Basic health policy to include more options to promote a healthy lifestyle

DutchNews, June 1, 2018

Junk food has gone up less in price than fruit and veg. Photo: Depositphotos.com

The basic health insurance policy is to be expanded to cover expert advice to help people develop a healthy lifestyle, health minister Bruno Bruins said on Friday.

‘The idea is that we can help someone who has diabetes, not by giving them insulin but by encouraging them to live more healthily,’ the minister said. 

Practitioners who specialise in ‘combined lifestyle interventions’ or GLI – as the health ministry puts it – will be able to bill health insurers for their work from next January. GLI involves combating obesity by encouraging patients to eat less and take more exercise along with psychological help. 

Some options will also be removed from the basic package, such as strong paracetamol pills of 1,000 milligrams, which are only available on prescription. Over the counter vitamin and mineral preparations will also no longer be paid for. 

The government is responsible for deciding what the basic health insurance package should include and insurance companies are supposed to compete on price. They are also free to decide what to include in supplementary policies.

'Super-agers' study may reveal secrets to staying young

Yahoo – AFP, Kerry Sheridan, 3 Nov 2015

Regular exercise and a Mediterranean diet are known to help foster healthy

aging (AFP Photo/Federica Narancio)

Miami (AFP) - Mary Helen Abbott, 77, paints her lips bright pink, still smokes the occasional cigarette, keeps up on all the gossip at the retirement home and wears a short skirt to fitness class.

She giggles as the aerobics instructor shouts -- "Swagger! Like you are going to meet someone famous!" -- then she and a dozen seniors throw shoulders back, lift their knees high and strut around the exercise studio.

Abbott is what scientists refer to as a "super-ager," and she is taking part in a $3.2 million study that aims to uncover the secrets to staying sharp and healthy into old age.

While some hunt for medications to treat or prevent dementia, others, like University of Miami neuropsychologist David Loewenstein, are interested in why some people are spared altogether.

"I study Alzheimer's disease, but if we want to unlock the mysteries of the brain we also have to know why some people age successfully," said Loewenstein.

The five-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health is open to people age 63 to 100 who have not been diagnosed with dementia, and who are either in good mental shape or have early signs of memory failure, known as mild cognitive decline.

A man gardens at Florida's East Ridge retirement village, where many residents

 here are taking part in a University of Miami study that seeks to uncover the secrets

of healthy aging and staying sharp well into the 90s (AFP Photo/Federica Narancio)

Loewenstein is particularly intrigued with how some people seem to be able to fend off memory loss, whether by genetic, environmental or other means.

He cites studies involving autopsies on people 85 and above -- a population in which about one in three suffers from dementia.

Nearly another third of this age group have post-mortems that reveal significant hallmarks of dementia -- known as plaques and tangles in the brain -- but seemed just fine while alive.

"How can people function at these higher levels? Science has not been able to answer that," said Loewenstein.

"And that is what we are trying to figure out."

Staying busy

Of the 100 people enrolled in Loewenstein's study so far, more than 40 live at East Ridge, a retirement village that resembles a typical suburban neighborhood in south Florida, with wild peacocks roaming beneath the palm trees, people driving around the manicured grounds on golf carts, and rows of single-story homes divided into multiple apartment units.

Mary Helen Abbott, 77, is what scientists refer to as a "super-ager," and she is taking

 part in a $3.2 million study that aims to uncover the secrets to staying sharp and

healthy into old age (AFP Photo/Federica Narancio)

Such tranquility does not come cheap. Residents must pay $111,000 up front, then a monthly rent of $2,700 or more, depending on the size of their living space.

Soon after arriving seven years ago, Gwen North, a retired kindergarten teacher who appears decades younger than her age of 85, took on the responsibility of running the thrift store.

"I work probably six days a week," she said, happily.

At age 86, her husband Art is known as the go-to-guy around town -- perpetually ready to chat, share information, or fix electronics that have broken.

