(Tribune Media Services) -- What's this on Sonja Johnson's hotel bill? A mandatory $25 per day "resort" fee for the use of the spa. But didn't the rate she booked through Hotwire include everything? No, it didn't. But that doesn't mean she's out of luck.

Q: I've been booking hotel rooms through Hotwire recently, and I've been quite pleased with the site -- until now. The last hotel charged a $25 per night resort fee, which included the "use of the spa."

This was mandatory, even though we didn't plan pearls jewelry to use the spa, and had not been disclosed in the Hotwire booking process. I tried calling Hotwire about this and they simply kept saying, "It's in our terms and conditions that hotels may charge separate fees for parking and resort fees."

I understand that parking often constitutes an extra charge, but failing to disclose substantial, mandatory resort fees wholesale jewelry sets seems inappropriate. In theory, they could have tacked on $100 a night or more to our nonrefundable reservation, and we would have had no recourse. What do you think? --

Sonja Johnson, San Francisco, California

A: The hotel shouldn't charge you a mandatory "resort" fee. It shouldn't charge anyone a resort fee, for that matter.

Resort fees are wrong on so many levels; it's hard to know where to begin. A room rate should include all mandatory charges except maybe taxes (and I would argue that it ought to include taxes as well, but I digress). Resort fees -- which are charged by some independent hotels for the use of anything from an exercise facility to beach towels -- add anywhere from $10 to $30 to the per-night cost of your room.

If a hotel charged extra for towels or the gym that would be fine. But some resorts force every guest to pay these fees, effectively raising the cost of each room -- and raising the hotel's revenues, too. This is fundamentally dishonest, even when it's disclosed in the fine print of your reservation by the hotel or by your travel agent. It must either be cultured pearl brooch part of the room rate or be an optional fee. There are no two ways about this.

I believe either these hotels, or the online travel agents who sell their products and enable their immoral behavior, will find themselves on the losing end of a court case if they don't stop.

Hotwire's actions add yet another wrinkle to this scam. A site like Hotwire, with its immense buying power, has the leverage to force hotels to include all mandatory fees in its room rate. Yet if you read its terms of use, it's clear black saltwater pearl that it won't. "Hotwire rates do not include special fees charged by hotels upon checkout (e.g., energy charges, convention fees, resort fees, parking fees)," it notes. "Customers will be required to pay these fees directly to the hotels at checkout time."

(Incidentally, Hotwire isn't alone. Its competitor, Priceline, has a similar policy.)

It gets worse. Because Hotwire is what's known as an "opaque" site -- meaning that you don't learn the name of your hotel until you've paid for it -- you're shell pearl earrings  out of luck if you end up with a resort-fee property. So you're right: Hotwire could have quoted a $69 a night fee, but the hotel might have theoretically charged a $100-a-night resort fee, and you would have had to pay for it.

If Hotwire didn't offer to change your reservation, you might have disputed the charge on your credit card. I know of at least one traveler who persuaded his credit card company to reverse a resort-fee charge that hadn't been adequately disclosed.

I contacted Hotwire on your behalf, and it removed the resort fee from your bill.

(Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. You can read more travel tips on his blog, elliott.org or e-mail him at celliott@ngs.org).

(Tribune Media Services) -- What's this on Sonja Johnson's hotel bill? A mandatory $25 per day "resort" fee for the use of the spa. But didn't the rate she booked through Hotwire include everything? No, it didn't. But that doesn't mean she's out of luck.

Q: I've been booking hotel rooms through Hotwire recently, and I've been quite pleased with the site -- until now. The last hotel charged a $25 per night resort fee, which included the "use of the spa."

This was mandatory, even though we didn't plan pearls jewelry to use the spa, and had not been disclosed in the Hotwire booking process. I tried calling Hotwire about this and they simply kept saying, "It's in our terms and conditions that hotels may charge separate fees for parking and resort fees."

I understand that parking often constitutes an extra charge, but failing to disclose substantial, mandatory resort fees wholesale jewelry sets seems inappropriate. In theory, they could have tacked on $100 a night or more to our nonrefundable reservation, and we would have had no recourse. What do you think? --

Sonja Johnson, San Francisco, California

A: The hotel shouldn't charge you a mandatory "resort" fee. It shouldn't charge anyone a resort fee, for that matter.

