Howard G. Smith, MD, AM
PENTA Medical Network
+1-617-488-9699
If the top menu is not working correctly on your phone's or tablet's mobile browser, touch the tab at the middle of the bottom to reveal an alternative menu, a one-touch phone button, and a one-touch email button.
RoundUp - 2nd Week of September 2025
==========================
HEALTH REPORTS
==========================
2025-6 CoVid Vaccinations
Vidcast: https://youtu.be/og3ugWBPccQ
https://www.instagram.com/p/DOwYppnkVvc/
Now with the weather cooling, it’s time to buttress your protection against CoVid. This year, for the first time in the 55 years that I have been practicing medicine, the most reliable recommendations are coming from our nation’s family practice, pediatric, internal medicine, obstetric-gynecological, and infectious disease professional societies rather from the CDC and the FDA.
These groups have launched unprecedented publicity campaigns to ensure that you and your medical providers have the best scientific information available. Recently, the presidents of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the the American College of Physicians, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Infectious Disease Society of America sent an open letter to all medical personnel.
The letter begins, and I am quoting it verbatim: “Misinformation, politicization of commonsense public health efforts, and sudden changes to federal vaccine guidance is creating mass confusion and diminishing trust in public health. As we head into another fall season sure to be marked by cases of flu, Covid-19, and RSV as well as the alarming reappearance on measles and pertussis, the stakes could not be higher. These respiratory illnesses are not abstract threats. They are real and dangerous, particularly to infants, seniors, pregnant patients and those with underlying health conditions.”
They continue: “Our organizations will strongly continue recommending vaccines. We will keep having conversations with patients and families across exam rooms, schools, and communities about what’s safe and what’s necessary to stay healthy and create populations of immunity.”
They conclude their letter: “We also call on our health system partners, including insurers, hospitals, pharmacies, and public health agencies, to do their part. Vaccines must remain available, accessible, and affordable to persons of all ages. Any barrier to immunization is a significant threat to public health.”
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the recommendations from these respected medical and scientific groups beginning with the American Academy of Pediatrics. Previously unvaccinated infants and toddlers, should complete a series of CoVid vaccinations anytime from 6 to 23 months of age. As is the case for children of any age, the Academy does NOT preferentially recommend any of the three available vaccines including the Moderna and the Pfizer mRNA vaccines or the Novavax purified-protein vaccine except that the Novavax product is only approved for those 12 years and older.
For boosters, a single dose is recommended for kids ages 2 through 18 who are at high risk for severe CoVid including those with asthma, diabetes, obesity, or neurologic conditions as well as for children living in long-term care or congregate settings. Families may also request vaccination for healthy children in that age range who want added protection. Those children and teens who are moderately or severely immunocompromised should receive two or more vaccine doses at approximate intervals.
The academy recommends that all young children and teens complete vaccination, that high-risk kids need extra protection, and that all updated vaccines are considered safe and effective heading into another respiratory virus season.
Moving on to recommendations from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. All pregnant women should receive a CoVid vaccination or boost during pregnancy in order to produce and pass on via the placenta anti-CoVid antibodies to their children for protection during the first 6 months of pregnancy. This passive immunity reduces a baby’s chances of developing severe CoVid that requires hospitalization or worse by half.
For the mother, the condition of pregnancy is considered a high risk condition, and she may receive either of the three available vaccines. Studies show that CoVid vaccination during pregnancy significantly reduces the chances of a severe infection mandating ICU care, intubation, and mechanical ventilation.
Of most importance to pregnant couples, the CoVid vaccines are safe and do not increase the risks of miscarriage, stillbirths, or birth defects.
Finally, turning to recommendations for adult patients from the American Academy of Family Practice and the American College of Physicians. Both specialty organizations recommend CoVid immunizations and annual boosters for all adults but especially for those 65 years and older and particularly for adults of any age with serious illnesses such as diabetes or cancer.
These are the recommendations from the professionals we all trust. They are the professionals that you call when your child, your partner, or your parents are running fevers, screaming in pain after an accident, or unresponsive. You call them and not your state or US representatives or senators. You call them and not your mayor or governor. And you call them and not the president or any members of his cabinet.
You call them because you know that they care and have the knowledge to stop disease in its tracks and help you and yours back to health. Now it is up to us to follow their scientifically-based recommendation in order to protect our families and our neighbors.