Art and Gwen have already taken memory tests and are giving samples of their spinal fluid so that it can be studied for the earliest biological markers of aging. They have even arranged to donate their brains for further study after they die.

'Exercise in a pill'

So what has kept them young?

"Staying busy. And good genes," said Gwen.

"Just working. And my wife," added Art.

It turns out, there is scientific data to back up their claims.

"We have known for a long time that people in the workforce are better than people out of work," said Laura Carstensen, founding director of the Stanford University Center on Longevity, addressing a forum on aging at the National Academy of Medicine last month in Washington.

With cases of dementia in the United States set to triple, reaching 132 million by 2050,

 some experts warn the disease could bankrupt major world economies and cripple

health systems (AFP Photo/Federica Narancio)

"Work -- paid or unpaid -- may improve cognitive functioning."

Regular exercise and a Mediterranean diet are also known to help foster healthy aging.

"Geriatricians I know say that if we could put exercise in a pill form it would be the most sought-after drug on the market," she said.

Social connections

Abbott confesses that prior to entering the retirement home, she was not doing so well. After her husband died, she lost weight and felt lonely.

"One of the big reasons I like being here is I got tired of eating by myself," said Abbott.

She clearly thrives on social contact. Now, she plays golf every Monday and rides the bus to church on weekends.

Abbott leads the welcoming committee and knows everyone, from the gay couple who just moved in, to the woman in her 90s who nearly died but is now lifting weights again in exercise class, to the woman with the raven hair who had a tryst with a doctor 20 years her senior, then married him, and has stayed married to him for some 40 years.

She recounts these vignettes without malice, exuding pure delight at knowing the details of others' lives.

"Epidemiological studies show that people with a lifetime of cognitively

 stimulating activities and social connections are much less at risk for cognitive

 decline as they age," says University of Miami neuropsychologist David 

Loewenstein (AFP Photo/Federica Narancio)

There's some science behind this, too.

"Epidemiological studies show that people with a lifetime of cognitively stimulating activities and social connections are much less at risk for cognitive decline as they age," said Loewenstein.

Economic burden

Of course, it is impossible to ignore the economics of healthy aging. Many of the residents at East Ridge are educated and white. They saved their earnings, invested well and benefited from the boom in real estate prices.

The poor are often more prone to the ravages of aging. Research also shows that African-Americans and Hispanics suffer disproportionately higher rates of dementia than the country's whites.

With cases of dementia in the United States set to triple, reaching 132 million by 2050, some experts warn the disease could bankrupt major world economies and cripple health systems.

But Carstensen believes society could also benefit from a new perspective, one that doesn't automatically conflate aging with illness.

Related Article:

"The Biggest Filter" - July 18-19, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“..  The Biggest Filter that Hinders Truth is Your Biased Knowledge

The biggest filter of humanity, the one that keeps Humans from actual truth, believe it or not, is called knowledge. We speak of that which humanity perceives currently as knowledge. That which you do not know is, therefore, future knowledge. Now, every single scientist understands the difference - every single one - for they know what is coming is going to teach them what they don't know yet. This is part of the scientific process. Even so, they take what they know, or think they know, and completely let it temper the experiments for what they don't know. They base the future on what they know or believe, even though they know better!

A medical doctor will look in the past and he'll remember being taught about a time when humans would report to the barbershop for healing. That's when they would actually bleed people for healing. By the way, that's the reason for the barber pole having the red stripe on it - it's the tradition of barbers doing the bleeding. So back then, you went to get healed in the barbershop by being bled! This, of course, led to many deaths because there was no understanding of germs, sterilization or today's common sense. Doctors know this, and they laugh at how far you all have come from this. So doctors absolutely know that what is coming will someday be actually laughable, yet they are also absolutely and completely closed to what it might be. They just think it will be an advancement of what they currently know.  ….”

“..  Medicine - Where It's Going

I want to show you some other areas to consider. There are several categories that we'd like to talk about, but they're not in a specific order except for the last one. So let's talk about medicine. What is future medicine going to look like?

