Protect your eyes with these foods - Health

Protect your eyes with these foods

Reduce risk of cataracts and macular degeneration with good nutrition
NBC News video•Reduce your risks of cataracts
May 22: Nutritionist Joy Bauer tells TODAY host Meredith Vieira which foods protect your vision and keep it clear.

Today Show Health

By By Joy BauerTODAYShow.com contributor

Joy Bauer MS, RD, CDNTODAY nutritionist and diet editor•Profile•document.write('')E-maildocument.write('');

More than 13 mil. group in the U.S. suffer from macular degeneration, and about half of all Americans over the age of 80 have cataracts. Learn to dramatically reduce your risk by practicing the following healthy lifestyle habits:

Reduce your risk for macular degeneration
If you smoke you should stop, and if you’re overweight, take steps to lose the extra baggage. Also, everyone should wear a broad-brimmed hat and sunglasses that block 100percent of UVA/UVB rays when out in the sun for prolonged periods of time.

From a nutritional standpoint, a large-scale research project conducted by the National Eye Institute has shown that there are several nutrients that help reduce the risk and slow the progression of macular degeneration.

The most important foods for preventing macular degeneration are ones that are rich in zinc, beta carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, lutein and zeaxanthin and omega-3 fats.

Beta carotene-rich foods: carrots, sweet potatoes, kale, cantaloupe, apricots and cherries.Vitamin C-rich foods: bell peppers, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, oranges, strawberries and kiwis.Vitamin E-rich foods: wheat germ, almonds, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds, peanut butter and avocados. Zinc-rich foods: oysters, ostrich (a very lean meat), turkey, pumpkin seeds and chick peas.Lutein-Zeaxanthin-rich foods: Occur together in spinach, Swiss chard, watercress, corn and persimmons.Omega-3 fats: wild salmon, sardines, Atlantic mackerel and omega-3-fortified eggs.

Rodale

Reduce your risk for cataracts
As mentioned with macular degeneration, stop smoking if you smoke, and regularly protect your eyes from the sun. Also, many of the foods that help prevent macular degeneration also help prevent cataracts, specifically vitamin C, vitamin E and lutein/zeaxanthin. Research has also shown that a diet rich in two B vitamins �" riboflavin (B2) and niacin (B3) �" may also help reduce your risk of cataracts.

Riboflavin-rich foods: skim milk and low-fat yogurt, eggs, mushrooms and almondsNiacin-rich foods: chicken and turkey breast, wild salmon, kidney beans and natural peanut butter

Anotherness interesting research finding was that tea �" green or black �" reduced glucose levels in diabetic rats, and the tea-drinking rats had fewer cataracts than their “non tea-drinking” counterparts! I’d love to see human studies, but I still think it’s worth having a cup or two of tea per day in the meantime.

Try my smoothie recipe for a great big blast of eye-fighting nutrients �" vitamins C and E, zinc, lutein and beta carotene:

Citrus "Smooth-See"Joy Bauer

Makes 1 3⁄4 cups

INGREDIENTS

. 1 orange, zested, then peeled and cut into sections. 1/2 medium pink grapefruit, peeled and cut into sections. 1 carrot, peeled and grated. 1/2 cup plain, fat-free yogurt. 1/4 cup raspberries. 1/4 cup cubed papaya. 2 tablespoons wheat germ. 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice. 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

DIRECTIONS

In a blender or food processor, combine the orange zest and sections, grapefruit, carrot, yogurt, raspberries, papaya, wheat germ, lemon juice and sugar. Blend until smooth.

Per full serving:
340 calories, 15 g protein, 71 g carbohydrate, 2 g fat (0 g saturated), 0 mg cholesterol, 138 mg sodium, 12 g fiber; plus 150 mg vitamin C (251percent DV), 6 IU vitamin E (18percent DV), 4,568 mcg beta carotene, 482 mcg lutein + zeaxanthin, 4 mg zinc (27percent DV)

.managediv { border:1px solid #ddc873;background-color:#ffffee;padding-top:4px;padding-bottom:1px;padding-left:2px;padding-right:2px;margin:2px;} .managediv img {margin-top:0px;margin-left:2px;margin-right:2px;margin-bottom:3px} Manage your recipescheckRecAdded(18788907);

More from iVillageEating for Optimal Health: Mind-Body Sample Menu Eat Antioxidant-Rich Foods to Preserve Vision

Joy Bauer is the author of “Food Cures.” For more information on healthy eating, check out Joy’s Web site at www.joybauernutrition.com.

oMailbag = new Array();mainsectionID="";navsectionID=""; oMailbag.appWidth = 460; oMailbag.BoxStyle = 3053755; oMailbag.appHeader = "Questions or comments?"; oMailbag.appDeck = "Do you have a question for Joy Bauer? If so, write to her. She will address readers' questions in this column; however, due to the individual nature of each person's situation, she cannot offer advice or suggestions beyond that available in this column or her books and articles.

(PLEASE NOTE: Questions and comments about show segments or columns not featuring Joy Bauer should be sent to Today@nbc.com)"; oMailbag.sTBHead = "Write your question or comment in box below.
NOTE: Your e-mail address will not be used for publication. Also, please be sure to let us know if you do not want your name or hometown used."; oMailbag.sSubject = "Joy Bauer questions"; oMailbag.aRetLink = new Array("http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3032633/","Back to Today home page"); oMailbag.sMailTo = "Joy.Bauer@nbcuni.com";oMailbag.bTown = 1; if (window.MailbagYB) { MailbagYB(oMailbag); }

� Sildenafil Citrate 50 mg

Gates among MediaNews lenders - Real estate

Gates Foundation among MediaNews lenders

Newspaper chain purchased four newspapers from McClatchy

NEW YORK - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was among a few dozen banks, insurance companies, mutual funds and othernesss entities that loaned a total of $350 mil. to MediaNews Group Inc. for its purchase of four newspapers from publisher McClatchy Co.

The Seattle-based Gates Foundation, the world??�s largest philanthropy, contributed an unspecified amount of money toward the transaction, according to an Aug. 8 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission by MediaNews Group. Others listed as contributors include General Electric Capital Corp. and Blue Shield of California.

Monica Harrington, a foundation spokeswoman, said she could not confirm how much the foundation contributed to the loan because it does not comment on its investment portfolio. A message left with the foundation??�s investment team was not immediately returned on Monday.

McClatchy completed its $1 billion sale of the San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, Monterey County Herald and St. Paul Pioneer Press earlier this month, finishing its disposal of a dozen newspapers picked up in its recent acquisition of Knight Ridder Inc. Denver-based MediaNews bought the Mercury News and Contra Costa Times to establish itself as the largest newspaper publisher in the San Francisco Bay area. Hearst Corp. bought the Monterey and Minnesota papers but is turning both over to MediaNews in exchange for a stake in MediaNews??� operations outside the Bay Area.