Don’t delay as the numbers of CoVid infections have already begun to rise. One more thing…..you hear that the mRNA CoVid vaccines have triggered a heart issue in some patients.. That would be myocarditis or a heart muscle inflammation. Fact is, the risk of this complication is up to 8 times higher with an infection than with a vaccination.
https://octanecdn.com/summitmedicalcom/summitmedicalcom_165983186.pdf
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2838687
#CoVid #vaccination #children #teens #adults #pregnancy #aap #acog #aafp #acp #myocarditis
CoVid, vaccination, children, teens, adults, pregnancy, aap, acog, aafp, acp, myocarditis
Moderna Has TWO CoVid Vaccines For 2025-2026
Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DOwaN4mDH8S/
The new Moderna mRNA CoVid vaccine is named mNEXSPIKE; their original CoVid vaccine was named SPIKEVAX. This second generation mRNA CoVid vaccine yields a stronger and longer-lasting antibody response to the virus. By targeting specific viral spike proteins rather than all proteins contained in the spike itself, the robust antibody response lasts 6 months or longer rather than the usual 4 to 5 month duration.
Due to its novelty, mNEXSPIKE has been approved only for adults 65 years of age and older as well as those 12 years through 64 years of age with complicating medical issues that place them at high risk for severe COVID-19.
Not all pharmacies are stocking mNEXSPIKE, so, if you are eligible, check with yours.
The second Moderna CoVid vaccine is the updated SPIKEVAX. This vaccine as well as the mNEXSPIKE produce antibodies against the JN.1 subvariant of the Omicron CoVid variant.
This vaccine is approved for all children 6 months through 17 years of age. It is also approved for all adults 18 through 64 years of age. Officially the recipients in this age group must have at least one underlying medical issue, but all of the medical specialty societies are recommending any of the CoVid vaccines for anyone in this age group.
Those eligible for the newer and robust $ mNEXSPIKE vaccine but received the $ SPIKEVAX vaccine, Pfizer’s mRNA vaccines, or Novavax purified protein vaccines, $ can receive it 2 or more months following their last vaccination. Since these latest versions of the $ classic CoVid vaccines protect optimally for about 4 months, you could seek the mNEXSPIKE after that time.
https://www.modernatx.com/en-US/products/mnexspike
https://www.modernatx.com/en-US/products/spikevax
#moderna #CoVid #vaccine #spikevax #mnexspike
moderna, CoVid, vaccine, spikevax, mnexspike
Acetaminophen, Tylenol, Is Safe During Pregnancy
Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DOwbtF0jPOI/
Pregnancy is a blessed event, but it is accompanied by discomfort and, at times, outright pain. The golden rule during these 9 months is to avoid all but absolutely necessary medications. Over the years, the pain and fever medication of choice has been acetaminophen, better known as the brand Tylenol.
Now, some government officials are warning that acetaminophen during pregnancy might be linked to the later development of neurodevelopmental disorders including autism and autism spectrum disorders. Let’s review what we do know about this issue.
In 2024, epidemiologists, neonatologists, and obstetrician-gynecologists at Sweden’s famed Karolinska Institute published a study of nearly 2.5 million Swedish mothers, children and their siblings in the Journal of the American Medical Association or JAMA. It failed to show any statistically significant increased risk for autism, ADHD-hyperactivity, or intellectual disability associated with acetaminophen use during pregnancy once familial-genetic and shared environmental factors were properly factored.
This year, public health researchers from New York’s Mount Sinai Medical Center, the University of Southern California, The University of Massachusetts, and Harvard’s School of Public Health published their meta-analysis of 26 studies of more than 3.4 million mother-child pairs across North America, Europe, and Asia.
They concluded that the evidence was “suggestive but not sufficient to infer causality” between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and later neurodevelopmental disorders. Potential study shortcomings included: data regarding maternal drug use relied upon recall; there was data heterogeneity across studies; and there were numerous potential confounding factors.
The investigators advise that pregnant women could continue to use acetaminophen if needed, but at the lowest effective dose and for the shortest necessary duration. They did not recommend complete avoidance of the medication.
The bottom line is that acetaminophen, Tylenol, continues to be recommended as the first-line medication for pain and fever during pregnancy in guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Britain's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and other medical organizations. These organizations warn against the use of ibuprofen, naproxen and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs as their use has been associated with birth defects.
Clinicians continue to emphasize the need to treat fevers during pregnancy. Failure to do so increased risks of childhood heart conditions, abdominal wall defects, and improper development of the brain and spinal cord. Untreated pain and fevers are also associated with miscarriage, preterm birth, and low birth weight.
