Dr. Howard Smith Reports

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/mY6ggkY0vBE

Published on Dec 6, 2015

React to Your Baby's Babbling to foster the development of communications with your baby.

#Parenting #babbling #language #infancy #communications

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/mY6ggkY0vBE

Published on Dec 6, 2015

React to Your Baby's Babbling to foster the development of communications with your baby.

#Parenting #babbling #language #infancy #communications

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/6-EdsjAk52c

Here’s some very good news.  A new study from Yale cardiology shows that the incidence of heart attacks and the rates of death from them are at 20 year lows.

Following more than 4 million Medicare patients from 1995 to 2014, the investigators report a 38% decline in heart attack hospitalizations over 2 decades.  Even more impressive is the all time low 12% 30 day mortality rate after any given heart attack.

This is no accident.  We as a society have been assaulting cardiovascular disease by exercising more, eating less or at least less unhealthy food, and monitoring as well as lowering our cholesterol levels.

The Yalies caution us about resting on our laurels.  We should be literally heartened by our success to date but also press forward until we have eliminated all cardiac disease.

Harlan M. Krumholz, Sharon-Lise T. Normand, Yun Wang. Twenty-Year Trends in Outcomes for Older Adults With Acute Myocardial Infarction in the United States. JAMA Network Open, 2019; 2 (3): e191938 DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.1938

#heartattack #diet #cholesterol

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/6-EdsjAk52c

Here’s some very good news.  A new study from Yale cardiology shows that the incidence of heart attacks and the rates of death from them are at 20 year lows.

Following more than 4 million Medicare patients from 1995 to 2014, the investigators report a 38% decline in heart attack hospitalizations over 2 decades.  Even more impressive is the all time low 12% 30 day mortality rate after any given heart attack.

This is no accident.  We as a society have been assaulting cardiovascular disease by exercising more, eating less or at least less unhealthy food, and monitoring as well as lowering our cholesterol levels.

The Yalies caution us about resting on our laurels.  We should be literally heartened by our success to date but also press forward until we have eliminated all cardiac disease.

Harlan M. Krumholz, Sharon-Lise T. Normand, Yun Wang. Twenty-Year Trends in Outcomes for Older Adults With Acute Myocardial Infarction in the United States. JAMA Network Open, 2019; 2 (3): e191938 DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.1938

#heartattack #diet #cholesterol

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/Ks1j_yT6_Gs

The drug dapagliflozin (DAP-AG-LI-FLOSIN), marketed as Farxiga (FAR-SIGA), which helps type 2 non-insulin dependent diabetics control their blood sugars, can help patients with heart failure as well.  

The beneficial effect of Farxiga on heart failure has been known, but the new information from the international DECLARE-TIMI study is that the drug preferentially benefits those heart failure patients with a reduced ejection fraction of 45% or less, that is the sickest patients with the weakest heart pumping action.

Farxiga helped these patients with the weakest hearts by reducing their need for hospitalization and their likelihood of dying from any causes by 38% and reduced their deaths from cardiovascular causes by 45%.  The drug also helped those with stronger hearts, but it only reduced their hospitalization and death rates by 12%.

The drug is effective for diabetics by causing the kidneys to dump excess blood sugar into the urine and out of the body.  The drug’s ability to expel body metabolites and liquid may help to reduce a weakened heart’s pumping burden.

This news is exciting, since we have few weapons in the battle against congestive heart failure.  The use of Farxiga may extend the lives and improve comfort for the many thousands with heart failure while helping the lucky few candidates for heart transplants make it to their surgery in the best possible condition.

Eri T. Kato, Michael G. Silverman, Ofri Mosenzon, etal. Effect of Dapagliflozin on Heart Failure and Mortality in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Circulation, 2019; DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.119.040130

#Heartfailure #Farxiga #dapagliflozin #diabetes #reducedejectionfraction #hearttransplant

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/Ks1j_yT6_Gs

The drug dapagliflozin (DAP-AG-LI-FLOSIN), marketed as Farxiga (FAR-SIGA), which helps type 2 non-insulin dependent diabetics control their blood sugars, can help patients with heart failure as well.  

The beneficial effect of Farxiga on heart failure has been known, but the new information from the international DECLARE-TIMI study is that the drug preferentially benefits those heart failure patients with a reduced ejection fraction of 45% or less, that is the sickest patients with the weakest heart pumping action.

Farxiga helped these patients with the weakest hearts by reducing their need for hospitalization and their likelihood of dying from any causes by 38% and reduced their deaths from cardiovascular causes by 45%.  The drug also helped those with stronger hearts, but it only reduced their hospitalization and death rates by 12%.