Resort fees are wrong on so many levels; it's hard to know where to begin. A room rate should include all mandatory charges except maybe taxes (and I would argue that it ought to include taxes as well, but I digress). Resort fees -- which are charged by some independent hotels for the use of anything from an exercise facility to beach towels -- add anywhere from $10 to $30 to the per-night cost of your room.

If a hotel charged extra for towels or the gym that would be fine. But some resorts force every guest to pay these fees, effectively raising the cost of each room -- and raising the hotel's revenues, too. This is fundamentally dishonest, even when it's disclosed in the fine print of your reservation by the hotel or by your travel agent. It must either be cultured pearl brooch part of the room rate or be an optional fee. There are no two ways about this.

I believe either these hotels, or the online travel agents who sell their products and enable their immoral behavior, will find themselves on the losing end of a court case if they don't stop.

Hotwire's actions add yet another wrinkle to this scam. A site like Hotwire, with its immense buying power, has the leverage to force hotels to include all mandatory fees in its room rate. Yet if you read its terms of use, it's clear black saltwater pearl that it won't. "Hotwire rates do not include special fees charged by hotels upon checkout (e.g., energy charges, convention fees, resort fees, parking fees)," it notes. "Customers will be required to pay these fees directly to the hotels at checkout time."

(Incidentally, Hotwire isn't alone. Its competitor, Priceline, has a similar policy.)

It gets worse. Because Hotwire is what's known as an "opaque" site -- meaning that you don't learn the name of your hotel until you've paid for it -- you're shell pearl earrings  out of luck if you end up with a resort-fee property. So you're right: Hotwire could have quoted a $69 a night fee, but the hotel might have theoretically charged a $100-a-night resort fee, and you would have had to pay for it.

If Hotwire didn't offer to change your reservation, you might have disputed the charge on your credit card. I know of at least one traveler who persuaded his credit card company to reverse a resort-fee charge that hadn't been adequately disclosed.

I contacted Hotwire on your behalf, and it removed the resort fee from your bill.

(Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. You can read more travel tips on his blog, elliott.org or e-mail him at celliott@ngs.org).

(CNET) -- The good news about the 3D TVs coming out this spring and summer is that they'll come packed with two pairs of 3D lenses. The bad news? Those plastic glasses work only with the brand of TV with which they're shipped.

That means that if you buy a Panasonic 3D TV, you can't use the accompanying lenses with your neighbor's Sony 3D TV, should you want to get together to watch the World Cup in 3D this summer. That's because each TV brand has a sensor that picks up a signal from the corresponding brand of glasses.

If that seems backwards, it's because it is. But it's also the sign of a new technology that hasn't yet worked out all of its kinks. Thankfully, the burgeoning 3D industry knows that this is a shortcoming and is concocting a fix.

One company that makes 3D eyewear, XpanD, has staked its claim to be the vendor of choice for brand-agnostic 3D glasses. The company has been manufacturing 3D glasses for movie theaters in Europe and Asia for years, and it is now moving to make the glasses work for people's homes as well.

XpanD has been contracted to produce the lenses that will ship with Panasonic and Vizio's 3D sets, but the company is also aiming more broadly: to be the provider of one pair of glasses that people buy once and use everywhere. XpanD's glasses will be available for between $125 and $150, starting June 1 at retailers such as Best Buy and Sears.

"The goal of the glasses is to work with  pearl jewelry store  every (size of) 3D display, from laptops to cinema," said Ami Dror, XpanD's chief strategy officer.

Dror says that would include all 3D televisions using infrared to communicate between the TV and the active-shutter 3D glasses. ("Active" glasses have battery-powered shuttering to allow the eyes to see 3D images, while "passive" glasses are the polarized lenses you get at the movie theater.)

All major manufacturers -- such as Sony, Samsung Electronics, and Panasonic -- and most 3D-capable computer monitors and laptop necklace jewelry set screens -- which gamers are expected to gravitate toward -- use active-shutter glasses.

Dror anticipates the glasses being for sale in theaters or in retail stores alongside 3D displays. The way he sees it, people will want the option to choose their own glasses, especially if 3D-watching parties become popular.

Besides consumers being limited in how and when they can use their 3D glasses, XpanD believes that retailers can't be expected to stock glasses from every possible manufacturer on their shelves.

"At Best Buy, they carry 15, 20 models of TVs," Dror said. "We can't expect them to carry 15 types of 3D glasses. That doesn't make sense."

