Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/vr8B0vBAEoI Nearly one- quarter to one-third of women surveyed in two recent psychological studies admitted that they only set up a date to get a free meal.  This so-called “foodie call” phenomenon was analyzed by teams at Azusa Pacific University and UC-Merced. The researchers surveyed a total of nearly 1200 women # The two-thirds to three-quarters of women who had not been on a foodie call felt that the practice was morally objectionable. The “foodie call” women were more likely to have so-called “dark triad” personality traits of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism.  Many also have one night stands and faked orgasms.  Men were not studied, but the psychologists hypothesize that the “foodie call” sham can be perpetrated by all genders.  A trying for a free meal isn’t the worst male dating infraction. Society for Personality and Social Psychology. "Foodie calls: Dating for a free meal (rather than a relationship)." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 21 June 2019. www.sciencedail

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/wyBHE3qHJ2o If you’re suffering stomach and esophageal ache from enjoying Buffalo wings or accidentally swallowing that red pepper hidden in your Szechuan chicken , the food scientists at Penn State have some first aid for you.  It turns out that the best liquid for neutralizing pepper burn is good old milk. The study looked at 72 subjects each using 7 different liquids as rescues after drinking a hot Bloody Mary mix containing Scoville-rich red peppers.  Milk, regular and skim, followed by Kool Aid were best at relieving the pepper pain.  Carbonated beverages such as cola, seltzer, and beer helped the least.  Plain old water was in-between. So if you find yourself the victim of some hot sauce at a barbecue or elsewhere, quickly swig some milk.  In the pinch, I’ll bet that ice cream would also do the trick. Penn State. "Milk: Best drink to reduce burn from chili peppers." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 25 June 2019. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190625133526.htm. #Hotsauce #pep

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/Yi3WTYMJtcw This is Health News You Should Use, the latest medical discoveries and commonsense advice that you can use in a practical way to keep yourself and your family healthy.   Here are this weeks stories : Medical Reversals Make Some Therapy Obsolete Visiting Mother Nature Is Healthy White Coat Hypertension Is Dangerous Eat Lots Of Red Meat And Die Earlier Exercise Effects Differ Day Versus Night Move Away From That Pregnant Woman Overweight Kids Develop High Blood Pressure American Baby-making Peaks In Summer Are Your Social Media Accounts Better Than Fitbit For Predicting Health? Cool It As You Exercise Video Games Lead To Obesity But Not For Whom You Think Teens Lured To Tanning Salons And Later Cancer Your Facebook Posts Leave Clues To Disease Fear Of Trying Foods Bad For Your Nutrition Yogurt Prevents Bowel Polyps And Cancer For show notes and references to for the stories, check out my website at:https://www.drhowardsmith.com/june-2019-3rd-week-health-news #Medicalreversa

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/Dw1wOG3lpec Eating yogurt twice a week lowers a man’s risk of developing adenomatous, cancer-producing polyps by 26%.   Researchers studied colonoscopy data from over 88,000 participants in the continuing Health Professionals and Nurses Health Studies.  Sadly, the data did not show any beneficial association between yogurt consumption and polyps in women. The investigators feel that the live culture bacteria found in yogurt likely feed on the carcinogenic substances found in the gastrointestinal tract.  They also point to yogurt’s known anti-inflammatory properties as helpful in reducing colon adenoma formation. So guys—try to enjoy several cups of yogurt a week especially if you have a personal or family history of bowel polyps or bowel cancer. BMJ. "Yogurt may help to lower pre-cancerous bowel growth risk in men: Observed association strongest for growths highly likely to become cancerous." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 June 2019. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/19061819202

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/k8fA_BxQ9d4 If you avoid trying new foods, so called food neophobia, you might just be starving your body of proper nutrients leading to obesity and declining health.  Population data on some 4000 subjects was tabulated by two Finnish universities and just published in The American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition. Food fear was associated with a reduced dietary quality with less fiber, protein, and monounsaturated fats, increased fasting insulin, a greater risk of type 2 diabetes, unwanted weight gain, and more cardiovascular disease.  Food neophobia, common in kids and senior citizens, seems to be hereditary in up to 78% of cases. The news you should use here is that a varied diet is a healthy diet.  Trying new things is also as good for your psyche as it turns out to be for your body. Heikki V Sarin, Nele Taba, Krista Fischer, Tonu Esko, Noora Kanerva, Leena Moilanen, Juha Saltevo, Anni Joensuu, Katja Borodulin, Satu Männistö, Kati Kristiansson, Markus Perola. Food neophobia associa

