Do you wear contact lenses? If so, hopefully you don't use AMO Complete Moisture Plus Multi-Purpose Solution. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued a warning against it: Don't use another drop and throw it out!

This cleaning and storage solution has been linked to a painful, rare eye infection that could cause permanent vision loss or blindness.

AMO contact lens solution is made by Advanced Medical Optics Inc., a publicly traded company based in Santa Ana, right here in Orange County.

For more details, read the complete story at: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18872652/from/ET/

Today is Memorial Day. For most of us, this means barbecues, the official start of summer and most important, a precious, three-day weekend. Well, as you’re whipping up that potato salad or packing the kids into the car for a long day at the beach, give some thought to why you are able to enjoy these wonderful freedoms that we Americans have. Freedoms that look so tantalizing from outside our borders, that nearly 12 million illegal immigrants have crossed over them to relish the American way of life, too.

Memorial Day is the day to commemorate all those brave soldiers who have sacrificed their lives, taken the bullet for us, in every war in America’s history. Collectively, the body count is staggering. Just in the Iraqi war, alone, we have lost nearly 3,500 young men and women.

I come from a long line of war heroes. My great grandfather, an Oneida Indian, fought as a conscript in the Civil War and returned home crippled.

My paternal grandfather is one of the last surviving members of the Lost Battalion, a group of about 547 soldiers in World War I who were trapped in the Argonne Forest by German forces and were being slaughtered. When the U.S. forces finally arrived, less than 200 men were left of the 77th division. My grandfather was one of them. He was eventually awarded a purple heart and when he died a natural death many years later, he was buried in Arlington National cemetery, not too far from the gravesite of President Kennedy.

My own father was an Air Force pilot who fought in the Korean and Vietnam wars. He flew three tours of duty, which included 663 missions. He was awarded three Distinguished Flying Crosses for heroism and 18 air medals.

We were lucky – my relatives returned home from their wars alive. And I am so grateful for that. Yet so many of our soldiers die on the battlefield, their families never to see them again, just so people they didn’t even know can sleep peacefully at night under the banner of freedom.

Unlike a typical Blog, the only link I’m going to ask you to click on in this Blog is the one to your heart. Today, take a moment to say “Thank you!” to all the sons and daughters who have willingly died for our country. We owe them our lives.

Do you take fish oil? (You just turned your nose up, didn’t you?) Up until last weekend, I would never have considered consuming fish oil, either. Who wants to walk around with fish breath all day, right? But at the Women’s Wellness Expo this past weekend in Irvine, sponsored by the Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine (sscim.uci.edu/), I had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Barry Sears speak. He’s the author of The Zone Diet (drsears.com). While I don’t want to get into all the nuances of this popular diet, which I don’t really understand anyway ( but plan to eventually), he made a convincing argument for the absolute necessity of taking 2.5 grams of Omega-3 fish oil every day of your life.

He said something that resounds in my memory: “The single greatest nutritional breakdown in America was when parents stopped giving their kids cod liver oil every day.” That is quite a powerful statement, particularly in a tech-savvy world that shuns “the old ways” in the name of progress and the advancement of our species. Maybe Grandma really had the secret sauce all along.

According to Dr. Sears, fish oil is a miracle food. It contains triglycerides that are rich in the Omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, which are essential not only to healthy brain development and function, but most important, they help reduce silent inflammation, which Dr. Sears says is the underlying cause of almost every type of chronic disease, such as heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s. I pulled this eye-opening paragraph from his website (again, drsears.com):

“A new study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Preventative Medicine indicates that taking fish oil will lower the death rate from heart disease nearly seven times more than having automated external defibrillators in every home and public area in America. In fact, authors of the study wrote, taking fish oil is more than twice as effective as having a surgically implanted pacemaker in reducing the death rate. As I have always said, if there is one government subsidy program that makes sense, it would be giving free fish oil to anyone who wanted it.”

Dr. Sears also claims that fish oil helps curb depression, bi-polar disorders and schizophrenia. And it controls our violent impulses. In a recent study, there was a 25% reduction in violence among prisoners who were given fish oil as a dietary supplement.

At a barbecue this weekend, my friends and I struck up an interesting conversation about sex. It started with some dialogue about when is the right time to have that “birds and the bees” discussion with your kids. (A great resource is birdsnbeesconnection.com!) Truly an awkward moment in any parent’s life. I remember my oldest daughter was close to 11 when I finally worked up the nerve to talk to her. It was awkward because she still believed in Santa. How can you possibly discuss intercourse with a young girl who still believes in tooth fairies and Santa?? Anyway, we got through it and her eyes have been opened.

So at the BBQ, this topic segued into a little “share time,” as each of us told the group how he or she first learned about sex. One 45-year-old guy said he got his education by reading soft-porn stories in “Forum” and “Hustler” magazines. Monica, who’s in her 30s, said her mom talked to her when she was 9. They talked easily about everything. Dwight (37 years old) never talked to anyone about it – not his brother, mother, father or friends – and said he just figured it out on his own. Steve said his parents sat him down when he was just 6 and educated him with the help of a tell-all illustrated book. Six?? That was pretty bold of his parents.

My mother never talked to me. I learned about sex off the streets. In the summer of Seventh Grade, the kids in my neighborhood, ranging in ages 13-17, would get together every night in Steve Christian’s front yard. Invariably, no matter what was being discussed in the early evening always led to talk about sex by the end of the night. I didn’t get it at first, so I would just listen. The older ones told the dirty jokes, and by the end of the summer, I had pieced together enough of these jokes and frat-boy comments to understand the whole sex scenario. I was quite naive up until that summer. I used to think French kissing was when people kissed someone cheek-to-cheek – like they do in Europe.

So tell us . . . how did you first learn about sex? Or are you still trying to figure it out?

Before I forget, it’s National Breastfeeding Awareness Week (allwomenstalk.com/national-breastfeeding-awareness-week-2007/). Tomorrow is the last day to pay homage to this natural form of feeding that provides vital nutrients for babies and best of all -- helps mommies with weight loss after pregnancy. (Guys, please refrain from the frat-boy jokes, tempting as they may be.)

Hey, I recently ran across a survey floating around the Internet that I thought you might enjoy. Although it’s a very unscientific way of taking the pulse of our viewers out there on how you feel about your body image, your responses will be fun to read. Simply copy and paste the survey below into your response, then go back and answer the questions. Can’t wait to see what you have to say!

First name:

Age:

Height:

Weight:

1. Do you think you’re attractive?

2. What do you love about your body?

3. What is your biggest flaw?

4. Have you or would you consider plastic surgery?

5. How much money is reasonable to spend on your appearance?

6. How often do you diet?

7. Which diet has worked best for you?

8. How has your body image and attitude changed over the years?

9. What makes you feel beautiful?