THURSDAY, Feb. 16 -- Marital harmony may be in short supply in households where one partner is immersed in online games such as World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings and Guild Wars, new research suggests.

When one spouse spends time in this online fantasyland, it can threaten marital satisfaction, said researcher Neil Lundberg, an assistant professor of recreation management at Brigham Young University.

In this study, published in the Feb. 15 issue of the Journal of Leisure Research, Lundberg and his team polled 349 couples. Of those, 132 were marriages in which one person played online games; the other 217 were marriages in which both played but one played more than the other.

In those marriages where just one partner played, the investigators found 70 percent of the gamers and 75 percent of their spouses said the activity had a slightly negative to a very negative effect on the marriage.

"This study clearly verifies that video gaming can be a significant impediment to happy marriages," Lundberg said.

However, there was a surprise finding: those who played together generally liked it, with 76 percent saying it had a positive effect on their marriage.

The games are always ''on" and play in real time, Lundberg said. "It's very engaging in terms of its environment. It has the potential to really capture people's time use."

Some find the chance to "become" a dragon slayer or other medieval hero irresistible, he noted.

The fallout from too much video gaming included quarreling, which was more common when one partner gamed and the other didn't.

The couples were about age 33 and married about seven years, the study authors noted.

The gamers put in 17 to 22 hours a week, often in addition to work and family responsibilities.

"It's like a part-time job," Lundberg said.

The friction occurs, Lundberg said, because the gaming interferes with communication and connection time. Couples in which one partner gamed reported, for instance, that they went to bed at different times.

The amount of conflict stirred up, rather than just the amount of time spent playing, made the impact on marital satisfaction, he noted.

In recruiting people for the study, Lundberg said he went to gaming sites and social media sites. He received negative reaction, he said, from extreme gaming sites. He said they may have been loathe to take a few minutes away from their gaming to answer the researchers' questions.

The finding about gaming ''widows" doesn't surprise Eve Kilmer, a Denver psychologist who specializes in couples counseling.

A partner who reaches out to communicate but is often ignored because the spouse is engrossed in gaming is eventually going to become dissatisfied, she said.

"In someone prone to addiction, there may be underlying intimacy issues anyway," she added.

For a spouse who feels like a gaming "widow" or "widower," Kilmer suggests addressing the issue in a positive way.

"If you are going to bring it up with your spouse, you don't want to be critical," she said. Instead of telling a partner what you wish he wouldn't do, tell him how you feel when he does it, she suggested.

Telling your partner, for instance, that too much gaming makes you feel unimportant and unloved ''is more likely to evoke understanding and empathy," Kilmer said.

SOURCES: Neil Lundberg, Ph.D., assistant professor, recreation management, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; Eve Kilmer, Ph.D., Denver psychologist; Feb. 15, 2012, Journal of Leisure Research

TUESDAY, Feb. 14 --Valentine's Day is the holiday that celebrates love, so be sure to show it because a new study suggests love that's lost causes the greatest regret of all.

Researchers report that people have stronger feelings of regret about decisions involving romance and family than those involving work.

The findings underscore the importance of social relationships, according to Neal Roese, a marketing professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and his colleagues.

"Social relationships, we suggest, are the most pivotal component of life regrets. Failed marriages, turbulent romances and lost time with family may elicit regrets that last a lifetime," the researchers wrote in the study that appeared online Feb. 1 in Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Regrets about social relationships are intense because they threaten a person's need to belong, noted a university news release. "Belonging, as a core human motive, powerfully connects to well-being and mental health," the researchers wrote.

They conducted a series of five experiments, with participants ranging from 108 to 549 men and women. Some focused on college students and others on a representative sample of adult Americans. Studies involved rating intensity of life regrets and connecting that with the social impact of decisions.

Results suggested that love or other social decisions, such as ending a relationship or being unfaithful, are more intense than those involving work or nonsocial decisions such as quitting a job or dropping out of college.