Bottom line: use acetaminophen only when necessary during pregnancy and stop taking it as soon as the need no longer exists. Everything you put into your body, whether it be medications or food, is a double-edged sword. This is particularly true during pregnancy.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38592388/
https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-025-01208-0
#acetaminophen #tylenol #pregnancy #pain #fever #birthdefects
acetaminophen, tylenol, pregnancy, pain, fever, birthdefects
Good Playlist Curbs Motion Sickness
Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DOwcerADAD3/
If you’re a victim of motion sickness, listening to soft and joyful music will tamp down your nausea and discomfort. This the result of Chinese study just published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
The researchers studied the reactions of 30 subjects in a simulated driving environment noting their subjective reactions and collecting neurophysiologic data. After tabulation, the numbers revealed which tunes suppressed motion sickness. The winner was soft music at 57.3% improvement closely followed by joyful music at 56.7%. Less effective was passionate, stirring music at 48.3%, with sad music coming in last at 40%. The control group hearing no music enjoyed a 43.4% symptom reduction, better than listening to sad music.
So if you feel a bout of motion sickness is impending, put in those ear buds or turn your auto music system to soft or joyous music.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2025.1636109/full
#motion #sickness #music #soft #joyous
motion, sickness, music, soft, joyous
Acupuncture Helps Low Back Pain
Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DOwdSuilDQG/
Acupuncture therapy can effectively reduce disability for those with low back pain. That’s the result of a Kaiser Permanente randomized, study of 789 older adults in 3 healthcare systems across the US and recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association’s Network publication.
Two experimental groups received acupuncture: the SA group, standard acupuncture group, received 8-15 acupuncture sessions plus usual medical therapy (UMT) of pain management and physical therapy; the EA group, extended acupuncture group, received 4-6 additional acupuncture sessions plus the usual medical therapy. All participants were surveyed at 3, 6, and 12 months following therapy initiation using the Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire.
When the numbers were crunched, those receiving acupuncture enjoyed a significant reduction in their perceived disability and pain. In most cases, the acupuncture effect peaked at 6 months. Compared with those receiving only UMT, those receiving the SA were 32% more likely to have a significant disability reduction. Those receiving EA were 49% more likely. For significant pain intensity reduction, SA improved the chances 44% while EA improved them 71%.
Bottom line: acupuncture by qualified therapists is a value-added treatment for older adults with chronic low back pain.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2838793
#acupuncture #backpain #disability
acupuncture, backpain, disability
How Long Is Your RSV Immunization Protective?
Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DOweKVlCSKY/
A single RSV vaccination is protective for vulnerable adults through 2 consecutive RSV seasons. This the conclusion of a multicenter, collaborative study headed by investigators at Vanderbilt University. They studied 6958 persons 60 years or older hospitalized with respiratory illness in 20 states from 2023 into 2025.
The vaccine effectiveness for preventing a hospitalization with Respiratory Syncytial Virus was 69% during the first year following vaccination and 48% during the second year yielding an average effectiveness over the 2 years of 58%. The year-to-year change was not significant.
Drilling down on the study population, the 2 season vaccine effectiveness was lower for immunocompromised patients at 30% compared with 67% for the immunocompetent and lower at 58% or those with cardiovascular disease versus 80% for those without it.
Work is now ongoing to determine when individuals with complicating medical conditions such as immunosuppression and/or cardiovascular
disease should receive RSV boosters. Also expect to see recommendations from infectious disease specialists regarding when otherwise healthy older individual should receive boosters.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2838490
#rsv #vaccination #hospitalization #immunosuppression #cardiovascular
rsv, vaccination, hospitalization, immunosuppression, cardiovascular
Allergy Nasal Spray Kills Cold and CoVid Viruses
Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DOwe9yfDnI2/
Azelastine nasal spray, marketed as Astepro but also available as a generic, can reduce your chances of developing a CoVid infection by a factor of 3 and cut your chances of developing a common cold by a factor of 3.5. German researchers at Saarland University recently published their double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 450 participants in the JAMA Internal Medicine Journal.
Half the subjects received azelastine 0.1% nasal spray three times a day for 56 days. The control subjects used a similarly-appearing but inactive nasal spray. Respiratory infections were confirmed using PCR analyses. The results showed that only 2.2% of the azelestine sprayers developed CoVid compared with 6.7% of controls. Only 1.8% of azelestine sprayers developed rhinovirus infections compared with 6.3% of controls.