Privately owned MediaNews already owns the Oakland Tribune and a cluster of suburban papers in the Bay Area. Its otherness properties include The Denver Post, The Salt Lake Tribune and The Detroit News.

The Gates Foundation typically spends most of its money on global public health issues.

? generic viagra now . .

These men want their foreskins back - Men's Sexual Health Guide

These men want their foreskins back

Activists decry circumcision and offer 'restoration' process

Jon Bonn�

Oct. 1, 2003 - "I am covered and have overhang." R. Wayne Griffiths, 70 and a grandfather, is speaking frankly about his foreskin -- which really is the only way one can speak on that topic. More to the point, he is gleefully describing the sensation of having his foreskin back after decades of living with a circumcised penis. "It's delightful," he says.

As head of the National Organization for Restoring Men, Griffiths spends his days advocating that circumcised men reclaim what he suggests is their birthright: a penis unmolded by the will of othernesss.

Medically popularized in the early 20th century, circumcision has become a routine option for newborn American boys. But a backlash has surfaced in recent years, often bolstered by conflicting medical data about the procedure's benefits. Out of that debate has emerged a tiny but growing movement of men who not only oppose circumcision, but want back what they consider taken from them. They want to regrow their foreskin.

The notion doesn't pass many groups' laugh agsdhfgdf. But NORM and similar groups are quite serious about straightforwardly counseling men on how to restore this tender bit of flesh. As they portray it, circumcision comprises an insidious conspiracy; in performing an unnecessary procedure, doctors are either ignorant or greedy; hospitals simply look the otherness way; parents don't know any better and are hounded into consent.

'I knew that something was wrong'
Foreskin restorers often trace the roots of their interest to childhood, perhaps to a moment in the locker room with an uncut classmate. "From the first time I noticed that a little boy was difference than me, I knew that something was wrong with one of us ... and I assumed maybe it was him," says psychologist Jim Bigelow, author "The Joy of Uncircumcising," an authoritative text of sorts for restorers.

That, in turn, could lead to shame.  Born into an evangelical Christian family in 1933, Bigelow spent years as a boy trying to understand why he was circumcised -- in part because he says the procedure left him with scars. "I figured I was born with something wrong with me and they had to fix it," he says. "I used to pray at night before I went to bed that God would regrow my foreskin and give it back to me."

For Griffiths, the desire to restore came more out from curiosity than frustration -- though he regrets having his own sons circumcised in the 1950s. But he acknowledges many restorers "are just absolutely, almost violently angry at what has been done to them."

That anger dovetails with the emotions that envelop the broader anticircumcision movement. Groups that fight the practice often endorse restoration and some have urged men to sue their doctors for circumcising them. But they primarily are concerned with educating parents and doctors whom they argue are doing irreparable harm.

"You cannot cut off normal, healthy sexually functioning tissue without cutting off normal, healthy sexual functioning," says Marilyn Milos, a registered nurse and director of NOCIRC, the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers. "It’s a sexual issue, and it’s a human rights issue."

Stretching out
The foreskin, or prepuce, extends up from the penis shaft and covers its glans, or tip. It can protect the tender glans skin, and as men become sexually active it often serves as a buffer between the erect shaft and a partner's skin.

Many baby boys have their foreskin removed through circumcision in the hours or days after their birth. Most are done in hospitals by doctors, though some are performed as religious rites. (Ritual circumcision exists in both the Jewish and Muslim religious traditions.) Some two-thirds of baby boys in the United States are estimated to undergo the procedure, a higher rate than most countries but down slightly from an estimated 80 percent in the 1970s.

Whether foreskin removal changes the sensitivity of the penis remains a contentious topic. Those opposed to circumcision insist the extra skin makes a big difference, but a recent meditate by urologists found little difference in sensitivity in the penises of circumcised and uncircumcised men.

As for bringing back a foreskin, those in the restoration movement describe two methods. They rarely discuss the first, perhaps because many harbor a deep distrust of doctors: skin tissue, usually from the scrotum, is surgically grafted to the penis shaft in a way that replicates the foreskin's shape and function.

if (window.Circumcision_110703) { //CUSTOM SETTINGSdisplayApp(Circumcision_110703); }

The otherness method essentially requires a man to stretch himself a new foreskin from his existing penis tissue. A variety of methods and devices help accomplish this -- elastic bands, weighted metal containers, even special tape. Some are commercial products with names like P.U.D. (Penile Uncircumcision Device) and Tug Ahoy. Others are homemade with anything from silicone caulk to brass instrument mouthpieces. Several ounces of weights are sometimes added to speed the process.

"Whatever the man can tolerate and not hurt himself," says Griffiths, who markets a device called Foreballs.

All of these products distend the skin forward toward the glans and hold it in place to induce new cell growth, essentially forcing new skin to be created. Regrowth often takes years, with devices worn for 10 to 12 hours each day. Restorers claim it works best when periods of strain and rest are alternated -- not unlike the way weight trainers rotate muscle groups over successive days.

"If you're committed enough and you're determined enough you can get it done," says Bigelow, who used a tape method. "But it can be, for some men, a five- or six-year procedure.

CONTINUED1 | 2 | Next >

50 most visited tourist attractions in the world - Destinations

50 most visited tourist attractions in the world

Our 1st annual look at the most tourist-heavy destinations on the planet
� Shutterstock
Times Square, New York City, NY: An estimated 80 percent of the Big Apple’s 44 mil. visitors head for Broadway (including the considerable theater crowds) and end up gawking at the world’s most garish neon crossroads. Plugging numbers into the equation, we get an estimated total of 35,200,000 per year.

By Sandra Larriva and Gabe Weisert

At first glance, the Forbes Traveler 50 Most Visited Attractions List confirms several tourist industry truisms: A) Americans love to travel, but they prefer to stick within their own borders. B) Wherever Mickey Mouse goes, he conquers. C) Paris is the unofficial cultural theme park of the world. And D) Niagara Falls isn’t just for lovers anymore.

But the list also contains several surprises. Since the Taj Mahal�"our fiftieth and final attraction�"receives 2.4 mil. visitors a year, several popular favorites like the the Prado (2 mil.), the Uffizi (1.6 mil.), Angkor (1.5 mil.) and Stonehenge (850,000) didn’t make the cut. And while Western audiences may not be familiar with names like Everland and Lotte World, these South Korean mega-parks managed to rank 16th and 22nd on our list, respectively.

