watching TV. The 352 college undergrads each spent 40 minutes playing or watching TV.  They then completed the creative task of drawing an alien creature, and their work was then graded for creativity by judges unaware of what they played or watched before picking up the pencils. The most creative work was done by those who played Minecraft without any instructions or limitations so that their intellectual energies could run free.   Many video games drive creativity by tasking the player to create characters and and unique strategies.  Given their popularity and proven effectiveness as creativity catalysts, educators are now looking for ways to incorporate these games into formal educat

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/zw1NDorVPvA News has a greater impact where you view it on a larger screen versus on your smartphone.  Communication research at the University of Michigan and Texas A&M University measured the responses of participants viewing news stories on a 13 inch laptop and on a 5 inch phone. Using physiologic measurements of attention including heart rate variability and skin conductance measurements, the video presented on the larger screen was more compelling and engaging.  The data did not directly show whether or not the smaller screen reduced the subjects’ comprehension of the stories but that is the implication. Using your cellphone to inform yourself has both pros and cons.  The phone provides high availability, but you might just have to force yourself to pay more attention to the teeny-tiny screen. Johanna Dunaway, Stuart Soroka. Smartphone-size screens constrain cognitive access to video news stories. Information, Communication & Society, 2019; 1 DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2019.

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/HZEdnMcBC_c If you’re trying to resist the siren song of alcohol, a juicy steak, or a huge chunk of cheesecake, that task will be far easier if your memory is clear, you aren’t fatigued, and you are not otherwise under stress.  This conclusion stems from a study of Welch participants recently published in the journal Psychological Science. Their data shows that the ability of our mind’s executive function to help us avoid giving into drug, food, or other temptations is impaired if we literally have much on our minds.  That load includes an abundance of information uppermost in our minds or an abundance of demands on our attention.  The byword is prepare, prepare, prepare.  If temptation is just ahead, clear the decks of your mind by relaxing or distracting so that you may properly confront and cope. Poppy Watson, Daniel Pearson, Michelle Chow, Jan Theeuwes, Reinout W. Wiers, Steven B. Most, Mike E. Le Pelley. Capture and Control: Working Memory Modulates Attentional Capture by Rewar

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/jwYD2vhtFZU A dog at home to welcome a newborn will reduce that baby’s chances of developing skin allergies or wheezing by about half.  These are the findings of a University of Wisconsin’s pediatric department. Researchers there followed 275 at-risk children born to parents with an allergy history over a 3 year period.  Those exposed to dogs just after birth were 56% less likely to develop atopic dermatitis and 48% less likely to develop wheezing. The reasons for this phenomenon remain under study.  Meanwhile, if there is a family history of allergy, this result gives you one more reason to invite a dog into your family. https://www.pediatrics.wisc.edu/featured-stories/allergies #Dogs #allergy #wheezing #atopicdermatitis

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/_xRxrqp7p5I A child who hates food with texture, rejects hot or cold foods, has very limited food preferences, or holds food in his or her mouth for extended periods are likely prime candidates for autism screening.   Studies at Penn State’s psychiatry department of some 2,000 children demonstrate that unusual eating behaviors are present in 70% of children with autism spectrum disorders.  These odd eating habits are 15 times more common in autistic kids compared with their neurotypical peers. The lesson is that kids who consistently eat differently from their sibs and peers should be given the benefit of an early autism diagnosis.  If you child refuses anything grittier than baby food or wants to live on bacon alone, make certain that their pediatricians speak with you about referring them for testing and any necessary early intervention. Susan Dickerson Mayes, Hana Zickgraf. Atypical eating behaviors in children and adolescents with autism, ADHD, other disorders, and typical devel

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/-D4k4d_lERs Exercise will not only trigger needed weight loss, but it triggers better brain metabolism and executive brain function  for the overweight and obese.  A study from Germany’s University of Tübingen shows that an 8 week exercise program improves the brain’s insulin sensitivity and blood flow to brain regions critical for motor control and managing rewards. The study focused on 22 overweight or obese adults who generally avoided exercise but participated in the 2 month organized walking and cycling program.  The subjects had brain scans before and after the exercise program. Those participants who demonstrated the best improvements in their brain function also lost the most belly fat.  In general, though, the relatively short program only began the process of serious weight loss. Exercise is excellent medicine for your body.  Urge your children to exercise by setting a good example.  Then you and they should exercise regularly during what will certainly be a longer, health

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/m2k9SRjKqGA We know that too much blue light at night leads to poor sleep quality, but those tv and phone LED screens could also be triggering your craving for sweets.  This is the conclusion of a Dutch study in a mouse model from the Universities of Strasbourg and Amsterdam. After only one hour of nighttime exposure to LED blue light, the experimental animals chose a sugary rather than a balanced diet the following day and their glucose tolerance diminished.  This  study indicates that repetitive exposure to images at the blue end of the spectrum will drive snacking on sugary foods and interfere with our bodies’ abilities to process that extraneous sugar by increasing insulin resistance leading to diabetes. You can fight this tendency by using a setting on your iPhone called Night Shift and comparable TV screen settings that warm the screen colors from blue to orange.  Don’t be a slave to advertisers who may be using blue images to drive you to your junk food cabinet. Society for t

