Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/pIvjASoILKg A German study reveals an association between seasonal allergies and anxiety as well as a link between year-round or perennial allergies with depression.  Psychologists at the University of Augsburg studied more than 1700 middle-aged persons with a variety of allergies including environmental, food, and drug hypersensitivities.   The researchers point out that, in the cases of environmental allergies, the study cannot determine if anxiety is the cause or the effect of seasonal allergies or if depression leads to or is the result of year-round allergies.  They found no links between psychological factors and either food or drug allergies.   Allergy sufferers should use this information to recognize their unique vulnerabilities to either anxiety, depression, or both.  We don’t know if excellent allergy control with medicated sprays and plan old saline reduces psychologic woes, but being able to breathe easily certainly won’t hurt. Katharina Harter, Gertrud Hammel, Lisa Kra

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/BZa4b6iu7Xs Calling addictive substance abuse a disease negatively impacts the addicts’ efforts to get sober.  This is the conclusion of a study from the University of North Carolina just published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. The researchers studied 214 men and women with substance abuse problems.  One group received growth mindset messaging and the control group received addiction as a disease messaging.   The growth message was a positive one that addicts can employ multiple strategies to combat their propensity to use.  It empowered those receiving it to seek help.  In contrast, the disease messaging tended to paralyze addicts efforts to stop and suggested that conquering the addictive behavior may be nearly impossible. If you or someone you know is addicted to any substance or negative behavior, encourage them to think positively about their self-help capabilities and urge them to get professional help. Jeni L. Burnette, Rachel B. Forsyth, Sarah L. Desmarai

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/UFtArWv0Arw Premature infants who listen to music enjoy enhanced neural development.  Swiss neuroscientists at the University of Geneva report the positive effects of specially composed and performed music on developing neural networks of premies. The musical selections varied with time of day and were designed to lend an auditory structure to the infant’s first days out of the womb.  The instruments that produced the most consistent reactions from the babies were the snake charmer’s flute, the harp, and bells. The double blind study used MRI imaging before and after the musical exposure to assess the effect.  The group of premies treated to the music showed stronger connections between the parts of their brains that perform cognitive tasks, manage social relationships, and manage emotions. If a premie has recently joined your family, consider adding lilting flute, harp, and orchestral bell music to their environments. Lara Lordier, Djalel-Eddine Meskaldji, Frédéric Grouiller, Marie

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/RghCkNItbYQ Obesity in the teen years increases the chances of heart weakening and heart failure in middle age by a factor of eight.  But wait, that’s not the worst news.  Even mildly overweight adolescent guys risk heart disease in their 40s and 50s. These conclusions come from a study of nearly 1.7 million Swedish military recruits who were weighed at age 18 as they entered service and were followed for up to 46 years.  The effects on the heart were proportional to weight.  For each 1 unit increase in body mass index or BMI, the risk of dilated cardiomyopathy leading to heart failure increases some 15%.  Women were not studied since they were not joining the military at the time the study began. This study is a wake up call that the current trend toward overeating and obesity will have some horrific consequences.  There are some effective treatments but no cure for a worn out heart except cardiac transplantation and donors are scarce!  Someday, we’ll grow new cardiac tissue from s

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/sG9x8bkrmOg Marijuana is legal throughout Canada, and a study just presented to the Canadian Neuroscience Meeting shows that teens regularly using it suffer impairment of their memory, decision-making, and impulsivity-control skills. Neuroscientists at The University of  Montreal studied over 3800 teens entering high school and followed them during the subsequent 4 years tabulating their cannabis and alcohol use while assessing their cognitive functions.  They documented deficits in memory recall, reasoning, and self-control in weed-using students that did not appear in students preferentially using alcohol recreationally. Urban legend has it that marijuana is safer than alcohol.  Studies such as this indicate that the jury remains out on this issue.   Canadian Association for Neuroscience. "Growing up high: Neurobiological consequences of adolescent cannabis use: Canadian neuroscientists offer insights into the long-term effects of adolescent cannabis use." ScienceDaily. ScienceDai