The most elegant predictions of medicine fall short of what's really coming. What you have today is a high-tech approach to designer chemistry. Now, since the body is made up of chemistry, it makes sense to look at this chemistry and work with it. It makes total sense to discover how it reacts to disease and then design cures with more chemistry. It's absolutely normal what you have done, but it's going to reach an end very soon. Because the future of medicine is physics, dear ones, not chemistry.

You're going to start understanding and developing new medical physics. You will discover that medi-physics is going to literally speak to cellular structure and give it instructions, without one chemical involved. There's always a reaction to chemistry, isn't there? There's always a side effect. When you push one thing, something else reacts, doesn't it? How do you like it so far? Your most elegant chemical designs, the ones that are helping with the worst diseases on the planet, all have side effects - and some of those side effects are death! I say to you, how do you like it so far?

Does it really seem elegant to you? Or perhaps it's just a more sophisticated way of bleeding in the barbershop? Dear ones, that's how you're going to look at it someday! You're going to slap your heads and say, "Remember the day when we did everything with chemistry and drugs?"

Right now, these kinds of changes have already started in several areas. There are discoveries being made that are healing some of the most heart-breaking diseases you have. I reveal one, because it's not a secret. I will always give you information that is either being worked on or has been postulated through free choice on this planet. That is the guideline of channelling. We can't give it to you. You've got to develop it yourself. However, we can put you in an energy that has a faster discovery potential - that is to say, discoveries become more obvious.

Alzheimer's is heart breaking. There are millions on this planet who develop this condition, more all the time. You're living longer and a plaque-like material that literally obfuscates your memory within the brain is becoming more common. It clings to certain parts of your brain, encrusting and restricting it, imprisoning the Human's ability to remember and eventually process information at all. The result is death, slow death. It's caused by your environment, a fact which will be discovered eventually. Your long-lived Ancients didn't have it.

It's going to be cured with physics. Your science is starting to find out that the plaque-like substance has a resonance that allows it to be weakened with sound. High-frequency sound, tuned to a certain frequency and amplitude, will cause the sheaths to weaken, dissolve, and come off. There's a lot of research to do yet, but it's a Eureka! moment - realizing that physics alone, without chemistry, can change the structure of biology. This is with no side effects whatsoever. It's coming, it's coming.

There are those working with fresh umbilical cord stem cells right now who are using pure physics to guide the stem cells to a specific destination in the body in order to repair failing systems. Dear ones, the future of health and healing is not through better chemistry, yet medicine is still waiting for better pills! Did you connect the dots and realize that all biology is physics based? There is magnetics, leverage, the energy of consciousness, electricity and much more within cellular structure. With physics alone, you can "tune in" to disease and destroy it! You can fine-tune your system with cooperative resonances and extend life with benevolent, physical assistance. Sixteen years ago, I told you this when I spoke of the Temple of Rejuvenation. I described the super-cooling needed to do it and the temperatures needed to work with it (-55C). This is physics!

Now, the false expectation of greater chemistry for the future is totally caused from the filter of knowledge. What you have and know then gives you your expectation of what is going to take place. It literally blocks you from seeing some of the potentials that you may have.  ….”

Michelle Obama seeks solutions for child obesity at Milan Expo

Yahoo – AFP, 18 June 2015

US First Lady Michelle Obama (L) and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's wife

 Agnese Landini talk with some children inside the United States pavilion at the

Expo in Milan on June 18, 2015 (AFP Photo/Giuseppe Cacace)

Milan (AFP) - US First Lady Michelle Obama on Thursday visited the World Expo in Milan, which is themed this year on food, on the lookout for ideas to help fight childhood obesity.

Along with daughters Sasha and Malia, and her mother Marian Robinson, healthy food campaigner Obama spent the entire morning at the exhibition.

Accompanied by Agnese Renzi -- the wife of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi -- she met with children and students at the Italian and American pavilions.

"The truth is we still have so much work to do when we are seeing rising obesity rates, not just in the United States but all over the world,|" she told them.

