Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

  • Author: Vários
  • Narrator: Vários
  • Publisher: Podcast
  • Duration: 124:48:06
  • More information

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Synopsis

Howard G. Smith, M.D. is a former radio medical editor and talk show host in the Boston Metro area. He was heard on WBZ-AM, WRKO-AM, and WMRE-AM presenting his "Medical Minute" of health and wellness news and commentary. His popular two-way talk show, Dr. Howard Smith OnCall, was regularly heard Sunday morning and middays on WBZ. He also was a fill-in host during evenings on the same station.More recently, he has adopted the 21st century technology of audio and video podcasting as conduits for the short health and wellness reports, HEALTH NEWS YOU SHOULD USE, and the timely how-to recommendations, HEALTH TIPS YOU CAN'T SKIP. Many of these have video versions, and they may be found on his YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKPOSWu-b4GjEK_iOCsp4MATrained at Harvard Medical School and a long-time faculty member at Boston Childrens Hospital, he practiced Pediatric Otolaryngology for 40 years in Boston, Southern California, and in central Connecticut. Now that his clinical responsibilities have diminished, he will be filing news reports and creating commentaries regularly.  Then several times a month, the aggregated the reports will appear as DR. SMITH'S HEALTH NEWS ROUNDUPS on his YouTube and podcast feeds.  If you have questions or suggestions about this content, please email the doctor at drhowardsmith.reports@gmail.com or leave him a message at 516-778-8864.  His website is: www.drhowardsmith.com.Please note that the news, views, commentary, and opinions that Dr. Smith provides are for informational purposes only. Any changes that you or members of your family contemplate making to lifestyle, diet, medications, or medical therapy should always be discussed beforehand with personal physicians who have been supervising your care.

Episodes

  • Recall On Organic Basil

    28/11/2020 Duration: 42s

      Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/zI61_Wc0qjk   Shenandoah Growers Inc and the FDA are recalling packages of organic basil sold under The Fresh Market and  the Good and Gather labels.  These products are contaminated with Cyclospora.  This parasite causes an intestinal infection accompanied by severe abdominal pains, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, body aches, and fatigue.  If you have these products, discard them immediately and contact the Shenandoah Growers Consumer Response Center at 1-844-896-6939 to arrange a refund.   https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/shenandoah-growers-inc-issues-limited-voluntary-recall-certain-imported-organic-basil-because   #basil #cyclospora   

  • Hy-Vee Short Cuts On Recall

    28/11/2020 Duration: 47s

      Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/6fOpKSYaEkE   Hy-Vee, Inc. and the FDA have recalled Hy-Vee Short Cuts vegetable mix products.  There is contamination with Listeria monocytogenes.  The products involved include Pot Roast Mix and Grill/Oven Ready Veggie Mix, were sold in IL, IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, SD, and WI.  Listeria causes severe illness in the very young, the elderly, and the immune compromised as well as miscarriages and stillbirths.  Discard these items or return them to the store for a full refund.  For more information, call Hy-Vee at 1-800-772-4098.   https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/hy-vee-voluntarily-recalls-two-short-cuts-vegetable-mix-products-because-possible-health-risk   #hyvee #shortcuts #listeria  

  • Nutrient Supplements Recalled

    28/11/2020 Duration: 48s

      Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/4RkqoKFSp0w   The FDA and Fusion Health and Vitality LLC are recalling two products: CORE Essential Nutrients; and Immune Boost Sublingual Vitamin D3.  The CORE product contains an unapproved food additive hordenine HCl and is therefore considered adulterated.  Hordenine is unsafe if ingested and may elevate the heart rate and blood pressure.  The Immune Boost product has labeling that renders it an unapproved new drug.  If you have either of these products, stop using them and return them to the point of purchase for a refund.  If you have additional questions, contact Fusion at 1-888-964-5327.   https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/fusion-health-and-vitality-issues-voluntary-nationwide-recall-core-essential-nutrients-and-immune   #supplements #hordenine #fda  

  • CoVid Pandemic Complicates Measles Preparedness

    28/11/2020 Duration: 01min

      Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/iKNIpIlfz-k   Fear of CoVid has kept millions of children from receiving scheduled measles vaccinations this year.  That shortfall only adds to the missed vaccinations that precipitated this year’s measles outbreaks.  A worldwide CoVid vaccination campaign will only add to the problem.   The WHO working group on measles and rubella issues this warning with the sobering data that measles caused 207,000 deaths in 2019, 50% more than in 2016.  These tragedies were all preventable.   As the US ramps up for CoVid vaccinations, don’t forget about the MMR and flu vaccines.  Remember too that there is evidence that these latter two vaccines may also give you some umbrella protection against CoVid while you wait for its vaccine.   https://secure.jbs.elsevierhealth.com/action/getSharedSiteSession?redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thelancet.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0140673620323941&rc=0   #measles #vaccine #covid #flu #mmr  