"What our research makes clear is that, while regrets are multifaceted with diverse consequences, their social impact looms especially large," the researchers concluded. "Regrets can stem from love or work, but those stemming from the former seem to be the toughest to overcome. The need to belong is not just a fundamental human motive but a fundamental component of regret."

-- Robert Preidt

SOURCE: Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, news release, Feb. 9, 2012

TUESDAY, Feb. 14 -- High blood levels of cadmium in women and high levels of lead in males can make it difficult for couples to conceive, new research suggests.

Cadmium is a metal that is used in batteries, metal coatings and plastics, but the most common source of cadmium exposure is cigarette smoke. Common sources of exposure to lead in the United States include lead-based paints in older homes, lead-glazed pottery, and contaminated soil and water.

Exposure to these toxic metals is known to have a number of effects on human health, but their impact on human fertility has not been extensively examined, according to researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health and colleagues.

The new study included 501 couples in Michigan and Texas who were trying to conceive. The couples were followed for up to one year, or until pregnancy was confirmed. The women were aged 18 to 44 and the men were all older than 18.

Using statistical measurements of the participants' blood concentration of the metals, the investigators found that, in the women, the probability of pregnancy was reduced by 22 percent with each increase in the blood cadmium concentration. In men, the probability of conceiving was reduced by 15 percent for each increase in their blood lead concentration.

The study was released online Feb. 4 in advance of publication in an upcoming print issue of the journal Chemosphere.

"Our results indicate that men and women planning to have children should minimize their exposure to lead and cadmium," principal investigator Dr. Germaine Buck Louis, director of the division of epidemiology, statistics and prevention research at the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said in an NIH news release.

"They can reduce cadmium exposure by avoiding cigarettes or by quitting if they are current smokers, especially if they intend to become pregnant in the future. Similarly, they can take steps to reduce their exposure to lead-based paints, which may occur in older housing, including during periods of home renovation," Louis advised.

He added that the "findings highlight the importance of assessing couples' exposure jointly, in a single, combined measure. Males matter, because couples' chances of becoming pregnant each cycle were reduced with increasing blood lead concentrations in men."

While the study uncovered an association between higher concentrations of these metals in blood and decreased fertility, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

-- Robert Preidt

SOURCE: U.S. National Institutes of Health, news release, Feb. 8, 2012

FRIDAY, Feb. 10 -- Facing a firestorm of criticism from Catholic leaders, the Obama administration on Friday said it will adjust its health care guideline mandating that religious employers provide women with access to birth control.

In a shift from current policy, the White House is now saying that these employers will not have to extend free access to birth control, but that insurance companies will be made directly responsible for doing so.

Women who request birth control will still be able to get it free of co-pays or premiums, but universities, hospitals and other institutions with religious affiliations can refuse to cover it, leaving the woman's insurance company with the responsibility of coverage.

In a press briefing Friday morning, an unnamed senior administration official called the move "an accommodation" to religious groups objecting to the policy, which still allows women access to birth control.

"We still have the exemption for employees at churches," the official said. "But all women will have access to free preventive care, including contraception, no matter where they work. That's the core principle that's at stake here."

The change appears to be the Administration's attempt to satisfy both sides on the issue -- religious leaders who object to providing contraception to employees, and those who wish to see that all women retain free access to birth control.

President Barack Obama is slated to comment on the changes at a 12:15 p.m. press briefing.

The White House found itself embroiled in a political fight with Catholic Church officials after a Jan. 20 announcement that all religious-affiliated employers, with the exception of churches and other houses of worship, would have to cover free birth control as part of routine preventive care for women. These institutions were given until August 2013 to comply with the rule.

The announcement last month quickly met with a heated response from Catholic leaders nationwide, and Republican leaders in Congress promised quick legislation in Congress to stop the move. The decision also became a flashpoint for the presidential election race, as Obama's opponents labeled him as attacking religion. On the other side, groups representing women and health advocates pressured Obama to stand firm.

Under the revised plan, religious employers need not offer contraception or refer women to places that might provide it. In these cases, however, the woman's insurance company must fill in the gap and cover contraception free of charge.

