A panel formed by the insurance council will probably recommend that domestic healthcare systems such as ayurveda , unani and siddha should be treated on par with allopathy when it comes to medical insurance, said a person familiar with the committee's thinking.

"The department of Ayush has approached the General Insurance Council for looking at the possibility of accepting claims under the non-allopathic means of treatment," said a person familiar with the development at the Council. "They made a presentation to council members, who in turn, have formed a three-member committee to look into the matter."

The committee comprises chief executive officers from Star Health, Max Bupa and Apollo, the person said. It would examine the merits and demerits of the proposal and recommend processes to implement if it is convinced that these types of medicines should also be covered under health insurance. The Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority will take a call on the issue.

A large section of India's more than a hundred crore population takes alternative means of treatment which is recognised by the government, but not so far by the insurance industry. Insurers where most of them are in a joint venture with a global company, say there is not an established way to verify these claims and no data to rely on.

"Under allopathic means of treatment, there are scientific studies and we know how long a treatment will take, how much will it cost," said TA Ramalingam, head of underwriting, Bajaj Allianz General Life Insurance.

"But under the alternative means like homeopathy, we do not have enough data to cover them. For example, curing an ailment under homeopathy may take years, we would not have a structured way of looking at data. But under allopathic means of treatment, it's more immediate, and hence, easily manageable."

There is no registration for practitioners of alternate means of treatment either. There is no one body that recognises the institutes/hospitals that treat patients.

But the health and family welfare ministry is pushing hard for it as it is affordable and the majority of the population makes use of the domestic expertise in these areas. Allopathic medicines are expensive even for those who are in urban centres.

The Department of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy was created in March 1995 and re-named as Department of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy, or Ayush, in November 2003 to develop education & research in those fields.

The number of swine flu cases in India in the past week dropped almost to half the previous count, the health ministry said here Monday.

A total of 46 cases were reported from acros the country during the week ended Oct 24 as against 98 recorded in the previous week, a ministry spokesperson said.

Ten swine flu deaths were reported during the week that ended Oct 24. Rajasthan reported four deaths while Haryana reported three, followed by two in Maharashtra and one in Gujarat.

Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of 14 new cases, followed by 13 in Karnataka and five in Delhi, the spokesperson said.

A total of 2,633 swine flu deaths have been recorded since May 2009 when the disease broke out in India. At least 45,033 confirmed cases have been reported in the country since then.

Anorexia, orthorexia, and now we have another eating disorder: drunkorexia, which focuses on forgoing food in favor of alcohol.

Drunorexia is a combination of alcoholism, bulimia, and anorexia, all under the guise of a glamorous party lifestyle.

It is especially prevalent among young college women who skip meals to save up on calories during the day so they can get drunk at night.

"Abuse counselors
are putting the word 'drunkorexia' in line with other eating disorders because the patient uses the same type of methods as anorexia and bulimia- they just mix it with alcohol too," said Dr. Kevin Prince, Alcohol & Other Drug Education Program Coordinator at the University Health Services in Austin, Texas, U.S.

A dangerous new trend
According to a recent study conducted by the University of Texas School of Public Health and the University of North Texas Health Science Center, binge drinking is a growing problem among college students.

Excessive drinking can really pack on the pounds, and this is unacceptable in most, particularly young women.

Women who refuse to give up on binging because it is considered cool, but also crave for a thin body, are combining eating disorder and alcohol abuse into one dangerous package which lets them get drunk at night and still maintain weight.

Savannah, a 22-year-old University of Texas graduate disclosed, "I've always watched my weight and skipped meals to account for the high calorie count of alcohol.

"It was just something I always did while in college as a normal part of my diet so that I could stay skinny but still go out and drink."

She added, "I do know a lot of people who skip meals to drink, drink heavily, and don't gain any weight. Obviously their success in this way encourages others to try it.

"I've done [drunkorexia] for years and I'm still healthy. And I'm skinny. That's the best of both worlds to me, so it's not likely that I'll stop doing it any time soon."

Men too affected by drunkorexia
According to the National Eating Disorder Association of U.S., the disorder is more common in the fairer sex, but there are more than a million men and boys who are equally affected by the problem.

Rodney, 20-year-old public relations major at University of Texas, said drunkorexia in men is to speed up intoxication.

"When you consume on an empty stomach, you feel the effect quicker," Rodney said.

A little about drunkorexia
Drunkorexia is a term coined by dietitians for patients who have eating disorders and indulge in binge drinking.

Substituting drink calories for food calories is not necessarily a major problem in itself. However, when drunkorexics take the extreme step of curtailing food intake to compensate for the calories consumed in a binge drinking session at night, it becomes a lethal combination of alcohol abuse and an eating disorder.

According to health experts, the balancing act is not worth the risks because it is a serious medical condition and can wreak havoc on the body.

