Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

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” to indicate the date after which food’s quality and taste may decline.  In contrast, the term “Use by” is the date after which it is unsafe to consume the food. The Hopkins study also reveals how likely people are to respond to the date warnings.  Nearly 70% of respondents tossed raw chicken on time, a little over 60% discarded deli meats or prepared foods, and only 49% dumped soft cheese.   These stats are worrisome since deli meats and soft cheeses have a high risk of bacterial contamination with listeria as they sit in the fridge.  On the other hand, raw chicken will be safe even after the expiration date if you th

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 cyclic-AMP.  This new discovery that exercise triggers the dumping junk proteins from the cell is almost certainly explained by that fact that exercise bumps up your adrenalin and that, in turn, triggers a burst of cyclic-AMP. Since cell garbage plays a key role in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s as well as storage diseases like amyloidosis, it may well be that prevention of these dread diseases can be added to the list of exercise’s benefits. #exercise #cellcleansing #cAMP #Alzheimers #Parkinsons #healthnews Jordan J. S. VerPlank, Sudarsanareddy Lokireddy, Jinghui Zhao, Alfred L. Goldberg

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 any mechanical device. The latest study from the University of Oxford’s orthopedic surgeons reveals that nearly one in four young men will require ultimately a revision of their shoulder surgery, and the artificial shoulders fail most often during the first 5 years after placement.  Trying to revise shoulder replacements can be complicated and risky.  Living bone and metal replacement parts don’t always play nice with each other. Shoulder replacements aren’t the only artificial joints that fail or wear out.  Hip and knee replacements each only last about 10-20 years.   The overwhelming driver of replacement joint failure

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 Drive You Crazy US Drug Overdoses Higher Than Other Wealthy Nations Parental and Child Illegal Drug Use Linked An Urban Park Will Lift Your Spirits More Hearts For Transplantation Stool Testing Can Replace Colonoscopy Teen High Blood Pressure Leads To Later Kidney Failure Middle Age Activity Reduces Later Dementia Risk Birth Complications Higher Nights, Weekends, and Holidays TRY A LITTLE KINDNESS: Savor Throughout Life For more information, you’ll find all the references for the stories and a copy of show notes on my website at:  https://www.drhowardsmith.com/feb-2019-4th-week-health-news  

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 themselves can control. The study tested 32 autistic children from 8 to 14 years of age with various fears including fears of buses, airplanes, and even dogs.  A total of 40% of children showed improvement after two weeks and 45% of them did well after 6 months of treatment with personalized video scenarios.   One dramatic story involves an 8 year old named Harry.  His fear of dogs was so severe that he would hysterically run across a road to avoid one, and he was oblivious to traffic.   After a total of 4 sessions, Harry became so comfortable with dogs that his family bought him his own.  The his fear of canines never re

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 lethal genetic defects including heart defects as well as miscarriage, but most warnings about the drug mention doses of the drug higher than 400-800 mg per day.  The current study shows that congenital cardiac defects arose after exposures to 150 mg per day or above during early pregnancy, and, let me repeat, any dose of oral fluconazole is associated with a higher incidence of miscarriage. Once again, the byword is that any oral medications during pregnancy should be avoided. #yeast #vaginitis #fluconazole #diflucan #miscarriage #cardiacdefects #healthnews #healthtips Anick Bérard, Odile Sheehy, Jin-Ping Zhao, Jessic

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, France, Germany, Canada, and Russia. Those countries with more liberal marijuana policies did not experience higher rates of use.  This study was completed to check the conclusions of a 2015 study that predicted a rise in teen cannabis use with a drop in legal restraints. Marijuana is not innocuous.  If used and overused, it drives cognitive and productivity declines.  This week, other stories demonstrate its negative and lasting effect on the brain and its role in triggering heart attack.   Education and not legislation is the key to insuring responsible drug use. #cannabis #marijuanalegalization #education #healthne

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 being developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology may change all that. The diagnostic tool employs nanotechnology to build an ingenious probe that acts as an early warning beacon for organ rejection.  It is a nanoball with iron oxide in the middle, a sugar coating of dextran,  and some polyethylene glycol or antifreeze to prevent the body from quickly degrading it.  The ball is covered with amino acid florescent spikes.  These nanoballs are injected into the transplanted organs and remain there. As the transplant patient’s T cells bulk up to mount a rejection of a heart, liver, or kidney, they begin to produce the tox