The drug is effective for diabetics by causing the kidneys to dump excess blood sugar into the urine and out of the body.  The drug’s ability to expel body metabolites and liquid may help to reduce a weakened heart’s pumping burden.

This news is exciting, since we have few weapons in the battle against congestive heart failure.  The use of Farxiga may extend the lives and improve comfort for the many thousands with heart failure while helping the lucky few candidates for heart transplants make it to their surgery in the best possible condition.

Eri T. Kato, Michael G. Silverman, Ofri Mosenzon, etal. Effect of Dapagliflozin on Heart Failure and Mortality in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Circulation, 2019; DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.119.040130

#Heartfailure #Farxiga #dapagliflozin #diabetes #reducedejectionfraction #hearttransplant

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/qPrjwtIsFvM

Ninety percent of the most popular prescription medications in the US contain one or more ingredients that may make you sick.  Now, I’m not talking about the main or so-called active ingredient but rather about the inactive ingredients that are added to pills, capsules, and liquids to improve shelf life, absorption, and taste.

A study just released by collaborators from Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and MIT analyzed some 42,000 oral medications and their nearly 350,000 inactive ingredients.  The investigators pinpointed 3 troublesome inactive ingredients that appear most often.  

Forty-five percent of medications contain lactose, 33% contain one or another food dye, and up to 0.1% contain peanut oil.  This latter ingredient that could be life threatening for those with peanut allergies.  

To make matters worse, there are countless versions of the same prescription drug by different manufacturers that contain different inactive ingredients.  If you are an allergic individual, check drug labels and question your pharmacist about the inactive ingredients in the medication you are given.   

Those with allergies should always have an antihistamine like Benadryl handy, and those with severe allergies should carry Epipens or their generic equivalents.

Daniel Reker, Steven M. Blum, Christoph Steiger, Kevin E. Anger, Jamie M. Sommer, John Fanikos and Giovanni Traverso. Inactive” ingredients in oral medications. Science Translational Medicine, 2019 DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aau6753

#inactiveingredients #allergy #fooddye #lactose #peanut

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/qPrjwtIsFvM

Ninety percent of the most popular prescription medications in the US contain one or more ingredients that may make you sick.  Now, I’m not talking about the main or so-called active ingredient but rather about the inactive ingredients that are added to pills, capsules, and liquids to improve shelf life, absorption, and taste.

A study just released by collaborators from Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and MIT analyzed some 42,000 oral medications and their nearly 350,000 inactive ingredients.  The investigators pinpointed 3 troublesome inactive ingredients that appear most often.  

Forty-five percent of medications contain lactose, 33% contain one or another food dye, and up to 0.1% contain peanut oil.  This latter ingredient that could be life threatening for those with peanut allergies.  

To make matters worse, there are countless versions of the same prescription drug by different manufacturers that contain different inactive ingredients.  If you are an allergic individual, check drug labels and question your pharmacist about the inactive ingredients in the medication you are given.   

Those with allergies should always have an antihistamine like Benadryl handy, and those with severe allergies should carry Epipens or their generic equivalents.

Daniel Reker, Steven M. Blum, Christoph Steiger, Kevin E. Anger, Jamie M. Sommer, John Fanikos and Giovanni Traverso. Inactive” ingredients in oral medications. Science Translational Medicine, 2019 DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aau6753

#inactiveingredients #allergy #fooddye #lactose #peanut

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/Od7mpmZadsA

If you heard that you can avoid regular, breast squeezing mammography and still effectively screen for breast cancer using thermography, you heard incorrectly.  The FDA now repeats its warning that thermography, the use of an infrared camera to detect breast hot spots, cannot detect breast cancer at its earliest and most treatable stages.

The FDA has been taking regulatory action against imaging centers, providers, and equipment manufacturers who have been misleading patients by stating that thermography is a substitute for mammography.  It is definitely not! 

Over years, there has been a decline in breast cancer deaths,  That progress is in no small part due to the adoption of regular screening with mammography.  Don’t risk your life by believing that thermography will keep you safe.

https://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm257499.htm

#breastCA #cancer #mammography #thermography

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/Od7mpmZadsA

If you heard that you can avoid regular, breast squeezing mammography and still effectively screen for breast cancer using thermography, you heard incorrectly.  The FDA now repeats its warning that thermography, the use of an infrared camera to detect breast hot spots, cannot detect breast cancer at its earliest and most treatable stages.

The FDA has been taking regulatory action against imaging centers, providers, and equipment manufacturers who have been misleading patients by stating that thermography is a substitute for mammography.  It is definitely not! 

Over years, there has been a decline in breast cancer deaths,  That progress is in no small part due to the adoption of regular screening with mammography.  Don’t risk your life by believing that thermography will keep you safe.

https://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm257499.htm

#breastCA #cancer #mammography #thermography