"And it's really going to take young people like you to take this information and make something of it, turn it into action."

Obama has long worked on her "Let's Move!" programme to get American children to eat more healthily and be more active.

US First Lady Michelle Obama (C) poses with workers of the United States 

pavilion at the Expo in Milan on June 18, 2015 (AFP Photo/Giuseppe Cacace)

On Thursday, she vowed to continue campaigning for healthy eating even when her husband Barack Obama ceases to be president.

"I know that I for one long after I leave the office of First Lady I'm going to continue to work on these issues because our children deserve better," she said.

"And we can do better, we can, we have seen it here."

On Saturday, Expo 2015 aims to break the world's largest pizza record, with a pie set to be 1.5 kilometres (nearly a mile) long.

Meanwhile, Obama's daughters saw the day as an opportunity for fun. They drove a little electric car and then visited the Brazilian pavilion's massive rope hammock.

In the afternoon, the president's family will visit US troops in Vicenza in northern Italy, and then go to Venice until Sunday.

Young yogis build health, community

Trisha Sertori, Contributor The Jakarta Post, Karangasem | Thu, 03/12/2009 1:35 PM  

The kids of Saren village in Karangasem would giggle at the brouhaha surrounding yoga. 

It's something they have been doing all their lives in a tradition passed down for decades. 

(JP/J.B. Djwan)

As tourists spend hundreds of dollars at Bali's yoga supermarkets and Muslim ulema debate the health benefits versus religious elements of yoga, these kids are simply getting on with it. 

Dressed in sarongs and faded T-shirts, more than 150 kids from 10 local banjar in Saren village come together shortly after dawn every Sunday morning to learn and practice the yoga they believe builds good health and self-confidence. 

Moving through ever more difficult asanas, the children breathe, groan, heave and sometimes fall on the pitted cement floor that is their exercise space when rains have flooded the lawns otherwise used. Even without yoga mats or leotards, the kids manage some of the most difficult positions of yoga, including the gravity-defying flying lotus. 

To make this move, the kids sit in the lotus position, fold forward and place their chins on the floor. They then raise their crossed legs, forming an inverted triangle. The movement takes enormous abdominal strength and concentration - as 10-year-old Ida Bagus Argapata discovered as he lost his balance and flipped over Without complaint, Argapata dusted himself off and rejoined his fellow upside-down young yogis. 

When the kids perform this move in a circle, they create a massive human lotus flower made of concentration, strength and self-confidence.

The climax to the two-hour session comes with meditation. There is a palpable shift in the atmosphere as 150 children move from the physical to the spiritual, chanting om in deep meditation. The single syllable vibrates through the open bale as kids as young as six journey through the psychic colors of black, red, blue and white with a focus rarely found in adults, as the deep concentration exercised through yoga's physical positions works on the control of the mind. 

Even the youngest yoga students can see the colors during meditation. "I like yoga because it makes me healthy and when I meditate I see blue," says tiny Ni Komang Yasa. 

Her teacher, 28-year-old Mang-ku Susenna, says the colors experienced during meditation are caused by an inner movement of the mind toward light. 

"We see color *during meditation* because from the beginning we are finding the light. At first, it is black, then students move into red, then blue and finally to the brightness that is white light. At this level the light does not move - you have reached stillness at this point," says Susenna, adding it is much easier for children than adults to develop the necessary concentration."

Kids learn yoga more easily than adults. They are more flexible in mind and body. Their minds are still clear, whereas adults tend to have a lot on their minds so it is more difficult to relax into meditation." 

At just 14 years of age, Putu Natasya Himasyanti and her friends, Kadek Bagiasti and Sunariasih, are skilled yoga practitioners, capable of advanced yoga positions and of journeying deeply within during meditation. 

"I can see a white light very quickly," says Himasyanti, who, like her friends, enjoys the benefits of yoga. "It's really good - I can do a lot of positions. The hardest is the sirsa asana - that's standing on my head." 

