Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/md9yTWb2Jos   You and I have talked many times about the fact that exercise, almost any exercise other than reaching for a donut, will help you live longer.  Now a study from Denmark published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings pinpoints just which forms of exercise will add extra years to your life.   The investigators reviewed data from more than 8500 participants in the Copenhagen City Heart Study.  Although 12% of that group were total couch potatoes, 75% of those remaining participated in at least one form of physical activity.   When the data was tallied, it turns out that playing tennis seems to add the most extra years to your life at nearly 10 years.  Following that we have badminton at 6 years, soccer at nearly 5 years, cycling at nearly 4 years, swimming, jogging, and calisthenics at 3 years.   Bringing up the rear was health club exercise at 1.5 years.  Remember that this study merely reports an association between longer life and different types of recreational activity.  

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/Esf1lZ987dg   Microplastics from yoga outfits, sweat-wicking suits, and fleece vests are turning up in Pacific Ocean oysters and clams.  Marine biologists from Portland State University surveyed some 300 oysters and clams from 15 sites along the Oregon coast.   Plastic material was found in nearly all of the sampled marine organisms with an average of 11 microplastics per oyster and 9 per clam.  Almost all plastics were microfibers likely from clothing as more of them were found in oysters during the spring than in the summer.   Microplastics are invading our world as plastic bags and bottles as well as synthetic fabrics break down.  We are literally poisoning ourselves and our children.  You know the solutions!     Britta R. Baechler, Elise F. Granek, Matthew V. Hunter, Kathleen E. Conn. Microplastic concentrations in two Oregon bivalve species: Spatial, temporal, and species variability. Limnology and Oceanography Letters, 2019; DOI: 10.1002/lol2.10124   #Plastics #pollution #clot

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/qw5OQrPXXHE   Sleep problems affect as many as 70 million Americans.  The problem is worsening over the past 4 years as 5 million more of us generally considered to be healthy sleepers have a problem falling asleep and nearly 8 million more of us cannot remain asleep.   Investigators at Iowa State University studied sleep pattern data from about 165,000 subjects.  Though the results failed to definitely pinpoint a cause, they speculate that technology is playing a key role.  That includes smartphone use before bedtime and electronic notifications interrupting sleep.    Sleep is critical for the daily rejuvenation of our bodies and their component cells.  Though technology interrupts it, newer wearables permit evaluation of sleep quality in order to effect improvement     Garrett C. Hisler, Diana Muranovic, Zlatan Krizan. Changes in sleep difficulties among the U.S. population from 2013 to 2017: results from the National Health Interview Survey. Sleep Health, 2019; DOI: 10.1016/j.sle

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/B03-WxqRrVA   Competitive esport players face the same intense psychological pressure as professional athletes in other sports. Psychologists at Britain’s University of Chichester studied a group of elite gamers and uncovered some 51 stress factors that impact them.   The two most onerous are strategic communications with teammates and performances before a live audience.  In order to suppress fears about miscommunications, gamers either become aggressive with one another or avoid interchanges.  The eplayers mention no specific strategies for managing stage fright.   The investigators conclude that electronic gamers require not only psychological support when they falter due to the stress, but also the necessary mental and physical bulking up even before the play begins.   Matthew J. Smith, Phil D.J. Birch, Dave Bright. Identifying Stressors and Coping Strategies of Elite Esports Competitors. International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations, 2019; 11 (2): 22 DOI: 10

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/ijN1YN_akxg   Your parents, siblings, and others hanging on your family tree may be more important to your health than your spouse or significant other.  With Thanksgiving just around the corner, think ahead!   UT Southwestern family medicine researchers studied some 2800 middle-aged adults over a 20 year period.  They tabulated the incidence of illness as a function of the participants’ various relationships.   Those experiencing more intra-family squabbles have significantly more illness.  Intimate partner relationships had no such effect.  On the other hand, supportive family relationships improve disease outcomes.   Holidays are the time to cement good family relationships or to initiate them.  Either way, your life may depend on it.  Think transplant.     Sarah B. Woods, Jacob B. Priest, and Patricia N. E. Roberson. Family Versus Intimate Partners: Estimating WhoMatters More for Health in a 20-Year Longitudinal Study. Journal of Family Psychology, 2019 DOI: 10.1037/fam0000600  

