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.

Fewer premature babies were born during lockdown: Erasmus MC

DutchNews, July 20, 2020   

Photo: Depositphotos.com 

Researchers from the Erasmus teaching hospital in Rotterdam believe that there was a decrease in the number of premature babies born in the Netherlands while the country was under lockdown. 

A similar drop was observed during the peak of the coronavirus outbreak in other European countries including Denmark and Ireland, according to the New York Times. 

Premature babies – those born before 32 weeks of gestation – are at greater risk of a variety of health problems, including neurological issues, vision and hearing problems and premature death. 

Irish and Danish doctors reported a 90% drop in significantly premature babies, born earlier than 28 weeks, but the fall in the Netherlands was said to be “slight,” reports NOS. 

It is unclear what was causing the decrease. Some researchers speculate that during lockdowns, pregnant women may have slept for more hours and spent less time on their feet. Others suggest that a decrease in air pollution may have played a role.

US pharma firm signs deal with Dutch researchers for coronavirus medicine

DutchNews, May 31, 2020

Illustration: Depositphotos.com

A big US pharmaceuticals company has partnered up with a Dutch researchers to develop a medicine from an antibody which can block infection by coronavirus. 

Erasmus university researcher Frank Grosveld told NOS radio on Sunday evening that the company, which he declined to name, would carry out mass production of a medicine deriving from the antibody after initial trials on animals proved positive. 

‘We have been negotiating for a while with several pharmaceuticals companies and have now reached agreement with one which will produce a medicine in line with protocols’ he said. ‘It will first have to be tested on a number of volunteers and then we can start treating patients.’ 

The company has said it will take five or six months before the medicine has been developed, Grosveld said. 

The Dutch team, which is based in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, did receive a grant of ‘several hundred thousand euros’ to carry out the initial research, Grosveld said. 

Asked if this meant that the Netherlands would get a cheap deal on the eventual medicine, Grosveld said he hoped so, but he did not know. 

In an earlier interview, team leader Berend Jan Bosch said that the patent would remain in the hands of the researchers, while the pharmaceuticals company in question will take a licence to the antibody. 

Two uses 

The antibody has been shown to both inhibit development of coronavirus in hamsters and to combat the disease in animals which have already been infected.

‘This mean that the antibody protects in living organisms, which means we can go through to the next stage in the research, with the US pharmaceuticals company,’ Grosveld said. 

The team first went public with their finding in mid March. The antibody, a remnant of earlier research into coronaviruses like SARS and MERS, was found in a freezer at the Utrecht university lab for animal science. 

The presence of the old material meant the team had a head start in the international scramble to find a medicine or vaccine to combat the virus which has killed 370,000 people worldwide so far.

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"Some Virus Truths for you to Consider", Streamed, US, Apr 14, 2020 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (>43.09 Min - Reference to the Global Coronavirus crisis and the Immune System) (Text version) - New

"Corona 2", Reykjavik, Iceland, Mar, 2020 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (>3,12 Min - Reference to the Global Coronavirus crisis)

"Corona 1", Reykjavik, Iceland, Mar, 2020 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - 

(>13.46 Min - Reference to the Global Coronavirus crisis)

Netherlands plans ‘world’s first’ scientific test of anti-malarial drugs against corona

DutchNews, April 10, 2020 

Photo: Depositphotos.com

The effectiveness of anti-malarial drugs against the coronavirus will be formally studied in hospitals across the Netherlands from next week, reports NU.nl. 

Across the world, and including in the Netherlands, former anti-malarial drugs chloroquine and the related hydroxychloroquine have been used for patients suffering extreme symptoms from the coronavirus – even though it is not known precisely how they would work. 

Andy Hoepelman, of UMC Utrecht, told NU.nl that a national study he is co-ordinating would try to investigate the precise impact of these drugs on the virus. 

‘Chloroquine used to be used to combat malaria and hydroxychloroquine is regularly prescribed for rheumatism and the auto-immune disease SLE,’ he reportedly said, adding that small and unpublished Chinese studies had looked at their effects on corona. 

‘The results seemed to vary and most studies had no control group at all. Without a control group, you can’t say whether treatment with chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine works better than standard hospital treatment.’ 

