NEW YORK — Your shower may not be getting you as clean as you think with a U.S. study finding many showerheads are dirty and may be covering you in a daily dose of bacteria that could make you sick. An analysis of 50 showerheads from nine U.S. cities found that about 30 percent harbored high levels of Mycobacterium avium — a group of bacteria that can cause lung infections when inhaled or swallowed. Researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder found the levels of Mycobacterium avium were 100 times higher than those found in typical household water. ‘If you are getting a face full of water when you first turn your shower on, that means you are probably getting a particularly high load of Mycobacterium avium, which may not be too healthy,’ said researcher Norman Pace in a statement. Mycobacterium avium is linked to pulmonary disease, causing symptoms such as a persistent drug cough, breathlessness and fatigue, and most often infects people with compromised immune system but can occasionally infect healthy people. Pace said research at the National Jewish Hospital in Denver found that increases in pulmonary infections in the United States in recent […]