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/MgE9ZDdOkJk   Just 20 minutes of open monitoring meditation can improve your ability to quickly catch errors while you can do something about them.  That’s true, even if you never meditated before.   Michigan State University psychologists report this finding after testing some 200 volunteers.  Half were taught an open meditation technique while the controls just rested quietly with closed eyes prior to a computer task.  The open monitoring meditation group detected their errors on that computer task 20% more effectively than controls.   Open monitoring meditation prescribes an unfocused, broad awareness of your mind’s internal dialog.  By encouraging expansive thinking, it feeds your creativity as well as self-editing error detection.  Get a meditation phone app and try it.    Lin, Eckerle, Peng, Moser. On Variation in Mindfulness Training: A Multimodal Study of Brief Open Monitoring Meditation on Error Monitoring. Brain Sciences, 2019; 9 (9): 226 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci9090226   htt

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/zqb0k0Jk2HY   You know vegetables are healthy, but you avoid their bitter tastes like the plague.  A freshly minted study from the University of Kentucky explains that your extreme aversion may be due to you having two copies of the bitter taste gene.   The researchers studied the food preferences and genetics of 175 participants.  Those with two copies of the bitter taste gene were more than 2.5 times as likely to be in the group of vegetable haters.   Those with one copy of the bitter gene ate more veggies but not as many as those without a bitter gene.   If you find veggies bitter, experiment mixing them with foods you love.    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191111084916.htm   #Vegetables #bitter #genetics

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/n1nANeZkIcg   From the “use it or lose it department,” a University of Buffalo study credits physical activity with lowering the incidence of nasty hip and extremity fractures.  The investigators focused their interest on more than 77,000 post-menopausal women followed over a 14 year period.   Clocking at least 35 minutes a day of recreational and ordinary household movement triggers an 18% reduced risk of hip fracture.  The benefit increases with a greater intensity and duration of activity, but any and all activities put healthy stresses on your bones which in turn strengthens them.   Women and men, the young as well as our seasoned citizens do benefit….. so get moving and keep moving on a regular basis.   Michael J. LaMonte, Jean Wactawski-Wende, Joseph C. Larson, Xiaodan Mai, John A. Robbins, Meryl S. LeBoff, Zhao Chen, Rebecca D. Jackson, Andrea Z. LaCroix, Judith K. Ockene, Kathleen M. Hovey, Jane A. Cauley. Association of Physical Activity and Fracture Risk Among Postmenopaus

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/XDftX03kAT4   If you’ve been turning your home or apartment into a nursery in hopes of purifying the air you breathe, don’t bother.  Engineers from Philadelphia’s Drexel University critically reviewed the past 30 years’ literature on this topic.   It turns out that the very toxins that plants would be clearing from the air, so-called volatile organic compounds or VOCs, are cleared far more efficiently by natural air circulation through the home than by any resident plants.  The NASA studies that suggested a role for home greenery were conducted in sealed chambers with no ventilation.   So grow plants indoors to enhance your home’s beauty.  To keep the air clean, let fresh, outdoor air circulate freely.   Bryan E. Cummings & Michael S. Waring. Potted plants do not improve indoor air quality: a review and analysis of reported VOC removal efficiencies. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, 2019 DOI: 10.1038/s41370-019-0175-9   #Plants #cleanair #VOC #airpoll

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/yz3F48H3Qpo   Immersion in 360 virtual reality scenes of the frozen Arctic helps those exposed to painful stimuli cope with both the acute and continuing pain.  Surgical investigators from London’s Imperial College report these findings from a preliminary study of 15 participants.   Acute pain was produced by a small electric shock.  Continuing pain at the same site was triggered by capsaicin, the burning chemical in chill peppers.  Watching frozen ocean water and enormous icebergs suppressed both acute and chronic pain sensations.  Photos of the same scenes were ineffective.   Other experiments show that VR can successfully reduce dental pain.  These current experiments will be expanded in hopes of developing reliable, non-drug pain suppression techniques.   Sam W. Hughes, Hongyan Zhao, Edouard J. Auvinet, Paul H. Strutton. Attenuation of capsaicin-induced ongoing pain and secondary hyperalgesia during exposure to an immersive virtual reality environment. PAIN Reports, 2019; 1 DOI:

