Dr. Howard Smith Reports

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/3V6fqO7M0sg

Capuchin and Rhesus monkeys think outside the box better than people when it comes to problem solving.  Psychologists at Georgia State University pitted 29 monkeys against 60 college students in a computer game contest.

The monkeys figured out shortcuts to victory faster and used them more often than the students.  Other experiments show that chimpanzees and baboons also perform better than humans, who tend to rely more on familiar strategies demonstrating less so-called cognitive flexibility.

We humans are often victims of our learned biases about vaccines, climate change, race, and politics.  Be a monkey’s uncle, and make the most of your innate brainpower by opening your mind and unleashing your imagination.

Julia Watzek, Sarah M. Pope, Sarah F. Brosnan. Capuchin and rhesus monkeys but not humans show cognitive flexibility in an optional-switch task. Scientific Reports, 2019; 9 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-49658-0

Monkeys, problemsolving, creativity

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/HmUUF6hRgGw

A pregnant woman under emotional or physical stress is more likely to give birth to a male.  Epidemiologists and obstetricians at New York’s Columbia University report this association after analyzing data from 187 women. 

In a general population, the chance of birthing a boy is 51%.  For women suffering emotional stress, marked anxiety, and depression, that percentage drops to 40%.  Physical stress including blood pressure and weight problems, drops the chance to 31%.  Stress also diminishes normal fetal heart rate changes and triggers birth complications.

 The antidote to all this stress is love, social support, and professional care.   If you’re pregnant, see that you get it.  If you care for those who are pregnant, give it!

Kate Walsh, Clare A. McCormack, Rachel Webster, Anita Pinto, Seonjoo Lee, Tianshu Feng, H. Sloan Krakovsky, Sinclaire M. O’Grady, Benjamin Tycko, Frances A. Champagne, Elizabeth A. Werner, Grace Liu, Catherine Monk. Maternal prenatal stress phenotypes associate with fetal neurodevelopment and birth outcomes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019; 201905890 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1905890116

#Sexratio #stress #pregnancy

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/oit_IwHdblE

I’m attending the National Assn. of Broadcasters Meeting this week.  Here is some evergreen “Health News You Can Always Use.”

One study after another heralds the advantages of breastfeeding.  Some mothers turn to pumping their breast milk when their flow is sporadic or when they develop conflicts with sib childcare or the demands of work.  Do babies enjoy the same advantages from ingesting pumped breast milk?

The short answer is an emphatic NO.  Researchers from Canada’s University of Manitoba studied the breast milk of almost 400 healthy mothers 3 to 4 months following delivery.  Using sophisticated genetic probes, they showed that the milk the babies actually ingested was healthier when it came directly from the mother’s breast.  

The natural breast milk contained good bacteria from both the mother and from the mouth of the infant.  The pumped breast milk contained those bugs but also an abundance of bad bacteria, opportunistic types that are capable of causing respiratory disease

It isn’t clear if the bad bugs come from contaminated breast pumps, but that is a likely possibility.  If you do use a breast pump, do all you can to clean it obsessively after every use.

Milk contamination is yet another reason to breast feed naturally.  Of course, there is the main reason: to create an abundance of mother-infant bonding.

Shirin Moossavi, Shadi Sepehri, Bianca Robertson, Lars Bode, Sue Goruk, Catherine J. Field, Lisa M. Lix, Russell J. de Souza, Allan B. Becker, Piushkumar J. Mandhane, Stuart E. Turvey, Padmaja Subbarao, Theo J. Moraes, Diana L. Lefebvre, Malcolm R. Sears, Ehsan Khafipour, Meghan B. Azad. Composition and Variation of the Human Milk Microbiota Are Influenced by Maternal and Early-Life Factors. Cell Host & Microbe, 2019; 25 (2): 324 DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2019.01.011

#Breastmilk #pumpedmilk #breastfeeding

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/lCgarvg7Y1M

I’m attending the National Assn. of Broadcasters Meeting this week.  Here is some evergreen “Health News You Can Always Use.”

Marijuana use is spreading like wildfire, and the prevailing opinion is that its components are harmless.  Another of this weeks stories highlights its potential danger for those with heart problems.  Now a study from Britain’s University of Oxford and Canada’s McGill University shows that regular cannabis use in adolescence can trigger adult depression and suicidal ideas.

The researchers reviews 11 international studies covering more than 23,000 young persons.  Regular weed use by an individual bumped his or her risk of serious depression and suicide up by a factor of about 7%.  The number isn’t huge, but the consequences are tragic for that person so affected.  Then when you amplify the individual effect over a population, it translates into more than 400,000 cases of deadly depression in the U.S., 60,000 case in the U.K., and 25, 000 cases in Canada.

