Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Juratoys Sophie la Giraffe Bead Maze Toy recalled since the toy has small parts that fail to meet federal safety standards.  Specifically the wooden triangle shape is a choking danger.  For questions, call the company at 855-665-9287 to check if your batch is being recalled..  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/HvNJ3c60gak   #toyrecall #choking  

Country Home Products DR Walk Behind Leaf Blowers recalled since blades may break off and fly out of the unit.  Stop using produce and contact company at 800-687-6575 for instructions regarding refund. Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/PsPZKjcpVJY   #leafblower #recall  

Infantino Infant Carriers recalled due to faulty buckles that can break and create a fall hazard.  Stop using and contact company for directions to receive a replacement carrier at 800-840-4916. Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/tQ7DqXML7BA   #infantcarrier #recall  

Rawlings Catcher Helmets recalled since the back plate can fail to protect and lead to a head injury.  Sold in: US and Canada.  Return product to point of purchase or call 800-729-5464.

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/F_XOfcBOxkE   Rooms To Go #Patmos #ChaiseLounge Chair #recalled due to violation of the federal lead paint ban.  Stop using the chairs and contact company at 855-688-0919 for a replacement. 

Efficient Laboratories is voluntarily recalling lots of Rompe Pecho EX, Rompe Pecho CF and Rompe Pecho MAXliquid due to microbial contamination.  These are over the counter cold and flu medications.  Direct questions to the company at 305-805-3456.   #rompepecho #recall

Whole Foods voluntary recalling Bundt Cakes and Chocolate Dipped Cookies. Bundt Cakes (Chocolate Fudge Mini and Marble) and Chocolate Dipped Cookies (Dark Chocolate Dipped Almond Horn, Chocolate Dipped Coconut Macaroon) due to undeclared milk contamination.  Sold in: KY, MD, NJ, PA, OH, VA, DC. If you have a milk allergy, destroy or return the product. Bring a store receipt in for a full refund. Questions to the company at 844-936-8255.  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/7bPgcyV2sNk   #wholefoods #bundtcake #chocolatecookies #recall  

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/O1oX1gbqUJc   Numbers of infected, hospitalized, and perished continues to rise quickly.  Get the latest stats from Bloomberg:  https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-wuhan-novel-coronavirus-outbreak/ and bookmark the page. As of this recording, DATE: 2/7/2020, TIME: 3 PM; ConfirmedCasesWorldwide: 31,479; DeathsWorldwide: 638. Norway’s Coalition for Epidermic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), France’s Pasteur Institute, and German investigators are working on vaccines.  The British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will contribute its adjuvant platform technology that permits the rapid manufacture of vaccine. South China Agricultural University reports that genetic analyses suggest the corona virus originated in bats but passed through the scaly and nearly endangered anteater pangolan Confirmatory genetic analysis is underway.  Pangolin meat is a Chinese delicacy.  WHO spearheading a $675 million worldwide collaboration to halt the spread of corona virus.  Foxconn, the Chinese iP

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/5ERcQDoWI9A   Waking to a melody versus a jarring buzzer is significantly more likely to erase that groggy feeling from the first part of your day.  This conclusion stems from a study just published by communication scientists at Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.   Fifty participants were surveyed for their preferred type of morning alarm sounds.  The tabulated results revealed that musical alarms more efficiently erased sleep inertia than either the annoying beep or buzz.  Waking to harsh sounds disturbs normal and effective brain function impairing your performance for up to 4 hours.   Quickly suspending sleep inertia is critical for certain professions including police, firefighters, pilots, commercial drivers, nurses, and doctors.     Stuart J. McFarlane, Jair E. Garcia, Darrin S. Verhagen, Adrian G. Dyer. Alarm tones, music and their elements: Analysis of reported waking sounds to counteract sleep inertia. PLOS ONE, 2020; 15 (1): e0215788 DOI: 10.1371/journal

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/eb533qJMSyc   Kids whose mothers have pre-existing diabetes or develop it during their pregnancies are one and one-half times more likely to suffer from a hearing loss.  Investigators at the Medical University of South Carolina studied 311 children of so-called diabetic pregnancies (CDPs) and compared them with matched controls.    The CDPs had a 71% incidence of hearing loss versus 45% in the controls.  Their hearing problems were more likely to be bilateral and driven by a higher incidence of ear infections and ear fluid.   Mothers with diabetes during their pregnancies should be particularly vigilant for hearing issues and ear disease in their children.  If kids ignore you, get them tested.    Joshua A.LeeCharmee H.MehtaShaun A.NguyenTed A.MeyerX. Hearing Outcomes in Children of Diabetic Pregnancies.  International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijporl.2020.109925   #diabetes #pregnancy #hearingloss #otitis  