Generic azelastine spray is a prescription medication. Astepro Spray, the same medication, is available over-the-counter. If you think you might benefit, give it a try.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2838335
#azelastine #astepro #allergy #CoVid #rhinovirus #commoncold
azelastine, astepro, allergy, CoVid, rhinovirus, commoncold
==========================
FUTURE MED
==========================
Vibrating Human Eggs For IVF
Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DOwf2u9FNvx/
When a woman’s eggs are harvested from her ovaries in preparation for in-vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), they are covered by so-called cumulus cells. These cells must be removed after IVF and before ICSI in order to obtain viable fertilized eggs for implantation. The traditional method for cumulus removal, CR, involves vortexing using manual pipetting. This process often damages some of the eggs, the oocytes.
Enter biologists at Cornell University with a microfluidic chip through which eggs can pass and be cleansed of cumulus cells with vibration-induced flow. The chip has a spiral array of micro-pillars that separate the smaller cumulus cells from the larger oocytes and flush them out of the chip.
Pre-clinical studies using a mouse model showed the process to be fast, efficient, and gentle for the eggs. As many as 23 oocytes were simultaneously cleaned successfully with the potential for fertilization and embryo initiation similar to those for manual pipette cleaning. Hopefully, after this method undergoes additional testing, it will be ready for the clinic……someday soon.
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/lc/d5lc00414d
#oocytes #cumulus #ivf #icsi #microchip #cleansing
oocytes, cumulus, ivf, icsi, microchip, cleansing
Future Treatment For Autism Spectrum Disorders
Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DOwgkXgDFge/
Stanford neuroscientists have tagged the reticular thalamic nucleus (RT) as a likely trigger for characteristic autistic behaviors in mammals. This neuronal plexus carries signals from the thalmus, the brain’s sensory relay station, to the cerebral cortex, the center for conscious thought, sensory, and motor activity.
Using autistic mice, the Cntnap2 knockout line, they observed heightened neural firing and seizure-like electrical activity in the reticular thalamic nucleus when animals received stimuli that triggered characteristic autistic behaviors. By suppressing this abnormal neural firing with the experimental anti-seizure medication Z944, the researchers reversed the animals’ hypersensitivity to stimuli, increased motor activity, repetitive behaviors, and lack of social interactions. In short, they suppressed the animals’ autistic tendencies.
This research now puts a focus on the reticular thalamic nucleus as a treatment target for autism spectrum disorder. Expect to hear more about this ..…someday soon.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adw4682
#autism #asd #reticularthalamicnucleus #seizures #antiepileptics
autism, asd, reticularthalamicnucleus, seizures, antiepileptics
============================
WARNINGS
============================
Kissing Bugs Could Kiss Off Your Life
Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DOwhvJ2CTKL/
The kissing bug is the popular name for the triatomine bug, a blood sucking insect that tends to attach to the faces of sleeping victims. This insect carries the parasite Trypanososma cruzi which causes Chagas’ disease. Normally found predominately in Central and South American as well as Mexico, now this bug and its potentially deadly baggage is spreading across the United States. As of this date, cases of Chagas’ disease have occurred in 8 states: Texas, California, Arizona, Tennessee, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi and Arkansas. The bad news is that these kissing bugs have been seen in 32 states.
If the bug bites you on the face and you rub the bite, you are likely to rub some of the bug debris containing the Trypanosoma parasite into your skin. As the parasite sets up shop, you will develop Chagas disease, acute phase, with fever, eyelid swelling, fatigue, body aches, rashes, swollen glands, appetite loss, diarrhea, and vomiting. This acute phase and demands immediate diagnosis and treatment with antibiotics.
Should you fail to recognize the signs and symptoms and the parasite persists untreated, , the Chageas disease moves into the chronic phase. It invades your heart and esophageal tissues. Years later, you develop heart failure, arrhythmias, cardiac arrest, difficulty swallowing, and severe constipation. At this point, the parasite cannot be eliminated and only the symptoms can be treated.
As usual, the best treatment is prevention. Since there is no vaccine for Chagas’ disease, you must take precautions to avoid the kissing bugs. That includes use of insect repellent, wearing clothes that cover, staying in bug-free rooms with screening and/or air conditioning, and avoiding of possibly contaminated raw fruits and vegetables.
https://www.infectiousdiseaseadvisor.com/news/kissing-bug-disease-spreading-in-us-cdc-report-says/
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/chagas-disease/symptoms-causes/syc-20356212
#kissingbugs #chagas #parasite #trypanosomiasis #triatomine
kissingbugs, chagas, parasite, trypanosomiasis, triatomine
==========================
CPSC Recalls
==========================
==========================
FDA Recalls
==========================
==========================
CPSC Recalls
==========================
==========================
FDA Recalls
==========================