Other studies have shown that a teens regular use of cannabis is associated with poor school performance, increased motor vehicle accidents, addiction, neurosis, and psychosis.  And the smoke itself creates lung disease.

Repeated use of any mind-altering substances or frankly, any substances, is bad news!  Your byword should always be moderation!

Gabriella Gobbi et al. Association of cannabis use in adolescence and risk of depression, anxiety and suicidality in young adulthood: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Psychiatry, 2019 DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.4500

#weed #marijuana #cannabis #depression #suicide, #mva #addiction 

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/Sjxtdv7Pix0

I’m attending the National Assn. of Broadcasters Meeting this week.  Here is some evergreen “Health News You Can Always Use.”

We’ve all heard about the narcotic epidemic.  The real news is that there are potent weapons to combat opioid use as close as our medicine cabinets.  

Ibuprofen, generic or branded Advil or Motrin, either alone or with acetaminophen, generic or Tylenol, significantly reduced the need for postoperative morphine in a study of more than 550 patients undergoing hip surgery.  

The subjects started their oral pain meds one hour before surgery and continued to receive them every 6 hours for the first day after surgery.  The patients were able to obtain any additional pain relief they needed by pushing a button to self-administer IV morphine.

The finding that 400 mg of ibuprofen, that’s two adult pills, taken every 6 hours kills pain exceedingly well and eliminates the need for more powerful drugs should be useful information to you.  If you are a patient facing surgery, do discuss post-op pain control strategy with your surgeon and anesthesiologist.  When you do, tell them you’d rather start with non-narcotic pain killers and only take the opioids if absolutely necessary.

Thybo KH, Hägi-Pedersen D, Dahl JB, et al. Effect of Combination of Paracetamol (Acetaminophen) and Ibuprofen vs Either Alone on Patient-Controlled Morphine Consumption in the First 24 Hours After Total Hip Arthroplasty: The PANSAID Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2019;321(6):562–571. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.22039

#pain #analgesic #ibuprofen #acetaminophen #morphine #pca

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/Sjxtdv7Pix0

I’m attending the National Assn. of Broadcasters Meeting this week.  Here is some evergreen “Health News You Can Always Use.”

We’ve all heard about the narcotic epidemic.  The real news is that there are potent weapons to combat opioid use as close as our medicine cabinets.  

Ibuprofen, generic or branded Advil or Motrin, either alone or with acetaminophen, generic or Tylenol, significantly reduced the need for postoperative morphine in a study of more than 550 patients undergoing hip surgery.  

The subjects started their oral pain meds one hour before surgery and continued to receive them every 6 hours for the first day after surgery.  The patients were able to obtain any additional pain relief they needed by pushing a button to self-administer IV morphine.

The finding that 400 mg of ibuprofen, that’s two adult pills, taken every 6 hours kills pain exceedingly well and eliminates the need for more powerful drugs should be useful information to you.  If you are a patient facing surgery, do discuss post-op pain control strategy with your surgeon and anesthesiologist.  When you do, tell them you’d rather start with non-narcotic pain killers and only take the opioids if absolutely necessary.

Thybo KH, Hägi-Pedersen D, Dahl JB, et al. Effect of Combination of Paracetamol (Acetaminophen) and Ibuprofen vs Either Alone on Patient-Controlled Morphine Consumption in the First 24 Hours After Total Hip Arthroplasty: The PANSAID Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2019;321(6):562–571. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.22039

#pain #analgesic #ibuprofen #acetaminophen #morphine #pca

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/lCgarvg7Y1M

I’m attending the National Assn. of Broadcasters Meeting this week.  Here is some evergreen “Health News You Can Always Use.”

Marijuana use is spreading like wildfire, and the prevailing opinion is that its components are harmless.  Another of this weeks stories highlights its potential danger for those with heart problems.  Now a study from Britain’s University of Oxford and Canada’s McGill University shows that regular cannabis use in adolescence can trigger adult depression and suicidal ideas.

The researchers reviews 11 international studies covering more than 23,000 young persons.  Regular weed use by an individual bumped his or her risk of serious depression and suicide up by a factor of about 7%.  The number isn’t huge, but the consequences are tragic for that person so affected.  Then when you amplify the individual effect over a population, it translates into more than 400,000 cases of deadly depression in the U.S., 60,000 case in the U.K., and 25, 000 cases in Canada.

Other studies have shown that a teens regular use of cannabis is associated with poor school performance, increased motor vehicle accidents, addiction, neurosis, and psychosis.  And the smoke itself creates lung disease.

Repeated use of any mind-altering substances or frankly, any substances, is bad news!  Your byword should always be moderation!

