Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/wBNR4ratKno   Up to 90% of cosmetics contain the nastiest superbugs on the planet.  A British study just published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology cultured skin foundation blender sponges, mascara, and lip gloss finding grossly unhygienic conditions.   These contaminated products contain Staph aureus, E. Coli, and Citrobacter freundii that can trigger skin infections, eye disease, and even blood-borne sepsis.  The worse offenders seem to be the beauty blender sponges that are reused over and over again without cleaning despite having been dropped on the floor.   If you’re fighting embarrassing skin breakouts, do a deep dive into your make-up bag and consider replacing your products.  To maintain freshness, buy the smallest containers.   A. Bashir, P. Lambert. Microbiological study of used cosmetic products: highlighting possible impact on consumer health. Journal of Applied Microbiology, 2019; DOI: 10.1111/jam.14479   #Cosmetics #bacteria #beautyblender #mascara #lipgloss  

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/ofG8jUtS6HU   Rising temperatures increase the deadly toxin arsenic in rice.  A University of Washington study due to be presented this week to the American Geophysical Union measured the presence of arsenic in rice grown at a variety of temperatures that simulate expected conditions over the remainder of this 21st century.   As growing temps increase from the 77˚F though 82, 87, and 91, the levels of arsenic in the rice plants and edible grains rise significantly.  Why? More soil arsenic leaches into the water feeding the rice paddies.   Toxic rice can be a risk for us even now and brown rice contains more arsenic than non-enriched white rice.  It’s a particular risk for those on gluten-free diets.   University of Washington. "Warmer temperatures will increase arsenic levels in rice." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 4 December 2019. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/12/191204152827.html   https://www.glutenfreewatchdog.org/news/arsenic-and-mercury-in-rice-new-research-from-dartmout

  Vidcast: https://youtu.be/vKr2eAmy9C0   The next unsettling dream you experience is likely exercising your brain to counteract potential disasters during your waking life.  This the conclusion of collaborative Swiss-Wisconsin study of some 107 subjects whose dreams were analyzed via journaling and whose brain activities were quantitated by electroencephalograms and MRI imaging.   Those experiencing the most fears in their dreams tended to show less activation of their brain fear centers including the insula, amygdala, and cingulate cortex.  This would translate into an enhanced ability to handle frightening and challenging situations in real life.   So embrace your dreams.  If you awaken with bad vibes, know that the images in your sleeping mind have a powerful, beneficial effect on your conscious intellect.   Virginie Sterpenich, Lampros Perogamvros, Giulio Tononi, Sophie Schwartz. Fear in dreams and in wakefulness: Evidence for day/night affective homeostasis. Human Brain Mapping, 2019; DOI: 10.1002/hbm.2

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/mo3bu81XTS0   If you’re struggling with balance problems due to an accident, an injury, or advancing age, that VR headset laying around the house or on the store shelf may just be the key to your recovery.  Balance specialists and physiotherapists at Sweden’s Lund University now report their results using a virtual reality environment to help subjects train their balance systems.    Patients with chronic balance system issues often begin to rely almost exclusively on visual input to stabilize their stance.   By repeatedly practicing stabilizing themselves on a postural stability platform while immersed in a VR roller coaster ride, the 20 experimental subjects were able to deploy the non-visual balance sensors in their muscles, joints, and ears to better reach a state of balance equilibration.     The average number of near fall events diminished 10-fold after 5 VR rides by the female subjects.  The males experienced fewer fall events overall but enjoyed a similar pattern of improv

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/XIwudYNkhHs   Sporadic over-consumption of alcohol during adolescent years leads to epigenetic alterations in the cells of brain tissue, and that modification forever damages later emotional stability.  Experiments proving this phenomenon from the University of Illinois-Chicago were just published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.   Using an adolescent rat model, the scientists showed that repeated, intense exposures to alcohol early in life led to overt anxiety later in the animals’ lifespans.  Neuroanatomic studies revealed that the binge drinking led to a significant reduction of a protein ARC in the amygdala.  This missing protein was associated with a 40% reduction in critical neuronal connections.   Worse yet, stopping drinking failed to correct the deficit.   The amygdala is the coordinating center for our emotions, and wiring problems in this zone will create emotional shortfalls including anxiety and depression.  This can lead to a closed loop and a downward spiral wh

