Dr. Howard Smith Reports

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/GnDzgK4N5jM

It’s not just the football team that gets overheated.  The marching band, wearing heavy wool uniforms, is particularly susceptible to heat-related disease.  This according to an analysis by investigators at the Universities of Georgia, South Carolina, and Kansas that looked at this problem over a 31 year period using a newspaper report database.

Of the 393 exertion heat illnesses cataloged, 88% occurred in high schoolers, 32% during rehearsals, 29% during parades, 21% during games, and 15% during performances.  About 50% were treated on-site, but 44% went to the ER, and about 6% had severe heat stroke requiring in-patient hospitalization.  

All heat-related illness occurs during hotter weather, and we’ll certainly be having more and more of that. Band leaders, school administrators, and parents should all watch the mercury and and help school band members cool it when they are in uniform.  Helpful measures include: abundant water, lighter uniforms, shorter heat exposures, and cooling.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00484-021-02183-0

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210915135126.htm

#heat #heatexhaustion #heatstroke #marchingband #hospitalization #football

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/GnDzgK4N5jM

It’s not just the football team that gets overheated.  The marching band, wearing heavy wool uniforms, is particularly susceptible to heat-related disease.  This according to an analysis by investigators at the Universities of Georgia, South Carolina, and Kansas that looked at this problem over a 31 year period using a newspaper report database.

Of the 393 exertion heat illnesses cataloged, 88% occurred in high schoolers, 32% during rehearsals, 29% during parades, 21% during games, and 15% during performances.  About 50% were treated on-site, but 44% went to the ER, and about 6% had severe heat stroke requiring in-patient hospitalization.  

All heat-related illness occurs during hotter weather, and we’ll certainly be having more and more of that. Band leaders, school administrators, and parents should all watch the mercury and and help school band members cool it when they are in uniform.  Helpful measures include: abundant water, lighter uniforms, shorter heat exposures, and cooling.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00484-021-02183-0

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210915135126.htm

#heat #heatexhaustion #heatstroke #marchingband #hospitalization #football

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/R0QnOSnV81s

From the CDC comes the latest comparison of our current CoVid vaccines in terms of ability to keep the average Jane or Joe without any medical issues out of the hospital.  Once again, Moderna come out on top.

A multi-center study of 1682 vaccinated persons 16 yrs or older and 2007 controls shows that, between March and August of this year, the Moderna vaccine was 93% and significantly more protective against hospitalization than the Pfizer at 88% and the Johnson & Johnson at 71%.  The Pfizer shortfall was due to a decline of effectiveness from 91% at 3 months or less to 77% after 3 months.

A subset of vaccinated patients had their anti-CoVid antibodies assayed.  Here, the Moderna vaccine again performed better than the Pfizer, particularly for levels of anti-RBD antibodies (4,333 vs 2,950).  Both of the mRNA vaccines bested the J&J vaccine with levels that had levels of only 59.

Those vaccinated with Pfizer but particularly with J&J should not only be extra careful with masking, distancing, hygiene, and ventilation but should get in line quickly for a booster.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7038e1.htm#contribAff

#CoVid #moderna #pfizer #j&j #janssen #hospitalization #antibodies

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/R0QnOSnV81s

From the CDC comes the latest comparison of our current CoVid vaccines in terms of ability to keep the average Jane or Joe without any medical issues out of the hospital.  Once again, Moderna come out on top.

A multi-center study of 1682 vaccinated persons 16 yrs or older and 2007 controls shows that, between March and August of this year, the Moderna vaccine was 93% and significantly more protective against hospitalization than the Pfizer at 88% and the Johnson & Johnson at 71%.  The Pfizer shortfall was due to a decline of effectiveness from 91% at 3 months or less to 77% after 3 months.

A subset of vaccinated patients had their anti-CoVid antibodies assayed.  Here, the Moderna vaccine again performed better than the Pfizer, particularly for levels of anti-RBD antibodies (4,333 vs 2,950).  Both of the mRNA vaccines bested the J&J vaccine with levels that had levels of only 59.

Those vaccinated with Pfizer but particularly with J&J should not only be extra careful with masking, distancing, hygiene, and ventilation but should get in line quickly for a booster.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7038e1.htm#contribAff

#CoVid #moderna #pfizer #j&j #janssen #hospitalization #antibodies

M

 Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/i00NgHL9wzo

Today’s newly announced medical discoveries that point to future therapy:

Microspheres improve female fertility

Promising new therapy for MRSA infections

Nanoparticles as long-term disinfectants

Your nose could fix your knee

Shirts that monitor your heart

Some women cannot conceive because the walls of their uteruses are too thin to permit embryo attachment.  Chinese investigators report a new technique for wall thickening using microsphere sprays of hyaluronic acid and vascular endothelial growth factor.  They show in a mouse model that these droplets trigger uterine wall thickening.  Not ready yet for prime time use in humans but very promising.

MRSA, methicillin-resistant staph aureus, is a formidable organism that triggers severe and life-threatening infections that often cannot be treated with conventional antibiotics.  Cornell University veterinarians show in a horse model that mesenchymal stem cells produce secretions that throttle MRSA bacterial growth.  Stem cells may be sourced from bone marrow, body fat, polyps, umbilical cord tissues, and amniotic fluid.  In the future, mesenchymal cell secretions may be available off the shelf to fight antibiotic-resistant infections.

