Lead-in by the late Gary LaPierre Dr. Smith reports a Medical Minute about the dangers of leaving children and pets in locked cars. https://journalistsresource.org/health/child-dead-left-hot-car-research/ #children #parenting #heat #fever #cars #wbznewsradio

Dr. Smith discusses a caller’s throat problems that are reducing the quality of her singing. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30843435/ #singing #larynx #vocalcords #nodules #polyps #phonomicrosurgery

Dr. Smith warns listeners no to confuse tiny bottles containing eye drops with those containing instant glue. https://www.livescience.com/woman-glues-eye-shut.html #eyes #eyedrops #glue #krazyglue #instantglue #wbznewsradio

Adding just one hour of TV or cell use each day bumps teen sugar and caffeine intake beyond World Health Organization guidelines. Pediatricians at Canada’s McMaster University studied more than 32,000 US students from 8th through 10th grade. The additional hour of TV bumped the risk of exceeding WHO sugar guidelines by 32% and caffeine guidelines by 28%. The hour of cell use raised the risk of exceeding both sugar and caffeine limits by 14%. Watching TV or talking on the cell distracts teens from what they put into their mouths. Replace the soda and snacks on the side table with abundant ice cold water and fiber-rich fruits and vegetables. Kelly M. Bradbury, Ofir Turel, Katherine M. Morrison. Electronic device use and beverage related sugar and caffeine intake in US adolescents. PLOS ONE, 2019 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223912 #TV #Cellphone #snacks #sugar #caffeine

A happy tune is THE secret to unmasking solutions to your dilemmas as you get some ZZZs. This remarkable discovery comes to us from Northwestern University psychologists. Investigators tested 57 subjects presenting them with tricky puzzles the evening before sleep. Each puzzle was accompanied by a unique sound. Then, as they slept, they heard the unique sounds of half the brain teasers. The next morning, the participants were able to solve those puzzles whose sounds they heard while sleeping some 55% more efficiently. If you have a nagging issue, try associating a tune with it. Then play the song at low levels as you sleep. You might just wake up with a brighter idea. Kristin E. G. Sanders, Samuel Osburn, Ken A. Paller, etal. Targeted Memory Reactivation During Sleep Improves Next-Day Problem Solving. Psychological Science, 10/19; https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619873344 #Sleep #problemsolving #creativity

Endurance running with a resistance band connecting your shoes can increase your running efficiency by over 9%. Mechanical engineers at UC-Santa Barbara clocked runners with and without latex surgical tubing connecting their feet. The tubing stores kinetic energy as the legs move past one another, and that energy helps power the next cycle. The result: shorter, quicker steps jacking up the average stride from 90 steps/min to 100. The tubing also reduces the effort to bounce on the feet, and these band-powered runners feel light and fast. Their average running efficiency increased about 6%. Buy the surgical tubing online and cut it to 25% of leg length. Then give it a try. Cole S. Simpson, Cara G. Welker, Scott D. Uhlrich, Sean M. Sketch, Rachel W. Jackson, Scott L. Delp, Steve H. Collins, Jessica C. Selinger, Elliot W. Hawkes. Connecting the legs with a spring improves human running economy. The Journal of Experimental Biology, 2019; 222 (17): jeb202895 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.202895 #Running #resistanceband #rubberband

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

Those taking the antidepressant drug fluoxetine, branded as Prozac, have a significantly reduced risk of developing progressive age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in those over the age of 50. Researchers at the University of Virginia analyzed data from two health insurance databases covering more than 100 million persons after first studying the process leading to AMD and blindness in a mouse model. The investigators, studying a group of already FDA approved drugs in the lab, showed that fluoxetine uniquely inhibits the inflammatory process leading to retinal degeneration due to its binding with an inflammatory molecule NLRP3-ASC. Armed with this laboratory data, they wanted to see if fluoxetine conferred any clinical benefits for patients with AMD. Using insurance databases that pinpointed those over the age of 50 with AMD who were taking Prozac and those who were not, analysis revealed that taking fluoxetine significantly slowed the AMD degenerative process. Based on these results, the UVA ophthalmologists are looking forward to a clinical trial of fluoxetine in AMD patients. https://www.pnas.org/content/118/41/e2102975118 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211021120941.htm #amd #maculardegeneration #blindness #fluoxetine #prozac

Drinking a 6 ounce cup of coffee during the first trimester will not increase a woman’s risk of gestational diabetes and drinking that same amount during the second trimester actually seems protective lowering the risk of diabetes by 47%. University of Pennsylvania and NIH epidemiologists just published these conclusions following their study of 2529 women. In addition to studying the effect of caffeinated beverages on gestational diabetes, the investigators found that consuming these drinks created no increased risk for developing either gestational hypertension or preelampsia. Caffeine did not significantly change levels of blood sugar while it seemed to lower total cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL while modestly raising HDL. Remember though, these effects were seen in women moderating their caffeine intake by only consuming one cup of coffee or the equivalent each day. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2785784 #pregnancy #womenshealth #caffeine #coffee #diabetes #cholesterol