The competition

Gunnar Optiks, which makes glasses that reduce eyestrain induced by staring at a computer screen all day, has also said it plans to make universal 3D pearl bracelet wholesale glasses.

It's a great idea, but it's unclear that the technology has actually been tested yet. (Until CNET Labs gives them a spin, we'll reserve judgment.) In any case, what XpanD and Gunnar Optiks are trying to do is a necessary step in the evolution, if 3D is going to move from the cinema to the couch.

"It's great that XpanD wants to be the vendor of choice for universal 3D glasses," said David Wertheimer, CEO and executive director of the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California. "But it's an easy thing to say and a harder thing to get all the people [to] work together."

That's where the Consumer Electronics Association comes in. The industry trade group is acting as referee between competing brands to agree on a standard for 3D eyewear.

Representatives from TV makers, cable and broadcasting companies, eyewear manufacturers, and others together are reviewing akoya pearl ring proposals for standards and hashing out what that standard should be -- and which companies will eventually make the standard glasses. Although they've been officially meeting for several months, the idea first came up last year.

"It was just evident to everybody that glasses were going to be a part of this ecosystem, and noninteroperable glasses would hamper the overall growth of the market," said Brian Markwalter, vice president of technology and standards for the CEA.

They're currently studying making active-shutter glasses the default technology, which are the most popular right now with TV makers. But there are details still to be worked out, such as the effects of competing with other infrared devices already in the living room, including TV remote controls.

Markwalter said the group meets every two weeks and that it understands the urgency, since these TVs are already seeping out into the market.

"They do feel the pressure of the marketplace," he said. "The schedule they had talked about is trying to at least have it whittled down to a basic approach by May or June. They're meeting pretty regularly, moving along as aggressively as they can. "

Until then, 3D TV watching it isn't going to be a pink coral jewelry naturally social experience, the way standard 2D TV-watching is now, at least at first, while the likes of Sony and Panasonic race to get the technology to the marketplace. But it will get there eventually, USC's Wertheimer says.

"As with any new technology, you try to get it to market, and get people to use it and start giving you feedback. All of (the manufacturers) have their own glasses and their own TVs that can only interact together. They do that to take the variables out of the equation, so they control the experience consumers have with the television," Wertheimer said.

"But the natural evolution of 3D TVs over time is for them to have interoperability with the glasses."

President Barack Obama postponed a scheduled visit to Indonesia and Australia to help round Mr. Yadav, a wheat farmer, has never flown, nor has anyone else in the family. And this will only be a short trip: delivering his son less than two miles to the village of the bride. But like many families in this expanding suburb of New Delhi, the Yadavs have come into money, and they want everyone to know it.

“People will remember that his son went on a  7-8mm cultured pearl helicopter for his marriage,” a cousin, Vikas Yadav, shouted over the din. “People should know they are spending money. For us, things like this are the stuff of dreams.”

The Yadavs are members of a new economic caste in India: nouveau riche farmers. Land acquisition for expanding cities and industry is one of the most bitterly contentious issues in India, rife with corruption and violent protests. Yet in some areas it has created pockets of overnight wealth, especially in the 7-8mm pearl necklace outlying regions of the capital, New Delhi.

By Western standards, few of these farmers are truly rich. But in India, where the annual per capita income is about $1,000 and where roughly 800 million people live on less than $2 a day, some farmers have gotten windfalls of several million rupees by selling land. Over the years, farmers and others have sold more than 50,000 acres of farmland as Noida has evolved into a suburb of 300,000 people with shopping malls and office parks.

That has created what might seem to be a pleasant predicament: What to do with the cash? Some farmers have bought more land, banked money, invested in design pearl pendant their children’s educations or made improvements to their homes. In Punjab, a few farmers told the Indian news media they wanted to use their land riches to move to Canada. But still others are broke after indulging in spending sprees for cars, holiday trips and other luxuries.

“They go for Land Rovers,” said N. Sridharan, a professor at the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi. “They buy more televisions, and quite a lot of money also goes into drinking. They try to blow it out.”

Much of this conspicuous consumption is bad financial planning by farmers who have little education or experience with the seductive heat of cold cash. But some sociologists say such ostentatious spending, especially on weddings, is rooted in the desire of lower castes to show off their social mobility, partly by emulating the practices of the upper castes.

In India, as in many places, a wedding has always been equal parts religious ceremony, theatrical production and wealth demonstration project. For the country’s elite, the latest matrimonial trend is destination weddings in Bali or palaces in Rajasthan. For the new rich, hiring a helicopter is motivated by the same impulses for south sea pearls excitement and one-upmanship.

