Forget air "purifiers," those are sooooo outdated. How about an air disinfector? The English company Inov8 has invented the Air Disinfector, a gadget that essentially creates fresh air indoors. Marketed mainly at hospitals, it's currently available only in Europe but is being tested here in the U.S. with the intent of making it available here soon. About the size of a flower vase, the Air Disinfector works by creating reactive hydogen radicals and pumping them into the air, instantly killing microbes and bacteria in the surrounding air.

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Exercise is great for your immune system, but the gym may not be if you don't pay attention. Bacteria and other microbes love the moisture of sweat and shower stalls, and although gyms do what they can to make the environment as clean as possible (i.e. by making hand sanitizer and clean towels available) it's ultimately up to you to protect yourself. Wash your hands frequently, wipe seats and handles with a clean towel (not the one you've been carrying around with you from machine to machine) or a disposable wipe, and bring your own mat for stretching and yoga sessions. There are even handy gadgets out there like these HandleBuddies, designed to stand between you and the germs.

It might seem like a hassle, but it's worth it. You can catch more than just a cold if you're not careful -- even bacteria like MRSA and E.coli have been found on gym machine handle bars.

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Think about it, how much time do you spend at your desk every day? Depending on what kind of job you have, you may actually be spending more waking hours time sitting there than being anywhere else in a typical day or week. And if you're like me, you not only eat snacks at your desk on a daily basis, but at least a couple times a week eat your lunch there too. And blow your nose, and drink coffee, and talk on the phone...the list goes on and on. So with all that germy living happening right there on your desk, how often do you clean it? And that doesn't mean brushing the crumbs aside, it means bust-out-the-Lysol-scrub-it-down clean. I'm guessing rarely, if not never. I admit that my desk looks pretty clean, but I have never actually disinfected it. And in light of studies like the one Clorox funded that says women have the dirtiest offices, maybe I should do that sometime -- soon.

Here are 5 ways to "detox your desktop," and some of them are pretty nifty:

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Global warming is all over the news, and rightly so, seeing as how it affects so many different parts of human life here on Earth. One of the latest issues to start making an appearance is the inevitable spread of bacteria and microbes to new locations. As temperatures change, people around the world are being exposed to diseases and illnesses that they never have been before.

Examples include bacteria-infected oysters off the coast of Alaska, an overgrown tick population carrying encephalitis in Sweden, and mosquitoes bringing malaria to villages that were previously out of reach way up on Mt. Kenya in Africa.

This sounds really scary, and it is, but at least we know what we're dealing with -- not new diseases, just old diseases in new places.

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With all the products lately boasting "antibacterial" and "antimicrobial," can there be such a thing as good germs? Some bacteria, called probiotics, are actually very beneficial for your health. Thankfully they've been getting more mainstream attention lately, and you may even start seeing them advertised on food labels (think yogurt) in the grocery store.

Probiotics help with the absorption of nutrients, production of vitamin K, and even help crowd out populations of unhealthy types of bacteria. They can be particularly beneficial for people who have just finished antibiotic therapy, since antibiotics kill the good guys along with the bad.

Probiotics have also been shown to have positive effects on conditions like inflammatory bowel disease and chronic constipation. Think maybe probiotics are for you? Although they are widely available in stores, they can be expensive and may or may not greatly benefit you. It's probably a good idea to consult with your doctor first, and see if in your specific situation it's worth dropping the extra cash.

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Recently two studies have uncovered a connection between obesity and bacteria present in the intestines. Both obese mice and obese people had a much higher percentage of a specific family of bacteria called Bacteroidetes in their gut than their normal-weight counterparts, and much less of a bacteria group called Firmicutes. But unfortunately researchers don't know yet if the balance shift in internal bacteria causes obesity, or is simply a result of it.

Obesity research in this area, coined "infectobesity," is growing rapidly and looks at the causes and treatments for weight gain in relation to microbes and viruses. The idea is also spreading to other areas of health, such as diabetes and asthma. And apparently, many researchers are backing off the idea of fighting with naturally occurring internal bacteria, and instead are embracing the idea and working with the microbes to help patients feel and be feel healthier -- and possibly feel and be thinner too.

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