At the gym, you're sharing equipment with some friends and mostly strangers, and germs with everyone.  Along with the standard wipe-down, you can take important steps to cut down your risk of picking up an unwanted gym buddy:

• Germs don't only lurk on handles and benches or in the locker room.  Today's high-tech fitness equipment is loaded with monitors and displays -- unwitting places where bacteria can be harbored.  One drop of spit can carry 100 million bacteria, and these monitors and displays are within the direct line of fire of someone's spit.   Rhinovirus (causes the common cold) and strep (causes bronchitis or strep throat) have the run of equipment monitors and displays.   Do not rest your towel or your reading material on these monitors and displays even though they're just the right size and place to do so.

• Launder your gym towel daily.  Infectious bacteria and fungi (like the one that causes athlete's foot) breed on reused towels.   Each time you towel off, you rub bacteria from your skin onto the towel.   Seven days of continuous use of a towel is long enough for it to accumulate enough organic material to form a barrier that protects the bacteria, enabling the germs to multiply and invade.

• Take a long shower after a workout, and disinfect and cover all cuts and abrasions that happen during a workout.  Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) is a superbug that can enter the bloodstream with deadly consequences.  It is highly contagious and easily spread through indirect contact by touching objects that have been contaminated by someone with MRSA.

• Cut down on carbs and sweets.  Carbohydrates and sweets (including sugars in sports drinks) are food that feed bacteria in the intestinal tract.  If your GI system is even a bit out of kilter ("intestinal dysbiosis"), and you exercise (exhausts your body temporarily) -- carbs and sweets will serve to fuel the bad bacteria in the gut to multiply.

The A4M encourages you to find an A4M specialty-trained physician to serve as your health coach and advocate.  Locate a specialist near you, by searching our Interactive Directory, at:   http://www.worldhealth.net/pages/directory/