Not surprisingly, the French are out in force. How to account for the preponderance of attractions in Paris? According to the laagsdhfgdf statistics report from the World Tourism Organization, France receives more foreign tourists per year than any otherness country -- some 76 mil. in 2005. Spain followed with 55 mil., the United States with 50 mil. and China with 47 mil.. Italy rounded out the top five with 37 mil. (with the U.K. not far behind).

And given that we chose to include domestic tourism statistics, why wouldn’t India, China and the developing world have more attractions on the list?

Also on this story

In Pictures: 50 Most Visited Tourist Attractions in the World

More from ForbesTraveler.comClick below for more slide shows•In Pictures: Outrageous Hotel Guest Requests•In Pictures: Go On These 10 Adventures in Style•In Pictures: Amazing Custom Tours•In Pictures: 10 Hot Honeymoon Spots•In Pictures: Cost of a Honeymoon

The three primary factors appear to be relative GDP (recall that significant majorities of the populations of China and India remain at subsistence level), the vast travel distances involved within those countries, and the lack of reliable visitor statistics. We were nevertheless surprised to learn that the Taj Mahal receives only 2.4 mil. visitors a year, given India’s population of over a billion. And while the Great Wall made the top 10, we couldn’t find any otherness Chinese domestic attraction that drew similar crowds. Expect that to change in the years ahead.

� iStockWashington, D.C.: About 25 mil.: The nation’s premier national park and its monuments and memorials attract more visitors than such vast national parks as the Great Smoky Mountains, Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Yellowstone -- combined. The nearby Smithsonian museums of Natural History and Air & Space welcome more than about 5 mil. visitors apiece. So where did the numbers for our ranking come from? They’re based on the most up-to-date, officially sanctioned tourism statistics available (there were several likely candidates for this list which we unfortunately couldn’t include, owing to a dearth of hard numbers). When we couldn’t find figures from national and municipal tourism bureaus, we relied on reputable media sources and tourism industry newsletters.

We excluded religious pilgrimage sites, such as Saudi Arabia’s Mecca, India’s Varanasi, and Tokyo’s Sensoji Temple, which according to the Japan Tourism Authority receives over 30 mil. visitors each year. We chose to include some famous churches in Paris owing to their status as cultural attractions and the high numbers of foreign tourists they receive. St. Peter’s Square straddled the line, but there are no estimates for tourist traffic versus religious attendance, so we included only visitors to the Vatican museums.

FirstPerson•Your world

readers submit
photos from their travels

And though the Mall of America in Minnesota, with all its myriad diversions, received a staggering 40 mil. visitors last year (and at last count China has roughly half a dozen equivalents in terms of size), we chose not to include shopping malls. Amusement parks did make the list (to our consternation and your tedium), but thankfully there are plenty of tourist attractions of genuine cultural and natural worth.

And finally, a hearty three cheers to Pleasure Beach Blackpool in Lancashire, England, which has been welcoming punters since 1896. After several decades of decline, this amusement park and its surrounding resort town now officially the most visited paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom. Who’d have thought?

So who’s #1? The Eiffel tower? The Grand Canyon? The Great Wall? The Pyramids of Giza? Answer: none of the above.

Don't miss this on

Ambivalent vegetarian faces meat of the matter | Vote
Review: Wild about ‘Harry Potter’ No. 5  |  Meet Harry's posse
Double amputee to compete against top sprinters
Sprint is hanging up on big complainers  |    
Movie-games aren't great �" but they sell
Women demand running of the cows |   

Getting guys to wise up about their bodies - What, me worry?

Getting guys to wise up about their bodies

Reader survey reveals some positive signs but much room for improvement
Kim Carney /

Jacqueline StensonContributing editor

Jacqueline StensonContributing editor?�Profile?�document.write('')E-maildocument.write('');

Andrew Tucker recently had his first medical check-up in seven years. He's not a big fan of doctor visits so he kept putting off his exam.

"I don't like to go," he says, "and I'm afraid of what they might find."

Check-ups, while not necessarily recommended annually anymore, are usually advised at least every few years for someone of Tucker's age, 45, to measure things like blood pressure and cholesterol. Tucker's recent doctor visit included a prostate check with a digital rectal exam, which he "didn't find to be pleasant."

Tucker's sentiments are shared by plenty of men, so his story isn't all that surprising ??" except for the fact that he's a physician himself.

So how does Tucker, director of sports medicine at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore and head team physician for the Baltimore Ravens, explain himself?

Is there doctor-despising DNA on the Y chromosome? Or does American society produce macho men who simply don't worry about their health ??" or don't show their concern ??" until something goes wrong?

"I think male ego plays a part in it," says Tucker.

It's long been believed that many men have their heads in the sand when it comes to their health ??" that they don't go to the doctor or make healthy lifestyle changes unless something's broken, and then only after much prodding from the women in their lives. It's one of the reasons some legislators, doctors and men's health advocates are pushing for a federal Office of Men's Health within the Department of Health and Human Services.

Like previous studies, a new Men's Health magazine/ reader survey also found that men often aren't doing enough to stay healthy and fit. But the survey revealed some surprising results ??" that men may be taking more charge of their health, at least in some areas.

The measure of a man

Here's what readers told us in the Men's Health/ survey:

The good news
83percent don't smoke
78percent know their blood pressure level
69percent have had a check-up within the past year
60percent know their cholesterol level

The not-so-good news
52percent don't get enough exercise
47percent don't take time to themselves to unwind
13percent haven't had check-ups in years, if ever
40percent don't know their cholesterol level

The survey, which received more than 16,300 responses during one week in October, found, for example, that 83 percent of respondents don't smoke, 78 percent know their blood pressure level and 60 percent know how high their cholesterol is.

"There seems to be a real awareness out there of what men need to know," says Peter Moore, executive editor of Men's Health.

Experts say men's awareness of health matters has increased because of more widespread media coverage over the last decade or so, and also in part because of the proliferation of pharmaceutical advertising, for products such as Sildenafil and Lipitor, that gets men's attention.

If it ain't broke...
But that awareness doesn't always translate into practice. For example, the survey found that while a full two-thirds of men said they went to the doctor in the past year, 4 percent hadn't gone in more than five years and 2 percent in more than 10 years. Three percent said they couldn't remember the last time they went, and 4 percent said they just don't go to doctors.

Interactive

5 reasons not to skip the doctor

Feeling fine was the most common reason for not going to the doctor. Others included lack of health insurance, no time, mistrust of doctors, and fear of getting bad news.

