Besides providing the much required boost of morning energy, a cup of coffee along with an aspirin has been found to be extremely effective at overcoming a hangover, reveals a recent study led by Philadelphia researcher Michael Oshinsky.

The caffeine content present in coffee adds to the anti-inflammatory ingredients of aspirin found to combat the chemical compounds of alcohol.

Consumption of alcohol results in headaches due to the production of chemical acetates, causing more severe headaches in some people as compared to others.

"One of the major causes of hangovers is a chemical called acetate, a by-product of how the body processes alcohol. Caffeine and certain types of painkiller block its effects. And the best time to take them would be about four hours after drinking," Prof Oshinsky said.

The study details:

The study looked at a group of laboratory rats who were administered small amounts of ethanol or pure alcohol in order to induce headaches in them.

Further, additional doses of caffeine and anti-inflammatories were given to the rats after a four hour gap.

The doses were found to produce a soothing effect on the rats by blocking the acetate produced by alcohol.

Oshinsky told the journal 'New Scientist' that "none of the commonly cited causes of hangovers could have caused this response."

Drinking water instead of coffee is believed to be a better option by some experts due to the rehydrating properties of water.

Also, some others are against the use of painkillers like aspirin and ibuprofen as they over burden the liver which is already struggling for relief, resulting in stomach disorders.

The study has been published in the recent issue of peer-reviewed online science journal 'PLoS One.'

Relief from hangover
Coke, coffee, ginseng, Vegemite on toast, cold pizza, bananas, peanut butter, honey and banana sandwich, and chocolate milk can help against nausea generated during a hangover.

Sugar and mineral levels of the body get raised on consuming alcohol which can be balanced out by taking ginseng, orange juice, tomato, sauerkraut, pickle juice, eggs, or fruit juice.

Aspirin, bananas, and coffee can help relieve headache, according to experts. Also, a hot bath too is extremely helpful in sweating out the toxins.

However, the best advice would be to drink not more than one alcoholic beverage hydrated with water per hour at a party or outing.

Trying to lose weight by adopting a low fat diet? Well, you may be committing the biggest mistake of your 'weight loss regime', says an Oz fitness expert.

Celebrity trainer James Duigan, whose clients include model Elle Macpherson, said, "I see so many people trying their best and it''s just
not working because they don't understand that it's not fat that makes you fat, it's sugar and it's carbohydrates."

"You need a healthy balanced diet with fish and chicken and meat and vegetables and berries and nuts and things like that. [Low-fat diets] just don't work - it's not sustainable. You need to look at how you can keep yourself happy and healthy throughout your life," Stuff.co.nz quoted him as saying.

Weight lossDuigan, whose second book Clean & Lean: Flat Tummy Fast! is out, has suggested some small steps one can follow for a flattened stomach.

Don't overcook your food as you'll kill off or reduce the nutrient content. Try to make sure around 50 percent of the food on your plate is raw. If you can stomach it, eat all your vegetables raw.

Don't buy cheap meat - organic meat is more expensive, but it also contains less toxic junk such as antibiotics. If you can afford only one organic thing make sure it's meat.

Don't eat foods that weaken your abdominal wall, as this will make it slack and lead to a protruding stomach. Foods that can weaken your abdominal wall often contain gluten.

Avoid sugar, in all its forms, as it fattens your mid-section.

Make sure you eat enough fibre. A lack of fibre will lead to inflammation in the bowel. Eat plenty of vegetables (ideally raw) and drink at least two litres of still, room temperature water every day.

Duigan has suggested having the occasional 'cheat' meal, so you can eat a piece of cake or a brownie and actually help your weight loss.

"Feed your soul because you can't live your whole life in denial. And it helps the fat-burning process, it can boost your metabolism and get you leaner the next day. The key is to keep it to one meal," he said.

Another factor for a healthy lifestyle is reducing stress, he added.

A health insurance scheme that will cover every Indian is on the cards. A committee of experts appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and headed by K Srinath Reddy, chief of the Public Health Foundation of India, is working on a public-funded scheme, likely to be introduced in the 12th Five
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* Coming soon: health insurance portability

Year Plan, starting in 2012-13.

"We are looking at a scheme where people will pay premium depending on their income," said Planning Commission member secretary Sudha Pillai.

For instance, the government may pay the entire premium for those below the poverty line. For the better off, the government's contribution will diminish the higher the individual's income.

This scheme is likely to cover not only hospitalisation expenses, but also treatment undergone at listed hospitals. Most private health insurance schemes cover only hospitalisation. It will also provide cover for conditions private schemes frequently do not - like heart ailments and pregnancy.

The scheme also intends the Centre to pay a higher premium for women - across all sections.

There is already a health insurance scheme under the Rashtriya Swasth Bima Yojana for BPL families. Close to half of 6 crore BPL families are covered under this scheme. In the next step, all those enrolled in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme will be covered, followed by women enrolled in over 10 lakh angwanwadi centers around the country.

According to the National Sample Survey Office, an Indian spends 80 % of his health expenses on buying medicine. The high cost of treatment makes health services unaffordable to many.

Presently, over 90 % Indians are not covered by any public or private health insurance.

India must substantially increase the rate of effective prevention and control of chronic diseases, according to the third article of the Lancet series on 'India: Towards Universal Health Coverage.'