The Dutch study will look at the impact of the drugs on patients who have been admitted to hospital but are not in intensive care, comparing their effects with those on standard treatment. 

Hoepelman reportedly said that this would be the first such study worldwide to see whether the drugs stop symptoms from worsening and patients from ending up in intensive care. 

Because the drugs have previously been licensed for use, their side effects – such as impact on the heart – are already known and can be monitored, he added. 

Last month, a pharmaceuticals company in Zeewolde that makes chloroquine was put under police guard.

Radboud research offers new hope to MS sufferers, identifies key genes

DutchNews, November 18, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Scientists at Radboud University teaching hospital in Nijmegen say they have discovered multiple dna variants which indicate an increased risk of developing Muscular Sclerosis. 

The discovery will allow researchers to carry out more targeted research into the disease, according to MS charity Nationaal MS Fonds.  MS is a disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body. 

The most important of the Radboud discoveries focuses on the MBP gene, which produces a protein that forms a protective layer around the nerves. In MS patients, antibodies stop the protein being made, leaving the nerve unprotected. 

This, in turn, leaves the nerves unable to send signals to the brain, leading to paralysis. 

The scientists now want to use MS sufferers’ skin cells to grow stem and nerve cells to look for new remedies. 

‘We want to use some of the genes which have been found in a functional study to test at cell level how the genetic defects work,’ research association Geert Poelmans said. ‘The results of this follow-up research will focus on developing long-term new treatments to counteract MS’ 

Scientists believe that a combination of environmental and genetic factors contribute to the risk of developing MS. Some 17,000 people in the Netherlands currently have MS, with 800 new cases being diagnosed every year. 

The new discoveries were made comparing the dna of MS sufferers and their healthy family members.

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"The Addictive Old Energy" + "Timing", US (3), August 12-13, 2017(Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)  (The Addictive Old Energy - Text version)

"... Is He Alone? How About You?

What kind of addiction does the old energy have for you? Are you continuing to do things that you think are absolutely correct, working with perceptions that have been given to you in an old energy that you are still wallowing in? Of course, reading this you will say, "Not me." Remember the Korean leader. He still thinks he is right and never saw it. How invested in struggle are you? I have some news. You can't do it for long. First, you lose friends. You can't claim to be one thing and be another anymore.

So let's start extending this teaching. If the darkness is so attractive, is it affecting anything else? The answer? It is absolutely affecting everything else. There's an entire industry we have told you about that will eventually fail because it has been developed in an older energy, worked in an older energy, and has no integrity. The industry is Big Pharma. We've told you that its fall is imminent and the attributes will come from the ones within it, who will expose it. When this actually happens is up to you, since this is free choice of the developing consciousness of your country. However, let's look for a moment, not at the event, but what it may then lead to.

Big Pharma is invested in an old idea that designer chemistry is the answer to healing. This idea has been prevalent for decades and many feel that it is the highest technology available. However, instead, and in the light, there starts to appear another idea entirely: The Human body has an unrealized awareness and it is actually the master healer! The Human body is designed to self-correct. So, therefore, don't put foreign chemistry into it, but instead find out how to give it elegant, specific instruction sets to heal itself. Make them high-technology instruction sets to inform it to heal itself!

This is homeopathy expanded, you might say. There are processes coming that understand that this Human body of yours is so much better than any chemist has ever realized, and the new energy is starting to expose this fact. The answer to healing is not chemistry. The answer to health and healing is by addressing the "smart part" of the Human body, giving it instructions to utilize former unknown systems that are ready to create spontaneous remission and beyond.

Remember my channelling given on the "youthing template" or the fact that you all have dormant "genesis cells" within your body (cells that have the full body blueprint and a source for very young stem cells)? These both were expositions of systems that are smart and ready to create new cells and healing in ways that will seem miraculous! But they need to be "instructed". 