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/vQXDHE0Xdj0   The most pleasurable, emotion-evoking music contains unpredictable yet somehow expected chords and riffs that trigger primitive pleasure centers in our brains.  This from a German study of over 1000 chords taken from 745 pop songs and presented to nearly 80 subjects.     Each chord was computer rated for its uncertainty attributes and by the participants for its pleasurability.  Subjective pleasure rose with unpredictability, and functional MRI imaging confirmed that deviation from the expected proved most capable of triggering the brain’s pleasure, reward, and memory centers.   The investigators speculate that pleasurably-unpredictable may be a winning combination for all art forms.  In fact, we have known for a long time that “variety is the spice of life.”   Vincent K.M. Cheung, Peter M.C. Harrison, Lars Meyer, Marcus T. Pearce, John-Dylan Haynes, Stefan Koelsch. Uncertainty and Surprise Jointly Predict Musical Pleasure and Amygdala, Hippocampus, and Auditory Cortex

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/LGnGfHSQUdg   Children without siblings are nearly 5 times more likely to demonstrate unhealthy eating patterns compared with those having brothers and sisters.  University of Oklahoma nutritionists reviewed food consumption diaries from 67 families to determine a Healthy Eating Index for each.   Healthy eating habits are not diminished by time away from home in daycare or pre-school.  Less nutritious eating occurs when mother herself suffers from weight problems and when the family spends added time snacking in front of the TV.   If you have an only child, be cautious about his or her diet.  Eliminate the junk food, fill the fridge with carrots, apples, and grapes, end reduce time eating in front of TV.   Chelsea L. Kracht, Susan B. Sisson, Emily Hill Guseman, Laura Hubbs-Tait, Sandra H. Arnold, Jennifer Graef, Allen Knehans. Family Eating Behavior and Child Eating Patterns Differences Between Children With and Without Siblings. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 2019; 51

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/X6LuNJS8iP0   A just published study from Pittsburgh’s Carnegie-Mellon University disproves the urban myth that boys surpass girls in mastery of mathematics or math-based science.  The psychologists studied 104 children 3 to 8 years of age .   Using MRI, the researchers determined the subjects’ math brain function while observing a video about counting and addition.    The scans were compared with each other but also with those from adults who watched the same math videos.   The conclusions:  no girl-boy differences in brain function, development, or maturity while thinking about math principles.    These results plus previous work showing gender-equal ability to use math should encourage girls as well as boys to seek careers in math and science.   Kersey, A.J., Csumitta, K.D. & Cantlon, J.F. Gender similarities in the brain during mathematics development. npj Sci. Learn. 4, 19 (2019) doi:10.1038/s41539-019-0057-xx   #Math #science #girls #MRI

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/ea4aQpMgii8   We think of those with the anorexia eating disorder as skinny, undernourished teens and 20 somethings.  The latest research from UC-San Francisco shows that anorexics may have normal body weights, be overweight or obese.  They can also suffer profound metabolic disturbances that may be fatal.   Such patients suffer from so-called Atypical Anorexia.  The investigators compared 50 atypical anorexics with 66 underweight anorexics.  More than 90% were female with an average age of 16.     Atypicals and standard anorexics both have cardiac problems and menstrual irregularities.. Atypicals have more negative feelings about their bodies and are more likely to have experienced large, rapid, and continuing weight losses.   Anorexia is dangerous.  If you suspect it, get professional help.   Andrea K. Garber, Jing Cheng, Erin C. Accurso, Sally H. Adams, Sara M. Buckelew, Cynthia J. Kapphahn, Anna Kreiter, Daniel Le Grange, Vanessa I. Machen, Anna-Barbara Moscicki, Kristina Saffra

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/og0ojToxMBs   Children with good self-discipline as preteens and adolescents are significantly more likely to be successful young adults either as students or in a satisfying job.  Psychologists at UC-Davis draw this conclusion from their longitudinal study of 674 youths.   The teens were assessed every 2 years from ages 10 through 16 with a final analysis at 19.  Those who evidence better self-control at younger ages continue that trend and are more successful at age 19.  Girls show better self-discipline than boys, as do children scoring higher on IQ tests.   Home chores have no positive effect.  Instead, delegating responsibilities to young children may be the key to fostering self-control.   Rodica Ioana Damian, Olivia E. Atherton, Katherine M. Lawson, Richard W. Robins. The co-development of chores and effortful control among Mexican-origin youth and prospective work outcomes. Journal of Research in Personality, 2020; 84: 103883 DOI: 10.1016/j.jrp.2019.103883   #Seffcontrol #te