For those of us who constantly are disinfecting doorknobs, buttons, shopping carts, and handrests, a nanoparticle-based disinfectant that lasts up to a week may be welcome news.  Investigators at the University of Central Florida’s Nanotechnology Center have developed a long-lasting disinfectant based on cerium oxide nanoparticles.  This formulation kills CoVid and other germs in 2 ways: the nanoparticles fire oxidizing electrons that kill and they attach to surfaces and pop viruses like balloons.  The best news: the nanoparticles are not toxic to the skin or even to eyes.

Your knees are the Dangerfields of your limbs.  They get no respect from sports trauma.  Swiss biomedical engineers have found a way to use cartilage cells from your nasal septum to help repair damaged knee cartilages.  They found an added bonus: the nasal cartilage cells are more resistant to inflammation.  This opens the door to their use in those with joint deterioration due to osteoarthritis in the knees and in other joints of the body.

Wearable health sensors are all the rage.  Rice University bioengineers now announce that they have developed carbon nanotube threads that are washable, flexible, stretchable and may be readily sewn into fabrics.  Shirts with these nanotube electrodes built in delivered EKGs comparable to those from conventional electrodes without that goo.  That’s because the threads have superior conductivity to skin.

These and other cutting edge solutions are coming to your doctor’s office and our hospitals…….some day soon!

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.1c00615

M

 Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/i00NgHL9wzo

Today’s newly announced medical discoveries that point to future therapy:

Microspheres improve female fertility

Promising new therapy for MRSA infections

Nanoparticles as long-term disinfectants

Your nose could fix your knee

Shirts that monitor your heart

Some women cannot conceive because the walls of their uteruses are too thin to permit embryo attachment.  Chinese investigators report a new technique for wall thickening using microsphere sprays of hyaluronic acid and vascular endothelial growth factor.  They show in a mouse model that these droplets trigger uterine wall thickening.  Not ready yet for prime time use in humans but very promising.

MRSA, methicillin-resistant staph aureus, is a formidable organism that triggers severe and life-threatening infections that often cannot be treated with conventional antibiotics.  Cornell University veterinarians show in a horse model that mesenchymal stem cells produce secretions that throttle MRSA bacterial growth.  Stem cells may be sourced from bone marrow, body fat, polyps, umbilical cord tissues, and amniotic fluid.  In the future, mesenchymal cell secretions may be available off the shelf to fight antibiotic-resistant infections.

For those of us who constantly are disinfecting doorknobs, buttons, shopping carts, and handrests, a nanoparticle-based disinfectant that lasts up to a week may be welcome news.  Investigators at the University of Central Florida’s Nanotechnology Center have developed a long-lasting disinfectant based on cerium oxide nanoparticles.  This formulation kills CoVid and other germs in 2 ways: the nanoparticles fire oxidizing electrons that kill and they attach to surfaces and pop viruses like balloons.  The best news: the nanoparticles are not toxic to the skin or even to eyes.

Your knees are the Dangerfields of your limbs.  They get no respect from sports trauma.  Swiss biomedical engineers have found a way to use cartilage cells from your nasal septum to help repair damaged knee cartilages.  They found an added bonus: the nasal cartilage cells are more resistant to inflammation.  This opens the door to their use in those with joint deterioration due to osteoarthritis in the knees and in other joints of the body.

Wearable health sensors are all the rage.  Rice University bioengineers now announce that they have developed carbon nanotube threads that are washable, flexible, stretchable and may be readily sewn into fabrics.  Shirts with these nanotube electrodes built in delivered EKGs comparable to those from conventional electrodes without that goo.  That’s because the threads have superior conductivity to skin.

These and other cutting edge solutions are coming to your doctor’s office and our hospitals…….some day soon!

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.1c00615

https://stemcellsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sctm.21-0058

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.1c04142

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.aaz4499

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c01039

#fertility #women #mrsa #resistantbacteria #disinfectants #nose #knee #cartilage #cardiac #ekg #wearables

Check out this excellent and critical review of Apple’s new stuff as announced in September, 2021. Subscribe to "The Download" for more reviews and commentary to come.

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/ZpW9sHhs6b8 

#apple #iphone #ipad #applewatch

Check out this excellent and critical review of Apple’s new stuff as announced in September, 2021. Subscribe to "The Download" for more reviews and commentary to come.

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/ZpW9sHhs6b8 

#apple #iphone #ipad #applewatch

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/gcWlSP8UEIY

The FDA and Dole Fresh Vegetables are recalling Dole Curly Leaf Parsley.  This product contains Shiga-toxin producing E. coli.  Involved is product with harvest dates of August 18 and 19 2021 and distributed in FL, IA, MI, MN, and MO.  Affected bunches of parsley have a PLU number of 4899 and a UPC code of 0 3383 80330 0.  If you have this Dole Parsley, do not consume it but rather return it to the place of purchase for a refund.  For more information, contact Dole at 1-800-356-3111.

https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/dole-fresh-vegetables-announces-precautionary-limited-recall-curly-leaf-parsley-due-possible

#dole #parsley #ecoli #gastroenteritis #recall

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/gcWlSP8UEIY

The FDA and Dole Fresh Vegetables are recalling Dole Curly Leaf Parsley.  This product contains Shiga-toxin producing E. coli.  Involved is product with harvest dates of August 18 and 19 2021 and distributed in FL, IA, MI, MN, and MO.  Affected bunches of parsley have a PLU number of 4899 and a UPC code of 0 3383 80330 0.  If you have this Dole Parsley, do not consume it but rather return it to the place of purchase for a refund.  For more information, contact Dole at 1-800-356-3111.

https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/dole-fresh-vegetables-announces-precautionary-limited-recall-curly-leaf-parsley-due-possible

#dole #parsley #ecoli #gastroenteritis #recall