The benefits of yoga are far greater than simply boosting the individual health of the yoga kids from across Saren village, which lies on the lower slopes of Mount Agung. 

Banjar across Bali are well known for their occasional border skirmishes. Some villages have feuds that date back centuries and inhabitants do not speak with the neighboring village. 

Yoga teachers in Saren believe that by bringing kids of different banjar together from childhood, there is a high chance they will remain friends into adulthood, derailing inter-banjar issues through friendships, explains assistant yoga teacher, Made Sri Darmayanti. 

"The kids come from several different banjar in the area. Learning yoga together builds friendships between the banjar - they get to know each other. I think this also helps build healthy communities made up of people with focused minds who are more beautiful because they are healthy. This builds their self-confidence into the future and the concentration they develop also helps in their school work," says Darmayanti who also learned yoga as a child. 

Susenna agrees the yoga lessons are positive for local communities: "Yoga shared between kids of different banjar makes for a more peaceful area and into the future builds healthier communities." 

Both Susenna and Darmayanti are dismayed at the notion of paying to learn yoga. "It must be free *yoga lessons*. This is given to us so we have greater self-control and we feel closer to God," says Susenna. 

Darmayanti also sees yoga as a gift from God for everyone. "Yoga can regenerate us all, so our country can grow stronger and we can work together. Because this is freely given from God it must be freely given to each other," says Darmayanti - and her 153 healthy and happy students agree.

Photo's by (JP/J.B. Djwan)

Commentary: Yoga controversy — being healthy is more important

Primastuti Handayani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 01/30/2009 8:00 AM  

There’s always enthusiasm when you do things for the first time. That included my first experience joining a yoga club three months ago. The reason for giving a nod to a friend’s persuasion to do yoga was because I realized I had to exercise.

Why yoga? Honestly, I’m too lazy to jog along the streets in my housing complex. Join a gym? 

A big no-no for me. Play soccer? I broke my left hand playing soccer when I was a second-grader. Martial arts? Leave that to my husband. Yoga became an alternative, because for sure it does not require me to do all those high-impact exercises à la Jane Fonda.

The first try was not easy at all. Some moves were already familiar for me but there were others that were difficult for a newbie. I tried hard to do all the movements as instructed by my yoga teacher. But after the end of the first session and a sip of bottled tea, I realized that my joints were aching. I could barely walk straight. It had been years since I had moved my body for physical exercise.

That night, I wrote in my Facebook profile, “I just had my first yoga class and… my body felt like a wreck.” A friend of mine responded, “I thought yoga should be invigorating.” Indeed… but it will invigorate later when your body is already used to the different poses that need agility and flexibility. For a 30-something person, whose annual exercise sessions can be counted on one hand, doing yoga was not as easy as I had previously thought.

For me and some other Muslim friends in the club, we do yoga for one purpose: our health. 

Because our work requires us to sit in front of the computer for nearly eight hours a day, sometimes more, our backbones definitely need some workout. We didn’t chant Hindu mantras during our practice sessions. There was a session where we were required to lie down, breathe in a certain way and feel the energy within our body. Most of the time, I fell asleep during this relaxation — even if only for a minute. 

When my enthusiasm with my new activity was high, the news from Kuala Lumpur came like a lightning strike in broad daylight. Late last year, ulema in the neighboring country said they would ban yoga because of the chanting of Hindu mantras that could corrupt Islamic values among Muslims in Malaysia.

Debates quickly popped up on Facebook, mailing lists and other interactive media. A Malaysian fellow journalist snubbed the idea, saying it was “an unnecessary thing to do” and that “Indonesians should not follow suit”.

The issue of the possible ban on yoga died down slightly after the New Year, covered by the celebration of Barack Obama’s inauguration as US president and the bleak forecast for the country’s economy.

Apparently, our ulema did not forget their agenda. Gathering in West Sumatra, they issued some edicts that deemed as haram (sinful): vote abstention, smoking in public places and for children and pregnant women, and doing yoga if there are “aspects that contain Hindu elements” — meaning chanting and meditation.