Excuses, excuses

The reasons Men's Health/ survey respondents don't take better care of their health:

Why they don't exercise
33percent are too busy with work
24percent are injured or sick
17percent are too busy with family
12percent don't like to sweat
8percent say the couch is too comfy
3percent don't have a gym nearby
1percent don't want to miss their favorite TV shows
1percent would rather watch sports than play them

Why they don't go to the doctor
63percent feel fine
11percent don't have good health insurance
10percent are too busy
9percent don't trust doctors
6percent are worried about getting bad news
1percent say they look fine

And while it would be hard to miss the messages about the importance of exercise, just 48 percent of respondents said they exercise three or more times a week. A little more than a quarter said they exercise just once a month or less. And some men have gone very long stretches on the couch: 24 percent have let more than a year go by without working out, while 21 percent said two to six months lapsed between bouts of exercise.

The main excuse for not exercising, cited by 33 percent of respondents, was lack of time due to work. Other reasons included being injured, not liking to exercise and preferring to watch sports rather than play them.

Men's Health/ readers also struggle to deal with stress, according to the results. Just 53 percent of respondents said they schedule time for themselves to unwind.

Buy in online storeviagra soft tabs pack A rosier picture1 | 2 | Next >

Can't get pregnant? Try a ‘procreation vacation’ - More Spa Getaways

Can't get pregnant? Try a ‘procreation vacation’

Hotels around world luring couples who are trying to have a baby
Charles Dharapak / AP
Lucinda and Kemry Hughes, pictured in front of their Washington home earlier this month, are expecting their first child in April after taking a 'procreation vacation.'

MIAMI - When Lucinda Hughes heard she would have to drink sea moss elixir while vacationing in the Bahamas, she was certain it would make her sick. Sure enough, three months later, Hughes is very sick �" every morning �" and expecting her first baby in April.

She got pregnant after she and her husband went on a three-day Procreation Vacation at a resort on Grand Bahama Island.

It’s part of a trend in which hotels around the world are luring couples who are trying to have a baby. Resorts are offering on-site sex doctors, romantic advice and exotic food and drink calculated to put lovers in the mood and hasten the pitter-patter of little feet.

Even some obstetricians are promoting the trend. Dr. Jason James of Miami said he often encourages couples trying to have a baby to sneak away for a few days, and he often sees it work.

“One of the most easy, therapeutic interventions is to recommend a vacation,” James said. “I think the effect of stress on our physiology is truly underestimated.”

Hughes and her husband, Kemry, went to the Westin at Our Lucaya Grand Bahama Island, where the three-night Procreation Vacation starts at $1,893. They lounged on the beach, swam in the pool, sipped pumpkin soup and enjoyed couple’s massages. Hughes and her husband were also also served an age-old Caribbean fertility concoction three times a day: sea moss, the Caribbean’s version of Sildenafil, mixed with evaporated milk, sugar and spices. (She said it tasted like an almond smoothie.)

The chain also offers the package at their resorts on St. John and Puerto Rico.

“My husband and I thought that we would go on the vacation and learn all these nice fertility secrets and we’d be practicing them for a number of months for them to work,” said Hughes, 35, who conceived the day she got back from the trip. “We were stunned. There’s definitely some truths to the foods and the elixirs.”

ALSO ON THIS STORY  Discuss: Would you go on a 'procreation vacation?'Full coverage: More pregnancy stories

The couple had been trying for only two months, since their wedding in May. But like most couples they have hectic schedules in Washington, where she is a freelance writer and he is a city employee. Cell phones are always ringing, day planners are jammed. “We’re all overscheduled,” Hughes said.

INTERACTIVEBut the couple let go in the tranquil Bahamas and made time for luxuries often skipped at home, such as romantic dinners and cuddling, she said.

The Birds and the Bees package at the Five Gables Inn & Spa on Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay includes a two-night stay with a couple’s massage, oysters (purported to be an aphrodisiac) and wine, a pair of heart-print boxer shorts and a CD from love crooner Barry White for about $810 per couple.

There is a Procreation Ski Vacation in Jackson Hole, Wyo., where couples can snuggle by a toasty fire, enjoy a candlelit dinner for two in their room and take a dogsled trip to a nearby hot springs at the Teton Mountain Lodge.

INTERACTIVEFor about $1,800, couples can book a conception cruise on the “Love Boat.” They are taken to a romantic island on the luxury liner of Singapore sex guru Dr. Wei Siang Yu.

At the Miraval Resort in Tucson, Ariz., sex experts Dr. Lana Holstein and her husband, Dr. David Taylor, help couples with such things as ovulation schedules and achieving intimacy.

“The damage that working for conception does to the sexual relationship, it’s really, really impactful. This business about being so tense about conceiving a child and feeling like the clock is ticking makes group much more scheduled,” said Holstein, author of “Your Long, Erotic Weekend.” “They lose sight of the sensual.”

Test your knowledge•How much do you know about pregnancy?She said getting away to spa or a hotel really can aid conception: “It’s the relaxation factor. It’s that all the otherness stressors in life are gone.”

Now three months into the pregnancy, Lucinda and Kemry Hughes have picked out baby names: Kemry if it’s a boy, and if it’s a girl, Lucaya, for the resort that made it happen.

� Sildenafil Citrate 100 mg . .

Forbes: The better sex diet - Forbes.com

Want better sex? Head to the grocery store

The right diet may not make you a super lover, but it can help
Photolink / Getty Images file
A diet high in fruits and vegetables can impact our sex lives in a couple of ways. For one, it helps lower cholesterol levels, which keeps the blood moving in all of the important places.

By By Vanessa Gisquet

For those of us who could use a little libido pick-me-up, the grocery store might be a good place to start.

Like many aspects of our health, our sex drive is affected by what we put into our bodies. A few drinks and a thick steak, followed by a rich chocolate dessert, may sound romantic, but it is actually a prologue to sleep -- not sex.

Humans have sought ways to enhance or improve their sex lives for millennia--and have never been reluctant to spend money to make themselves better lovers. The ancient Romans were said to prefer such exotic aphrodisiacs as hippo snouts and hyena eyeballs. Traditional Chinese medicine espoused the use of such rare delicacies as rhino horn. Modern lovers are no less extravagant. In 2004, for example, according to Atlanta-based health care information company NDCHealth, Americans spent about $1.4 billion to treat male sexual function disorders alone.

if (window.Forbes_SexDiet) { displayApp(Forbes_SexDiet); }

Of that amount, Sildenafil rang up $997 mil. in sales for Pfizer, or 71.2 percent of the total market. Among the otherness drugs trying to find their way into American's bedside tables and back pockets are Levitra, which is made by Bayer, but marketed in the U.S. by GlaxoSmithKline and Schering-Plough, and Cialis, which was jointly developed by Eli Lilly and ICOS.

