Women Health Online

May 13, 2011 — Germs may be lurking where you least expect them, according to a new study by NSF International.

Contrary to public perception that the bathroom is the most germ-ridden room in the house, the real trouble spot is the kitchen. And the most germ-tainted item is the one most people reach for when it’s time to clean up: the sponge.

NSF International is a not-for-profit organization established in 1944 to certify and write safety standards for, among other things, common household items. I

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You might not be intimately familiar with the name, but chlamydia is actually the most commonly reported bacterial sexually transmitted disease (STD) in the U.S. Each year, about 1.2 million infections are reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But because chlamydia often has no symptoms, at least as many people could be living with the disease without even realizing it.

To help young women protect themselves against this highly preventable STD, WebMD asked Sami Gottlieb, MD, MSPH, medical officer in the CDC’s Division of STD Prevention, to walk readers through the basics of Chlamydia.

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Edie Falco may spend her days tending to trauma victims and juggling the hectic demands of a Lower Manhattan hospital on the set of Showtime’s dark comedy , but playing Jackie Peyton — a top-notch ER nurse and quick-tongued, functioning drug addict with a penchant for Percocet — is as close as the Emmy-winning actress gets to living on the edge. The only thing this mother of two craves, she says, is popcorn and curling up on the couch for cartoon movie marathons with her kids.

“The greatest thing I’ve ever learned is acceptance,” says Falco, 47, who, in addition to gearing up for the third season of , returned to Broadway in April, starring alongside Ben Stiller in the revival of John Guare’s comedy, .

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Bethany Hamilton started competing at surfing events when she was just 8 years old. After a string of impressive wins, she lost her arm when she was attacked by a 14-foot tiger shark in 2003. She was only 13. A less courageous young woman might have put her surf board away for good. But two weeks later Hamilton hit the water again and has gone on to not only win national surfing competitions but become a successful pro surfboarder. We talked with Hamilton just before the movie based on her story, , came out and she told us about her recovery from the shark attack, her concerns about childhood obesity, and what she wants young people to know about following dreams despite adversity.

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Women taking a new type of birth control pill are two to three times more likely to develop serious blood clots, researchers say.

Two studies, both published in the British Medical Journal, found that pills containing a new type of hormone called drospirenone triple the risk of blood clots compared to an older generation of pills that contain a hormone called levonorgestrel.

Drospirenone is the primary ingredient in Yasmin and Yaz, which are commonly prescribed in Canada. Both pills are manufactured by Bayer.

The first study, co-authored by Dr.

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