The issuance of the edicts immediately sparked criticism as they were deemed pointless. The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) had said last year they would visit yoga clubs to see if participants actually performed Hindu mantras. I don’t know if they already did that. The ulema should see how stretching our muscles to obtain flexibility tests our balance — not only our body but also our mind — and gives us better posture after frequent exercises. They must learn how breathing properly helps our respiration process work better.

I have a question about that particular edict, though. How on earth can they measure if one’s Islamic values are already corrupted from doing yoga?

The ulema’s edict on smoking is even more hilarious. Why didn’t they ban smoking at all? Is it because the ulema are all smokers, that they are not ready to give up their habits? I personally think that smoking is more harmful to others — especially for passive smokers in their surroundings.

But another friend told me that there’s always a bright side — even in pointless edicts. “In villages and rural areas, ulema are prominent figures in our country. Maybe the edict on yoga has less impact. But imagine the impact for smokers and the golput (vote abstainers). I believe they will follow the edicts and hopefully we’ll see fewer smokers in public places and higher voter turnout.”

I was amazed by my friend’s thought. I hadn’t thought that far. I believe the edicts — especially the yoga part — will not curb people’s enthusiasm to practice yoga. I believe taking care of our health — that includes measures to prevent illness through exercising — will meet all religious values, which are to respect God’s blessings of our health.

President calls on local administrations to provide space for cyclists

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called on the regional administrations to provide adequate spaces for cyclists including those who use bicycles to work.

The head of state made the call at the National Monument here Sunday morning when seeing off cyclists who are engaged in an environmental campaign along a trip from Jakarta to Bali bearing the theme `Bicycle for Earth Goes to Bali`.

"The mayors and district heads across Indonesia should provide spaces for cyclists including those to work," the president said.

According to him, not only does cycling save the world due to less air pollution but also human beings as they inhale fresher air.

"The other advantage of cycling is to reduce our daily expenses as bicycles need no fuel oil which is costly," he said, adding that cycling could make people healthier and far from diseases.

Thus, the head of state encouraged the public to popularize cycling activities in Indonesia.

On the occasion, State Minister for the Environment Rahmat Witoelar said Bicycle for Earth Goes to Bali would take place from November 11 to December 1, 2007, as part of the UN Conference on Climate Change to be held from December 3 to 14, 2007 in Bali.

The cycling event is being participated in by 50 cyclists consisting 15 participants of the main team who will be running the Jakarta-Bali route and 35 members of the cycling community from cities where they will pass through.

The route will pass through the cities of Jakarta, Karawang, Pamanukan, Cirebon, Tegal-Pekalongan, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Solo, Madiun, kertosono, Surabaya, Probolinggo, Situbondo, Banyuwangi, Tabanan, Denpasar, Nusadua.

"The cyclists will take the distance of 1447 kilometers passing through 44 cities with stopovers in 16 cities," the minister said.

The 15 cyclists in the main team have passed a selection test as they were able to take a nonstop trip from Jakarta to Bandung (West Java).

"The event is intended to campaign and popularize the use of bicycles in support of the people`s daily activities," he said.

Rahmat said along the route, the campaign team were scheduled to make socialization on impacts of the climate change and alternative solutions to the issue through mass media as well as discussions with regional leaders and people among other things.

Youth urged to get healthy

The Jakarta Post

JAKARTA (Antara): President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Sunday called on the nation's youth to develop a culture of health and the habit of doing physical exercise to become more globally competitive.

The president made the call at the launch of the Indonesian Healthy Youth Movement as a part of Youth Pledge Day celebrations.

"The youth should keep doing physical exercises, maintaining health, being creative, maintaining harmony among them, avoiding narcotics and violent acts as well as avoiding promiscuity to safeguard the future, make them a leading young generation and develop the nation," he said.

The president said his government would continue to carry out programs to keep Indonesians healthy.