Another dangerous practice among women with the disorder is that after drinking large amounts of alcohol, they often overeat, and then purge.

Drunkorexia is a dangerous combination of an eating disorder and binge drinking that needs to be addressed by health professionals.

According to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, "alcoholism and eating disorders frequently co-occur and often co-occur in the presence of other psychiatric and personality disorders."

Expressing serious doubts over the high estimates of 200,000 malaria deaths in India as reported in the latest edition of The Lancet, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday questioned the methodology adopted by the authors of the study.

The Lancet uses verbal autopsy method which is suitable only for diseases with distinctive symptoms and not for malaria. Malaria has symptoms similar to many other diseases, and cannot be correctly identified by the local population.

The use of verbal autopsy for malaria may result in many false positives. In this method, deaths due to fever from any cause are likely to be misinterpreted as malaria in areas with high incidence. In areas with low malaria incidence, the symptoms are difficult to distinguish, and would result in overestimates of malaria deaths, a statement issued by the WHO here said.

Independent studies

It said the organisation welcomed independent studies for estimating malaria deaths, provided the method used was appropriate. The limitations of verbal autopsy, and the implausibly high incidence rates implied by the malaria mortality estimates, indicate that the findings of the study cannot be accepted without further validation.

Malaria is endemic in many States of India. Maximum cases are reported from the North Eastern States, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and a few districts of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Approximately 50 per cent of malaria cases reported in the country are due to Plasmodium Falciparum (a type of malaria which causes death), the statement said.

The WHO estimated 10,000 (deaths) - 21,000 malaria deaths in India in 2006 - based on the rate of three deaths per 1000 estimated falciparum cases. Estimates of falciparum cases are made by multiplying total estimated malaria cases by reported falciparum percentage. These estimates make necessary adjustments for under-reporting of malaria data in the countries.

This methodology was universal, it said, admitting that the present malaria estimation procedures had limitations.

Concerns raised

Pointing out that the same authors, in a study in 2005, had warned against the use of verbal autopsy for obtaining malaria death estimates, the statement said, "Given these methodological concerns raised already in the early stages of this new study, the WHO had proactively supported a project to validate the methodology of verbal autopsy used in the study. The findings of the project reconfirmed that verbal autopsy method overestimates malaria deaths.

The method was found to estimate deaths correctly only in 8 per cent fatalities."

Setbacks of the method

"This new study published in The Lancet also has bias, as deaths during 2001-03 have been assessed much later in 2005-06. Any adult member of the family or even a neighbour was interviewed during the verbal autopsy, and it is not clear how well the interviewee was familiar with the case during the period of illness prior to the death," the WHO said.

The limitations of the new study were also exposed when estimates were examined for particular States. The proposed estimate of malaria mortality in Orissa suggests, implausibly, that there are 17-50 million falciparum malaria cases annually in a population of 40 million.

If you are over 45 and find yourself going weak at the knees, don't think that Cupid is shooting its arrow at you! The bones of your legs may have fallen victim to osteoporosis, an unhealthy condition in which the bones become porous.

Osteoporosis is characterised by a decrease in bone density and bone mass which makes the bones of the body fragile and weak.

Nearly 20% of the women and 12 percent of the men aged 50 or above in India suffer from osteoporosis but the disorder remains largely under-diagnosed and undertreated. The prevalence of osteoporosis is even more widespread in rural and semi-urban areas.

Weakening of the bones leads to unexpected fractures that can occur anywhere in the body. Nowadays, more than 80 percent of all spinal fractures are caused by osteoporosis, say experts.

Another area of the body commonly affected by osteoporosis is the hip bone.

Apart from the pain and immobility they cause, the long-term consequences of fractures caused by osteoporosis include debilitating pain, spinal deformity, functional, and psychosocial impairments, poor pulmonary function and risk of fresh fractures.

The contemporary view in medicine is that osteoporosis is something of a lifestyle disease, too, as poor food habits and consumption of alcohol aggravate the condition. With the World Osteoporosis Day falling on October 20, experts have reiterated the need to raise awareness about how osteoporosis can be prevented.

Dr Bharat Dave, a spine surgeon and member of the association of spine surgeons of India (ASSI), said that most major osteoporotic fractures occur in the spine, wrist or the hip bones.
"During puberty and adolescence, the skeleton absorbs calcium avidly and builds up its reserves," Dave said. "The amount of calcium converted into bone is largely dependent on calcium and vitamin D nutrition, as well as exercise."

Bones continue to grow in strength till the age of 30. But from the mid-thirties, there is a gradual bone loss that continues throughout life.

Osteoporosis is not completely curable; hence its prevention is as important as its treatment. The most important prevention measures include quitting smoking, curtailing excessive intake of alcohol, exercising regularly, and consuming a balanced diet with adequate calcium and vitamin D content, Dave said.