Dr. Howard Smith Reports

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/O1oX1gbqUJc

• Numbers of infected, hospitalized, and perished continues to rise quickly.  Get the latest stats from Bloomberg:  https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-wuhan-novel-coronavirus-outbreak/ and bookmark the page.
• As of this recording, DATE: 2/7/2020, TIME: 3 PM; ConfirmedCasesWorldwide: 31,479; DeathsWorldwide: 638.
• Norway’s Coalition for Epidermic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), France’s Pasteur Institute, and German investigators are working on vaccines. 
• The British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will contribute its adjuvant platform technology that permits the rapid manufacture of vaccine.
• South China Agricultural University reports that genetic analyses suggest the corona virus originated in bats but passed through the scaly and nearly endangered anteater pangolan Confirmatory genetic analysis is underway.  Pangolin meat is a Chinese delicacy. 
• WHO spearheading a $675 million worldwide collaboration to halt the spread of corona virus. 
• Foxconn, the Chinese iPhone assembler, will be diverting part of its resources to make face masks.  Will try to manufacture two million masks a day by the end of the month.
• China has completed construction of 2 new hospitals for treatment of corona virus victims.  They were finished in record time.

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/O1oX1gbqUJc

• Numbers of infected, hospitalized, and perished continues to rise quickly.  Get the latest stats from Bloomberg:  https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-wuhan-novel-coronavirus-outbreak/ and bookmark the page.
• As of this recording, DATE: 2/7/2020, TIME: 3 PM; ConfirmedCasesWorldwide: 31,479; DeathsWorldwide: 638.
• Norway’s Coalition for Epidermic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), France’s Pasteur Institute, and German investigators are working on vaccines. 
• The British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will contribute its adjuvant platform technology that permits the rapid manufacture of vaccine.
• South China Agricultural University reports that genetic analyses suggest the corona virus originated in bats but passed through the scaly and nearly endangered anteater pangolan Confirmatory genetic analysis is underway.  Pangolin meat is a Chinese delicacy. 
• WHO spearheading a $675 million worldwide collaboration to halt the spread of corona virus. 
• Foxconn, the Chinese iPhone assembler, will be diverting part of its resources to make face masks.  Will try to manufacture two million masks a day by the end of the month.
• China has completed construction of 2 new hospitals for treatment of corona virus victims.  They were finished in record time.

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/mFHrIsgV43o

Riding your bicycle to work regularly can reduce your chances of dying by 13% during any 15 year period.  New Zealand epidemiologists analyzed data from 3.5 million Kiwis, 80% of their working-age population.

Only 3% of the population cycled to work with 5% walking but the vast majority traveling by auto or mass transit.  Twice as many men cycled as women but more women walked or jogged.  Younger persons were more likely to cycle or walk.

Commuting under your own steam improves your health and helps our environment by reducing your carbon footprint.  Use less-traveled roads being vigilant for autos making the frequently deadly right hand turn. 

Caroline Shaw, Tony Blakely, June Atkinson, Alistair Woodward. Is mode of transport to work associated with mortality in the working-age population? Repeated census-cohort studies in New Zealand 1996, 2001 and 2006. International Journal of Epidemiology, 2020; DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyz257

#bicycling #commuting #masstransit #carbonfootprint

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/eb533qJMSyc

Kids whose mothers have pre-existing diabetes or develop it during their pregnancies are one and one-half times more likely to suffer from a hearing loss.  Investigators at the Medical University of South Carolina studied 311 children of so-called diabetic pregnancies (CDPs) and compared them with matched controls.

The CDPs had a 71% incidence of hearing loss versus 45% in the controls.  Their hearing problems were more likely to be bilateral and driven by a higher incidence of ear infections and ear fluid.

Mothers with diabetes during their pregnancies should be particularly vigilant for hearing issues and ear disease in their children.  If kids ignore you, get them tested. 

Joshua A.LeeCharmee H.MehtaShaun A.NguyenTed A.MeyerX. Hearing Outcomes in Children of Diabetic Pregnancies.  International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijporl.2020.109925

#diabetes #pregnancy #hearingloss #otitis

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/5ERcQDoWI9A

Waking to a melody versus a jarring buzzer is significantly more likely to erase that groggy feeling from the first part of your day.  This conclusion stems from a study just published by communication scientists at Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

Fifty participants were surveyed for their preferred type of morning alarm sounds.  The tabulated results revealed that musical alarms more efficiently erased sleep inertia than either the annoying beep or buzz.  Waking to harsh sounds disturbs normal and effective brain function impairing your performance for up to 4 hours.

Quickly suspending sleep inertia is critical for certain professions including police, firefighters, pilots, commercial drivers, nurses, and doctors.  