  • Why CoVid Victims Have Silent Hypoxia

    28/11/2020 Duration: 57s

      Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/dNf1xLs7j6o   One COVID feature is blood oxygen levels dropping without patients realizing they are sick.  This silent oxygen deprivation does lasting damage to multiple organs.   Biomedical engineers at Boston University and the University of Vermont, using patient data and computer modeling, show that the oxygen drop is due to 3 mechanisms.  Lung regions damaged by CoVid do not block blood flow and divert it to healthier regions, they have abnormally high blood clotting, and, finally,  CoVid  produces a mismatch of air flow to blood flow in the lungs.   Low blood oxygen levels can be an early sign of CoVid.  Consider buying and using an inexpensive pulse oximeter and using it on a daily basis.   https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18672-6   #covid #lung #hypoxia #shunting #clotting  

  • A Possible Cancer Vaccine

    28/11/2020 Duration: 01min

      Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/OnuvfszO7kE   One hallmark of successful cancer immunotherapy is the deployment of checkpoint inhibitors, antibodies against the PD-1 receptors on lymphocytes that prevent them from killing cancer cells.  These must be repeatedly infused intravenously to trigger the army of killer white cells.   A just published study from Ohio State shows that even more powerful checkpoint antibodies may be synthesized using an immunogenic peptide PD1-Vaxx.  The vaccine prompts production of multiple antibodies to multiple sites on the PD-1 receptor.   This vaccine shows significant anti-cancer activity in a mouse human colon cancer model.  It remains to future studies to test it on humans.  This vaccine could also induce anti-cancer surveillance preventing emergence of tumors.   https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2162402X.2020.1818437   #cancer #vaccine #checkpoint #pd1  

  • Women’s and Men’s Different Health Challenges

    28/11/2020 Duration: 58s

      Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/tCbUg5H-sy4   Cornell neuroscientist Dr. Lisa Mosconi has identified brain and body differences between the two genders.  Parade magazine encapsulated her findings this past weekend.   Women: See doctors more often Benefit more from plant-based diets Have greater risks of dementia Experience more anxiety and depression Suffer more headaches and migraines  Have more autoimmune diseases   Men: Develop illness at younger ages Experience more lifetime illness Die younger Have higher healthcare costs Have more gout Have more inguinal hernias Suffer more aortic aneurysms Develop more kidney stones Have more alcoholism Develop more duodenal ulcers Suffer more emphysema   Know your risks and improve your chances.   https://parade.com/1121927/paulaspencer/how-mens-womens-brains-different/   #health #men #women  

  • Ibuprofen Increases Bleeding After Tonsillectomy

    28/11/2020 Duration: 01min

      Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/FopRSkMu_F8   If your child has a tonsillectomy, don’t use ibuprofen, Motrin or Advil, to control post-operative pain.  A study from Harvard’s Boston Children’s Hospital shows that these drugs increase the risk of bleeding following tonsillectomy by 36%.   The study analyzed more than one-half million children under 18 years who underwent tonsil removal between 2004 and 2015.  Another NSAID, ketoralac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug often used in the recovery room, increased the bleeding risk by nearly 40%.   How do you then help your kid get through recovery.  Use acetaminophen, Tylenol, every 4 hours and give them plenty of sugar.  I put my tonsillectomy patients on the Twinkie diet since sugar does damp pain.   https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0194599820970943   #bleeding #tonsillectomy #ibuprofen #nsaids  

  • MMR Vaccine Thwarts CoVid

    27/11/2020 Duration: 01min

      Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/8alCgy0cR3A   Antibodies against the mumps virus appear to have CoVid protective effects.  A study just published by mBio looked at a group of 80 COVID patients, 50 of whom had been vaccinated with MMR II vaccine vs an unvaccinated group.   Those with antibodies against the mumps virus, an RNA virus like CoVid, suffered less severe disease than those without mumps antibodies or low concentrations or titers of them.  The severity of disease was proportional to mumps antibody titer: the asymptomatic had titers of 134-300; mild symptoms below 134; moderate symptoms below 75, and severe symptoms below 32.   Vaccination with MMR and other vaccines may be keeping nearly half of CoVid test positive persons apparently healthy.   https://mbio.asm.org/content/11/6/e02628-20   #covid #mmr  