“Everyone wants to be better than the others,” said Subhash Goyal, whose travel company handles three or four helicopter weddings every year in the Delhi region. “This is how the new rich behave. They want to show off and say, ‘I have more money than you.’ ”

On the morning of his son’s wedding, Mr. Yadav sat in the shabby brick courtyard of his village home, finalizing the last details of a ceremony that seemed to straddle different centuries. He had earned about $109,000 selling three acres of his ancestral land. He banked some of the money, renovated his house, bought a small Hyundai and purchased three more acres farther out to continue farming.

He estimates that his share of the wedding — the bride’s father pays a bigger share — will cost him $13,000, including $8,327 for the chopper. “It is for my happiness, for the happiness of my son,” said Mr. Yadav, 36. “In my marriage, I went in a car. But that was a different era.”

As the family began the traditional procession through the village, his son, Kapil, 19, was dressed in embroidered finery atop a white horse. Mr. Yadav’s rented white Lexus finally got around the bullock cart; he was taking it to the bride’s village while his son rode in the chopper. As another touch, Mr. Yadav also had hired a truck — the Reenu Rock Star 2010 Hi-Fi DJ — to lead the procession. It was playing Hindi pop so loudly that the brick homes of the village seemed to shake.

Then a problem arose: The truck was stuck at a tight corner, and the procession was pinned between the truck and a herd of water buffaloes. As people slipped around the marooned Reenu Rock Star, another problem materialized: The helicopter was shell pearl already circling above.

Usually, the procession is a slow parade to wave to neighbors. But the Yadavs had rented the helicopter by the hour, so everyone started running, sidestepping the piles of water buffalo dung and the channel of open sewage. The corpulent mother of the groom, her flesh spilling out of her sari, giggled as she barreled toward the arriving aircraft.

“Oh my God!” she exclaimed. “We are so happy!”

The helicopter landed in a clearing. In the distance, the concrete skeletons of new apartment towers were clouded in a haze. Hundreds of villagers surrounded the small blue helicopter, which was guarded by a detail of local police officers. Then the groom and two relatives jumped in, and the blue bird rose over the village, as Mr. Yadav hopped in the Lexus and roared toward the bride’s village.

The ride took five minutes, and Mr. Yadav barely beat the arriving chopper. When the son stepped onto solid ground, he was wearing a garland made of 100 rupee notes. The helicopter was to return in the morning, after the wedding ceremony, to deliver the newlyweds back to the groom’s village and the rest of their lives.

But as the white-haired pilot prepared to depart, the father of the bride, Davinder Singh Yadav, pulled him close. “Please take it over the village a few times before you leave,” he shouted. “The village is so big. Everybody needs to see it.”

A moment later, as the copter circled above the small farming houses, the father said: “The whole village will remember. The whole world will remember.”

Hari Kumar contributed reporting.

up support on what is expected to be a close vote on Sunday on his top legislative priority.

House Democratic leaders unveiled the final changes to the overhaul, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated would expand coverage at a cost of $940 billion over 10 years and cut the deficit by $138 billion in the China pearl jewelry same period through new fees, taxes and cost-saving measures.

Obama said the healthcare bill, which has faced solid Republican opposition, represented "the most significant effort to reduce deficits since the Balanced Budget Act" of 1993.

"This is history, and this is pink pearl necklace progress," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of the overhaul. The bill would represent the biggest changes to the $2.5 trillion healthcare system in the past four decades.

After weeks of wrangling over the package to ensure the numbers came out favorably, House leaders presented the final revisions to Democrats at a morning caucus and posted them on the Rules Committee website later on Thursday.

"It took some time, but we are very pleased," Pelosi said after the meeting.

The overhaul would extend coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans, the CBO estimated, and ban insurance practices like refusing coverage to those with pre-existing medical conditions.

It requires all Americans to have health insurance, but gives subsidies to help low- and middle-income workers pay for it. The bill also expands Medicaid, the federal health program for the poor.

The final package of changes also included Obama's proposed revamp of the federal student loan program, which would boost aid for needy students.

The AFL-CIO, the largest labor union discount pearl pendant federation, endorsed the final version, which includes a weakened version of a tax on high-cost "Cadillac" insurance plans the union had feared would hit union members.