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/Pj1dBHEHMa8   The poor ole egg is again under attack again.  Numerous studies over the past 30 years have declared the egg to be innocent of being an accessory before the fact when it comes to driving artery hardening, heart attacks, and strokes.  Many nutrition experts have stated that the majority of the cholesterol in our body is synthesized in the liver from the fats that we ingest.  They state that limiting your intake of saturated and trans- fats will keep your cholesterol and other lipids in control.   Now a study from Northwestern University suggests that a higher cholesterol intake, 300 mg or more per day, is associated with a 17% higher risk of cardiovascular disease and an 18% higher risk of death from all causes.  The cholesterol comes in egg yolks, red meat, and high fat dairy products such as cream, cheese, and butter.     The study was a meta-analysis of 6 other studies covering nearly 30,000 adults with nearly 18 years of followup on average.  Experts reviewing the

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/6bhjhS4GLq4   Smartphones and tablets have not reduced the 90 minutes a day that children and teens traditionally spend with other family members.  Sociologists at the British Universities of Oxford and Warwick reviewed journals from nearly 2500 children 8 to 16 years of age and journals from their parents as well.      The data shows that personal electronics actually added about 30 minutes to the amount of time the kids spent at home. This extra time, though, was not social time but rather what the scientists referred to as “alone-together” time.  You know what that is: the child is physically present but the mind is in some other galaxy or medieval castle.    So there is good and bad news from this study.  It’s good that true family time remains during meals, shared discussions, and communal TV time as long as the devices are not in everyone’s hands.  The news is bad as the the extra 30 minutes at home may be robbing our kids of true social interactions with their peers.     Wh

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/yaycsWNG3hw   Sleep deprivation will drive you to consume a wider variety of products.  Marketing researchers from the University of British Columbia’s business school draw this conclusion from several studies of buying patterns as a function of sleepiness.     Their experiments included artificial situations such as choosing candy bars on more or less sleep and a look at the consumption patterns of some 60,000 American households whose occupants lost sleep with the shift to daylight savings time.  Their shopping is quantitated in the Nielsen consumer panel data set.  I guess Nielsen watches more than our TV viewing habits.   The results from the various experiments told similar stories.  We human consumers tend to crave variety when we’re tired.  It seems that the search for new products or a variety of the same product helps to stimulate our brains and keep us awake.  It’s shopping as the ultimate form of self-stimulation.   It’s not rocket science to conclude that the search fo

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/XQlxP5qLiz4   Hookah smoking is considered safe and fun.  It attracts teens and young adults by the droves.   This cavalier attitude is drawing alarm from the American Heart Association, and it is time to set the record straight.   Water pipe smoking is industrial strength tobacco smoking.  A one hour hookah session exposes the smoker to the nicotine and tar equivalent of 100 cigarettes.   Then consider the additional dangers.  The flavoring chemicals added to the tobacco mix themselves have toxicity.  Then we have the charcoal that is used to burn the flavored tobacco that adds its own carcinogens and carbon monoxide.   Beyond that, you can contract a nasty infection from the shared mouthpiece.   Here’s the hooker: the water through which the smoke bubbles cools the smoke but does not filter the toxic chemicals.   Hookah smoking is popular because it is a social activity and seems cool.  Pass on this information to your teens so that they understand the risks to the heart and lun

Snoring And Sleep Apnea May Lead to Young Athletes’ Sudden Death Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/Y_MjSC0RSQk   Stocky, young athletes often experience disordered sleep snd breathing patterns that could predispose them to heart attack and sudden death.  Exercise scientists from Japan’s Showa University explored this situation by studying 42 male rugby players 18-19 years of age.   After formal sleep studies were completed, 43% of the players experienced significant sleep disordered breathing with snoring, dangerous pauses in their breathing, higher than normal heart rates, and lower than normal oxygen levels.  Further studies of these athletes’ hearts revealed rhythm abnormalities suggesting they had potentially lethal cardiac damage already.   If you have a teen or a spouse, male or female,  “sawing wood at night,” don’t ignore it.  Push for a formal sleep study to determine if the noisy breathing is accompanied by dangerous oxygen level dips and heart rate abnormalities.   Yoshitaka Iso, Hitomi Kitai, Etsushi Kyu