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/TzbK0xNiGhM The pattern of the words you use on social media generally and on Facebook specifically can help your doctors and you identify your unique set of medical problems including diabetes and a bevy of psychological issues including anxiety, depression, and frank psychosis.  Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania processed the language in nearly 1 million Facebook status updates from about 1000 participants, and they cross-referenced their words with healthcare data from their electronic medical records. They focused on 21 separate conditions, and Facebook data accurately predicted each of them.  In about half of the conditions, Facebook did a better job of prediction than a patient’s raw profile data.  The posts most often predicted diabetes, pregnancy, and mental health issues. The words ‘bottle’ and ‘drinking’ were associated with alcohol abuse.  Hostile words and stories most often occurred in the posts of drug abusers and those with psychiatric issues.  In fact, th

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/G6aozfdBiuk Big business is pushing yet another unhealthy, addictive habit on our teens and young adults.  We can now add tanning’s carcinogenic UV radiation to tobacco’s cancer-triggering smoke, vaping’s addicting nicotine, and alcohol’s liver damaging metabolites. Community medicine and public health investigators at the University of Colorado reviewed the advertising and business practices of 94 tanning enterprises across  America.  They found that advertising preferentially targets the young with low, introductory pricing and packages that encourage overuse. Nineteen states ban indoor tanning salon use for those under 18 years, but tanning beds are also found in many health clubs and apartment complexes with little or no oversight.  Over 80,000 cases of potentially deadly melanoma surface each year, and tanning in salons but also on the beach could make you or your child one of the next victims. One last point to consider: a preliminary study from Georgetown University’s Cancer

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/aD8qLWYK4Ms   The stereotype is a very chubby teen wolfing down chips and popcorn while endlessly perfecting Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto skills.  The latest meta-analysis of some 20 studies reviewing data from 38,000 gamers show that there is no correlation between child and teen video game use and obesity.   Wait!  There IS a link between gaming and excessive weight for adults.  The German study, published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, suggests that, over time, good old Mother Nature catches with kids whose only physical activity is pressing controller buttons.   Eventually there is a price to be paid for addicting, sedentary pursuits such as gaming that lead to less or virtually no time vigorously exercising your body.  That price includes heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and a shorter life. Caroline Marker, Timo Gnambs, Markus Appel. Exploring the myth of the chubby gamer: A meta-analysis of studies on sedentary video gaming and body mass. Social Science &

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/2mYjnj9F5Tk As our planet overheats but you still should be exercising, a cooling vest may become more important than those high tech Nike shoes.  A study from the Hiroshima University just published in Frontiers in Physiology. Researchers there developed and tested an ice pack-laden vest.  They provided it to 8 professional soccer players whom they challenged  with a power cycling scenario that simulated a soccer game.  Wearing the cooling vest led to significantly greater mean and peak power outputs, lower heart rates, lower skin temperatures, and improved thermal comfort. So....If you play or work in high temps and high humidities and you want your body to perform the best it can, you should try a cooling vest.  Vests with cold packs are already readily available online at reasonable prices, and you recharge the cooling packs Yudai Chaen, Sumire Onitsuka, Hiroshi Hasegawa. Wearing a Cooling Vest During Half-Time Improves Intermittent Exercise in the Heat. Frontiers in Physiology,

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/nWqioZcv0VA Is your Fitbit or your Facebook page better at predicting your state of health?  Computer scientists at the University of Notre Dame now say that the strength of your social network is better than fitness wearables at predicting just how health you are.   The investigators collected social info, Fitbit data, and a general health history from nearly 700 Notre Dame freshmen.  They developed an algorithm to quantitate the robustness of students’ friendships, and they used the wearables to  provide cardiac, exercise intensity, and sleep data.  A wellness survey permitted assessment of the students’ physical and psychological wellbeing. It turns out that both are important, and adding the social network data significantly improves the ability of the wearable data alone to predict your state of wellness or otherwise.  The added social data improved predictability of happiness by 65%, of a positive attitude by 55%, and of stress by 38%. So keeping healthy involves more that cyc

