Why does your life flash before your eyes near death?

Yahoo – AFP, Issam AHMED, May 1, 2023 

In a new paper researchers at the University of Michigan found evidence of
surges in brain activity in two dying patients

Survivors of close calls with death often recall extraordinary experiences: seeing light at the end of a tunnel, floating outside their own bodies, encountering deceased loved ones or recapping major life events in an instant. 

The fact that these stories share so many elements in common and come from people from diverse cultural backgrounds points to a possible biological mechanism -- one that has yet to be de-mystified by scientists. 

In a new paper published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), researchers at the University of Michigan found evidence of surges in brain activity associated with consciousness in two dying patients. 

While not the first study of its kind, what sets the new research apart is that it's detailed in a way "that's never been done before," senior author Jimo Borjigin, whose lab is devoted to understanding the neurological basis of consciousness, told AFP. 

The team looked back at the records of four patients who died from cardiac arrest while on electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring. 

All four fell into comas and were removed from life support after it was determined they were beyond medical help. 

When taken off their ventilators, two of the four patients -- a 24-year-old woman and a 77-year-old woman -- saw increases in their heart rates as well as surges of brain waves in the gamma frequency -- the fastest such brain activity, which is associated with consciousness. 

Earlier studies -- including a prominent paper published in 2022 about an 87-year-old man who died from a fall -- have also found spikes in gamma waves in some people near the point of death. 

The University of Michigan paper went further by examining in greater depth which parts of the brain lit up, with the activity detected in the "posterior cortical hot zone" -- comprised of the temporal, parietal and occipital lobes, which are associated with changes in consciousness. 

"If this part of the brain lights up, that means the patient is seeing something, can hear something, and they might feel sensations out of the body," said Borjigin, adding that the region was "on fire." 

Brain and heart activity were monitored, second by second, for the last few hours of the patients' life, contributing to the strength of the analysis, she added. 

It's not clear why two of the patients experienced these potential signs of "covert consciousness" while two did not, though Borjigin speculated their history of seizures might have primed their brains in some way. 

Owing to the small sample size, the authors cautioned against making wide-ranging inferences. 

What's more, it's not possible to confirm that the patients really had any visions as they did not live to tell the tale. 

Borjigin hopes in the future to collect data on hundreds more people -- increasing the chances that some will actually survive. 

One way to do so might be to create an experiment that simulates a near-death experience while the patient is being monitored under lab conditions.

US drugmaker Eli Lilly says slashing insulin prices

Yahoo – AFP, John BIERS, March 1, 2023 

US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly announced Wednesday it would cut the cost of its insulin by 70 percent, with President Joe Biden calling on others to follow suit to tackle soaring drug prices.

 Manufacturers have ratcheted up insulin prices in recent years, hitting millions of Americans living with diabetes -- and drawing sharp political criticism. 

"Insulin costs less than $10 to make, but Americans are sometimes forced to pay over $300 for it. It's flat wrong," said Biden in a statement. He hailed Eli Lilly's price cut as "huge news." 

"It's time for other manufacturers to follow," Biden added. 

Indianapolis-based Lilly announced a series of steps to rein in prices of the life-saving drug, such as capping out-of-pocket costs at $35 per month for people with insurance. 

"Lilly is taking these actions to make it easier to access Lilly insulin and help Americans who may have difficulty navigating a complex healthcare system," the drugmaker said in a statement. 

While the $35 cap takes effect immediately, other measures will be implemented in the course of 2023. 

A centerpiece is the 70 percent price drop in Humalog, Lilly's most commonly prescribed insulin. 

The incidence of diabetes in the United States in adults has doubled over the last 20 years, afflicting 37.3 million people, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Insulin prices have soared in the US, costing over eight times more than in 32 comparable high-income countries, a 2020 Rand Corporation study found. 

But much of the bounty from lofty prices do not go to pharma firms. Instead, they are passed on to health insurers in the form of rebates. As a result, the financial hit from Lilly's decision could fall hardest on insurers. 

The unaffordability of insulin -- particularly to uninsured Americans -- has become a rallying cry for pharmaceutical industry critics. 