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.  Then, the controls received the acupuncture and the initially treated subjects were merely observed.   The assessors who questioned participants about their symptoms were unaware of the treatment received.  The tabulated results showed that the acupuncture therapy significantly diminished hot flashes, sweats day and night, sleep issues, emotional symptoms, skin, and hair complaints. If you are suffering from menopause-related symptoms and are unable to get relief from conventional Western medicine, do seek out a qualified acupuncture specialist.  Complementary and alternative therapy can be very effective. =#acupuncture

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 degradation in their red-green and blue-yellow color vision and could not easily see contrasting images.  The researchers have not yet pinpointed which chemical toxins in cigarettes damage the retina, but they also point out that a cigarette smoking habit yellows your eye lenses and doubles the risk of age-related macular degeneration. Here is yet more proof that smoking is bad for your body.  If it doesn’t kill you, and it will, it may suffocate and blind you. #colorvision #blindness #smoking, blindness #healthnews #healthtips Thiago P. Fernandes, Steven M. Silverstein, Natalia L. Almeida, Natanael A. Santos. Visual impairmen

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 beverages with “fake sugar,” were 23% more likely to have a stroke, often due to clot formation, 29% more likely to have a heart attack, and 16% more likely to die for any reason. The study did not identify which artificial sweeteners may be more dangerous than others.  The bottom like is that there are few reasons to drink these “fake sugar” drinks.  Many of us drink so-called diet drinks to avoid weight gain, but I recently reported a study that shows such beverages will not help you with weight loss so don’t bother. If you love the cold, fizzy feeling in your throat, you are better off drinking seltzer or sparkling w

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/lqthcPqYONM The gold standard for a school-aged child’s sleep is a good 9 to 11 hours depending on age.  Can you or your children actually tell how long they slept? A study from the University of Arizona just published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine answers yes!  Researchers compared the sleep tallies from questionnaires completed by children and others by their parents with the actual numbers derived from sleep studies, so-called polysomnograms, completed at the children’s homes. The kids were the best at estimating their sleep duration.  They overestimated their sleep duration by an average of only 32 minutes while their parents overestimated it by 36 minutes.  Both children and parents did better estimating the time it took to fall asleep.  The children overestimated by an average of only 4 minutes and the parents by 2 minutes. A good night’s sleep is key for recharging you brain and revitalizing you body.  Be sure to ask your kids how long they slept and encourage them

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/-HhcJ1th6Z8 As our families add children, we parents turn to our older children and encourage them to be the new arrival’s big brother or sister.  The latest intelligence from psychologists at Britain’s University of Warwick reveals the worrisome intelligence that the older siblings instead tend to bully the younger ones. The researchers tabulated data from nearly 6900 British children who were studied at ages 5, 7 and 12 years.  A total of 28% of the children were involved in sibling bullying, and many were both bullies and victims.  Bullying occurred more often in families with 3 or more children, and the eldest child or older brothers were most often the bullies. Bullying tends to be rampant in any situation where humans live in close proximity, know which buttons to push, and compete for parental attention and other limited resources.  Older children often resent the younger ones who came along to rob them of their only child privilege.   Parents must guard against sibling violen

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/j8mOrrCP-94 One study after another heralds the advantages of breastfeeding.  Some mothers turn to pumping their breast milk when their flow is sporadic or when they develop conflicts with sib childcare or the demands of work.  Do babies enjoy the same advantages from ingesting pumped breast milk? The short answer is an emphatic NO.  Researchers from Canada’s University of Manitoba studied the breast milk of almost 400 healthy mothers 3 to 4 months following delivery.  Using sophisticated genetic probes, they showed that the milk the babies actually ingested was healthier when it came directly from the mother’s breast.   The natural breast milk contained good bacteria from both the mother and from the mouth of the infant.  The pumped breast milk contained those bugs but also an abundance of bad bacteria, opportunistic types that are capable of causing respiratory disease It isn’t clear if the bad bugs come from contaminated breast pumps, but that is a likely possibility.  If you do u

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/zho25BPRc8w Marijuana use is spreading like wildfire, and the prevailing opinion is that its components are harmless.  Another of this weeks stories highlights its potential danger for those with heart problems.  Now a study from Britain’s University of Oxford and Canada’s McGill University shows that regular cannabis use in adolescence can trigger adult depression and suicidal ideas. The researchers reviews 11 international studies covering more than 23,000 young persons.  Regular weed use by an individual bumped his or her risk of serious depression and suicide up by a factor of about 7%.  The number isn’t huge, but the consequences are tragic for that person so affected.  Then when you amplify the individual effect over a population, it translates into more than 400,000 cases of deadly depression in the U.S., 60,000 case in the U.K., and 25, 000 cases in Canada. Other studies have shown that a teens regular use of cannabis is associated with poor school performance, increased moto