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/nt8vigRP6cA Women in the USA thinking about starting a family choose the summer as the ideal time for conceiving that baby.  A study just published in the Journal of Applied Econometrics gathered data from American birth certificates, census information, and survey responses. Women choose summer for conception and spring for birth since the early pregnancy and the new baby will be free from the ravages of fall and winter colds and influenza.  Women who work in education also plan their pregnancies so that the babies first 6 months will coincide with a maternity leave extended by a natural summer vacation. The spring is an ideal time to welcome a new baby, since you can easily spend time outdoors.  The expectant mom also avoids a 3rd trimester during the dog days of summer. Damian Clarke, Sonia Oreffice, Climent Quintana‐Domeque. The Demand for Season of Birth. Journal of Applied Econometrics, 2019; DOI: 10.1002/jae.2711 #Conception #delivery #summer #spring  

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/ENyVyLkYnHY Heavy and obese 4 year olds more than double their chances of developing dangerously high blood pressures by age 6.  Spanish cardiologists followed a group of nearly 1800 4 year olds over a two year period and published their findings in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. Those kids with new or persisting excess weight had a 2.5 higher risk of developing high blood pressure.  Obese children were 3 times more likely to suffer the same fate.  If the hypertension goes unchecked, it will lead to heart disease and stroke. The investigators pointedly disagree with the widespread opinion among pediatricians that weight problems in kids need not be addressed until adolescence.  They firmly believe that weight surveillance is lifelong.  Furthermore it is a family affair with healthy eating and regular exercise for all. Maira A Ortiz-Pinto, Honorato Ortiz-Marrón, Isabel Ferriz-Vidal, María V Martínez-Rubio, María Esteban-Vasallo, María Ordobás-Gavin, Iñaki Galán. Assoc

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/9hHUCD2zq4k Don’t crowd a pregnant woman woman during her third trimester.  A psychological study, recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, demonstrates that a woman’s personal space expands the closer she comes to giving birth. The study quantitated the radius of the personal space, normally about an arm’s length from our bodies, in groups of women during their second trimesters, third trimesters, and 2 months after delivery.  The control group consisted of non-pregnant women.   The data not only showed a larger space but also a sharper delineation between the woman’s guarded zone and public space. This larger personal space “bubble” seems protective in several ways.  It not only provides a stable, safe space in public, but it also helps a woman with a larger physical profile navigate her environment. Flavia Cardini, Natalie Fatemi-Ghomi, Katarzyna Gajewska-Knapik, Victoria Gooch, Jane Elizabeth Aspell. Enlarged representation of peripersonal space in pregnancy. Scient

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/9QyMVsuc9Ig Exercising in the morning tones your muscles while exercising in the evening turbocharges your entire metabolism.  These observations come from studies by the University of Copenhagen and UC-Irvine in a mouse model. They found that the body’s circadian rhythm permits sunrise exercise to trigger a change in the muscle cell gene programming.  As a result, the muscles metabolize sugar and fat more efficiently.  As the sun sets, exercise seems to ramp up the bodies energy expenditure for the remainder of the waking hours. The researchers won’t speculate which time of day is best.  As long as you enjoy at least one aerobic exercise session sometime during the day, you can well afford to just do some walking as more moderate exertion at other times. hogo Sato, Astrid Linde Basse, Milena Schönke, Siwei Chen, Muntaha Samad, Ali Altıntaş, Rhianna C. Laker, Emilie Dalbram, Romain Barrès, Pierre Baldi, Jonas T. Treebak, Juleen R. Zierath, Paolo Sassone-Corsi. Time of Exercise Speci

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/JtHpXj4VhGw Increasing your consumption of red meat by 3.5 servings a week will bump up your risk of  death by some 10%.  On the other hand, trading one serving of red meat for a serving of fish reduced your risk of death by 17% These findings come from a study of nearly 82,000 healthcare professionals recently published in the British Medical Journal.  The subjects were all free of serious disease at the beginning of this 16 year study. The study also awarded the worst actor trophy to processed meats including bacon, hot dogs, and sausages.  Eating increased amounts of these was associated with a 13% higher risk of death. The dats just keeps piling on offering more evidence that red meat should only be a very occasional part of your diet.  Eating it regularly in preference to healthier protein sources including fish, grains, and vegetables is to invite the grim reaper into your life way before your time. Yan Zheng, Yanping Li, Ambika Satija, An Pan, Mercedes Sotos-Prieto, Eric Rimm