Self-rationing insulin 

The cost of a five-pack of Humalog is currently $530.40, although the out-of-pocket price to a user varies depending on one's insurance plan. Average monthly use varies by user, Eli Lilly says on its website. 

Drug pricing in the United States is affected not only by the cost of producing and distributing the pharmaceutical, but also other players such as insurers and pharmacy benefit management companies. 

Critics such as progressive Senator Bernie Sanders have blasted the industry as emblematic of "unacceptable corporate greed." 

"At a time when Eli Lilly made over $7 billion in profits last year, public pressure forced them to reduce the price of insulin by 70%," Sanders said on Twitter after the price-cut announcement. 

"Sanofi and Novo Nordisk must do the same," he added, referring to two other companies which along with Lilly dominate the insulin market. 

Both Sanofi and Novo Nordisk released statements to AFP pointing to programs to help make insulin more affordable, including to uninsured users. But neither company commented directly on whether they would match the Lilly plan. 

A survey by nonprofit T1International showed that one in four respondents living with diabetes reported rationing their insulin because of the financial strain. 

The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law last year by Biden, capped insulin prices for Medicare recipients at $35 per month, but people with private insurance or without insurance were left out. 

Biden, in his State of the Union Address, called on lawmakers to rein in "Big Pharma" and "finish the job this time" by instituting a national cap on insulin costs. 

In the company's statement, Eli Lilly Chief Executive David Ricks urged rival producers to join the effort. 

"We know that 7 out of 10 Americans don't use Lilly insulin. We are calling on policymakers, employers and others to join us in making insulin more affordable," said Ricks. 

The company's statement referred uninsured consumers to an insulin affordability website, saying they could "receive Lilly insulins for $35 per month." 

Lily shares were up 1.2 percent at $315.07 in afternoon trading. 

Because most of the price cut will affect rebates from Lilly to insurers rather than revenues to the drugmaker itself, Wednesday's announcement will leave "Lilly less affected than the price cuts would suggest," said Morningstar analyst Damien Conover in a note. 

The cut should not "significantly disrupt" Lilly sales, while insurers "will need to take the hit" from Washington's fixation on runaway prices, he added. 

"Addressing the pricing concerns around insulin should help Lilly maintain pricing power with new innovative drugs," said Conover.

Most baby formula health claims not backed by science: study

Yahoo – AFP, Daniel Lawler, 16 February 2023 

The vast majority of health claims used to advertise baby formula worldwide are not supported by rigorous scientific evidence, a study said Thursday, leading researchers to urge the breast milk substitutes be sold in plain packaging. 

The study comes a week after a group of doctors and scientists called for a regulatory crackdown on the $55-billion formula industry for "predatory" marketing which they said exploits the fears of new parents to convince them not to breastfeed. 

Breastfeeding is widely recognised to have huge health benefits for babies. The World Health Organization and the US CDC recommend breastfeeding exclusively during the first six months of a newborn's life. 

However that recommendation is followed for less than half of infants globally, according to the WHO. 

Daniel Munblit, an honorary senior lecturer at Imperial College London and an author of the new study, said researchers were not on a "crusade" against infant formula, which should remain an option for mothers who cannot or choose not to breastfeed.

"But we are very much against inappropriate infant formula marketing, which provides misleading claims not backed up by solid evidence," Munblit told AFP. 

Munblit and an international team of researchers looked at the health claims made for 608 products on the websites of infant formula companies in 15 countries, including the United States, India, Britain and Nigeria. 

The most common claims were that formula supports brain development, strengthens immune systems and more broadly helps growth. 

Half of the products did not link the claimed health benefit to a specific ingredient, according to the study published in the BMJ journal. 

Three quarters did not refer to scientific evidence supporting their claims. 

Of those that provided a scientific reference, more than half pointed to reviews, opinion pieces or research on animals. 

Just 14 percent of the products referred to registered clinical trials on humans. However 90 percent of those trials carried a high risk of bias, including missing data or the finding not supporting the claim, the study said. 

And nearly 90 percent of the clinical trials had authors who received funding from or had ties to the formula industry, it added. 