The rule is in keeping with the Obama administration's health care reform law, which requires most insurance plans to cover women's preventive health services with no co-pay, starting Aug. 1, 2012.

SOURCES: Feb. 10, 2012, news briefing, White House; Associated Press

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 8 -- Antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea is an increasingly worrisome reality, and steps need to be taken to limit the risk that an untreatable strain of the sexually transmitted disease will spread, U.S. researchers warn.

"We're trying to stay a step ahead by putting these warnings and alerts out," said Dr. Gail Bolan, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's division of sexually transmitted diseases prevention.

Over 600,000 Americans contract gonorrhea every year, making it the nation's second-most common communicable disease. Minorities of all types -- whether in terms of race, ethnicity or sexual orientation -- are considered among the most vulnerable populations, according to background information in the new report.

Drug-resistant gonorrhea isn't a new phenomenon, Bolan and her colleagues said. During World War II, gonorrhea became resistant to the drug sulfanilamide. In the 1980s, resistance to the antibiotics penicillin and tetracycline appeared. More recently, fluoroquinolone resistance was observed in 2007.

The problem today, however, is that so-called third-generation cephalosporins (including orally administered cefixime and the injectable ceftriaxone) are the only remaining types of effective antibiotics recommended by the CDC, when taken alongside one of two other oral antibiotics (either azithromycin or doxycycline).

Writing in the Feb. 9 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers warned that signs of resistance to even this line of defense have been observed.

"The point now," Bolan said, "is that we are down to the last class of antibiotics that we know -- that have been studied -- to be effective in the treatment of gonorrhea." If a strain of resistant gonorrhea were to take hold, "we have the potential of having no other antibiotics to turn to," she added.

Cephalosporin-resistant strains of the disease have been identified in Japan (2003 and 2009) and the United Kingdom (2010). Such drugs remain "highly effective" against most strains of gonorrhea seen in the United States, the study authors noted.

Still, the investigators said that patient vigilance and coordinated public health policies are needed if the United States is to stay a step ahead of cephalosporin-resistant strains.

Prevention is always key, Bolan said, noting that gonorrhea is preventable with the use of condoms.

But given that gonorrhea is often symptomless, "many patients who have this infection don't know they are infected. So for individuals, it's very important to go in for routine medicals," she added.

"And certainly if you've got symptoms, we're concerned that you . . . get evaluated quickly," she added. For women, symptoms can include vaginal discharge, a burning sensation during urination and pain during intercourse. For men, telltale signs include a clear penile discharge, burning on urination and pain during defection.

While screening methods are effective, they don't indicate resistance to antibiotics. So, Bolan said, patients and doctors have to work together to ensure that the recommended antibiotic treatment is doing the job, while monitoring for any sign of treatment failure.

The sexual partners (going back two months) of those diagnosed should also be treated. And because gonorrhea can be a potential sign of HIV infection, the researchers urge repeated HIV testing for those diagnosed with gonorrhea.

Commenting on the study, Dr. Thomas Quinn said that the specter of rising antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea is worrisome.

"It's a very common disease that is in the millions of cases if we're talking globally," said Quinn, senior investigator in the International HIV/STD section at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"If untreated or unsuccessfully treated, it usually is not life-threatening, but it does have severe complications in both sexes," he added. It's particularly dangerous for women "because of the risk for infertility."

According to the CDC, each year roughly 24,000 American women become infertile due to an untreated sexually transmitted infection.

"For men there can be extremely painful complications involving the scrotum, although not fertility," said Quinn, who is also a professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.

"So this is a harbinger of bad times ahead unless we really take the proper steps to address it," he added. "We have a very common transmitted organism that is once again rearing its head by increasing frequency in the population and increasing resistance. And the public needs to know about this."

SOURCES: Gail A. Bolan, M.D., division of STD prevention, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta; Thomas C. Quinn, M.D., M.Sc., senior investigator, infectious diseases, and International HIV/STD section, U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and professor of medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore; Feb. 9, 2012, New England Journal of Medicine