Gabriella Gobbi et al. Association of cannabis use in adolescence and risk of depression, anxiety and suicidality in young adulthood: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Psychiatry, 2019 DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.4500

#weed #marijuana #cannabis #depression #suicide, #mva #addiction 

Vidcast:   https://youtu.be/oit_IwHdblE

I’m attending the National Assn. of Broadcasters Meeting this week.  Here is some evergreen “Health News You Can Always Use.”

One study after another heralds the advantages of breastfeeding.  Some mothers turn to pumping their breast milk when their flow is sporadic or when they develop conflicts with sib childcare or the demands of work.  Do babies enjoy the same advantages from ingesting pumped breast milk?

The short answer is an emphatic NO.  Researchers from Canada’s University of Manitoba studied the breast milk of almost 400 healthy mothers 3 to 4 months following delivery.  Using sophisticated genetic probes, they showed that the milk the babies actually ingested was healthier when it came directly from the mother’s breast.  

The natural breast milk contained good bacteria from both the mother and from the mouth of the infant.  The pumped breast milk contained those bugs but also an abundance of bad bacteria, opportunistic types that are capable of causing respiratory disease

It isn’t clear if the bad bugs come from contaminated breast pumps, but that is a likely possibility.  If you do use a breast pump, do all you can to clean it obsessively after every use.

Milk contamination is yet another reason to breast feed naturally.  Of course, there is the main reason: to create an abundance of mother-infant bonding.

Shirin Moossavi, Shadi Sepehri, Bianca Robertson, Lars Bode, Sue Goruk, Catherine J. Field, Lisa M. Lix, Russell J. de Souza, Allan B. Becker, Piushkumar J. Mandhane, Stuart E. Turvey, Padmaja Subbarao, Theo J. Moraes, Diana L. Lefebvre, Malcolm R. Sears, Ehsan Khafipour, Meghan B. Azad. Composition and Variation of the Human Milk Microbiota Are Influenced by Maternal and Early-Life Factors. Cell Host & Microbe, 2019; 25 (2): 324 DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2019.01.011

#Breastmilk #pumpedmilk #breastfeeding

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/wnjvya7f9iE

I’m attending the National Assn. of Broadcasters Meeting this week.  Here is some evergreen “Health News You Can Always Use.”

Eyeing that 10 layer chocolate cake or mile high apple pie before you select your main and side dishes will help you make a  more nutritious choice.  So says a study from the University of Arizona’s marketing department just published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology:Applied.

Dining subjects  were presented with either a luscious lemon cheesecake or fresh fruit as a dessert choice at the beginning or at the end of a cafeteria line.  For the meal, they could chose healthy by selecting grilled chicken fajitas with a side salad or unhealthy by picking fried fish and chips.

When the diners put the cheesecake versus the fresh fruit dessert on their trays before selecting the remainder of their meal, they were twice as likely to pick the healthy entree and actually consumed 30% fewer calories.  There were similar findings in a test of online ordering for home delivery.

The researchers also observed that diners with alot on their minds by being challenged with a memory test, a so-called “cognitive load,” made poorer food choices.  They selected the high cal, high fat foods as well as the mega cal cake.

The next time you eat out or order in, check out that tantalizing dessert display before you order.  To relax yourself and clear your mind, have that small glass of wine.

David Flores, Martin Reimann, Raquel Castaño, Alberto Lopez. If I indulge first, I will eat less overall: The unexpected interaction effect of indulgence and presentation order on consumption.. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 2019; DOI: 10.1037/xap0000210

#dessert #cake #fruit

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/vOcrGIm3oYQ

I’m attending the National Assn. of Broadcasters Meeting this week.  Here is some evergreen “Health News You Can Always Use.”

Take out meals, just like sit-down restaurant offerings, are way too large with way too many calories.  A British fish n’ chip wholesale supplier cooperated with academic nutritionists at Newcastle University to design what they call the Lite-BITE® box carry out box as part of a UK national campaign to fight obesity.

The usual fish and chip take out meal clocks in at over 1600 calories which is almost an entire day’s caloric tally.  The Lite-BITE® box holds 5 ounces of fish and 5 ounces of chips for a more moderate 650 calories.

Fried fish and fried potatoes are hardly healthy choices, but at least the smaller take-out box keeps the calorie count down.   If a you as a  diner need a more filling meal, a side salad should complete your order.

Right-sizing portion size is a powerful tool in maintaining a healthy weight.  Smaller takeout boxes also makes the food portion appear less puny.  Remember back in the days when airlines actually served us food, they employed the same optical illusion by serving scraps of food on tiny plates and giving us tiny utensils.

Louis Goffe, Frances Hillier-Brown, Natalie Hildred, etal. Feasibility of working with a wholesale supplier to co-design and test acceptability of an intervention to promote smaller portions: an uncontrolled before-and-after study in British Fish & Chip shops. BMJ Open, 2019; 9 (2): bmjopen-2018-023441 DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023441

#fish #chips #takeout #obesity