Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/c5Y0tyBw3Lk Staggering numbers of children risk irreversible injuries to their developing brains everyday as they climb on a variety of wheeled play vehicles.  A new study from The University of  Michigan surveyed over 1300 parents of children from 4 to 13 years to assess their children’s use of protective helmets and defensive measures in the streets. Parents admit that their children don’t use helmets 61% of the time while riding scooters, during 58% of skateboard sessions, and on 18% of bike rides.  Twenty-seven percent of children ride their bikes and other play vehicles in streets and most of these streets have no bike lanes.   National statistics show that 50 children an hour every hour visit an emergency department because of injuries sustained on bikes, scooters, and skateboards.  Many of these accidents involve younger children who should be directly supervised by their parents.  For your older kids, review helmet use and restrict their rides to car-free bike lanes and trai

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/ldtCbVQLkSc Those who tend to be anxious have a 6th sense superpower that effectively protects them from danger.  A new study from Caltech’s cognitive neuroscience department shows that anxious individuals more effectively flee from subtle dangers. The study participants were challenged with a series of virtual reality threats characterized as slow that are impending or fast that are immediate.  Brain activity was assessed by real time MRI.   The most anxious individuals did a better job of dodging slow threats while all participants performed about the same with fast threats.  If you tend to be anxious and take a lot of ribbing about your risk aversion from your friends and family, just tell them that you have a very special sense that someday may save you and also them from disaster. Bowen J. Fung, Song Qi, Demis Hassabis, Nathaniel Daw & Dean Mobbs. Slow escape decisions are swayed by trait anxiety.  Nature Human Behaviour (2019) .  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/UhNuAmT-254 Many Americans, some 20% of our friends and neighbors, take glucosamine for the pain and disability of arthritis.  Like many food supplements, we only know that it is probably safe.  No well-designed studies have proven that it works for joint problems.  One study of knee osteoarthritis published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed a glucosamine-chondroitin combo pill to be no more effective than a sugar pill. Now a study from Tulane Public Health, the Harbin Medical University in China, and the Harvard School of Public Health shows that regular use of glucosamine use may actually protect you from cardiovascular disease. Some half million British participants were studied.  The data showed that those using glucosamine enjoyed an 18% reduction in coronary artery disease, a 12% reduction in death from cardiovascular disease, a 9% reduction in stroke.  The supplement works even better in smokers with a 37% lower risk of any cardiovascular disease. The exact mechan

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/s4PxSI92nGc The air in our largest cities is destroying our arteries.   A study recently published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives studied over 6600 otherwise healthy adults in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore, St. Paul and Winston-Salem. Over more than a decade during which the subjects’ carotid arterial thickness, carotid plaque quantity, and coronary artery calcification were measured, those exposed to chronically elevated ozone concentrations in urban air were found to suffer significant carotid and coronary arterial wall damage.  The study did not address the effect of bad air on the incidence of heart attacks, stroke, or death from cardiovascular disease. If you live in such big city environments, try to spend as much time as you can in green spaces preferably out in the country or by the shore.  Environmental moderation is every bit as important to your health as dietary and exercise moderation. Meng Wang , Paul D. Sampson , Lianne E. Sheppard ,

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/A3FZGwlqq_g Playing video games that feature guns and swords leads children to handle real guns.   This is the conclusion of a Ohio Statue University study of 220 eight to twelve year olds. Of the children playing a video game shooting guns, 62% touched a real handgun, of those playing a game with sword violence, 57% touched a handgun.  Of the control group of kids playing a non-violent video game, only 42% touched the gun.  Those playing the violent video games were significantly more likely to pull the gun’s trigger multiple times and to aim the gun at a playmate. Since we in the USA lack the political guts to establish effective gun controls, the best we can do is to expose our children to non-violent recreation, both digital and real-world varieties, that reinforce our own rejection of weapon use. Chang JH, Bushman BJ. Effect of Exposure to Gun Violence in Video Games on Children’s Dangerous Behavior With Real Guns: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2019;2(5):e194319.