Funding Will Trail for Awhile

How much money do you think is invested in the old ways? Right now, there is an industry of investment that is going to fail. So, do you think all this money will then be invested into the new methods? The answer is NO, not right away. Just like the North Korean leader's blindness, the old ways are just too addicting. "Keep it the same," they will yell. "The fall is temporary," they will say. "It always worked before, and it always will." Many investors will lose fortunes. The dysfunction is already being seen clearly. When you turn on your media at night, much of what you hear in the commercial breaks is how the chemistry didn't work! Now you get a chance to join others and sue the pharma companies for bad chemistry! You think something is beginning to break? It is. You see, they are already wallowing in something that's going to make them fail. They are advertising how broken the very system is. Both big pharma and their investors don't see the light coming yet, even though it is becoming dysfunctional before their eyes.  ..."

"The Innate Revealed" (3) - Nov 22/23, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“… Survival Programming

Whereas the Human brain is programmed for corporeal survival, Innate is programmed for spiritual survival. You might ask, "What is the difference?" Corporeal survival is your ability to get away from the tiger chasing you and find food and shelter. It gives you the logic to figure out these things and to stay alive. Spiritual survival is a very different thing, and it's very esoteric. It's a much larger kind of survival. It pushes humanity's spiritual evolution and provides a higher working level of your DNA. Let me explain.

Innate knows what the ancients knew. It knows the grand plan; remember, it's connected to the Higher-Self. It knows how long humanity has on this planet before it will no longer be able to make a decision toward planetary graduation. Innate knows that; your DNA knows that. What is the prime directive of Innate? It is to do everything it can for you, giving you multiple chances at free choice, allowing an awakening to take place, therefore, allowing humanity to go across the bridge of survival and move into an ascended planet status. That is the prime directive.

Spiritual survival represents the potential evolution of Earth, and everything is designed around that. Innate is designed to push you forward in any way possible within the free choice system into spiritual awareness. That is what Innate is for. Do you see the grand plan in all this? You have a built-in guidance system to help you navigate your potential.

In this process, Innate also crosses the bridge with corporeal chemistry in very different ways. Innate is responsible for spontaneous remission. Now you know where that comes from. Did you really think that came out of the brain? How can a Human have a disease disappear overnight? How is it possible that the corporeal body can cleanse itself of something so unbalanced overnight? How can tissue grow in a greatly accelerated rate to cause healing almost overnight? I have just given you things that hospitals have seen over and over. They have X-rayed them and verified them and chemically tested them. There is no way, they might say, that this could normally happen. For those who are spiritual, it has to be a miracle! For the science minded, it remains unexplainable. The beauty of this is that it is, indeed, explainable. It's the miracle of Innate! It's your own body keeping you alive. It's a profound, miraculous back-up system.

That's the power that you have. When Innate finally starts to build the bridge to the corporeal self, the Human Being as you know it today will disappear. The one who takes its place will have a much longer life, able to repair itself and even grow limbs back. This is how it was designed, dear ones, and this should start to make sense to you. …”

"The Mysterious Innate" – Aug 31, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“.. Mining the Akash - The Role of Innate

What I'm going to tell next, we have given you before. However, I wish to explain it better in this communication. Your innate is also a governor of what you personally need. Let me explain: Turn a page with me. We have talked in the past about mining the Akash. So let us open that door for a moment. Is it possible, dear one, that you could go into the vast storehouse of the attributes of your past lives and pick out something that you need today? The answer is yes. It's called mining the Akash, and it is a staple of the Kryon teaching. However, the way it's accomplished by the individual Human is really difficult to describe. It's a personal intuitive process. However, one attribute of it that is often misunderstood is that permission from the innate is needed. This is because the innate smart body knows what you need. It is then the governor, or the filter, giving you permission regarding what can be pulled out of your Akash and used. It will say no to frivolous things and yes to the things that will allow you to cure yourself of disease, live longer, and increase the efficiency of your DNA. It's a smart body regulator.

Innate doesn't care how you look. It cares about your health. If you want to go into your Akash and pull out something that you need for survival, it's right there with you. If you want to make clearer skin, it won't respond. Do you see what I mean? It's the governor for mining the Akash. By the way, the Akash is very ready to be used for this. [Kryon wink]

You have earned what you've lived, dear ones, and it's very available. It lies in a quantum soup of lifetime information that is ready to be used. If you have a disease in your body right now, and perhaps you want to mine the Akash in a way that will create healing, you can. Like all nonlinear things, it requires a new, mature consciousness and practice to work. But the body is ready for you to "go get" the cellular structure of a past life that had no disease. The blueprint for this resides within you since you earned it and lived it. The innate is responsible for spontaneous remission! Science has no idea how a Human does this. The innate can help you "go get" the things within your earned Akash and place them into your cellular structure. That's how smart it is! Imagine clearing disease so completely that there is no sign it was ever there? It happens all the time. Imagine being able to drop a chemical dependency overnight? It's exactly the same principle.

