Dr. Howard Smith Reports

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/KDuBlo4yEKs

If you’re pregnant and work two night shifts in any given week, you significantly increase your chances of suffering a miscarriage.  Danish occupational medicine specialists reviewed the data from nearly 23,000 pregnant women a for a study recently published online.

The data revealed that, after the 8th week of pregnancy, women who worked two or more night shifts in any given week had a 32% higher risk of miscarriage by the following week.  The risk of miscarriage escalated as the number of night shifts and the number of consecutive night shifts increased.

Again, this study only unearths an association, and the cause of this phenomenon is unproven.  The investigators do add that night work disrupts the body’s circadian rhythms and diminishes melatonin release.   Melatonin is known to be a factor in normal placental function.

If you are on the night shift and considering becoming pregnant, ask your managers if you can join the day crew.  This is crucial if you have a history of miscarriages or high-risk pregnancies.

Luise Moelenberg Begtrup, Ina Olmer Specht, Paula Edeusa Cristina Hammer, Esben Meulengracht Flachs, Anne Helene Garde, Johnni Hansen, Åse Marie Hansen, Henrik Albert Kolstad, Ann Dyreborg Larsen, Jens Peter Bonde. Night work and miscarriage: a Danish nationwide register-based cohort study. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2019 DOI: 10.1136/oemed-2018-105592

#Nightshift #miscarriage #highriskpregnancy #pregnancy #obstetrics #circadianrhythm #melatonin

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/KDuBlo4yEKs

If you’re pregnant and work two night shifts in any given week, you significantly increase your chances of suffering a miscarriage.  Danish occupational medicine specialists reviewed the data from nearly 23,000 pregnant women a for a study recently published online.

The data revealed that, after the 8th week of pregnancy, women who worked two or more night shifts in any given week had a 32% higher risk of miscarriage by the following week.  The risk of miscarriage escalated as the number of night shifts and the number of consecutive night shifts increased.

Again, this study only unearths an association, and the cause of this phenomenon is unproven.  The investigators do add that night work disrupts the body’s circadian rhythms and diminishes melatonin release.   Melatonin is known to be a factor in normal placental function.

If you are on the night shift and considering becoming pregnant, ask your managers if you can join the day crew.  This is crucial if you have a history of miscarriages or high-risk pregnancies.

Luise Moelenberg Begtrup, Ina Olmer Specht, Paula Edeusa Cristina Hammer, Esben Meulengracht Flachs, Anne Helene Garde, Johnni Hansen, Åse Marie Hansen, Henrik Albert Kolstad, Ann Dyreborg Larsen, Jens Peter Bonde. Night work and miscarriage: a Danish nationwide register-based cohort study. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2019 DOI: 10.1136/oemed-2018-105592

#Nightshift #miscarriage #highriskpregnancy #pregnancy #obstetrics #circadianrhythm #melatonin

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/CginQ3SSplk

If you’re overweight and suffering from migraine headaches, dropping those extra pounds will literally take a load off your mind.  This conclusion comes from a new study by Italy’s University of Padova recently presented to the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society.

Researchers there conducted a meta-analysis of 10 studies covering more 473 migraine sufferers.  They found that any weight loss in obese subjects led to significant improvement including fewer migraines, shorter and less intense headache spells, and less disability.

The improvement did not depend upon the degree of obesity, the numbers of pounds lost, or how subjects achieved the weight reduction.  Dieting and surgery both worked, and the effects were similar in adults and children.

If you’re popping pills, getting shots, having psychotherapy, using biofeedback, enjoying therapeutic massages, getting acupunctured, or wolfing down exotic herbs all to prevent or control your migraines and you are overweight, you will help yourself by making an honest effort to knock off those pounds.

The Endocrine Society. "For migraine sufferers with obesity, losing weight can decrease headaches." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 23 March 2019. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190323145207.htm.

#Migraines #obesity #overweight #dieting

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/CginQ3SSplk

If you’re overweight and suffering from migraine headaches, dropping those extra pounds will literally take a load off your mind.  This conclusion comes from a new study by Italy’s University of Padova recently presented to the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society.

Researchers there conducted a meta-analysis of 10 studies covering more 473 migraine sufferers.  They found that any weight loss in obese subjects led to significant improvement including fewer migraines, shorter and less intense headache spells, and less disability.

The improvement did not depend upon the degree of obesity, the numbers of pounds lost, or how subjects achieved the weight reduction.  Dieting and surgery both worked, and the effects were similar in adults and children.

If you’re popping pills, getting shots, having psychotherapy, using biofeedback, enjoying therapeutic massages, getting acupunctured, or wolfing down exotic herbs all to prevent or control your migraines and you are overweight, you will help yourself by making an honest effort to knock off those pounds.

The Endocrine Society. "For migraine sufferers with obesity, losing weight can decrease headaches." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 23 March 2019. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190323145207.htm.

#Migraines #obesity #overweight #dieting

Vidcast: ttps://youtu.be/C0sWcaWvpTY

Paying creatives for every idea they churn out led to optimal results.  The alternatives, paying for idea quality or offering no motivational reward at all, fell flat according to studies by business school researchers at The University of Texas-Austin and the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign.

Their data also demonstrated the most interesting finding that true creativity has an incubation period.  The greatest creative productivity occurred when the idea kids spewed out rough ideas, took at least a 20 minute break, and then returned to their initial thoughts and refined them into very practical plans.

The bottom line?  When you need creative solutions throw as many ideas up on the board as you can, and don’t be cheap about paying the brainstormers or yourself.  Then go out for a walk and return to fine-tune the initial ideas many minutes or days later.