Vidcast:  hhttps://youtu.be/2hn9iZ29Z3k Despite the many public campaigns and manufacturers efforts over recent years to make these pods look less like candy, a new study from the Nationwide Children’s Hospital shows that pod poisonings have actually increased for children older than 6 and only slightly diminished for younger kids.  Every 42 minutes a poison control center gets a frantic call about liquid laundry soap pods. The study reviewed data from 2012 through 2017 compiled at the nation’s poison control centers.  There were almost 73,000 calls during this period, and over 90% of the poisonings involved kids under 6 and occurred at the child’s home.  Sadly, there were 2 child deaths. The highly-concentrated liquid detergent in these convenience containers turns out to be more toxic than the usual detergent powder or liquid found in multi-use packages and bottles.  My recommendation: if you are the parent of a young child, simply don’t buy these laundry and dishwasher pods.  They are more expensive and mu

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/35EBOOTfQ2Q 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 : IVF and Heart Failure During Pregnancy  Weed Use In Adolescence Numbs The Adult Brain Overweight Teen Boys Risk Later Heart Failure Premies Brains Develop Better To Music Calling Addiction A Disease Harms Those Fighting It Links Between Allergy and Mental Illness If It Feels Like A Heart Attack….Better Get Help Fainting While Pregnant Signals Impending Complications Exercise Your Placenta Timeout For Healing Needed Following Knee Surgery Low Birthweight Infants Suffer Adult Lung Problems Obese Kids Develop Early Arterial Disease Reading To Toddlers Improves Their Behavior and Yours Freezing Testicular Tissue For Boys With Cancer Hookahs Heated Electrically No Safer   For show notes and references for the stories, check out my website at: https://www.drhowardsmith.com/may-2019

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/FUVxNDRAE_c Advertising that touts electric hookah smoking to be safer than charcoal hookah smoking is a scam. Chemists and engineers at the American University of Beirut studied waterpipe smoking of tobacco heated by these two methods. The study measured toxin emissions by three commercially available electric hookahs and compared them to emissions from charcoal-heated hookahs.  While electric hookahs reduced the aromatic hydrocarbons by 80% and carbon monoxide by 90%, they significantly increased the levels of the respiratory toxin acrolein. This study once again underscores the fact that safe smoking of any kind is an oxymoron.  If you must have a hit of addicting nicotine, hopefully with the goal of quitting, is is safer to chew nicotine gum or apply a nicotine patch. Mario El Hourani, Soha Talih, Rola Salman, Nareg Karaoghlanian, Ebrahim Karam, Rachel El Hage, Najat Aoun Saliba, Alan Shihadeh. Comparison of CO, PAH, Nicotine, and Aldehyde Emissions in Waterpipe Tobacco Smoke Ge

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/GV9b0yDqklU Banking tissue with sperm-producing cells may be an alternative for those boys and even older males too young or too sick to bank sperm prior to medical treatments that threaten their later fertility.  This conclusion comes from an 8 year study recently published in the journal Human Reproduction. As many as 2,000 boys and young men undergo sterilizing chemotherapy and radiation therapy for cancer eradication.  To preserve the possibility that they may later father children, a pilot study looked at the testicular tissue samples from 189 males undergoing such therapy.  Their ages ranged from 5 months to 34 years with an average of 8 years. Seventy-five percent of each tissue sample was cryopreserved for the patient’s later use.  The remainder was utilized for research into optimal methods for freezing, thawing, and potentially separating normal stem cells from tumor cells.   The study did demonstrate that sperm-generating cells may be successfully recovered from such tiss

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/SMdWVe6wd0U Parental reading to toddlers improves their behaviors and reduces the need for escalating disciplinary measures.  Pediatricians at Rutgers Medical and Public Health Schools studied nearly 2200 parent-child pairs across 20 US metropolitan areas. The study found that shared reading enhances the child’s communication skills and emotional development, and it enhances parent-child bonding.  This translates into a lower incidence of attention problems, disruptive behavior, and the need for harsh parenting. This is just the latest in a string of studies that touts the benefits of reading to your kids.  Turn off the TV, shut off the phone, and pick up a book to share.   Manuel E. Jimenez, Alan L. Mendelsohn, Yong Lin, Patricia Shelton, Nancy Reichman. Early Shared Reading Is Associated with Less Harsh Parenting. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 2019; 1 DOI: 10.1097/DBP.0000000000000687 #Reading #attentiondeficit #discipline #communication #parenting