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/un_WL6Tg3xI   Just four hours of weekly exercise, any exercise, will reduce your chances of a depression episode by 17% even if you are genetically predisposed.  Harvard researchers now publish this result after studying 8,000 participants in a Boston database for whom they calculated a depression risk score based on family history and mood assessment by questionnaire.   The study shows similar benefits from high intensity exercise such as cycling, running, and dance and more relaxed efforts including yoga and stretching.  Although focusing on those at risk for depression, the investigators suggest universal beneficial effects for 35 minutes of daily exercise.   Depression is the most frequent cause of disability on the planet.  Keeping moving and avoid it.   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191105113510.htm   #Exercise #depression #aerobics #yoga

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/h0W41ZdUB7c   Nutrition research at the University of Minnesota and Oxford University shows that a predominance of healthy foods in your diet has a very positive effect on your carbon footprint as well as on your weight, blood pressure, and lipid profile.   The researchers conclude that fruits, vegetable, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and olive oil drive both health and positive environmental impacts.  Fish, too, are healthy foods.   While they do have more negative environmental impact than plant-based foods, they are way healthier for both you and our world than red meat.   So shop the supermarket periphery and the fish counter for foods that help you live longer while leaving a healthier planet for our kids.   Michael A Clark, Marco Springmann, Jason Hill, David Tilman. Multiple health and environmental impacts of foods. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019; 201906908 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1906908116   #Fruits #vegetables #nuts #fish #redmeat #carbonfootprint

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/jwQbczEC6CU   A Danish study just published in the British Medical Journal shows that cardiac patients who describe themselves as lonely are 3 times more likely to die from any cause.  Lonely men were 40% more likely to experience a repeat cardiac illness within one year after an initial event.   The researchers studied more than 13,400 subjects with coronary disease, rhythm problems, valve disease, and heart failure.  Loneliness and living alone are associated with significantly poorer recovery from all forms of heart disease.   If you have heart disease or know someone that does, surround yourself or them with caring and supportive family and friends. The best medicines and surgery may fail due to lack of love.   Anne Vinggaard Christensen, Knud Juel, Ola Ekholm, Lars Thrysøe, Charlotte Brun Thorup, Britt Borregaard, Rikke Elmose Mols, Trine Bernholdt Rasmussen, Selina Kikkenborg Berg. Significantly increased risk of all-cause mortality among cardiac patients feeling lonely. Heart

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/GRUEGIZLBAQ   A preliminary Johns Hopkins study shows that a person using a legal hemp product for its CBD content can test positive for the tiny amounts of the illegal THC and flunk a drug test.  Two of 6 study participants who only puffed cannabis from hemp ONCE did fail.   This cannabis that triggered positive tests contained 10.5% CBD and 0.39% THC.  Participants puffing purified CBD or hemp with both CBD and THC removed passed their tests.   If you use hemp CBD products, know that even tiny amounts of THC can accumulate in your body. Given Murphy’s Law, your pop drug test will occur before your body can metabolize even tiny amounts of THC.    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191104141650.htm    #Hemp #CBD #THC #drugtest

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/0vBz4BMqjhc   If you’re older than 50 and younger than 75, you need colon cancer screening using an immunochemical stool test for blood traces every 2 years OR a colonoscopy every 10 years.  The American College of Physicians now makes straight-forward recommendations that smooth out confusing guidelines from other groups including the American Cancer Society.   This simple plan is only for those without extra risks.  These include a family history of colorectal cancer, a history of inflammatory bowel disease, an inherited bowel disease such as polyp formation, a personal history of polyps, or a previous colon or rectal cancer.   If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, avoid the nasty colonoscopy prep and purchase the FIT (fecal immmunochemical test) online for about $35.   https://annals.org/aim/fullarticle/2754194/screening-colorectal-cancer-asymptomatic-average-risk-adults-guidance-statement-from   #Coloncancer #FIT #colonoscopy #polyps