iTunes is freezing up my whole computer?

The latest version of iTunes along with the Apple Mobile Device Support is taking up 100% of my CPU and causing everything else to freeze up and become unresponsive. iTunes becomes unresponsive as well when I try to sync my iPod. How can I fix this? I'm really annoyed that I can't update my iPod, add more music, ect. And especially annoyed that it is affecting the preformance of my computer as well. Help!