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/rsZcuBuW9-o Those whose blood pressures jump up when they see their doctors should be treated for hypertension or face twice the risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke.  They also have a 33% higher incidence of death from all causes. These conclusions come from a meta-analysis of nearly 26,000 subjects and 38,000 controls in 27 nationwide studies and just published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.  The good news is that those with white coat hypertension who did receive anti-hypertensive medications experienced no significant increased risk of cardiovascular disease or death.   It was once thought that high blood pressures only in the doctors office were relatively benign.  This study dispels that myth.  Those with a tendency to toward higher blood pressures should be proactively treated to prevent such spikes.  Then, they should follow the effectiveness of their treatment by taking their own blood pressures at home. Cardiovascular Events and Mortality in White Coat Hyperten

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/p0RaIAnS2mY Spending 2 or more hours a week outdoors in nature is associated with better health.  This conclusion stems from a study at Britain’s University of Exeter. The investigators studied close to 20,000 men and women, and they surveyed them for time spent in natural environments and their self-reported health status.  The odds of a person reporting excellent, very good, or good general health only begins to significantly increase after 2 to 2.5 hours per week out in nature. An exploration of the data shows that it mattered little if the outdoor exposure occurred close to home or during a day trip to a park.  Exercising while outdoors was not a factor though those doing so seemed to gain psychologic benefits. So get outdoors as much as you possibly can but do push for at least 2 hours in nature. Mathew P. White, Ian Alcock, James Grellier, etal.  Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing.  Scientific Reports 9, Article number: 

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/xQ7aKxrVGVg A new meta-analysis just published by the Oregon Health and Science University identifies nearly 400 important changes in medical and surgical therapy guidelines as a result of over 3000 randomized, controlled studies.  This type of official policy shift by medical authorities is officially called a “medical reversal.”   I want you to know about the most important reversals so that you can take advantage of the latest recommendations and pass them along to your family and friends.  Let’s take a look at 8 key reversals mentioned by the researchers: When a pregnant women’s membranes break, it is better to wait then to induce immediate delivery. Routine screening mammography for all women under 50 is unnecessary. Wearable devices do not promote weight loss despite their promotion of more exercise. Use of machines to deliver chest compressions for CPR outside the hospital offers no advantages over a person pushing on the chest. External hip protectors do not prevent hip fra

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/IcqzirlDbU8 Health News You Should Use, the latest medical discoveries and commonsense advice that you can use in a practical way to keep yourself and your family healthy.   Here are this weeks stories : Chocolate Packaging Influences Its Flavor Teen Boys Have Different Eating Disorders Than Girls Constipation Frequently Unrecognized Food Tastes Better Sitting Down Air Is Polluted Indoors Too Word Choice Reveals Your Romantic Style The Internet Is Brainwashing You Teen Use of Dietary Supplements May Be Deadly Irregular Sleep Patterns Create Body Turmoil The Wall For Human Exertion Chicken And Steak Both Bump Up Cholesterol Should GMO Be A Dirty Word Kids Get Lazy At Age 9 Children’s Clothing  Could Make Them Overeat  Extroverts Excel In The Workplace For show notes and references to for the stories, check out my website at: https://www.drhowardsmith.com/june-2019-2nd-week-health-new #chocolate #packaging, tastetest #branding #eatingdisorders #biohacking #anorexia #bulemia #supplement

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/cgwFQCj6DU4 A new mega-study by workplace psychologists at the University of Toronto shows that extroverts  have definite advantages at work.   These pluses appear applicable to any type of work and to all work settings. Extroverts’ advantages fall into 4 general categories: exceptional motivation, positive emotions, excellent interpersonal skills, and overall job performance.  The investigators admit that other characteristics contribute to success on the job such as cognitive ability, conscientiousness, and a positive outlook.   Successful introverts have these traits in common with extroverts. Most of us are not pure extroverts or introverts, and there is a little bit of actor in each of us.  If you are an introvert, turbocharge yourself so that you literally bubble over at work.  If you are an extrovert, be certain to channel your energies in ways that prevent your positivity from coming across as overwhelming and counterproductive. Michael P. Wilmot, Connie R. Wanberg, John D.