  • Repeat CoVid Positive Patients Don’t Spread Virus

    27/11/2020 Duration: 01min

    Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/g6wn4vZ2oaw   The few unlucky persons who test COVID positive after recovering from the virus appear not to be spreaders. This conclusion comes from a Wuhan, China study that reviewed the records of 20,280 COVID patients from December through August.  The researchers also surveyed their close contacts numbering 4,079.   The data show that 12% of the group were CoVid+ repeaters.  These patients were representative of the group initially infected except that they tended to require 3 day longer hospitalizations and a greater proportion of females were repeaters.   None of their close contacts developed positive CoVid PCR tests.  The investigators suggest that these “echo” positives may occur due to residual circulating non=infectious viral remnants.    https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.18.20232892v1.full.pdf   #covid #repeatpositive  

  • The Best Filters For Your Masks

    27/11/2020 Duration: 52s

      Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/GZ_q-f2XWGw   With COVID on the rise, you’ll want the best filter in your mask.  Virginia Tech engineers show that vacuum cleaner cloth material works best to filter out the smallest particles preventing you from breathing virus into your lungs or blowing it out into others.   Whether using the bag cloth in a cloth mask or a respirator mask, the vacuum bags bested microfiber, a surgical mask, a coffee filter, a MERV 12 HEPA filter, a bandana, and an acrylic face shield.  This was true for overall filtration as well as incoming and outgoing protection.   For your own protection and for the protection of us all, use the best filtration material in your mask.    https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.18.20233353v1.full.pdf   #mask #covid #filtration #vacuumbag  

  • Recall on ALDI Trail Mix

    19/11/2020 Duration: 54s

    Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/eX_Du7YauBY   The FDA and Kansan Enterprises have recalled the ALDI Southern Grove On the Go Sweet & Salty Trail Mix.  These 8 pack caddies may have undeclared almonds.  Those with almond allergies may develop a serious and life-threatening allergic reaction should they consume these product.   The product was distributed in  CT, DE, FL, MA, MD, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VA, VT, WV.  If you have this product and have an almond allergic person in your household, return the product to the point of purchase for a refund.  For additional information, call the company at 1-800-860-5464   https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/kanan-enterprises-conducts-voluntary-recall-aldi-southern-grove-go-sweet-salty-trail-mix-due   #trailmix #aldi #almonds  

  • The Current CoVid Tsunami Is Drowning The Young

    19/11/2020 Duration: 58s

      Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/7ar87hiG_Xs   The highest incidence of CoVid cases that are now swamping Europe’s healthcare systems are occurring in young adults 18 to 29 years of age.  This effect is predominant in 22 of 25 countries.   Italian researchers report that the European second wave began in Spain during the early summer but really ramped up in early September due to a predominance of cases in those 15-24.  They theorize that the driver was a return to schools and universities.   The data show that the very young are not spreading the disease.  Older teens and young adults are partying without regard to masking and crowd control, and their careless actions are having devastating effects.   https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.11.20230177v1.full.pdf   #covid #children #teens #genz #secondwave  

  • Which Parents Will Vaccinate Their Kids Against CoVid

    19/11/2020 Duration: 01min

      Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/VoLmZUn2bQU   Almost two-thirds of parents want their children to have the CoVid vaccine, but that percentage varies widely with parental age, gender, marital status, education, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.  Collaborators at Northwestern and Vanderbilt Universities surveyed 1008 parents.   Parents over 46 were 17% more likely to vaccinate.  Surprisingly fathers were 10% more likely.  Married parents approve it 14.5% more often.  College-educated parents are 19% more likely to vaccinate.  Asians are most likely to vaccinate at 76% followed by hispanics at 65%, whites at 61%, and blacks at 55%.  Those with the highest family income are 22% more likely to vaccinate compared with those at the bottom of the income scale.   https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.10.20228759v1.full.pdf   #covid #vaccine #children #parents  

  • Using Lilly’s New  Monoclonal Antibody Is Complicated

    19/11/2020 Duration: 55s

      Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/7VEwuryRJ7Y   The FDA just granted an emergency use authorization, the prized EUA, for Lilly’s IgG1 monoclonal antibody called Bamlanivimab.  This now joins the  Regeneron dual antibody cocktail as early treatment for CoVid.   Thing is, though, there are many catch-22s about bamlanivimab.  It must be given immediately after symptom onset when patients are at their most contagious and a danger to others.  It’s not for hospitalized patients or for those requiring oxygen.  Bamlanivimab requires 3 hours for IV infusion, its tricky to prepare and requires refrigeration, and it has serious side effects like anaphylaxis.  The worst problem: it’s in short supply and there’s only about 2 week’s worth in existence.   https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-authorizes-monoclonal-antibody-treatment-covid-19   https://blogs.jwatch.org/hiv-id-observations/index.php/bamlanivimab-hard-to-pronounce-even-harder-to-give/2020/11/15/   #covid #bamlanivimab