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/mFHrIsgV43o   Riding your bicycle to work regularly can reduce your chances of dying by 13% during any 15 year period.  New Zealand epidemiologists analyzed data from 3.5 million Kiwis, 80% of their working-age population.   Only 3% of the population cycled to work with 5% walking but the vast majority traveling by auto or mass transit.  Twice as many men cycled as women but more women walked or jogged.  Younger persons were more likely to cycle or walk.   Commuting under your own steam improves your health and helps our environment by reducing your carbon footprint.  Use less-traveled roads being vigilant for autos making the frequently deadly right hand turn.    Caroline Shaw, Tony Blakely, June Atkinson, Alistair Woodward. Is mode of transport to work associated with mortality in the working-age population? Repeated census-cohort studies in New Zealand 1996, 2001 and 2006. International Journal of Epidemiology, 2020; DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyz257   #bicycling #commuting #masstransit #c

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/pxtKl_qb31I   A full 99.9% of meals that we eat outside the home aren’t well-balanced or healthy.  Nutritionists at Tufts University just released a dining habit analysis of more than 35,000 American adults surveyed from 2003 through 2016.  They studied both full service and fast food restaurants.   Predictably 70 to 75% of the fast food meals consumed were of poor dietary quality. Sit-down restaurants with servers fared only slightly better at 50%.   We Americans ingest more than 20% of our daily calories outside our homes.  Far too often, those calories come from fatty and sugary meals.  The remedy: eat more fruits, vegetables, and lean meat, and fish at home where the price is right.   Junxiu Liu, Colin D Rehm, Renata Micha, Dariush Mozaffarian. Quality of Meals Consumed by US Adults at Full-Service and Fast-Food Restaurants, 2003–2016: Persistent Low Quality and Widening Disparities. The Journal of Nutrition, 2020; DOI: 10.1093/jn/nxz299   #restaurant #eatingout #fastfood #fa

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/3DAXea20sSU   Natural sunlight triggers normal fat cell metabolism.  Experimental biologists from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital just published a study that explores how light performs this trick in mammals like rats and yes humans.   Fat cells contain light sensitive proteins called opsins.  Light reaches fat cells through our skin, activates opsins that release fatty acids from white fat cells,  and the fatty acids serve as fuel for brown fat cells to produce heat.  If this process fails to occur, disordered fat metabolism can lead to heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.   Indoor lighting won’t work, so spend time in sunlight.  UV blocking lotions won’t stop the good stuff so do use them to prevent skin cancer.    Nayak et al., 2020, Cell Reports 30, 672–686 January 21, 2020 a 2019 The Authors. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2019.12.043   #sunlight #fat #heat #heartdisease #stroke #diabetes  

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/c-JpAiLh5aw   Skiers turning in the best performances were the least likely to have blood pressure problems.  Swedish investigators compared the cardiovascular health of nearly 207,000 long-distance skiers with over a half million age and gender-matched individuals from the general population.   When the numbers were crunched, skiers were 41% less likely than non-skiers to have significantly elevated blood pressure.  The top 20% speedy skiers had a 59% lower risk of high blood pressure while the slowest 20% only enjoyed a 22% lower risk.  The benefits were the same for women and men.   Brisk aerobic leg exercise opens up your blood vessels and drops the pressures in your arteries.   Kasper Andersen et al. Long-Distance Skiing and Incidence of Hypertension: A Cohort Study of 206,889 Participants in a Long-Distance Cross-Country Skiing Event, Circulation (2020). DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.119.042208   #skiing #hypertension #aerobics  

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/zGDZFppkjVo   Listening to high tempo music takes the pain out of exercise and boosts the value of lower intensity sessions.  Italian exercise physiologists report their experiences with 19 active women engaging in treadmill walking or weightlifting .   Listening to faster paced music reduces perceived exertion 50% more for walking than for weightlifting.  The effect is greater the faster the music tempo.  The music also accelerates the subjects’ heart rates suggesting that tunes enhance the aerobic benefits of even low exertion exercise.   No matter what type of exercise you prefer, music will make it more pleasant.  We now know that boppin’ to a faster beat will actually burn more calories and make you more fit.     Frontiers in Psychology (2020): https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00074/full   #exercise #pain #music #aerobics  