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/K1gxsErYkQc How many times have we heard our mothers and grandmothers say “Dear..... you better go to sleep to fight off that cold.”  The latest research just published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine now proves that she was dead on! Immunologists from Germany’s University of Tübingen studied T cells from healthy volunteers as they slept or while they were pulling all nighters.  For your reference, T cells are the white cells that kill cold viruses. The “sleeping” T cells had significantly more surface activators called integrins.  These sticky integrins help the killer T cells attach and destroy target cells.   The targets in question could be our respiratory lining cells infected by cold viruses and making more virus to perpetuate our misery.   More importantly, the target cell could also be a cancer cell on its way to your brain, lungs, or liver. Just as sleep bumps up your T cell integrins, stress does just the opposite.  So be sure to get those ZZZZZ and fight stress by

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/NTxj6-8Dqts We’ve all heard about the narcotic epidemic.  The real news is that there are potent weapons to combat opioid use as close as our medicine cabinets.   Ibuprofen, generic or branded Advil or Motrin, either alone or with acetaminophen, generic or Tylenol, significantly reduced the need for postoperative morphine in a study of more than 550 patients undergoing hip surgery.   The subjects started their oral pain meds one hour before surgery and continued to receive them every 6 hours for the first day after surgery.  The patients were able to obtain any additional pain relief they needed by pushing a button to self-administer IV morphine. The finding that 400 mg of ibuprofen, that’s two adult pills, taken every 6 hours kills pain exceedingly well and eliminates the need for more powerful drugs should be useful information to you.  If you are a patient facing surgery, do discuss post-op pain control strategy with your surgeon and anesthesiologist.  When you do, tell them you’d

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/_Ea_jZxu15Q   There’s plenty of “Fake News” out there, and some of it is bogus medical, health, and wellness news.  Just how do you know if your sources of health news are legit?     The Health News You Should Use that I present here comes from what I consider to be gold standard outlets.  However, even though true, much of the news out there isn’t useful for most of us.  I sift though the material from the best sources and pick stories that I think you will find useful..   For your interest, convenience, and safety, I’m sharing with you my 5 go-to resources with industrial strength reliability in each of 5 categories.  When news from these sources comes your way, you can believe it!   Newspapers of record.  Here are the best large national broadsheet newspapers that employ excellent medical and health journalists.  Their staff writers, many with impressive research and clinical credentials, know how to read and interpret the medical literature.  Here are my top 5: The New York T

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/ct13uGTrFlA Recreational cannabis use is on the rise as more and more states make it legal.  We can learn a thing or two from our neighbors to the north as weed for fun is completely legal throughout Canada and medicinal marijuana has been in widespread use for years. A just published report in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology reminds us that the new cannabis can be risky.  The case report recounts the story of a older man with stable coronary artery disease who decided to try a THC lollipop to relieve some pain and insomnia.  It contained 90 mg of THC and triggered a serious heart attack and reduced cardiac function.  Compared that dose to the 7 mg in a joint or the usual 2.5 mg dose of THC used for nausea in cancer and AIDS patients. Cannabis heart toxicity can be due to: 1. directed effects of THC on cardiac muscle; 2. effects of the various inhaled and toxic gases released when marijuana burn, and 3. the cardiac effects of weed-induced anxiety and hallucinations.   Over the pas

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/ogsYU-IDW14 Those feminine hormones that help to bestow the miracle of reproduction on women may ironically make them more susceptible to addiction.   The latest entry in a series of studies from Vanderbilt University’s pharmacology department shows that, when a female’s estrogen is peaking, she learns faster, craves adventure and novel experiences, is more likely to seek romance whether good or bad, and is more prone to seek rewards.  That makes her more likely to fall prey to addiction. The investigators had previously demonstrated that higher estrogen levels intensify the brain’s dopamine reward release following cocaine use.  These latest experiments employed a rat model to show that females, in the presence of a light trigger, were more motivated than males to do what it takes to repeatedly get a dose of cocaine.  Female hormones facilitate repeated drug ingestion. Those of us who applaud the #metoo movement see this type of information as a tool for liberating women from the re