Stuart J. McFarlane, Jair E. Garcia, Darrin S. Verhagen, Adrian G. Dyer. Alarm tones, music and their elements: Analysis of reported waking sounds to counteract sleep inertia. PLOS ONE, 2020; 15 (1): e0215788 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0215788

#waking #grogginess #sleepinertia #music #buzzer

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/5ERcQDoWI9A

Waking to a melody versus a jarring buzzer is significantly more likely to erase that groggy feeling from the first part of your day.  This conclusion stems from a study just published by communication scientists at Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

Fifty participants were surveyed for their preferred type of morning alarm sounds.  The tabulated results revealed that musical alarms more efficiently erased sleep inertia than either the annoying beep or buzz.  Waking to harsh sounds disturbs normal and effective brain function impairing your performance for up to 4 hours.

Quickly suspending sleep inertia is critical for certain professions including police, firefighters, pilots, commercial drivers, nurses, and doctors.  

Stuart J. McFarlane, Jair E. Garcia, Darrin S. Verhagen, Adrian G. Dyer. Alarm tones, music and their elements: Analysis of reported waking sounds to counteract sleep inertia. PLOS ONE, 2020; 15 (1): e0215788 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0215788

#waking #grogginess #sleepinertia #music #buzzer

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/eb533qJMSyc

Kids whose mothers have pre-existing diabetes or develop it during their pregnancies are one and one-half times more likely to suffer from a hearing loss.  Investigators at the Medical University of South Carolina studied 311 children of so-called diabetic pregnancies (CDPs) and compared them with matched controls.

The CDPs had a 71% incidence of hearing loss versus 45% in the controls.  Their hearing problems were more likely to be bilateral and driven by a higher incidence of ear infections and ear fluid.

Mothers with diabetes during their pregnancies should be particularly vigilant for hearing issues and ear disease in their children.  If kids ignore you, get them tested. 

Joshua A.LeeCharmee H.MehtaShaun A.NguyenTed A.MeyerX. Hearing Outcomes in Children of Diabetic Pregnancies.  International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijporl.2020.109925

#diabetes #pregnancy #hearingloss #otitis

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/mFHrIsgV43o

Riding your bicycle to work regularly can reduce your chances of dying by 13% during any 15 year period.  New Zealand epidemiologists analyzed data from 3.5 million Kiwis, 80% of their working-age population.

Only 3% of the population cycled to work with 5% walking but the vast majority traveling by auto or mass transit.  Twice as many men cycled as women but more women walked or jogged.  Younger persons were more likely to cycle or walk.

Commuting under your own steam improves your health and helps our environment by reducing your carbon footprint.  Use less-traveled roads being vigilant for autos making the frequently deadly right hand turn. 

Caroline Shaw, Tony Blakely, June Atkinson, Alistair Woodward. Is mode of transport to work associated with mortality in the working-age population? Repeated census-cohort studies in New Zealand 1996, 2001 and 2006. International Journal of Epidemiology, 2020; DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyz257

#bicycling #commuting #masstransit #carbonfootprint

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/pxtKl_qb31I

A full 99.9% of meals that we eat outside the home aren’t well-balanced or healthy.  Nutritionists at Tufts University just released a dining habit analysis of more than 35,000 American adults surveyed from 2003 through 2016.  They studied both full service and fast food restaurants.

Predictably 70 to 75% of the fast food meals consumed were of poor dietary quality. Sit-down restaurants with servers fared only slightly better at 50%.

We Americans ingest more than 20% of our daily calories outside our homes.  Far too often, those calories come from fatty and sugary meals.  The remedy: eat more fruits, vegetables, and lean meat, and fish at home where the price is right.

Junxiu Liu, Colin D Rehm, Renata Micha, Dariush Mozaffarian. Quality of Meals Consumed by US Adults at Full-Service and Fast-Food Restaurants, 2003–2016: Persistent Low Quality and Widening Disparities. The Journal of Nutrition, 2020; DOI: 10.1093/jn/nxz299

#restaurant #eatingout #fastfood #fat #sugar

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/pxtKl_qb31I

A full 99.9% of meals that we eat outside the home aren’t well-balanced or healthy.  Nutritionists at Tufts University just released a dining habit analysis of more than 35,000 American adults surveyed from 2003 through 2016.  They studied both full service and fast food restaurants.

Predictably 70 to 75% of the fast food meals consumed were of poor dietary quality. Sit-down restaurants with servers fared only slightly better at 50%.

We Americans ingest more than 20% of our daily calories outside our homes.  Far too often, those calories come from fatty and sugary meals.  The remedy: eat more fruits, vegetables, and lean meat, and fish at home where the price is right.

Junxiu Liu, Colin D Rehm, Renata Micha, Dariush Mozaffarian. Quality of Meals Consumed by US Adults at Full-Service and Fast-Food Restaurants, 2003–2016: Persistent Low Quality and Widening Disparities. The Journal of Nutrition, 2020; DOI: 10.1093/jn/nxz299

#restaurant #eatingout #fastfood #fat #sugar