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/4vmYHwJ21dc   Smelling roses while studying and again while sleeping improves student outcomes.  Psychologists at Germany’s University of Freiberg studied 54 6th grade students.   The experimental students were exposed to rose-scented incense while learning vocabulary, sleeping, and taking a quiz on the subject the next day.  The control group had no scent exposures.  The rose-y kids demonstrated 30% better test results and improved memory.   Students of all ages in school or not could benefit from the pleasant fragrances of rose incense.  A pack of 100 sticks sells for about $10 online or buy two dozen roses for $20 on the street.  A potential problem:  you might turn out to be allergic to the scent.   Franziska Neumann et al, How odor cues help to optimize learning during sleep in a real life-setting, Scientific Reports (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-57613-7   #roses #learning #memory #rose incense  

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/NkvA7GZpqBA   Waiting until age 50 to screen for bowel cancer is too late.  Tulane University researchers reviewed data from 92 million Americans looking at the incidence of colon cancer for each one year age group from 30 to 60 years.   There is a 46% increase in cancer incidence between ages 49 and 50 indicating that these additional cancers had a delayed diagnosis.  Confirming this situation, 92% of these extra cancers are invasive requiring radical surgery and chemotherapy,   The US Preventive Services Task Force continues to recommend waiting for screening until 50.  The American Cancer Society now says 45, and this study supports screening at that younger age.    Abualkhair WH, Zhou M, Ahnen D, Yu Q, Wu X, Karlitz JJ. Trends in Incidence of Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer in the United States Among Those Approaching Screening Age. JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(1):e1920407. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.20407   #coloncancer #screening #cancercoloncancer, screening  

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/hqeOv8cPjj0   Anterior cruciate ligament injuries with subsequent repairs lead to a 15% reduction in the connections between the brain and muscles of the affected leg.  Sports medicine scientists at the University of Michigan studied 10 subjects over 5 years following their surgery with MRI analysis of their corticospinal tracts, their brain to muscle cables.   Neural connections to the injured limb revealed atrophy and reduced functional signal transmission.  The investigators speculate that this nerve impulse cutback may serve to speed knee healing.   We know the importance of post-ACL surgery physical therapy.  Now we know, though, that strengthening exercises must be directed not only to the affected leg but also to the brain powering it.   Adam S. Lepley, Monica T. Ly, Dustin R. Grooms, Jeffery M. Kinsella-Shaw, Lindsey K. Lepley. Corticospinal tract structure and excitability in patients with anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: A DTI and TMS study. NeuroImage: Clinical,

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/nLpLf4-5fSY   Those suffering from eating pathology are nearly 4 times more likely to become addicted to exercise.  A meta-analysis of 9 studies and 2140 participants, average age of 25, was just published in the journal Eating and Weight Disorders.     The linkage between these problems is the tendency for those with eating challenges to demonstrate obsessive-compulsive and addictive personalities.  Maintaining a healthy weight by consuming moderate amounts of healthy food is valuable.  Regular, aerobic exercise is as well.   Moderation is key.  Overdoing either is a recipe for disaster.  If you find yourself obsessing about your weight, your diet, or your level of physical activity, it is time to seek counseling.   Mike Trott, Sarah E. Jackson, Joseph Firth, Louis Jacob, Igor Grabovac, Amit Mistry, Brendon Stubbs, Lee Smith. A comparative meta-analysis of the prevalence of exercise addiction in adults with and without indicated eating disorders. Eating and Weight Disorders - Stu

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/UEFVD_rDKsg   Children embrace guidance from adults who exude confidence, but they reject a hard sell from the over-confident.  These conclusions come from a Canadian study of  662 children 3 to 12 years of age.   The child subjects viewed videos that featured adult actors portraying justifiable and phony confidence as well as justifiable and sham hesitancy.  The results showed that children base their confidence in an adult on the proven truth of their past statements.   Children are concrete about adult hesitancy.  To them, indecision reflects intellectual dishonesty, not a desire to be certain about the truth.   Be square with your kids.  Teach them if its too good to be true, it usually isn’t.   Susan A. J. Birch, Rachel L. Severson, Adam Baimel. Children's understanding of when a person's confidence and hesitancy is a cue to their credibility. PLOS ONE, 2020; 15 (1): e0227026 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0227026   #confidence #hesitancy #children #parenting #conartist