Did you ever sit in a meeting and something is said or a feeling can happen, and you get chills? What are they? You might say, "They are chills of validation." Guess where they came from? The innate! The innate has the ability to signal you the truth. The brain does not. In fact, your brain will often get in the way. It's the brain that contains your box of belief. It's the brain that contains the perception of who you are based on experience and memory. It's your 3D survival instrument. But the brain can't give truth. It can only give you what it perceives as the truth, based on logical, processed, computed, synaptic reasoning and only based on your past experience.

Your brain can tell you not to touch the stove because of what happened once before. But it can't give you chills of validation from information it does not have. The intellect wants you to believe that your brain is supreme. However, the brain is only one part of the body system and not a very intuitive part. It is the innate that knows the truth. The innate is connected to the quantum parts of your DNA and, therefore, also knows of your spirituality and the truth of God inside. …”

"The Quantum Factor" – Apr 10, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Galaxies, Universe, Intelligent design, Benevolent design, Aliens, Nikola Tesla (Quantum energy), Inter-Planetary Travel, DNA, Genes, Stem Cells, Cells, Rejuvenation, Shift of Human Consciousness, Spontaneous Remission, Religion, Dictators, Africa, China, Nuclear Power, Sustainable Development, Animals, Global Unity.. etc.) - (Text Version)

“… Cell Division - a static process?

Let me take you to the cellular division process. We've said this before, but you need to hear this to understand how it works. A cell is ready to divide. The Human body is designed to rejuvenate... all tissue. You've been told that there's some tissue that does not rejuvenate, but that is incorrect. It all rejuvenates at different speeds at different times and in different ways. It rejuvenates. So now you know that the Human body is designed to live a long time. Unfortunately, the energy that you have created on this planet and what you've gone through, has beat it up. You don't live much more than 80 years. That was not the design.

The Biblical personalities were sometimes prophets and sometimes masters and sometimes just there... and lived for hundreds of years. Did they really? Or perhaps this is that just a metaphor? Did they get that right in the Bible without a error in transcription? I'm going to tell you the truth. It's very accurate. Thousands of years ago you lived a very long time, Lemurian. If you knew your lifespan, you'd gasp. But not anymore. Instructions have been given over time to DNA, literally, by the energy of the planet... en energy that you have created through consciousness.

A cell divides. Right before it divides, it needs the blueprint to clone itself. The blueprint is available from the stem cell. The stem cell gets its information from the quantum part of the DNA, which has never changed since you were born. It's remained static, since nothing has ever changed it... and the fact that you don't believe it's changeable and have just accepted aging. There's not a conscious effort to do anything with it, and it just lays there like it always did.

The diving cell "talks" to the stem cell and says, "Do the same thing you always did? Change anything?" And the stem cell talks to the cell that is dividing, saying, "Make another one just the same." Then you rejuvenate just like the last one, accepting everything you received when you were born.  …”

In Ivory Coast, telemedicine revolution proves blessing for heart patients

Yahoo – AFP, David ESNAULT, September 14, 2019

Thousands of heart patients in Ivory Coast are checked by telemedicine
each year (AFP Photo/DAVID ESNAULT)

Bouaké (Ivory Coast) (AFP) - Every time Catherine Coulibaly's 19-year-old son had to make a routine appointment with the cardiologist for his heart condition, she gritted her teeth as she silently counted the financial cost.

It wasn't just the hospital fee -- there was the transport, food and accommodation, too, all of it amounting to a hefty burden for an Ivorian family on a modest income.

But thanks to telemedicine -- consultations that doctors conduct through the internet or by phone -- this cost is now a fading memory.

Her son can book an appointment at a telemedicine facility in a nearby town in northern Ivory Coast.