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/dAJdcux1xZI Women who use assisted reproduction techniques including in-vitro fertilization and intracystoplasmic sperm injection are 5 times more likely to suffer pregnancy-associated heart failure.  This conclusion comes from a study at Germany’s Hannover Medical School presented last week to the European Society of Cardiology. This pregnancy-associated heart failure is due to so-called peripartum cardiomyopathy or PPCM, and this condition affects one in every 1000 pregnant women around the world.  It threatens the life of mother and baby alike.  Assisted reproduction is now added to known risk factors including twin pregnancy, many past pregnancies, very young or very old mothers, obesity, and substance abuse. PPCM is heralded by shortness of breath, leg edema and swelling, and excessive nighttime urination.  Since these same symptoms are all too common during the late third trimester, the study authors suggest that all women who conceive with medical help have a cardiology consu

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/BHsfjlX86Mg 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 : Management of Asthma Changing Button Battery Dangers TELL ME WHY: Coffee is Good For Your Gut Bowel Cancer Rising In Over-fed Young Adults Measles Will Become Epidemic Unless We Compel Immunization Broccoli Triggers Cancer Immunity Asthma App Helps Kids Breathe Better Holistic Approach To IBD Impact Of Weed Legalization On Colorado Health Care Utilization Childrens’ Protruding Teeth Are At Risk Falling Asleep To The TV Robs Kids Of Healthy Sleep Obsession With Healthy Eating Is Dangerous Early Onset Heart Failure On The Rise  The Reproductive Clock Ticks For Men Too TRY A LITTLE KINDNESS:  Big Pharma Can Have A Big Heart For more information, you’ll find all the references for the stories and a copy of show notes on my website at: https://www.drhowardsmith.com/may-2019-3rd-week-healt

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/K5dWdmkXykI Pharmaceutical companies are the corporations that most of us love to hate for their unabashed greed in raising drug prices to astronomical levels.  Here’s one drug company that deserves sustained applause rather than scorn for its generosity.  The story is told by good news network.org. Gilead Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company based in Foster City, CA, through its CEO Daniel O’Day has announced the largest ever donation by a pharmaceutical company.  Every year for the next 11 years, the company will be donating 2.4 million bottles of their Truvada PrEP pre-exposure prophylaxis medication to over 200,000 needy and uninsured Americans at risk for contracting infection with the human immunodeficiency virus. This combination reverse transcriptase inhibitor medication prevents the proliferation of HIV in virus infected cells and in so doing prevents the development of AIDS. This generous program is just the latest chapter in Gilead’s phialthrophic contributions to eradic

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/g5bWW3_0-7g Women over 30 with an interest in motherhood constantly have an eye on that ticking biological clock.  The latest study from Rutgers University suggests that men also need to pay attention to old Father Time if they want to produce healthy offspring. The study reviewed nearly half a century of research on fertility and healthy reproduction.  Men 45 years or older with decreasing testosterone experience declining fertility and contributed suboptimal sperm that trigger pregnancy complications including gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, premature birth, still births, low birth weight, newborn seizures, and birth defects including cardiac anomalies and cleft palate.  Later, the children of older men had an increased incidence of childhood cancer, psychiatric disorders, and autism. The study’s authors recommend that men as well as women keep an eye on the clock if they have parenthood in their futures.  If fatherhood is to be delayed, they suggest that men consider banking

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/HYkk6YqL5iU Death due to congestive heart failure has been on the rise over the past 7 years, and the group most affected is surprisingly those under 65.  A new study from Northwestern University cardiologists looks at CDC epidemiologic data for nearly 48 million Americans from 35 to 84 years of age. The study shows that the trend toward declining death rates from heart failure seen over the past 3 decades is now reversing.  Younger individuals are now more likely to develop heart failure, and the reasons appear to be due to our country’s dual interrelated epidemics of obesity and diabetes.  Middle-aged black men are at a particularly high risk. Heart failure is deadly with outcomes similar to metastatic lung cancer.  The best treatment is prevention by maintaining a healthy weight, keeping your blood pressure under control, and monitoring your cholesterol and lipid profiles.  These goals will be far easier to achieve by eliminating fast food and excessive alcohol. Peter Glynn, Dona