"It is not a perfect bill. But we are realistic enough to know it's time for the deliberations to stop and for progress to begin," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said.

'UNSALVAGEABLE'

Democrats hoped the favorable CBO preliminary estimate would help them round up the 216 votes they need to pass the overhaul, the focus of an intense political brawl in Congress for months.

Two more House Democrats who voted against the overhaul in November, Bart Gordon and Betsy Markey, said they would vote for the final akoya pearl pendants bill, bringing the total of those who have switched to "yes" to three. Dennis Kucinich announced his switch to "yes" on Wednesday.

Republicans said the new CBO preliminary estimates showed the revised bill was more of the same.

"Republicans have been saying for nearly a year now that this bill is unsalvageable. This latest CBO score proves our point," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, pointing to the bill's new taxes and cuts in Medicare, the federal health program for the elderly.

If the Senate-passed bill is approved by the House on Sunday, it would become law once it is signed by Obama. The final changes unveiled on Thursday, designed to win over wavering Democrats, would move in a separate bill that the Senate would take up next week.

Healthcare stocks, as measured by the Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payor Index, rose 3 percent on Thursday and outpaced the broader market as investors still believed the bill would not pass.

"These stocks really are a speculators' paradise given the significant uncertainty as to what's going to happen with healthcare reform," said Steve wholesale shell strand  Shubitz, an analyst with Edward Jones who follows big insurance companies.

The lobbying group representing the insurance industry said the revised bill would not do enough to bring down healthcare costs and ensure that individuals purchase insurance.

"Unfortunately, this legislation will drive up healthcare costs by adding billions in new healthcare taxes and encouraging people to wait until they are sick before getting insurance," said Karen Ignani, president of America's Health Insurance Plans.

The final legislative revisions are meant to ease concerns of Obama and House Democrats about the Senate's version of the bill, which cost $875 billion over 10 years and had budget savings of $118 billion in the same period.

The changes would eliminate a controversial Senate deal exempting Nebraska from paying for Medicaid expansion costs, close a "doughnut hole" gap in prescription drug coverage and raise the threshold and delay the implementation of the tax on high-cost insurance plans.

To replace some of the lost revenue from that tax, the bill would extend taxes for Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, to unearned income.

The CBO report said the final bill would extend Medicare's solvency for nine years and reduce annual growth in Medicare expenditures.

The final bill also would delay fees on medical device manufacturers but make them slightly higher than the House bill. It also delays the fee on drugmakers for brand-name drugs and the insurance industry.

(Additional reporting by Susan Heavey, Tabassum Zakaria, Bill Berkrot, Lewis Krauskopf and Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by David Alexander and Paul Simao.)

Gotlieb said getting paid "fairly" by Medicaid is such a problem for Georgia's doctors that many are no longer taking new patients, or dropping patients altogether. Others, she said, are going out of business because the payments from the program don't cover their costs.

The impact on her Atlanta-area practice has freshwater pearl necklaces been profound. Because two pediatric clinics have closed in her area, she's seeing a lot more patients.

"This is the first time in my life that I'm seeing as many as 30 patients a day," said Gotlieb. "It's an extremely high number for me."

Consequently, as the number of Medicaid patients grow at her practice, Gotlieb said she's also losing money instead of making more money.

"It's become a desperate situation for us," said Gotlieb, who says 62% of her patients are now on Medicaid. Her practice, the Pediatric Center of Stone Mountain, has already laid off one of its four doctors since January, and four pearl bracelet wholesale other employees were let go in the past three weeks.

The problem is so acute that she's trying to cut back on new Medicaid admissions.

"We are in a mid-to-low income area with a growing immigrant and refugee population," explained Gotlieb. "Many of my patients are normal, healthy kids, but many have complex problems or special needs."

Her biggest fear right now is what will happen to these children if she goes out of business.
Medicaid issues

Medicaid, a jointly-funded Federal and state program, provides health insurance for about 44 million low-income people nationwide. These akoya pearl ring include children, pregnant women and special needs patients.

According to the federal government's Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Medicaid payments to providers typically are lower than what Medicare -- a public health insurance program for people 65 and older -- pays providers for services that are comparable, such as sick visits. Medicare payment rates also tend to be significantly lower than private insurers.