There, he is attached to monitoring machines which send the data sent to Bouake University Hospital in the centre of the country, where it is scrutinised by a heart doctor.

The fledgling technology has long been championed by health advocates for poor rural economies.

Ivory Coast has become an African testbed for it, thanks to a project linking the Bouake hospital's cardiac department with health centres in several northern towns, some of which are a four-hour drive away.

Telemedicine "caused a sigh of relief for the population of Bouake, Boundiali, Korhogo, everyone," says Auguste Dosso, president of the "Little Heart" association, which helps families with cardiac health issues.

Some 45 percent of the Ivorian population live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank's latest estimate in 2017. And the minimum monthly wage -- not always respected -- is only around $100, or 90 euros.

Heart disease surging

The pioneer behind the scheme is cardiologist Florent Diby, who set up an association called Wake Up Africa.

In Ivory Coast, heart disease, diabetes and other "lifestyle" ailments are surging, Diby explained.

Cardiac specialists are rare in Ivory Coast -- patients can spend much of their

income in transport and accommodation when they need a consultation 

(AFP Photo/DAVID ESNAULT)

"Urbanisation is making people more sedentary, and there's the rise in tobacco consumption, changes in diet, stress," Diby said.

Three decades ago, only around one in eight of the Ivorian population had high blood pressure -- now the figure is one in four, on a par with parts of Western Europe.

But in Ivory Coast -- and across Africa -- well-equipped cardiology units are rare.

"Ninety percent of heart attacks can be diagnosed by telemedicine, so for us cardiologists it's a revolutionary technology," said Diby.

The beauty of the telemedicine scheme is that neither the doctor nor the patient has to travel far.

The cardiac patient is hooked up to the electrocardiogram (ECG) and other diagnostic machines with the help of a technician in a local health centre, which is connected to a computer in Bouake's University Hospital.

The cardiologist there can then see the results in real time, provide a diagnosis and prescribe treatment.

The five-year-old project has already linked 10 health centres to the seven cardiologists at Bouake, enabling 4,800 patients in other towns to receive consultations by telemedicine each year. The goal is to expand this to 20 sites, doubling the intake.

Expertise France, the French public agency for international technical assistance, subsidises up to 185,000 euros of the network, which pays for equipment such as computers, artificial intelligence software and internet connections.

Diby is now calling for telemedicine to be expanded in other medical fields such as neurology and psychiatry, not just in the Ivory Coast, but across West Africa too.

That opinion is shared by other experts. Sixty percent of Africans live in rural areas, where shortages of doctors are usually acute.

But numerous hurdles need to be overcome, especially investment in computers and access to the internet, according to a 2013 analysis published by the US National Library of Medicine.

WHO launches genetic research register after designer-baby scandal

Yahoo – AFP, August 29, 2019

Chinese scientist He Jiankui, pictured in November 2018, altered the DNA of twin
girls in southern China by using molecular scissors -- ostensibly to prevent them
from contracting HIV (AFP Photo/Anthony WALLACE)

Geneva (AFP) - The WHO announced Thursday it will create a global registry to track research into human genetic manipulation, after a call to halt all work on germline genome editing -- used in China last year to genetically modify twin baby girls.

"New genome editing technologies hold great promise and hope for those who suffer from diseases we once thought untreatable," the World Health Organization's Director General for told the body's genome editing oversight committee meeting in Geneva.

"But some uses of these technologies also pose unique and unprecedented challenges -– ethical, social, regulatory and technical,” he added.

Chinese scientist He Jiankui's announcement last November that he had altered the DNA of twins girls in southern China by using molecular scissors -- ostensibly to prevent them from contracting HIV.

He was then fired from his university, put under police investigation and ordered to halt his work.

But his announcement provoked a global backlash from scientists saying the untested procedure was unethical and potentially dangerous and in December the WHO set up an expert committee to look into the matter.

About 30 nations currently have legislation directly or indirectly barring all clinical use of germline editing.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emphasised that countries should not allow any further work on human germline genome editing "until the technical and ethical implications have been properly considered", the WHO said in a statement.

Accepting the recommendation of its 18-member expert committee, WHO announced plans for an initial phase of the registry to include both germline and somatic clinical trials

Somatic mutations occur in a single body cell and cannot be inherited while germline mutations can be passed onto offspring.

