Do you clean your shower head?

Taking a hot, steamy shower could be putting your health at risk. There is a chronic lung disease that is hitting women and doctors say it can start in the shower.

Mary Lou had been traveling back and forth to California to care for her dying mother, when her coughing started. Her cough kept getting worse and she says she would cough up tissues full of stuff. After weeks of coughing to the point of exhaustion, she went to see a specialist.

The specialist said she has non-tuberculous mycobacterium complex. NTM is a waterborne bacteria that often hits women around age 50 who are slim, Caucasian and otherwise in good health.

"You can find this bacteria in shower heads and faucets," said Dr. Carl Fichtenbaum of the Infectious Disease Center at University of Cincinnati Health.

Doctors nationwide are seeing an increase in the number of NTM cases.

"I would say that in Cincinnati we see probably a few dozen of these cases every year," said Dr. Fichtenbaum.

Fichtenbaum says some groups are more at risk for this.