For example, if a doctor who accepts Medicare normally charges $100 for an elderly person's sick visit, Medicare pays the doctor about $76. But, should a child with the same illness visit a doctor who takes Medicaid, that doctor will get paid about two-thirds of the Medicare rate, or about $50.
0:00 /3:17Doctors opt out of Medicare

"Medicare is a federally managed health insurance program and the payment rates are set by Congress," said Mary Kahn, a spokeswoman for CMS. But she pink coral jewelry said that the nature of Medicaid allows states to pay whatever they want.

"States sometimes pay pennies on the dollar of what it costs providers," Kahn said. "[CMS] doesn't have the authority to override what states decide."

"This has led to access issues, particularly for Medicaid beneficiaries, finding providers who accept Medicaid," she added.

Dr. Judith Palfrey, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), said the inequity in payment rates between Medicaid and Medicare is a "really serious issue" for pediatricians.
Doctors opting out

Dr. Avril Beckford, president of the wish pearl necklace wholesale Georgia chapter of the AAP, said Gotlieb's situation isn't an isolated one in her state.

In a January survey of 230 pediatricians in the state, 79% said their practice is still open to treating new Medicaid patients.

But, when asked what changes their practice would make if the state were to enact another round of Medicaid rate cuts, 57% said they would reduce the number of Medicaid patients and another 27% said they would drop all Medicaid patients.

Georgia last cut Medicaid payment rates to providers by 5-1/2% in July 2003 and the state has not increased Medicaid payment rates since then.

However, Beckford said she's worried that the state will again target Medicaid for a payment rate cut as it struggles to cope with a growing budget deficit.

"If that happens, it will cripple pediatrician participation in Medicaid," she warned.

Because pediatric specialists are also paid less by Medicaid than if they were to perform the same procedure on an adult patient, Gotlieb said she's still having problems referring her patients to a specialist who still accepts Medicaid -- as happened in the case of the child with the fractured leg.

(CNN) -- The morning after St. Patrick's Day, the D4 Irish Pub & Café in Chicago, Illinois, gets flooded with requests for Bloody Marys, a concoction of tomato juice, celery, vodka and hot sauce.

"People order Bloody Marys in the morning to get them back on the horse so they can start drinking again," said Patrick Macellaio, who manages cultured pearl jewelry and bartends at the D4. "That's the most popular hangover drink."

To refresh your memory, a hangover includes symptoms of headache, fatigue, nausea and dizziness several hours after an episode of heavy drinking.

A hangover is really the symptoms of acute withdrawal, in which your body reacts to not having a drug in its system anymore, said Krista Medina, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Cincinnati.

Contrary to popular belief, drinking more while hung over is not going to make you feel better, doctors say. In fact, the other home pearl necklace remedies you may turn to, such as greasy food, probably won't work, either.

Part of the reason there's no good hangover remedy is that, although the phenomenon has probably been around since humans discovered alcohol, there's no single scientifically proven reason for a hangover, although there are correlations with the various symptoms of the "Irish flu."

"There probably won't be a known effective treatment until we understand the physiology better," said Dr. Sharon Horesh Bergquist, assistant professor in the department of medicine at Emory University.

What is a hangover?

One theory blames chemicals in some alcoholic drinks called congeners, said Dr. Samir Zakhari, director of the division of metabolism and health effects at the cultured pearl National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

These congeners, which could be toxic, contribute to alcohol's unique taste, but they can also interfere with cell function and leave some lasting physical marks. A 2009 study from Brown University found that the darker the liquor, the more congeners it has, which could exacerbate headaches and other hangover symptoms.

A different theory contends that drinking causes dehydration because alcohol increases urine output. Alcohol inhibits the release of an china pearl jewelry antidiuretic hormone, meaning the kidneys don't conserve water as well, and you urinate more, Bergquist said.

After a long night of drinking, you may feel like taking a snooze, but alcohol may actually disrupt sleep patterns, Zakhari said. You will not have as much rapid eye movement sleep, the state in which you dream, and you will have more time in deep sleep, research shows. A shorter, poorer quality sleep may await you after a lot of drinking, adding to the hangover symptoms.

Alcohol may also irritate your stomach, prompting a condition called gastritis in which the stomach lining gets inflamed. The related akoya pearl necklace symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea also make you lose fluids and electrolytes, according to psychiatry professors Robert Swift and Dena Davidson, writing in the journal Alcohol Health and Research World.

There is also evidence that a hangover is a marker that you may be damaging your brain with alcohol, Medina said. Research suggests that hangover symptoms are related to abnormalities in the brain's white matter, which may occur in binge drinkers. A lot of withdrawal from substances is related to poor cognitive and brain outcomes, she said.