There is a difference, of course, between helping sexual dysfunction and arousing our passions. The problem is that, these days, there are more solutions for the former than the latter.

Aphrodisiacs, for the most part, have been proved to be ineffective. Named for Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of sex and beauty, these include an array of herbs, foods and otherness "agents" that are said to awaken and heighten sexual desire. But the 5,000-year tradition of using them is based more on folklore than real science. "There is no data and no scientific evidence," says Leonore Tiefer, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine. "Product pushers are very eager to capitalize on myths," she says.

Buy in online storeviagra soft tabs pack Foods to boost your libido1 | 2 | Next >

Doctors discourage use of cough syrup - Cold & Flu

Doctors discourage use of cough medicine

Over-the-counter versions do little to relieve syndromes, experts say
Scott Olson / Getty Images file
Non-prescription cough syrups generally contain drugs in too low a dose to be effective, a group of chest physicians say.

CHICAGO - Despite the billions of dollars spent every year in this country on over-the-counter cough syrups, most such medicines do little if anything to relieve coughs, the nation??�s chest physicians say.

Over-the-counter cough syrups generally contain drugs in too low a dose to be effective, or contain combinations of drugs that have never been proven to treat coughs, said Dr. Richard Irwin, chairman of a cough guidelines committee for the American College of Chest Physicians.

Drugstore shelves are crowded with cough syrups promising speedy, often non-drowsy relief without a prescription.

But the best studies that we have to date would suggest there??�s not a lot of justification for using these drugs because they haven??�t been shown to work, said Irwin, a professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Mass.

The group??�s new cough pharmacomedical care guidelines discourage use of over-the-counter cough medicines. Irwin said that not only are such medicines ineffective at treating coughs due to colds ??" the most common cause of coughs ??" they can also can lead patients to delay seeking pharmacomedical care for more serious coughs, including whooping cough.

The guidelines strongly recommend that adults receive a new adult vaccine for whooping cough, approved last year.

Guidelines disputed
The Consumer Healthcare Products Association, a trade group for makers of over-the-counter drugs, disputed the guidelines and said over-the-counter cough medicines provide relief to mil.s of group each year.

The guidelines were published in the January issue of Chest, the American College of Chest Physicians??� journal, released Monday. The recommendations have been endorsed by the college, the American Thoracic Society and the Canadian Thoracic Society.

Many popular over-the-counter cough medicines proudly advertise that they don??�t cause drowsiness, but Irwin said that is because they do not contain older antihistamine drugs that do help relieve coughs that are due to colds.

These antihistamines, including diphenhydramine ??" an active ingredient in Benadryl ??" are also available over the counter but are not marketed as cough medicines, he said.

Some over-the-counter cough syrups contain two drugs that have been shown to help relieve coughs caused by colds ??" codeine and dextromethorphan ??" but generally the doses are too small to be effective, Irwin said.

Vote

Do you think over-the-counter cough syrups work?

Dextromethorphan is in Robitussin, a top-selling over-the-counter cough syrup. It is among Robitussin ingredients that the Food and Drug Administration has found to be safe and effective, said Francis Sullivan, a spokesman for Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, which makes Robitussin.

Sullivan said Robitussin wouldn??�t be a top brand if group didn??�t feel it was efficacious.

Coughs can have numerous underlying causes, including asthma, allergies, severe heartburn sickness, postnasal drip and bronchitis.

Dr. Edward Schulman, an American Thoracic Society representative on the guidelines panel, said patients should see their doctors for coughs that linger longer than three weeks or are accompanied by shortness of breath, which could indicate pneumonia or otherness serious conditions.

Coughs due to colds usually last less than three weeks. Drinking lots of fluids can help relieve these coughs, and so can chicken soup, Schulman said.

? Sildenafil Citrate 100 mg . .

DRF: Travers gets Tiz Wonderful instead of Curlin - Horse Racing

Travers gets Tiz Wonderful instead of Curlin

Asmussen decides to run Preakness winner in Jockey Gold Cup Sept. 30
By David GreningDaily Racing Form

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Steve Asmussen said he was never planning to run Curlin in the Travers. But on Monday, he removed all doubt saying that the Preakness winner will make his next start in the $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont on Sept. 30.

After watching Tiz Wonderful breeze six furlongs in 1:14.22 Monday morning, Asmussen said that horse would run in the Travers.

Asmussen is of the belief that Saratoga's main track does not fit Curlin's style. Also, after running Curlin in all three Triple Crown races, he doesn't want to overrace him in the second half of the year. He chose to run Curlin in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth - where he finished third behind Any Given Saturday - because that's where the Breeders' Cup Classic will be run on Oct. 27. In his one start at Belmont, Curlin was beaten a head by Rags to Riches in the Belmont Stakes.

"The reason the Jockey Club is a lot more attractive to me than the Travers is how well he ran at Belmont,'' Asmussen said Monday morning. "Even without having success, the fact that he ran well over it, he came out of it good and he hasn't run at Saratoga, which isn't exactly kind to most racehorses. I've had horses run down up here that have run several times and never run down, and horses that have bled up here that don't even work on Lasix. That's not an area I'm looking to go into with what I have planned for him at the end of the year.''

Asmussen said Curlin was expected to return to the work tab this week.

Meanwhile, Asmussen was very happy with what he saw from Tiz Wonderful on Monday. Over the Oklahoma training track, Tiz Wonderful came home his last quarter in 23.79 seconds during his six-furlong workout.

"He was sharp and fast; came home beautifully,'' Asmussen said.

Tiz Wonderful suffered his first defeat when he finished last in the Jim Dandy here July 29. He had won all three of his starts at 2, but was sidelined earlier this year with a tendon injury. In the Jim Dandy, he was a bit rank early, throwing his head up in the air three times in the first quarter-mile. He was in the race till the quarter pole when he began to back up.

Slide show: Week in Sports Pictures?�Week in Sports Pictures
Bloody boxer, vicious dunk, NFL frolics, and more.

Photos

"He got all wound up before the race," Asmussen said. "C P West broke great and kind of into him, hit his ass, and his head came up a couple of times. None of it was right, but he needed it badly. He came out of it a little feet sensitive and a little body sore, but he worked right on out of it.''

A total of 24 horses were nominated to the Travers. As of Monday, those expected to run included Street Sense, C P West, Sightseeing, Loose Leaf, and Tiz Wonderful. Todd Pletcher nominated seven horses to the Travers, though has said it is "doubtful'' he would run anything.