Related Articles:

China eyes bans for rogue scientists after gene-editing uproar

Chinese hospital denies approving gene-edited babies experiment

Women with heart failure benefit from lower drug doses: research

DutchNews, August 23, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Women with heart failure might need lower doses of drugs and beta blockers than men, according to a report by Groningen University researchers and published in The Lancet. 

The researchers looked at the standard doses of medicines for heart failures across two large patient groups – 2,500 from Europe and 4,000 from Asia. They found that despite differences in age, weight and bmi, both European and Asian women could be successfully treated with half the recommended doses of the drugs. 

Giving them more than 50% only increased the side effects, the researchers said. 

The research also brings into question what the true optimal medical therapy is for women versus men, the report’s authors said. 

Lead researcher Bernadet Santema told broadcaster NOS doctors are becoming more aware that the sexes need to have different treatments at times.

‘Traditionally, 75% to 80% of people in drugs trials are men,’ she said. ‘Here in Groningen, we do a lot of cardiology trials and we see the same.’

‘If you look back, it is remarkable that science has paid such little attention to the differences between men and women, when they are obvious for all to see,’ UMCG cardiology professor Adriaan Voors said in a press release. 

‘Sometimes the biggest breakthroughs come from the most minor questions. The results we are finding could apply across far more fields.’

Low-skilled worker life expectancy is five years less than for graduates

DutchNews, August 16, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Today’s new pensioners with a college or university degree will live an average of four to five years longer than those with vocational qualifications, the national statistics agency CBS said on Friday. 

Men with a degree are now expected to enjoy 22 years of retirement, while men with few qualifications will live a further 17 years, the CBS said. In addition, the life expectancy gap for men has grown a full year since the period 2011 to 2014. For women, the gap remains four years. 

Lifestyle is likely to be behind the difference, the CBS said. ‘People with a lower level of education are more likely to be overweight and to smoke,’ a spokesman told news agency ANP. They are also more likely to have hearing, eyesight and muscle problems. 

In addition, people with degrees retire, on average, eight months before the low-skilled – meaning they enjoy both a corporate and state pension for longer. 

The FNV trade union federation, which is campaigning for early retirement to be incorporated in the current proposals to reform the pension system, said the new figures demonstrate the real need for change. 

‘The growing difference in life expectancy shows that the union is right to call for the state pension age to be frozen and to scrap the fines for early retirement,’ a spokesman told ANP.

Health inspectors to look again at misdiagnosed cancer death

DutchNews, July 30, 2019

Health ministry inspectors have decided to carry out a further investigation into the  death of Irish national Adrienne Cullen, who died of cervical cancer at the end of last year, following two missed diagnoses. 

The inspectorate has written to her husband Peter Cluskey, informing him that they   have decided to further investigate the case with a focus on ‘improvement measures’ to determine if the risk of the same thing happening again had been reduced. 

The investigation will take place in the next two months. 

In May, officials at Utrecht’s UMC teaching hospital refused to say they were looking again at the results of other women’s cervical cancer tests after a missed diagnosis in 2011 led to Cullen dying of the disease. 

According to an official report on the incident, a test was not diagnosed according to ‘a professional standard’. 

A second biopsy taken at UMC Utrecht in 2011, showing more signs of cancer, was then lost for two years. By the time this biopsy result came to light in 2013, a disease that would have been 90%-95% treatable had become a death sentence. 

The teaching hospital has already admitted liability for medical negligence, and made a record compensation pay-out of €545,000 to Cullen before she died. 

Candid 

Peter Cluskey told DutchNews.nl that he welcomed the investigation because the initial report into the issues was essentially carried out by the hospital itself. 

The pathologist who made the wrong diagnosis has since retired on full service, even though the cancer was spotted later by 11 other experts at different Dutch hospitals, he said. 

‘I believe it is irresponsible of UMC Utrecht not to be more candid about whether and how they are checking other patients’ tests,’ he said. ‘That silence is totally in line with the hospital’s authoritarian share-no-information ethos. I hope the inspectorate can provide more clarity.