(CNN) -- President Obama's annual physical in February included blood pressure, cholesterol, and heart rate checks -- tests familiar to any of us who receives a regular check-up.

But take a close look at the report from his personal physician, Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, and you'll see the president received two top-of-the-line, high-tech tests, CT scans of his colon and his coronary arteries, you most likely won't be getting when you show up at your doctor's office this year.

If the head of the free world gets these tests, should you? The answer depends on whom you ask. Can you afford these tests? That depends on how much money you have in the bank. Neither of these tests is part of a standard annual physical, so your insurance company likely probably won't pay for them.

Dr. Tyler Cooper in Dallas, Texas, applauds Obama's aggressive use of high-tech tests, and thinks more Americans should consider doing the same.

"We think people should be proactive about their health," says Cooper, a staff physician at the Cooper Clinic, one of several clinics in the United States offering so-called "executive physicals," extensive check-ups that include a large number of blood tests and scans.

"These tests give our physicians an in-depth, detailed understanding of a patient's condition," he added.

Cooper says in his clinic, scans like the ones Obama received have caught heart disease and colon cancer long before they would have been detected without the scans.

"There's no question -- these freshwater pearl strand tests save lives," he says.

But other physicians say you shouldn't follow the president's example.

"If someone told me they wanted these tests, I'd tell them they were nuts," says Rank, medical director of the Health Partners Medical Group in Minneapolis. "Americans have this concept that when it comes to healthcare, more is better, and it's just not true."

Rank says there's no evidence that receiving a CT scan of your colon, also known as a "virtual colonoscopy," is any better than a pearl strand traditional colonoscopy, which doesn't use radiation to take images of your colon.

He says there's also no evidence that getting regular scans of the coronary arteries helps prevent heart attacks.

"Usually you don't do that scan preventatively. You only do it when someone's having chest pain," he says.

Both scans, he says, increase your exposure to radiation and cost money. Plus, he says sometimes these CT scans indicate something is wrong when really everything is just fine, necessitating the need for further testing and causing weeks of unnecessary concern.

"I worry about the message the president is sending by getting these tests," he says.

But the president's doctors were doing what they thought was in the best interest of their patient, according to a statement provided to CNN by White House spokesman Reid Cherlin in consultation with the president's medical team.

"The White House Physician provides no politics, no policy, just trusted medical advice," Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, chief White House physician, wrote in the statement provided by Cherlin. "The president, as a patient, trusts his personal doctor's medical advice geared toward him as an individual."

If you want the tests such as the ones pearl beads Obama received as part of your annual physical, first consider this: Health groups, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, don't recommend them for routine use in otherwise healthy people.

But if you still want them, you can get them for a price. Facilities such as the Cooper Clinic, Scripps Health in San Diego, and the Cleveland Clinic offer "executive physicals" for $2,000 to $3,000 depending on the extent of the exam.

All three clinics offer the coronary artery scan Obama received, plus many other tests. Here's a list of five tests offered in "executive physicals," with the pros and cons of each test. Depending on the clinic, some of these tests are included in the set price, while others can cost up to several hundred dollars extra.

1. "Virtual" colonoscopy

What it is: A CT scan. This test provides a loose pearl detailed picture of your colon.

Pros and cons: There's no need to insert a scope into the rectum, so you don't have to be sedated. If doctors do find a polyp, you'll have to have a separate procedure to have it removed. The scan exposes you to radiation, and repeated scans over time can increase your risk of cancer.

2. CT scan of the coronary arteries

What it is: This scan checks for calcium in the walls of the arteries that supply your heart with blood. Calcium in the artery walls could mean you have clogged arteries, a leading cause of heart attacks.

Pros and cons: The test is noninvasive, and some doctors believe that when combined with other health information, your calcium "score" can help determine your risk of having a heart attack. The test exposes you to radiation.

3. Chest X-ray

What it is: A chest x-ray reveals several conditions, including fluid in your lungs enlargement of your heart, pneumonia, emphysema and cancer.

Pros and cons: While it can reveal the presence of these conditions, chest X-rays expose you to radiation, albeit at very low doses. Also, an X-ray may yield a "false positive," meaning that it may show something is wrong when in reality you're fine. You'll have to undergo additional testing, which may cause you extra costs and unnecessary worry while you await the results.