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/-UtbUESmvgM Orthorexia nervosa is medical jargon for an obsession with healthy eating.  Psychologists from Toronto’s York University explain the drivers and dangers of this condition in a review article just published in the journal Appetite. Orthorexia nervosa tends to develop in those individuals with a history of eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive personalities, a history of repeated dieting, a poor body image, a desire to be thin, and often a history of depression.  Those individuals who adopt restrictive eating practices such as vegetarians, vegans, and especially lacto-vegetarians are at high risk for this disorder. Unlike those who suffer from anorexia nervosa and the drive to restrict calories in the effort to maintain a low body weight, persons with Orthorexia nervosa fixate on obtaining or preparing healthy food.  They spend so many hours of the day, planning, purchasing ingredients, and preparing healthy meals that they have little time left for other pursuits.  This

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/qkRJ7UIEFVM The myth that falling asleep to the TV is good for children is now dispelled by a study from the University of ‘Massachusetts-Amherst.  Developmental specialists and neuroscientists there studied some 470 preschoolers and their parents using electronic sleep monitoring and questionnaires for behavioral assessment. Thirty-four percent of the kids had TVs in their bedrooms, and those children slept 17 fewer minutes per 24 hours than those without bedroom TVs.  They tended to require longer daytime naps and spent an average of 12 minutes more asleep during the day. TV viewing during the day also had effects on sleep patterns.  The World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics both recommend limiting TV viewing for 2 to 4 year olds to one hour of high quality, educational programming a day, and the viewing should occur with a parent if possible.   The study showed that only 46% of kids had viewing habits that met these guidelines. Those children whose dail

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/R6j4W6aPTgc Kids with teeth that protrude are at significant risk for a lifetime of dental problems.  An Australian study of more than 50,000 children and adolescents was just published in the journal Dental Traumatology. The data reveals that children under the age of six with teeth that protrude more than 3 millimeters are more than 3 times more likely to sustain serious dental trauma.  Children and adolescents older than 6 years with dental protrusions of more than 5 millimeters have double the  risk of injury.  When injuries do occur, they may negatively impact continued dental development, complicate future orthodontia efforts, or necessitate later dental implants. Children with protruding teeth should be fitted with protective mouth guards for use during sports and other vigorous play.  They should be considered prime candidates for aggressive and proactive orthodontia in order to normalize their dental profile and reduce risk of injury. George P Arraj, Giampiero Rossi‐Fedele,

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/G3--3Vsow-c The ready availability of marijuana had both positive and negative impacts on the use of hospital services in the state of Colorado.  Cardiologists and epidemiologists at UC-San Francisco studied some hospital records from Colorado comparing utilization before and after pot legalization.  On the positive side, there were fewer hospitalizations for chronic pain.  This statistic is a tribute to the effectiveness of cannabis and its components THC and CBD as agents for pain management.  On the negative side, hospital admissions rose due to marijuana-driven motor vehicle accidents, alcohol abuse, and cannabis overdosing.  The net effect on hospital utilization was zero. The lesson learned is that mind-altering drugs can have health benefits.  Their ready availability dictates the need for public education about responsible, moderate use.   This is particularly true in the context of heavy machinery operation. Francesca N Delling, Eric Vittinghoff, Thomas A Dewland, etal. Doe

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/RQhzQKE1s0M Inflammatory bowel disease is best treated by simultaneously applying therapies that focus both on the gut and the brain.  A study from Sweden’s University of Gothenberg just published in journal Gastroenterology emphasizes the need a comprehensive, holistic approach to the disease. The researchers studied 400 patients with IBD and matched controls using quantitative measures of intestinal sensitivity and motility as well as a questionnaire to explore the subjects neurological and psychological issues.  Their studies were particularly focused on the so call gut-brain axis which is the link between these components of IBD. The study concludes that the most severe forms of IBD were accompanied by multiple problems in the gastrointestinal tract and in the psyche.  Effective treatment was only possible when each component of the disease was recognized and managed holistically with not only pharmaceuticals such as anti-depressants but also cognitive behavioral therapy and hyp