'Distressing' 

The most commonly cited ingredient was polyunsaturated fatty acids, which is in breast milk and is considered important for brain development. 

However there is no evidence of any added benefit when the ingredient is added to baby formula, according to a Cochrane systematic review. 

Munblit said the health claims were mostly used to advertise premium formula products, which could be "distressing" for parents who are misled into believing the ingredients are essential but cannot afford them. 

When asked what he thinks needs to be done to address the problem, Munblit was concise. 

"Plain packaging," he said. 

The study comes after a series of papers were published in the Lancet journal last week calling for global policy makers to end exploitative formula marketing. 

WHO infant health specialist Nigel Rollins, an author of one of the Lancet papers, said busy parents "lack the time to properly scrutinise claims" about infant formula. 

The new study showed that "governments and regulatory authorities must commit the necessary time and attention to review the claims of formula milk products," Rollins said in a linked BMJ editorial.

How long can a healthy human live?

Yahoo – AFP, Isabelle Tourne, 23 January 2023 

The death of the world's oldest person at the age of 118 has reignited a debate that has divided scientists for centuries: is there a limit on how long a healthy human can live? 

After French nun Lucile Randon died last week, Spanish great-grandmother Maria Branyas Morera, 115, has assumed the title of the oldest living person, according to Guinness World Records. 

Back in the 18th century, French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, known as the Comte de Buffon, theorised that a person who had not suffered an accident or illness could live for a theoretical maximum of 100 years. 

Since then, medical advancements and improving living conditions have pushed the limit back by a couple of decades. 

A new milestone was reached when Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment celebrated her 120th birthday in 1995. 

Calment died two years later at the age of 122. She remains the oldest person ever to have lived -- that has been verified, at least. 

According to the United Nations, there were an estimated 593,000 people aged 100 years or older in 2021, up from 353,000 a decade earlier. 

The number of centenarians is expected to more than double over the next decade, according to the Statista data agency. 

The Comte de Buffon might also have been surprised by the rise of supercentenarians -- people aged 110 or over -- whose numbers have been increasing since the 1980s. 

Natural limit at 115? 

So how far could we go? Scientists disagree, with some maintaining that the lifespan of our species is limited by strict biological constraints. 

In 2016, geneticists writing in the journal Nature said there had been no improvement in human longevity since the late 1990s. 

Analysing global demographic data, they found that the maximum human lifespan had declined since Calment's death -- even though there were more elderly people in the world. 

"They concluded that human lifespan has a natural limit and that longevity is limited to around 115 years," French demographer Jean-Marie Robine told AFP. 

"But this hypothesis is partly disputed by many demographers," said Robine, a specialist in centenarians at the INSERM medical research institute. 

Research in 2018 found that while the rate of death increases with age, it slows down after 85. 

Around the age of 107, the rate of death peaks at 50-60 percent every year, the research said. 

"Under this theory, if there are 12 people aged 110, six will survive to be 111, three to be 112, and so on," Robine said. 

A numbers game 

But the more supercentenarians, the higher chance a few have to live to make it to record ages. 

If there are 100 supercentenarians, "50 will live to be 111 years old, 25 to 112," Robine said. 

"Thanks to a 'volume effect', there are no longer fixed limits to longevity." 

However Robine and his team are publishing research this year which will show that the rate of death continues to increase beyond the age of 105, further narrowing the window. 

Does this mean there is a hard ceiling on how long we can live? Robine will not go that far. 

"We will continue to make discoveries, as we always have, and little by little the health of the oldest people will improve," he said. 

Other experts are also cautious about choosing a side. 

"There is no definitive answer for the moment," said France Mesle, a demographer at the French institute of demographic studies (INED). 

"Even if they are increasing, the number of people reaching very old age is still quite small and we still cannot make any significant statistical estimate," she told AFP. 

So it might be a matter of waiting for rising numbers of supercentenarians to test the "volume effect". 

And of course some future medical breakthroughs could soon upend everything we know about death. 

Eric Boulanger, a French doctor specialising in the elderly, said that "genetic manipulation" could allow some people to live for 140 or even 150 years.