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/KIZUEQ9_8YY Children and adolescents with continuing obesity show significant stiffening of their arteries toward the end of their teen years.  This is the frightening finding in a study of more than 3400 Swedish kids just published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal. Childhood obesity and a high fat mass tends to foster high blood pressures, elevated lipid levels, and abnormal blood sugars.  These parameters are associated with stiffening of key arteries that in turn risks later heart attacks, strokes, and death from cardiovascular disease. The study has some good news though.  Those children who were able to decrease their fat mass over their teen years did see a normalization of their arterial stiffness. This study stresses the importance of weight control throughout life beginning during early childhood.  We are now learning that baby fat isn’t cute and must quickly give way to a toned body in order to avoid dire cardiovascular consequences. Frida Dangardt, Mari

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/JZXcwKbysIw Babies born weighing less than 1.5 kg or 3.3 pounds are four times more likely than normal birthweight infants to suffer reduced pulmonary capacity when they reach their teen and young adult years.  This conclusion comes from an international meta-analysis of 11 studies and over 1700 subjects by Australian OBGYN researchers. Those with low birth weights, frequently born before 32 weeks, later underwent pulmonary function testing at 16 to 33 years of age.  Compared to those born with normal weights and at term, they had a high incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.  This was particularly true for those who were diagnosed with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) during infancy. Premature babies and those with low birth weights should be followed carefully into adulthood and checked for the development of pulmonary disease.  Many will have reduced lung capacities through childhood, and their restrictive lung disease may become handicapping as they mature. Lex W Do

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/wA3BlzJz0Gc If you’re having an ACL repair, don’t plan on getting back into the action for at least a year following the surgery.  This is the recommendation that springs from a study at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg. Sports medicine researchers there studied some 729 athletes undergoing repair of their anterior cruciate ligaments following game injuries.  Those who returned to play within 9 months of surgery had a 33% chance of a repeat injury.  Waiting 9 months or more dropped that percentage down to a mere 6%. The investigators recommend waiting 12 months or more following ACL surgical repair and even then only returning to sport after thorough tests of thigh muscle strength and jumping ability. University of Gothenburg. "Young athletes may need one-year break after knee surgery." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 23 May 2019. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190523104938.htm. #ACLrepair #orthopedics #sportsmedicine #parenting

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/ZhsT6oQ4B5s Exercise during pregnancy keeps moms fit and their weight gain under better control.  It also has beneficial effects on placental function and development of the baby. A study from Washington State University, performed in a mouse model and just published in the Journal of Physiology, shows that consistent exercise helps placental vascularization and normalizes placenta metabolic activity. The study was performed in mice of normal weight but also in obese mice to take account of the fact that more than one-third of pregnant Americans are obese.  For the obese mice, the exercise not only helped placental vigor and metabolism but it also reduced the incidence of fetal overgrowth and the delivery of overweight offspring. If you are planning to become pregnant, do try to bring your body weight into a normal range before beginning your pregnancy.  Once you do conceive, plan on regular exercise throughout your pregnancy to help the placenta properly nourish the fetus and to re

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/NVHQsaoGaCE Urban legend has it that fainting while pregnant is no big deal.  A study just published by Canadian cardiologists and epidemiologists finds that fainting, the common term for syncope, while pregnant is a bad prognostic sign for both the mother and her developing baby. The researchers studied more than 480,000 babies and their mothers.   Though fainting is uncommon affecting only 1% of pregnant women, it tends to occur most often during the first trimester.   When fainting does occur, it is associated with an increase in maternal cardiac problems and higher rates of prematurity.  Carrying and nourishing a fetus is an acknowledged strain on the mother’s cardiovascular system. If a pregnant woman you know faints, be certain that she reports the event to her medical doctors as well as to her OBGYN.  She should then be followed more carefully throughout her pregnancy for the potential development of cardiovascular disease and fetal developmental issues. Safia Chatur, Sunjida