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/UoXTh9OtlzA Electronically monitoring a child’s day-to-day breathing patterns and their responses to medicine improves asthma management.  Pediatricians at the University of Utah developed a smartphone app they call eAsthmaTracker and tested it with more than 300 children receiving care at 11 clinics statewide. The app tracks a child’s respiratory symptoms and peak flow rates and their impact on everyday activities permitting parents and clinicians to detect impending acute asthma attacks and use proactive medication adjustments to prevent or at least moderate such episodes.  Use of the app improved asthma control, reduced ED visits by 60%, diminished the need for rescue steroids by 35%, led to 60% fewer missed school days, and drove an improved quality of life. The Utah app is not yet ready for prime time, but the good news is that there are several free asthma tracking apps already available on the iOS and Android App stores.  These apps appear to provide some of the same tracking

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/RVam3gGQvYI Broccoli and its cruciferous vegetable cousins can inactivate a gene that cancers use to overwhelm our immune systems and our bodies.  This latest finding comes from Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center’s Cancer Research Institute. We know that eating broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, collard greens, Brussel sprouts, and kale seems to reduce the risk of cancer.  The Harvard researchers report that a tiny molecule in these vegetables, indole 3 carbinol or I3C, blocks one gene, WWP1, and releases a second gene, PTEN that is a potent human cancer cell suppressor.  By this round about mechanism, these veggies metabolically disable tumor cells. So all we have so do is eat some broccoli, cauliflower, or cabbage to cure cancer.  No so fast.  Only tiny amounts of the magic I3C are in the usual servings of these vegetables, so you’d have to consume whopping quantities to consistently have an effect.   Nonetheless, eating them regularly is beneficial while researchers find

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/frbow4n-VoM This is a wake up call for the US, Britain, Ireland, Italy, and Australia that comes from Italy’s Bocconi University and Bruno Kessler Foundation.  Researchers there crunched the numbers using a computer model and simulated the characteristics of measles immunity between 2018 and 2050 in these countries as well as in South Korea and Singapore. The study projections show that by 2050, only South Korea and Singapore would have the required 7.5% of their populations immune to measles and thereby escape a string of measles epidemics.  At the current rates of vaccination in the other countries, none of them would reach the 7.5% target. The CDC is webcasting a seminar this week for clinicians to help them cope with this year’s measles outbreak.  Although 95% of Americans have immunity to measles either by having had the disease or by vaccination, 1 in every 12 children in the US fail to receive their first dose of MMR vaccine on time.  Most of the cases of measles that enter t

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/V6FqGGLJLo8 While the incidence of bowel cancer dropped in middle-aged adults 50+ over the decade ending in 2014, colon and rectal cancer is on the rise for younger adults.  This result is now reported in the journal The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, and it is derived from a tabulation of cancer registry data from the westernized countries Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Denmark, and Norway. The numbers are small but significant.  While the bowel cancer incidence was dropping by 2% on average in older persons, it was rising 2.5% in the younger adults.  The rise is particularly significant for rectal cancer. The study authors speculate that better screening for young adults should be considered, since most surveillance doesn’t begin before the ages of 45-50 except in those with a strong family history of bowel disease.  With the advent of cheap at-home fecal immune test or FIT kits, it may be prudent to begin that type of screening on a periodic basis in

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/wvab4Bj4SIc We’ve known for years that coffee can be good for your digestion as it helps keep you regular,  reduces risk of gallstones, and keeps your liver humming along.  A new study from the University of Texas at Galveston explores that reasons for this conclusion.  Their studies were carried out in a rat model. These investigators found that, when exposed to coffee for three successive days, the small and large intestines of the tests animals showed more forceful muscular activity than seen in animals on a coffee-free diet..  In addition, the bacteria within the guts of the experimental animals showed slower growth in the coffee-fed animals.  Most interesting was the observation that gut contractions increased and bacterial proliferation decreased whether or not the coffee was caffeinated or decaf. Healthline.com summarizes the known benefits of coffee: Boost energy. Burns fat. Improves physical performance. Contains essential B vitamins and minerals. May lower diabetes risk.