It might be your diet. Intestinal bacteria ferment the undigested remnants of certain carbohydrates, producing gas. Likely culprits include beans and other legumes, bran, whole grains, and many fruits and vegetables. Dairy foods also produce gas in people who have trouble digesting lactose, or milk sugar. Try cutting out suspect food for a while and see if that helps. Since swallowed air can also create gas, it might help to eat more slowly, and chew with your mouth closed. Remedies like simethicone (Gas-X, Mylanta Gas Relief) and charcoal tablets are not particularly useful. But an alpha-galactosidase enzyme supplement (Beano) can reduce gas by helping to digest the troublesome carbs. Note that flatulence accompanied by a recent change in bowel habits might indicate an underlying problem that warrants seeing a doctor.

Try gently cleaning your tongue, which can accumulate odor-causing bacterial plaque. You can remove plaque with a regular toothbrush, one with an attached tongue-cleaning pad, or a tongue scraper. Cinnamon-flavored gum might also help because it contains cinnamic aldehyde, an oil that seems to fight germs. If you need something stronger, mouthwash kills most odor-causing bacteria and may help for a while, though high-alcohol products may irritate the gums. Bad breath can signal a serious problem, such as a bowel disorder or periodontal disease. See your doctor and dentist if the problem persists and others notice it.



Yes--if it's really blood. You may simply have eaten food, such as beets, blueberries, or blackberries, that tinted the stool dark reddish or black. (The color of blood in the stool ranges from bright red to black.) If you do have bleeding, your doctor will usually find that it's inconsequential--caused, for example, by straining during a bowel movement, or passing hard or dry stools. But other causes, including hemorrhoids, ulcers, and colon polyps or cancer, almost always require medical care.

Not necessarily. Urine owes its yellow color to urochrome, a pigment filtered out of the blood by the kidneys. Depending on diet, fluid intake, medication, and disease, urine can range from clear to dark orange or even blue. Most color changes are fleeting and harmless, but persistent darkness can signal a problem, such as a urinary-tract infection or a liver disorder. If you see blood in your urine, or the color change lasts longer than a day and can't be linked to food or medicine, see your physician.

Possibly, though the evidence is mixed, with only some studies linking infrequent bowel movements with increased colon-cancer risk. The largest and longest study, which followed about 85,000 women for 12 years, found little or no connection. But a change in your bowel habits might be a symptom of colon cancer, ovarian cancer, or Parkinson's disease. So tell your physician about unusual changes that persist for more than a few weeks.

To stimulate bowel movements, exercise regularly, drink plenty of fluids, and consume lots of fiber. But boost your fiber intake gradually to minimize bloating and flatulence. Only if other measures fail should you consider laxatives, which can cause side effects and eventually weaken the bowel and create dependency on those medications.


Several steps might help. Cold sores are caused by the virus herpes simplex type 1. Like the related genital-herpes (simplex type 2) and chicken pox viruses, the bug stays in your body permanently, emerging when your immune system is weakened. Avoiding the triggers might reduce the frequency of outbreaks. Common ones include excessive sun exposure, stress, respiratory illness, and oral or facial wounds, even from shaving or dental work.

Several medications can shorten the duration of outbreaks. Prescription valacyclovir (Valtrex) may be the best choice for treatment because it requires fewer doses and costs less than some other prescription remedies. An over-the-counter drug containing docosanol cream (Abreva) is slightly less effective but it's cheaper and can help ease the pain. Contact your physician if the sores don't heal within two weeks. And if you have more than six outbreaks a year, ask your doctor about taking acyclovir (Zovirax) for prevention, since it can reduce episodes by up to 80 percent.

Yes, but other causes are more likely. Breakouts in adults, almost always women, usually stem from hormonal fluctuations, generally caused by the menstrual cycle, menopause, pregnancy, or, in rare cases, an adrenal or ovarian tumor. Certain medications, such as progestins (Provera), prednisone, and iodine may also trigger the eruptions. If your face gets flushed or tender when you're breaking out, you may have a fairly common condition called rosacea. If so, try keeping a diary to identify what sparks the flare-ups, and try to avoid common triggers, such as stress, alcohol, spicy foods and sun exposure. If your physician diagnoses adult acne, choose facial cleansers, lotions, and cosmetics that are water-based and oil-free, or labeled "noncomedogenic" or "nonacnegenic." That means they shouldn't aggravate acne. The prescription antibiotic tetracycline can often relieve severe cases of acne and rosacea.


Proper hygiene is key, since the itching is usually caused by cleaning inadequately or overaggressively. Using a wet wipe after bowel movements may help; so can hydrocortisone creams such as Anusol-HG or Proctocort, or mild cleansing lotions such as Balneol and even Preparation H. If the itching persists, see your doctor to pinpoint the cause, such as fungal infection, hemorrhoids, skin fissures, sweating, or worms. One sometimes overlooked possibility is neurodermatitis, a chronic inflammation that causes gradual thickening of the skin around the anus. The problem may abate if you resist scratching the irritated skin. To reduce the urge, apply an ice-cold compress to the irritated area.

Fungal skin infections occur in moist, dark, warm areas, such as the groin. The skin turns reddish brown and can itch incessantly; in severe cases, it can crack, become raw, and even bleed. Over-the-counter antifungal creams or lotions, such as clotrimazole (Lotrimin) and terbinafine (Lamisil AF), clear up most infections. But severe inflammation could indicate a bacterial infection on top of--or rather than--a fungal one. If so, relying on an antifungal product could cause the problem to worsen. Consult your physician instead. Also see your doctor if a skin infection recurs frequently, since that could indicate diabetes.

The distinguishing signs of a yeast infection include a thick vaginal discharge resembling cottage cheese, with intense itching and irritation. But unless you've had an uncomplicated yeast infection before and are sure the signs are the same, get a doctor's diagnosis before treating the problem yourself. If you are sure, you can just pick the least expensive or most convenient antifungal drug, since there's no convincing evidence that any of them work better than others. The cheapest choices are generic clotrimazole cream or vaginal tablets ($7 to $8 for the seven-day products, $12 for the three-day products). Even simpler, though somewhat more costly, is tioconazole cream (Monistat 1, $18; Vagistat-1, $15), which requires just a single application. Fluconazole (Diflucan), a single-dose oral pill (about $9), is the most convenient of all. But it requires a prescription, is somewhat more likely to cause side effects like headaches and nausea, and shouldn't be used during pregnancy.