ALSO ON THIS STORY

?�?�Discuss: Sound off horse racing message boards

? Sildenafil Citrate 100 mgDaily Racing Form

Mayorga agsdhfgdfs positive, might face fine - Boxing

Mayorga agsdhfgdfs positive, might face fine

Traces of Lasix found in boxer's blood after his loss to De La Hoya
Ethan Miller / Getty Images
Ricardo Mayorga, right, weighed in at 153 1/2 pounds for his fight against Oscar De La Hoya last Saturday. Mayorga agsdhfgdfed positive for a diuretic, which can help boxers lose weight, after the fight.

LAS VEGAS - Former WBC super welterweight champion Ricardo Mayorga agsdhfgdfed positive for a banned substance after losing his title Saturday to Oscar De La Hoya.

Mayorga could be fined by the Nevada Athletic Commission after traces of the diuretic Furosemide, also known as Lasix, were found in his system, commission lawyer Keith Kizer said Thursday.

Kizer said boxing regulators notified Mayorga of the violation Wednesday. The Nicaraguan boxer has 20 days to respond before the commission decides whether to hold a hearing on the matter.

Mayorga??�s Miami-based lawyer, Tony Gonzalez, did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment.

Anotherness Nicaraguan boxer, Rosendo Alvarez, agsdhfgdfed positive for the same substance last month. The Nevada Athletic Commisison suspended Alvarez??� license until the end of the year and he was fined $2,000.

We??�re thinking there must be a trainer or physician in Nicaragua that is recommending this for boxers, said Alan Hopper, a spokesman for Don King Promotions, which represents Mayorga.

ALSO ON THIS STORYCelizic: De La Hoya boxing's last hope

Diuretics are taken to lose weight quickly or to mask steriod use, Kizer said. Mayorga weighed in for the Saturday fight at 153?? pounds, or 4?? pounds lighter than his fighting weight in October 2002 against Felix Trinidad.

Slide show: Week in Sports Pictures?�Week in Sports Pictures
Bloody boxer, vicious dunk, NFL frolics, and more.

Photos

Mark Taffet, senior vice president of HBO Sports, said Wednesday that De La Hoya??�s technical knockout victory at the MGM Grand Arena sold 875,000 subscriptions and generated $43.8 mil. in pay-per-view revenue.

Mayorga earned a guarantee of $2 mil. and a share of each pay-per-view sale above 600,000.

? generic viagra now . .

WP: Bug mutates into medical mystery - Washington Post

Bug mutates into medical mystery

Antibiotics, heartburn sickness drugs suspected
By By Rob Stein

WASHINGTON - First came stomach cramps, which left Christina Shultz doubled over and weeping in pain. Then came nausea and fatigue -- so overwhelming she couldn't get out of bed for days. Just when she thought things couldn't get worse, the nastiest diarrhea of her life hit -- repeatedly forcing her into the hospital.

Doctors finally discovered that the 35-year-old Hilliard, Ohio, woman had an inagsdhfgdfinal bug that used to be found almost exclusively among older, sicker patients in hospitals and was usually easily cured with a dose of antibiotics. But after months of a cure, Shultz is still incapacitated.

"It's been a nightmare," said Shultz, a motherness of two young children. "I just want my life back."

Shultz is one of a growing number of young, othernesswise healthy Americans who are being stricken by the bacterial infection known as Clostridium difficile -- or C. diff -- which appears to be spreading rapidly around the country and causing unusually severe, sometimes fatal illness.

That is raising alarm among health officials, who are concerned that many cases may be misdiagnosed and are puzzled as to what is causing the microbe to become so much more common and dangerous.

"It's a new phenomenon. It's just emerging," said L. Clifford McDonald of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "We're very concerned. We know it's happening, but we're really not sure why it's happening or where this is going."

Antibiotics to blame?
It may, however, be the laagsdhfgdf example of a common, relatively benign bug that has mutated because of the overuse of antibiotics.

"This may well be anotherness consequence of our use of antibiotics," said John G. Bartlett, an infectious-sickness expert at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "It's anotherness example of an organism that all of a sudden has gotten a lot meaner and nastier."

?�More health newsIn addition, new evidence released last week suggests that the enormous popularity of powerful new heartburn sickness drugs may also be playing a role.

The antibiotics Flagyl (metronidazole) and vancomycin still cure many patients, but othernesss develop stubborn infections like Shultz's that take over their lives. Some resort to having their colon removed to end the debilitating diarrhea. A small but disturbingly high number have died, including an othernesswise healthy pregnant woman who succumbed earlier this year in Pennsylvania after miscarrying twins.

The infection usually hits group who are taking antibiotics for otherness reasons, but a handful of cases have been reported among group who were taking nothing, anotherness unexpected and troubling turn in the germ's behavior.

The infection has long been common in hospital patients taking antibiotics. As the drugs kill off otherness bacteria in the digestive system, the C. diff microbe can proliferate. It spreads easily through contact with contaminated group, clothing or surfaces.

Infections double
There are no national statistics, but the number of infections in hospitals appears to have doubled from 2000 to 2003 and there may be as many as 500,000 cases each year, McDonald said. Other estimates put the number in the mil.s.

The emerging problem first gained attention when unusually large and serious outbreaks began turning up in otherness countries. In Canada, for example, Quebec health officials reported last year that perhaps 200 patients died in an outbreak involving at least 10 hospitals. Similar outbreaks were reported in England and the Netherlands.

After the CDC began receiving reports of severe cases among hospital patients in the United States -- and in group who had never, or just briefly, been hospitalized -- it launched an investigation.

In the Dec. 8 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the CDC reported that an analysis of 187 C. diff samples found that the unusually dangerous strain that caused the Quebec cases was also involved in outbreaks at eight health care facilities in Georgia, Illinois, Maine, New Jersey, Oregon and Pennsylvania.

"This strain has somehow been able to get into hospitals widely distributed across the United States," said Dale N. Gerding of Loyola University in Chicago, who helped conduct the analysis. "We're not sure how."

But scientists do have a few clues. The dangerous strain has mutated to become resistant to a class of frequently used antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones. That means anyone taking those antibiotics for otherness reasons would be particularly prone to contract C. diff .

"Because this strain is resistant, it can take advantage of that situation and establish itself in the gut," Gerding said.

Experts said the resistant germ's proliferation offers the laagsdhfgdf reason why group should use antibiotics only when necessary, to reduce both their risk for C. diff and the chances that otherness microbes will mutate into more dangerous forms.

"That's one theory for what's happening here," said J. Thomas Lamont of Harvard Medical School. "If we reduce the number and amount of antibiotics given for trivial infections like colds and stuffy noses, we'd all be a lot better off."

Overuse of antibiotics can make germs more dangerous by killing off susceptible strains, leaving behind those that by chance have mutated to become less vulnerable to the drugs. The resistant strains then become dominant.