This is imperative for India which has passed the early stage of the chronic disease burden, the article noted. The authors have also called for the integration of national programmes for various chronic diseases and injuries with one another.

With direct relevance to control and prevention, the team recommended implementation of interventions for tobacco control, reduction of dietary salt intake, promotion of healthy diets and physical activity, the use of a combination of aspirin and low-dose drugs to lower blood pressure and cholesterol in individuals at high risk for cardiovascular disease. Specific interventions to change individual behaviour are also important especially for those who already have chronic diseases.

The article, authored by Vikram Patel of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, et al, begins with the fact that chronic diseases - cardiovascular diseases, mental health disorders, diabetes, and cancer - and injuries are the leading causes for death and disability in India. The projected increases in their contribution to the burden of diseases during the next 25 years are pronounced.

Although a range of cost-effective primary and secondary prevention strategies are available, the article calls to question their coverage, especially in rural and poor populations. The authors, including S.Chatterji of Health Statistics and Informatics, D.Chisholm of WHO, S.Ebrahim, D.Prabhakaran and K.S.Reddy of Public Health Foundation of India, G.Gururaj of NIMHANS, V.Mohan of Dr.Mohan's Diabetes Specialities Centre, and R.D.Ravindran of Aravind Eye Care System, have suggested setting up social and policy frameworks. These would enable the implementation of interventions such as taxation on bidis, smokeless tobacco, and locally-brewed alcohol.

The article also highlights a couple of interventions in the field level, both incidentally from Tamil Nadu. Aravind Eye Hospital's work on elimination of avoidable blindness in rural India and DMVDSC's Chunampet Rural Diabetes Prevention Project are highlighted in separate panels within the paper. Both interventions have been recognised for their involvement of the community in the programme, one of the key recommendations the authors make in their article. The Madurai-based Aravind Eye Hospital recently established 30 permanent village-based vision centres for primary eye care, with access to telemedicine. The Chunampet project aims at preventing diabetes in 50,000 people in 42 villages around Chunampet in Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu. Started about four years ago, within a year of implementation, over 90 per cent of the entire adult population of the villages had been screened. Screening is free, and treatment is free for those who cannot pay. About 60 per cent of patients pay subsidised rates for their treatment. The project has been touted as a "good model for delivering preventive and therapeutic diabetes health care to rural areas."

Serious tooth decay in children as young as two is being either ignored or badly treated as a result of a system of "poor care" and "supervised neglect", a leading dental expert has warned.

Young children are suffering pain, facial infections and blood poisoning because their baby teeth are being left untreated, with some undergoing the trauma of having teeth extracted because many dentists wrongly think primary or "milk" teeth are not worth repairing, said Monty Duggal, a professor of children's dentistry.

The mistaken belief that baby teeth should not be filled is leading to NHS dental hospitals having to perform emergency removals of children's teeth - which can sometimes involve extracting every tooth in what is called a "full clearance" - he adds.

Writing in the Faculty Dental Journal, Duggal criticises dentists and parents who believe that problematic milk teeth can be left to drop out naturally.

He condemns non-intervention in such children as "wrong and unjustifiable", and asks: "How can we condone the non-treatment of a disease that carries such a high morbidity and knowingly put the child at risk of pain and suffering?"

Duggal, the head of paediatric dentistry at the NHS's Leeds Dental Institute, writes: "We must ensure that those children who still get caries [dental decay] do not suffer further from the provision of poor care and its consequences.

"Specialists in hospitals treat children on a daily basis with severe oro-facial infections caused by poor restorations, placed with a disregard for good restorative principles or a non-interventionist 'keep under observation' approach.

"Hospital paediatric dental services across the UK are replete with children referred by general dental practitioners for pain due to untreated or inadequately treated caries in the primary dentition," said Duggal.

That workload shows that the current neglect of children's teeth "has serious cost implications" for the NHS, he adds.

Most of the children suffering in this way are from the country's poorest families, Duggal stresses.

Those from deprived backgrounds are worst affected because of poor diet, lack of dental education and never being taken to see a dentist by their parents. As a result, about 80% of all dental disease in children occurs among those in social classes IV and V.

Children in poorer areas can have eight times as many dental problems as those in better-off families, research shows.

Duggal disputes the belief among dentists that treating decay in children's first teeth would unsettle them, adding: "I have been unable to find any convincing evidence in the literature that leaving primary teeth untreated in children is not likely to cause at least discomfort and in many cases pain and suffering.

"Sometimes dentists don't think it's important to fill baby teeth to a high standard because they will fall out by the age of 12 at the latest."

As few as 10-12% of decayed primary teeth are repaired, and it can be as few as 5% in some areas, which is "a matter of national shame", says the article in the journal, which is produced by the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Duggal sees 10-15 children a week, aged between three and eight, with severe toothache from several decayed teeth. Most are from the most deprived estates in Leeds.

He blames the NHS's way of funding dentists for producing "supervised neglect" of children's teeth. Dentists serving poorer communities find that the money they need to undertake sometimes extensive work is unavailable because payment, by Units of Dental Activity (UDAs), is capped. The system "fails to recognise the increased treatment needs of such children" and "includes economic disincentives to the provision of such intervention", Duggal writes.

The British Dental Association, which represents the UK's 23,000 dentists, said that there was "a clear and unacceptable chasm between those with the best and worst oral health. The gap is depressingly correlated with social deprivation."