Grass Roots!
My medical history has been one of the ‘break-and-leave-time-to heal’ variety and I consider myself fortunate to be free of more serious ailments that afflict many members of our society. So far. I do have a family history of heart disease and this has been my wake up call to pay attention to diet and exercise.
On more than one occasion I have looked for research groups that collect data from people in my situation – healthy but with heart disease lurking in the background. I am convinced that there are answers to be found ‘out there’ if only we knew where to look. I’m not looking for clinical trials, just an ‘amass the data and see what the statistics on lifestyle issues boil down to’ approach! So who is doing the ‘looking’?
I was pleasantly surprised to recently learn of the BC Generations Project and I took the opportunity to enroll. This program is in its infancy – still waiting for the opportune political time to be announced by the Federal and provincial governments – but they have begun recruiting people. The goal in BC is to establish a database of 40,000 people (300,000 federally) between the ages of 35 and 60 and follow this cohort for the next 25 years. The program is being run from the Diamond center, opposite Vancouver General Hospital.
The initial commitment is filling out a questionnaire and donating body fluids. The process takes about 1 ½ hours, and for that you are compensated with a $10.00 gift certificate at Safeway, meant to offset any parking costs. The program is not meant as an additional medical screening: you will be given the data on physical measurements taken – body mass index, bone density etc. – but none of the lab tests done on the specimens.
All results are strictly confidential – you become a barcode! This is a painless way of contributing to grass roots medical research and I would recommend that everyone take part. And they don’t measure your trunk flexibility!
Ok, kids (<35!), sorry you can’t play, but perhaps you will be the beneficiary of the knowledge gained from this study.
A dedicated web-site is being set up but in the meantime more information can be obtained through the BC Cancer agency: http://www.bccrc.ca/ccr/BCGP_home.html
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What an interesting project Ted. There are no other criteria other than needing to be between the ages of 35 – 60?
That’s right Erin, there is no other criteria other than age group.
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