Related Article:

Irish woman who fought Dutch hospital secrecy dies of cancer

@AdrienneCullen died at the Netherlands Cancer Institute @hetAVL at 10.15 am today. To those who have been so loyal and generous - particularly @UCC and @osheaucc for her honorary doctorate - a million thanks. She was appallingly treated +and it made her a formidable warrior. RIP pic.twitter.com/Fv0vKiMtMI

— Peter Cluskey (@petercluskey) 31 december 2018

Scientists identify gene that helps people live to a ripe old age

DutchNews, May 27, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Researchers at Amsterdam’s UMC have identified a rare gene that halves people’s chances of developing dementia in old age. 

People with the genetic variant, which occurs in around 1% of the population, are also more likely to live longer. The researchers studied 16 different sample populations in Europe and North America, including a number of people over the age of 100, for the study published in the journal Acta Neuropathologica. 

The discovery could potentially be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease and other degenerative illnesses such as frontotemporal and Lewy body dementia. 

The genetic variant, labelled Rs 72824905, had already been identified as a potential natural defence against Alzheimer’s, but the UMC study of 53,000 people was the first large-scale analysis. 

Between 254,000 and 270,000 people in the Netherlands have some form of dementia. Alzheimer’s is the most common form, accounting for 70% of the total, while 16% have dementia caused by degenerated blood vessels and 6% suffer from Lewy body dementia or Parkinson’s. 

Frontotemporal dementia is rare, but much more likely to affect people under the age of 65. 

People who reach the age of 90 live on average a year longer with the Rs 72824905 gene, while people in the study group who were over 100 were twice as likely to have the gene. One 104-year-old woman with the gene showed no signs of dementia despite having two other genetic variants that usually increase the risk of developing the illness at an early age. 

Researchers hope they can develop treatments for Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia that synthesise the effects of the gene on the brain.

Taxpayers are funding expensive drug development, report says

DutchNews, May 10, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com

The Dutch government invests tens of millions of euros every year in small biotech companies which are developing the expensive medicines ministers are trying to make cheaper, according to a new report. 

The government places no conditions on its loans and grants to biotech and pharma start-ups about the eventual prices they will charge for their drugs, the report, by multinational research groups Somo and Wemos said.

‘Pharmaceutical companies argue that the reason their drugs are so expensive is because research and development is expensive, but this is simply not true,’ said Somo researcher Esther de Haan.

‘Much of the cost of research and development is borne by unconditional public investment. Because of this, the government loses its chance to influence drug pricing.’ 

In addition to funding fundamental research conducted by universities, national and regional governments also invest heavily in start-up and spin-off biotech companies – companies founded by researchers wanting to commercially develop promising scientific findings. 

Large private investors usually move in later, when the medicine looks more promising and the risk to investors is therefore lower, the report points out. ‘These private investors then make a huge profit by selling their shares at a high price to other companies in the pharmaceutical industry,’ the report said. 

The researchers look at several case studies including Acerta’s development of Calquence, a cancer drug currently on sale in the US for $15,000 a month. The drug was developed with the help of both Dutch national and regional government funding. 

Health minister Bruno Bruins told the Volkskrant that the researchers ‘had a point’ and that he would discuss the findings with the economic affairs ministry, which runs most of the investment funds.

‘We should not be paying big prices for drugs which were partly developed with taxpayers’ money,’ the minister said. 

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Bruins has criticised the pharmaceutical industry following two high profile cases involving soaring drug prices. In January, Bruins reacted angrily to a decision by Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis to put up the price of a drug to treat a rare form of cancer five fold, describing it as ‘outrageous‘. 

And in November, Amsterdam’s AMC teaching hospital was given the green light to make its own version of a licenced drug to treat a rare metabolic disorder. 

The hospital began making its own version of the drug after manufacturer Leadiant ramped up the price by around 500% to €200,000 per patient per year. 

The Dutch healthcare institute Zorginstituut Nederland has also said insurers should stop paying for expensive drugs if pharmaceutical companies continue to refuse to say how they arrive at the price.

Israeli pharmaceutical giant Teva has vowed to defend itself after being accused of orchestrating price-fixing among drugmakers in a US antitrust lawsuit https://t.co/VGSZSsPCOw

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 11 mei 2019

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