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/kb0cdrP9csU   A one-hour midday nap can help you control your blood pressure as well as taking medications or changing your diet.  Greek cardiologists will be presenting their data demonstrating this effect next week at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Sessions.   The researchers studied more than 200 middle aged subjects comparing the blood pressures of those who napped with those who did not.  The napping group enjoyed an average of 5 mmHg lower systolic pressure and an average of 3 mmHg lower diastolic pressure.  These numbers don’t sound impressive but they are.   A midday napping “reset” relaxes both the cardiovascular system and the brain.  A regular nap certainly beat popping blood pressure pills or disgusting, restrictive diets.     American College of Cardiology. "A nap a day keeps high blood pressure at bay: Catching some midday shut-eye linked to similar drops in blood pressure seen with other lifestyle changes, some medications." ScienceDaily. Sci

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/X86AIAevYRc   Abusive bosses who rule with a heavy hand are managing their own failure.  This is the conclusion of a 427 study meta-analysis completed by researchers at Portland State University and published in the Journal of Management.   Managers perceived as unfair, unhelpful, and impersonal trigger counterproductive and passive-aggressive work behaviors including work slow-downs, delayed arrivals in the morning,  extended breaks during the work day, calling-in sick, and frank workplace sabotage.  Obnoxious leaders create a toxic work environment, staff stress, and departures of valuable team members.   The most successful managers walk around the workplaces to kindle personal work relationships with their staff.  Once bosses know their subordinates as people, they can better function as facilitators to help everyone on the team shine and in so doing burnish their own reputations.   Yucheng Zhang, Xin Liu, Shan Xu, Liu-Qin Yang, Timothy C. Bednall. Why Abusive Supervision Impa

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/5R8o82HKzOo   Music can keep groups of people engaged by synchronizing and pacing their brainwaves, but not all types of music have this effect.  Engineers at the City College of New York studied the neural responses of audiences in response to various forms of music.   Their research shows that unfamiliar scores synchronize communal brains most effectively, and the positive effects recur even with repetition.  On the other hand, familiar pieces failed to drive audience brain synch even with repetition.   Music-induced brain synch does work best for those audiences with some pre-formed appreciation for music.   Speaking as a surgeon, I’ve always found that music in the operating room helped to establish an efficient yet safe work pace.   Relying on my team to help choose the music reduced stress and optimized group satisfaction.     Jens Madsen, Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis, Rhimmon Simchy-Gross, Lucas C. Parra. Music synchronizes brainwaves across listeners with strong effects of

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/NGDyl9OUX7k   E-cigarettes, touted as being safer than tobacco cigarettes, seem to trigger heart attacks and strokes.  This is the conclusion of research from the University of Kansas that studied nearly 100,000 Americans.  It was presented recently at this year’s meeting of the American College of Cardiology.   Those who vape are 56% more likely to suffer a heart attack, 30% more likely to have a stroke, and 55% more likely to be depressed or at least anxious.   E-cigarettes also expose users to as much or more of the highly addictive drug nicotine compared with conventional cigarettes.   Proponents of vaping claim that e-cigarette users can avoid tobacco’s carcinogenic tars.  Studies are now showing that the flavorings added to the liquid nicotine are themselves toxic and carcinogenic.     Worse yet, manufacturers of the nearly 500 brands of e-cigarettes are following the tobacco companies’ evil playbook and marketing these devices to children and adolescents.  The bottom line i

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/6YkO3qoOn-M   Obstetricians at Israel’s Ben Gurion University now proclaim that “50 is the new 40 when it comes to childbirth!”  They studied more than 8,000 pregnant women 40 years and above.   The data revealed that complications such as premature birth, gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, and a need for c-section were no higher for those in their 50s compared with mothers in their 40s.  They do however consider all pregnancies in women 40 or older to be high risk with a need for careful followup of blood sugars and blood pressures.   This is all well and good, but just because it’s possible for parents to have a child when they are over 50 doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea.  Raising children requires lots of energy and lots of money.     Couples in their 50s may have both, but they don’t have the 30 to 40 years that couples in their 20s and 30s have before they reach an age when their bodies and minds are entering the relaxation mode.     Children need guidance througho

    Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/rLcHzGnCbCw   Want to boost your long distance running performance in only 4 days?  Get yourself on the Mediterranean Diet says investigators from St. Louis University.   They studied 11 male and female 5K runners giving each 4 days of the Mediterranean Diet or 4 days of the typical Western Diet before they ran the 5K on a treadmill.  Consuming the Mediterranean Diet with its fruits, veggies, nuts, olive oil and whole grains pumped the runners performance up by a consistent 6 percent compared with their times after consuming the Western Diet’s red meats, processed meats, dairy, refined sugar, and fats.     The researchers attribute the performance boost to the Mediterranean Diet’s anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.  Just be aware that these advantages are quickly lost after stopping the diet.   If you want top performance from your body in so many challenging situations, not just in running, eat the fruits and vegetables that your body craves and treat the offerings o

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/6YdaC5YgAuQ   Raw dog food is becoming quite the rage.  A study just published in the British Medical Journal’s Veterinary Record reveals that raw dog food from 10 different sources contains dangerous levels of E.coli and other fecal bacteria, Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Clostridia.   Raw pet food is prepared from miscellaneous body parts and organs that are a byproduct of slaughtering cattle, chickens, sheep, turkeys, pigs, ducks, salmon, and even reindeer.  The raw meat is not heat treated or freeze-dried to kill bacterial contaminants but rather only packaged and fresh frozen.  This type of simple freezing fails to kill many bacteria.   The bacteria in these products can easily pass to you and to your children.  If you choose to feed it to your poor dog and risk making the animal sick, keep the raw dog food frozen until just before using it, keep it far away from your own food,, and handle it with separate kitchen equipment while you wear gloves.   If you really want to give

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/SL6hU7sJnWQ   Listen up men.  Two chemicals that can damage your sperm and your ability to father a normal child are lurking in and around your home.   A study just published by England’s University of Nottingham shows that the plasticizer DEHP and the industrial chemical PCB153 both reduce the motility and increase the level of DNA damage of sperm exposed to them in the test tube.   DEHP is found in carpets, linoleum flooring, upholstery, clothing, and even children’s toys.  Although PCB use was banned in the US more than 40 years ago, these chemicals degrade so slowly that they remain in many structures and in the soil on which we all walk and play.   Male fertility is on the decline, and sperm samples from around the world demonstrate a 50% reduction in quality over the past 80 years.  If you are trying to father a child, avoid drinking from plastic containers or wearing plastic clogs that contain the organic compounds DEHP, PCBs, or BPAs.   To maintain your reproductive health

  Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/Krls1Vigp3E   Using popular mouthwashes may cause your blood pressure to jump up significantly.  Dentists and cardiologists at the University of Texas report that the antibacterial agent in mouthwash, chlorhexidine, prevents the normal oral bacteria from metabolizing ingested nitrates into the nitric oxide that plays a key role in normalizing blood pressure.   The investigators recruited subjects from the faculty, staff, and student populations in order to study their oral bacteria, oral nitrites, and blood pressures before, during, and after their use of mouthwash.  The subjects used Peridex mouthwash twice daily for 7 days.   Use of the mouthwash and tongue cleaning significantly elevated both the systolic and the diastolic blood pressures as it depressed counts of oral bacteria and the concentration of nitric oxide.  Parameters returned to baseline 3 days following mouthwash discontinuation.   This study is an additional reason why so-called therapeutic mouthwashes containing

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/_DFUFfgGHsc   If a parent constantly corrects an infant, that child’s brain becomes more sensitive to angry vocalizations.  Investigators at Britain’s University of Manchester studied 40 six month old infants and their mothers utilizing the novel neuroimaging technique of Near Infrared Spectroscopy.  This permits the study of a baby’s brain activation by maternal vocalizations without the noise of MRI.   Infants as young as 6 months can differentiate happy and unhappy vocal rhythms.  The researchers found that those babies whose mothers repeatedly corrected them developed nerve networks that preferentially respond to angry vocalizations.   This study underscores the exquisite sensitivity of infant humans.  Parents need to monitor their own and each other’s interactions with their children and realize how much their behavior imprints their offspring in both negative as well as positive ways.     Good parenting is creating a safe, happy environment for your child by constructing bou