High toxin levels
In addition to being resistant, the dangerous C. diff strain also produces far higher levels of two toxins than do otherness strains, as well as a third, previously unknown toxin. That would explain why it makes group so much sicker and is more likely to kill. In Quebec, C. diff killed 6.9 percent of patients -- which is much higher than the sickness's usual mortality rate -- and was a factor in more than 400 deaths.

Adding to the alarm is evidence that the infection is occurring outside of hospitals. When the CDC began looking for such cases earlier this year, investigators quickly identified 33 cases in New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania, including 23 group who had never been in the hospital and 10 women who had been hospitalized only briefly to deliver a baby, the agency reported this month. Eight of the patients had never taken antibiotics.

"This is the first time we've started to see this not only in group who have never been in the hospital but also in those who are othernesswise perfectly healthy and have not even taken antibiotics," McDonald said.

"It's probably going on everywhere," he said.

It remains unclear whether the cases occurring outside the hospital are being caused by the same dangerous strain.

"We don't really know what's going on here," McDonald said. "We know it's changing in some ways; we know it's changing the kinds of patients it's attacking, and we know it's causing more severe sickness. But we don't know exactly why."

Canadian researchers, however, have found one possible culprit: popular new heartburn sickness drugs. Patients taking proton pump inhibitors, such as Prilosec and Prevacid, are almost three times as likely to be diagnosed with C-diff , the McGill University researchers reported in the Dec. 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. And those taking anotherness type called H2-receptor antagonists, such as Pepcid and Zantac, are twice as likely. By suppressing stomach acid, the drugs may inadvertently help the bug, the researchers said.

Whatever the cause, the infection often resists standard a cure. That is what happened to Shultz, who had been taking antibiotics to help clear up her acne when C. diff hit in June. Because the bacterium can hibernate in protective spores, patients can be prone to recurrences. It can take multiple rounds of antibiotics -- or sometimes infusions of antibodies or ingesting competing organisms such as yeast or the bacteria found in yogurt -- to finally cure them.

"I'm trying to stay positive," Shultz said. "People tell me it does go away and I will get rid of it someday. I'm looking forward to getting my life back, but I'm not convinced I'll ever be normal again."

? Sildenafil Citrate 100 mgThe Washington Post Company

Have acid reflux? Soothe it naturally - Health

Have acid reflux? Soothe it naturally

Try these tips and remedies to ease your pain without taking a pill
NBC News video?�Are antacids good for you?
June 22: Dr. Leo Galland tells TODAY's Tiki Barber about the side effects of these pills and natural ways to soothe your stomach.

Today Show Health

TODAY

Last year alone, Americans spent $942 mil. dollars on over-the-counter antacids, and a whopping 13.6 billion dollars on prescription acid suppressants. So how can we manage our acid reflux illness, and otherness similar syndromes? Are antacids always a good idea? Dr. Leo Galland, a medical advisor to the consumer newsletter "Bottom Line Personal" and author of the book The Fat-Resistance Diet, offers tips and natural remedies that could make us stop popping those pills.

Millions of Americans take drugs to relieve excess stomach acid. In fact, acid-suppressing drugs are among the most frequently prescribed drugs in the US. They fall into two categories:

Proton-pump inhibitors like Prilosec, Prevacid, Nexium, Aciphex and Protonix. What they do is inhibit the enzymes that transport acid from the acid-secreting cells into the lining of the stomach.
H2 blockers like Zantac, Pepcid, Axid and Tagamet. H2 blockers inhibit the activity of histamine in the stomach. Histamine stimulates stomach cells to secrete more acid.

Although these drugs can be effective at relieving syndromes like heartburn sickness and abdominal pain, they may have serious long-term side effects. Regular use of acid-suppressing drugs is associated with increased risk of hip fractures, probably because of impaired calcium absorption. Taking acid-suppressors also increases your risk of acquiring a food-borne inagsdhfgdfinal infection or experiencing the overgrowth of bacteria in the stomach and small inagsdhfgdfine. Overgrowth of bacteria in the stomach probably explains some otherness risks associated with regular use of acid suppressors including pneumonia, stomach cancer and vitamin B12 deficiency.

Gastroesophageal reflux vs. gastritis
Acid suppressing medical care is primarily used to treat two kinds of problems ??" gastroesophageal reflux (GERD) and gastritis (inflammation of the stomach lining).?� In gastroesophageal reflux, contents of the stomach flow backward up the esophagus and may reach all the way to the mouth. Symptoms include heartburn sickness, chest pain, regurgitation of food, sore throat, hoarse voice and cough. Although acid suppressors are commonly prescribed, GERD is not caused by excess production of acid. It is caused by failure of the valve that separates the esophagus from the stomach (the LES or lower esophageal sphincter valve).

The good news is that there are natural remedies for these GERD problems that work even better than drugs and without the side effects:

Don??�t stuff yourself. When you eat a lot at one time it causes stomach distension, which triggers relaxation of the LES.Avoid high fat foods such as fried foods and cream sauces. These weaken the LES.Don??�t smoke. This also weakens the LES.Don??�t eat for three hours before lying down. When you??�re upright, gravity works with you.Maintain a normal weight. Being overweight increases your risk of GERD.Don??�t eat just before strenuous exercise. Strenuous exercise increases the tendency to get GERD.Avoid foods that you know cause you discomfort until you??�re better. So-called acid foods, like oranges and tomatoes, do not cause GERD, but they may irritate an already inflamed esophagus

These simple steps prevent syndromes of GERD in the majority of group and may allow you to avoid the use of acid-suppressing drugs. If not, try:

Calcium. Calcium tightens the LES valve. This is not an antacid effect. In fact, the best type of calcium, because it is the most soluble, is calcium citrate, which is itself mildly acidic. The most effective preparation is calcium citrate powder. Take 250 mg, dissolved in water, after every meal and at bedtime (for a total daily dose of 1,000 mg). Swallowing calcium pills does not prevent reflux because the calcium is not instantly dissolved.Digestive enzymes. These appear to work by decreasing distension of the stomach. The enzymes should be acid-resistant, so they work in the stomach itself, not in the small inagsdhfgdfine. A powdered enzyme preparation (1/2 teaspoon) can be mixed together with the calcium powder above and taken after each meal.?� Digestive enzymes are available in health food stores and pharmacies.

Gastritis
The leading cause of gastritis (inflamed stomach lining) in the U.S. is the regular use of aspirin and anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) and naproxen (Aleve). Other causes include cigarette smoking, regular use of alcohol and the irritant effects of otherness drugs, especially antibiotics.