  • Healthy Sleep Prevents Fatal Heart Disease

    19/11/2020 Duration: 01min

    Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/00KdCNwbiec   Consistently satisfying sleep may reduce your chances of dying from a worn out heart by 42%.  Epidemiologists at Tulane University followed a huge UK population of 408,802 patients over a 10 year period looking for correlations between sleep patterns and the development of congestive heart failure.   Over those 10 years, 5221 developed heart failure.  This disease incidence was 34% lower in those with no daytime sleepiness, 17% lower in those without insomnia, 12% lower for those sleeping 7 to 8 hours a day, and 8% reduced for early risers.   Congestive heart failure can be deadlier than cancer.  Its only cure is a heart transplant.  Protect your ticker by sleeping soundly and exercising consistently.   https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.050792   #sleep #heartfailure  

  • CoVid Antibodies Vary In Quality

    19/11/2020 Duration: 01min

      Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/EaG0OrjId0U   Those who survive CoVid not only have more anti-viral antibodies, but those they do have are of higher quality.  Harvard immunologists draw this conclusion from their studies of 193 hospitalized CoVid patients comparing those surviving moderate to severe disease with those who perished.   Those who survived CoVid developed antibodies that could effectively bind to spike protein and prevent the virus from invading cell after cell. They also brewed  antibodies that bind to the Fc sites on killer lymphocytes and trigger them to flush away virus-infected cells that would release ever more virus.   This new information will guide vaccine developers to produce agents that evoke even more powerful protective antibodies.   https://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-8674(20)31459-8.pdf?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0092867420314598%3Fshowall%3Dtrue   #covid #antibodies #spikeprotein #killercells  

  • Why Some Don’t Fear CoVid

    19/11/2020 Duration: 01min

      Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/YuH6PjKc4NU   Those who refuse masks, distancing, and crowding restrictions do so because they fear government intrusion more than the coronavirus.  This the conclusion of two interrelated Lehigh University studies determining the attitudes of 300 participants regarding the power and purposeful actions of CoVid, so called agency, and the acceptance of societal interventions against it.   Social conservatives tend to view the virus as less dangerous than government.  The minority of conservatives who do recognize CoVid’s danger were more likely to embrace public health measures to stop it.   We all must recognize CoVid to be a predator army biologically evolved to spread silently throughout the world.   Fear it and welcome control measures.   https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/711838   #covid #agency #conservatives #liberals #predator  

  • Recycling Your Filter Masks

    19/11/2020 Duration: 01min

      Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/ZsXw99moIUI   A CoVid tsunami is upon us.  N95 and KN95 filtration masks may be in short supply. You’ll want a way to recycle those you have.  To help us do it properly, the engineers at Tufts University distilled the result of 58 studies that look at methods employing heat, chemicals, and UV light and impact on viral decontamination and maintenance of filtration.   The best methods were dry heat, 160 degrees for 50 minutes, hydrogen peroxide exposure for 100 minutes on average, or UV exposure for more than 10 minutes.  Each of these drove a more than 3 log reduction in  CoVid concentrations on and in the mask while maintaining mask filtration, fit, fiber resilience and strap fit.   https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.11.20229880v1.full.pdf   #mask #recycle #heat #hydrogenperoxide #uv  

  • Sensible Precautions Save You From CoVid

    19/11/2020 Duration: 01min

      Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/9fhkNewMDb4   People tweet and write that wearing masks, distancing, and avoiding contaminated surfaces won’t protect you from CoVid.  Doesn’t matter though since the virus isn’t that dangerous for young adults.  WRONG on both counts.   Precautions DO work. The University of Minnesota studied 489 health care workers, 22% docs or mid-level practitioners, 51% nurses, and the remainder techs and managers.  Though 40% of them were directly exposed to CoVid patients, not one of them tested positive for the virus by the gold standard PCR test.   The young don’t skate!  Of 3222 young Bostonians admitted for CoVid, 21% needed the ICU, 10% went on a vent, and nearly 3% died. Be careful!   https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.31.20166066v7.full.pdf   https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2770542   #covid #ppe #masks #distancing  

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