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/-5G0axMe2LQ Those with tell-tale heart attack symptoms wait on average 3 hours before seeking emergency help.  That shocking statistic comes from a study by Swedish cardiologists at the Karolinska University Hospital that investigated the reasons for such a life-threatening delay. Their study followed 326 patients having either a first or a second heart attack.  Some reported waiting more than 12 up to 24 hours after the onset of symptoms due to what they describe as a paralysis to act on the symptoms.   Many rationalized that the severe and persisting chest, arm, and shoulder pains for more than 15 minutes they well knew were signs of impending disaster would pass by themselves.  They didn’t think that their symptoms warranted an ambulance trip to the hospital. This is the first study to identify that action immobilization occurs in heart attack victims.   The authors emphasize that a feeling of paralysis to act can be added to the known heart attack symptoms of left-sided chest pa

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/pIvjASoILKg A German study reveals an association between seasonal allergies and anxiety as well as a link between year-round or perennial allergies with depression.  Psychologists at the University of Augsburg studied more than 1700 middle-aged persons with a variety of allergies including environmental, food, and drug hypersensitivities.   The researchers point out that, in the cases of environmental allergies, the study cannot determine if anxiety is the cause or the effect of seasonal allergies or if depression leads to or is the result of year-round allergies.  They found no links between psychological factors and either food or drug allergies.   Allergy sufferers should use this information to recognize their unique vulnerabilities to either anxiety, depression, or both.  We don’t know if excellent allergy control with medicated sprays and plan old saline reduces psychologic woes, but being able to breathe easily certainly won’t hurt. Katharina Harter, Gertrud Hammel, Lisa Kra

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/BZa4b6iu7Xs Calling addictive substance abuse a disease negatively impacts the addicts’ efforts to get sober.  This is the conclusion of a study from the University of North Carolina just published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. The researchers studied 214 men and women with substance abuse problems.  One group received growth mindset messaging and the control group received addiction as a disease messaging.   The growth message was a positive one that addicts can employ multiple strategies to combat their propensity to use.  It empowered those receiving it to seek help.  In contrast, the disease messaging tended to paralyze addicts efforts to stop and suggested that conquering the addictive behavior may be nearly impossible. If you or someone you know is addicted to any substance or negative behavior, encourage them to think positively about their self-help capabilities and urge them to get professional help. Jeni L. Burnette, Rachel B. Forsyth, Sarah L. Desmarai

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/UFtArWv0Arw Premature infants who listen to music enjoy enhanced neural development.  Swiss neuroscientists at the University of Geneva report the positive effects of specially composed and performed music on developing neural networks of premies. The musical selections varied with time of day and were designed to lend an auditory structure to the infant’s first days out of the womb.  The instruments that produced the most consistent reactions from the babies were the snake charmer’s flute, the harp, and bells. The double blind study used MRI imaging before and after the musical exposure to assess the effect.  The group of premies treated to the music showed stronger connections between the parts of their brains that perform cognitive tasks, manage social relationships, and manage emotions. If a premie has recently joined your family, consider adding lilting flute, harp, and orchestral bell music to their environments. Lara Lordier, Djalel-Eddine Meskaldji, Frédéric Grouiller, Marie

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/RghCkNItbYQ Obesity in the teen years increases the chances of heart weakening and heart failure in middle age by a factor of eight.  But wait, that’s not the worst news.  Even mildly overweight adolescent guys risk heart disease in their 40s and 50s. These conclusions come from a study of nearly 1.7 million Swedish military recruits who were weighed at age 18 as they entered service and were followed for up to 46 years.  The effects on the heart were proportional to weight.  For each 1 unit increase in body mass index or BMI, the risk of dilated cardiomyopathy leading to heart failure increases some 15%.  Women were not studied since they were not joining the military at the time the study began. This study is a wake up call that the current trend toward overeating and obesity will have some horrific consequences.  There are some effective treatments but no cure for a worn out heart except cardiac transplantation and donors are scarce!  Someday, we’ll grow new cardiac tissue from s