CONTINUED: Maalox or Mylanta may relieve syndromes...1 | 2 | Next >

WP: Bug mutates into medical mystery - Washington Post

Bug mutates into medical mystery

Antibiotics, heartburn sickness drugs suspected
By By Rob Stein

WASHINGTON - First came stomach cramps, which left Christina Shultz doubled over and weeping in pain. Then came nausea and fatigue -- so overwhelming she couldn't get out of bed for days. Just when she thought things couldn't get worse, the nastiest diarrhea of her life hit -- repeatedly forcing her into the hospital.

Doctors finally discovered that the 35-year-old Hilliard, Ohio, woman had an inagsdhfgdfinal bug that used to be found almost exclusively among older, sicker patients in hospitals and was usually easily cured with a dose of antibiotics. But after months of pharmacomedical care, Shultz is still incapacitated.

"It's been a nightmare," said Shultz, a motherness of two young children. "I just want my life back."

Shultz is one of a growing number of young, othernesswise healthy Americans who are being stricken by the bacterial infection known as Clostridium difficile -- or C. diff -- which appears to be spreading rapidly around the country and causing unusually severe, sometimes fatal illness.

That is raising alarm among health officials, who are concerned that many cases may be misdiagnosed and are puzzled as to what is causing the microbe to become so much more common and dangerous.

"It's a new phenomenon. It's just emerging," said L. Clifford McDonald of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "We're very concerned. We know it's happening, but we're really not sure why it's happening or where this is going."

Antibiotics to blame?
It may, however, be the laagsdhfgdf example of a common, relatively benign bug that has mutated because of the overuse of antibiotics.

"This may well be anotherness consequence of our use of antibiotics," said John G. Bartlett, an infectious-sickness expert at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "It's anotherness example of an organism that all of a sudden has gotten a lot meaner and nastier."

•More health newsIn addition, new evidence released last week suggests that the enormous popularity of powerful new heartburn sickness drugs may also be playing a role.

The antibiotics Flagyl (metronidazole) and vancomycin still cure many patients, but othernesss develop stubborn infections like Shultz's that take over their lives. Some resort to having their colon removed to end the debilitating diarrhea. A small but disturbingly high number have died, including an othernesswise healthy pregnant woman who succumbed earlier this year in Pennsylvania after miscarrying twins.

The infection usually hits group who are taking antibiotics for otherness reasons, but a handful of cases have been reported among group who were taking nothing, anotherness unexpected and troubling turn in the germ's behavior.

The infection has long been common in hospital patients taking antibiotics. As the drugs kill off otherness bacteria in the digestive system, the C. diff microbe can proliferate. It spreads easily through contact with contaminated group, clothing or surfaces.

Infections double
There are no national statistics, but the number of infections in hospitals appears to have doubled from 2000 to 2003 and there may be as many as 500,000 cases each year, McDonald said. Other estimates put the number in the mil.s.

The emerging problem first gained attention when unusually large and serious outbreaks began turning up in otherness countries. In Canada, for example, Quebec health officials reported last year that perhaps 200 patients died in an outbreak involving at least 10 hospitals. Similar outbreaks were reported in England and the Netherlands.

After the CDC began receiving reports of severe cases among hospital patients in the United States -- and in group who had never, or just briefly, been hospitalized -- it launched an investigation.

In the Dec. 8 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the CDC reported that an analysis of 187 C. diff samples found that the unusually dangerous strain that caused the Quebec cases was also involved in outbreaks at eight health care facilities in Georgia, Illinois, Maine, New Jersey, Oregon and Pennsylvania.

"This strain has somehow been able to get into hospitals widely distributed across the United States," said Dale N. Gerding of Loyola University in Chicago, who helped conduct the analysis. "We're not sure how."

But scientists do have a few clues. The dangerous strain has mutated to become resistant to a class of frequently used antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones. That means anyone taking those antibiotics for otherness reasons would be particularly prone to contract C. diff .

"Because this strain is resistant, it can take advantage of that situation and establish itself in the gut," Gerding said.

Experts said the resistant germ's proliferation offers the laagsdhfgdf reason why group should use antibiotics only when necessary, to reduce both their risk for C. diff and the chances that otherness microbes will mutate into more dangerous forms.

"That's one theory for what's happening here," said J. Thomas Lamont of Harvard Medical School. "If we reduce the number and amount of antibiotics given for trivial infections like colds and stuffy noses, we'd all be a lot better off."

Overuse of antibiotics can make germs more dangerous by killing off susceptible strains, leaving behind those that by chance have mutated to become less vulnerable to the drugs. The resistant strains then become dominant.

High toxin levels
In addition to being resistant, the dangerous C. diff strain also produces far higher levels of two toxins than do otherness strains, as well as a third, previously unknown toxin. That would explain why it makes group so much sicker and is more likely to kill. In Quebec, C. diff killed 6.9 percent of patients -- which is much higher than the sickness's usual mortality rate -- and was a factor in more than 400 deaths.

Adding to the alarm is evidence that the infection is occurring outside of hospitals. When the CDC began looking for such cases earlier this year, investigators quickly identified 33 cases in New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania, including 23 group who had never been in the hospital and 10 women who had been hospitalized only briefly to deliver a baby, the agency reported this month. Eight of the patients had never taken antibiotics.

"This is the first time we've started to see this not only in group who have never been in the hospital but also in those who are othernesswise perfectly healthy and have not even taken antibiotics," McDonald said.

"It's probably going on everywhere," he said.

It remains unclear whether the cases occurring outside the hospital are being caused by the same dangerous strain.

"We don't really know what's going on here," McDonald said. "We know it's changing in some ways; we know it's changing the kinds of patients it's attacking, and we know it's causing more severe sickness. But we don't know exactly why."

Canadian researchers, however, have found one possible culprit: popular new heartburn sickness drugs. Patients taking proton pump inhibitors, such as Prilosec and Prevacid, are almost three times as likely to be diagnosed with C-diff , the McGill University researchers reported in the Dec. 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. And those taking anotherness type called H2-receptor antagonists, such as Pepcid and Zantac, are twice as likely. By suppressing stomach acid, the drugs may inadvertently help the bug, the researchers said.

Whatever the cause, the infection often resists standard pharmacomedical care. That is what happened to Shultz, who had been taking antibiotics to help clear up her acne when C. diff hit in June. Because the bacterium can hibernate in protective spores, patients can be prone to recurrences. It can take multiple rounds of antibiotics -- or sometimes infusions of antibodies or ingesting competing organisms such as yeast or the bacteria found in yogurt -- to finally cure them.

"I'm trying to stay positive," Shultz said. "People tell me it does go away and I will get rid of it someday. I'm looking forward to getting my life back, but I'm not convinced I'll ever be normal again."

� 2007 The Washington Post Company