Steven J. Kachelmeier, Laura W. Wang and Michael G. Williamson. Incentivizing the Creative Process: From Initial Quantity to Eventual Creativity. Accounting Review, March 2019

#Creativity #brainstorming #motivation #mindbreak 

Vidcast: ttps://youtu.be/C0sWcaWvpTY

Paying creatives for every idea they churn out led to optimal results.  The alternatives, paying for idea quality or offering no motivational reward at all, fell flat according to studies by business school researchers at The University of Texas-Austin and the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign.

Their data also demonstrated the most interesting finding that true creativity has an incubation period.  The greatest creative productivity occurred when the idea kids spewed out rough ideas, took at least a 20 minute break, and then returned to their initial thoughts and refined them into very practical plans.

The bottom line?  When you need creative solutions throw as many ideas up on the board as you can, and don’t be cheap about paying the brainstormers or yourself.  Then go out for a walk and return to fine-tune the initial ideas many minutes or days later.

Steven J. Kachelmeier, Laura W. Wang and Michael G. Williamson. Incentivizing the Creative Process: From Initial Quantity to Eventual Creativity. Accounting Review, March 2019

#Creativity #brainstorming #motivation #mindbreak 

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/k3ZHb9CeRFs

Playing organized team sports grows the hippocampus, the brain’s emotion and memory center, while reducing the incidence of adult depression.  This is the finding by neuroscientists at the Washington University-St. Louis.  

They studied a nationwide sample over over 4000 children 9 to 11 years of age using questionnaires to determine their participation in sports and their emotional outlook.  Each underwent MRI brain imaging to measure their hippocampal volumes. 

Participation in regular, organized team sports but not casual pickup games or non-sport activities such as music or art triggers hippocampal growth in both boys and girls.  The sports-playing boys but not the girls showed a notably reduced incidence of clinical depression later in life.

The authors caution that this observation is merely an association and not proof of cause and effect.  Even so, it underscores the value of participation in after-school athletics as long as they don’t trigger head injuries.

Lisa S. Gorham, Terry Jernigan, Jim Hudziak, Deanna M. Barch. Involvement in Sports, Hippocampal Volume, and Depressive Symptoms in Children. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 2019; DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2019.01.011

#Sports #teams #hippocampus #depression #music #art

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/k3ZHb9CeRFs

Playing organized team sports grows the hippocampus, the brain’s emotion and memory center, while reducing the incidence of adult depression.  This is the finding by neuroscientists at the Washington University-St. Louis.  

They studied a nationwide sample over over 4000 children 9 to 11 years of age using questionnaires to determine their participation in sports and their emotional outlook.  Each underwent MRI brain imaging to measure their hippocampal volumes. 

Participation in regular, organized team sports but not casual pickup games or non-sport activities such as music or art triggers hippocampal growth in both boys and girls.  The sports-playing boys but not the girls showed a notably reduced incidence of clinical depression later in life.

The authors caution that this observation is merely an association and not proof of cause and effect.  Even so, it underscores the value of participation in after-school athletics as long as they don’t trigger head injuries.

Lisa S. Gorham, Terry Jernigan, Jim Hudziak, Deanna M. Barch. Involvement in Sports, Hippocampal Volume, and Depressive Symptoms in Children. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 2019; DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2019.01.011

#Sports #teams #hippocampus #depression #music #art

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/7s2URrwjctc

Soon to enter the commercial market is a high-tech toilet seat that can monitor the performance of the heart and help to guide therapy for congestive heart failure.  This bionic bathroom throne was developed by bioengineers at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

This very smart crapper topper can periodically measure the electrical and mechanical activity of the heart including EKG, heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen levels, and the amount or blood pumped out with every beat of the heart, better known as the stroke volume.  The seat takes all this data as well as the patient’s weight and transmits it back to the patient’ s medical team to help them plan therapy.

The seat will be marketed to hospitals for connection to their telemetry systems and then given to patients.  The seats will more than pay for themselves by significantly reducing a hospital’s 30 day readmission rate and eliminating the penalty fees the hospital will owe Medicare.

The seat doesn’t play music or clean your bottom, but, for congestive heart failure patients, it may be lifesaving.

Nicholas J Conn, Karl Q Schwarz, David A Borkholder. In-Home Cardiovascular Monitoring System for Heart Failure: Comparative Study. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 2019; 7 (1): e12419 DOI: 10.2196/12419

#Heartfailure #CHF #toiletseat #telemetry #readmissions #homemonitoring

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/7s2URrwjctc

Soon to enter the commercial market is a high-tech toilet seat that can monitor the performance of the heart and help to guide therapy for congestive heart failure.  This bionic bathroom throne was developed by bioengineers at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

This very smart crapper topper can periodically measure the electrical and mechanical activity of the heart including EKG, heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen levels, and the amount or blood pumped out with every beat of the heart, better known as the stroke volume.  The seat takes all this data as well as the patient’s weight and transmits it back to the patient’ s medical team to help them plan therapy.

The seat will be marketed to hospitals for connection to their telemetry systems and then given to patients.  The seats will more than pay for themselves by significantly reducing a hospital’s 30 day readmission rate and eliminating the penalty fees the hospital will owe Medicare.

The seat doesn’t play music or clean your bottom, but, for congestive heart failure patients, it may be lifesaving.

Nicholas J Conn, Karl Q Schwarz, David A Borkholder. In-Home Cardiovascular Monitoring System for Heart Failure: Comparative Study. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 2019; 7 (1): e12419 DOI: 10.2196/12419

#Heartfailure #CHF #toiletseat #telemetry #readmissions #homemonitoring