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/3f5DYU6F4ZA This is 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 : Relieve Your Hot Pepper Heartburn Make A Date - Get A Free Meal CBD Kills Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Your Cell Phone Is Polluted With Bacteria Cheap Home Exercise As Good As Health Club Program The Right Playlist Reduces Your Workout Pain You Can Work Yourself To Death How To Calm Your Anxiety While Waiting Coffee Turbocharges Your Fat Cells To Burn Calories Safe Pain Relief After Tonsillectomy Music Study Improves Academic Performance In Math, Science, and English Our Food Is Too Sweet Vacation Is Literally Good For Your Heart Grapefruit Juice Dangerously Powers Up Certain Drugs Bedroom TVs And Nightlights May Be Fattening Take Some Deep Breaths Before Seeing Your Doctor For show notes and references to for the stories, check out my website at: https://www.drhowardsmith.c

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/P1tlzAik8wY Relaxing yourself before going in that examining room will help you get much more from your visit.  Psychologists at the University of Michigan studied nearly 1500 subjects to determine if interventions that induced more positivity and openness to information would result in a more relaxed and productive health maintenance encounter. The study mimicked a doctor’s visit by exposing the subjects to an array of healthcare information on subjects as diverse as the flu, cancer, HIV, and sexually-transmitted diseases.  Testing and interviews then ascertained how well the participants understood the information given.   Before the so-called “visit,” groups of participants were pre-treated with positivity therapy including meditation, relaxation audios, and breathing exercises.   A control group only listened to documentary information. Those persons who received the relaxation intervention absorbed more of the health information and felt better about the entire experience.  The

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/-EFYrk5NLnM If you love falling asleep with the TV treating you to Law and Order or if you merely leave a light on in the room, you’d better watch that scale.    The NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences studied nearly 44,000 women in the so-called Sister Study of women’s disease.  The researchers questioned the participants about their sleeping habits and compiled physical data including weight at the onset of the study and again 5 years later.   Women who slept with the TV going or a room light on were 17% more likely to gain 11 pounds over the 5 years compared with those who slept in a dark room or at most had a small nightlight burning.  The weight gain was not associated with the reported quality of the participant’ s sleep. The investigators suspect that disruption of the natural day-night cycle or circadian rhythm may be the culprit.  If you must fall asleep to the TV or with a light, use a sleep timer. Yong-Moon Mark Park, Alexandra J. White, Chandra L. J

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/XMWrYblrEB4 Grapefruit and grapefruit juice may cause you to overdose on many popular prescription drugs.  The FDA now repeats its 2017 warning to us and asks us to carefully read the label on any drug you are taking to see if grapefruit can interfere with its function Grapefruit juice blocks the enzyme in the small intestine that normally breaks down drugs causing you to absorb too much of a drug into your system.  And, as always, too much of a good thing isn’t good. The list of affected drugs includes: some statin drugs that lower cholesterol: Zocor (simvastatin), Lipitor (atorvastatin); blood pressure medications such as nifedipine (Procardia, Adalat CC); transplant rejection drugs: cyclosporine (Sandimmune, Neoral); Anxiety drugs: buspirone; steroids: budesonide for IBD (Entocort EC, Uceris); cardiac rhythm controllers: amiodarone (Pacerone, Nexterone). Do speak with your doctor and pharmacist about your medications and grapefruit juice as well as checking the labels and onlin

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/7YWEoizy0y4 Taking frequent vacations is associated with a lower risk of developing the metabolic syndrome, that deadly triad of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.  This welcome news comes from Syracuse University’s Department of Public Health. The study focused on 63 university workers, and the researchers compiled information about their vacations and health status over a 12 month period.  A greater number of vacation days was associated with a lower incidence of metabolic syndrome components.  The risk of full-blown metabolic syndrome diminishes by 25% for each vacation taken. The fact that the US has a  $  declining average life expectancy relative to other industrialized nations may have something to do with the fact that we are the only one of those nations that does not guarantee a paid vacation to workers.   Then too, when U.S. workers do receive paid vacation time, fewer than half take advantage of it and instead take the money. The last word:  hit the road and take that

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/fN_v_Z1pldM When we comment about the taste of our food, the overwhelming conclusion is “it’s TOO SWEET!”  This is the “bittersweet" conclusion from tabulation of almost 400,000 food reviews by Philadelphia’s Monell Chemical Senses Center. The scientists there used artificial intelligence techniques to analyze data about the taste, texture, and smell of nearly 68,000 unique foods posted on amazon.com product reviews.   When it came to discussions of taste, sweet was the word most frequently mentioned appearing in 11% of reviews and 3 times more often than the word “bitter.”  Food was rated as “overly sweet “ 25 times more often than “not sweet enough.” It’s probably no surprise how often products are rated too sweet, since  $   literally tons of fructose syrup is poured into the food we eat.  Try to avoid all that unhealthy sugar by reading food labels. Danielle R. Reed, Joel D. Mainland, Charles J. Arayata. Sensory nutrition: The role of taste in the reviews of commercial food prod

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/ZhRZAnOkg7c Taking music instruction and playing an instrument boosts high school students’ scores in their academic courses.  This study of some 112,000 Canadian high school students just published in the Journal of Educational Psychology is a biting indictment of local school boards that frequently vote to eliminate music programs in favor of taxpayer-supported sports. The data also showed that children who learned to play a musical instrument in elementary school and continued to play into high school scored one academic year ahead in all subjects when compared with their non-playing peers.  This superiority in math, science, and literary studies was independent of socioeconomic level, ethnicity, or prior academic performance. Musical training enhances eye-hand-mind coordination, listening skills, and discipline all of which have impact on general academic studies.  Playing in an ensemble perfects the same teamwork skills that derive from sports. If you want your children to exce