I was approached by my GP a while ago about participating in an Australia wide long term study, the focus being that taking a certain drug over a long period of time just might delay or maybe prevent many of the illnesses that beset older people in the community, heart disease, diabetes dementia etc .
The trial was open to people over the age of 70 years and is to last for five years.. I had to agree to undergo blood and urine tests and then was put through a barrage of psychological testing and then taken through some more rigorous cognitive high jumps. All of which will be repeated next year. The drug is one of the statins and is not experimental. The study is going to be the largest of its kind worldwide and is being funded by the Australian government .
They are aiming at getting 10,000 people involved, half will be the control group and of course we won't know which group we will be in. Occasionally , I will need to provide more blood and urine samples.and it has been a little time consuming but the sheer size of the trial is large enough to really see some results.
While they were doing all this assessment they talked me into signing up for another study which involved recording bio markers taken from blood and urine tests. Occasionally I will have to provide more samples.
Over the years, they will build up a profile and use it to see if anything shows up that would be helpful in early detection of diseases like Alzheimer's .
Anyway, the psychologist told me after it was all over that they don't often give feedback but she said that I had done really really well. And so then the scary bit will be trying to do as well again next year.
So there are some good things underway, and I think that trying a different approach is always an interesting thing to do.
The trial was open to people over the age of 70 years and is to last for five years.. I had to agree to undergo blood and urine tests and then was put through a barrage of psychological testing and then taken through some more rigorous cognitive high jumps. All of which will be repeated next year. The drug is one of the statins and is not experimental. The study is going to be the largest of its kind worldwide and is being funded by the Australian government .
They are aiming at getting 10,000 people involved, half will be the control group and of course we won't know which group we will be in. Occasionally , I will need to provide more blood and urine samples.and it has been a little time consuming but the sheer size of the trial is large enough to really see some results.
While they were doing all this assessment they talked me into signing up for another study which involved recording bio markers taken from blood and urine tests. Occasionally I will have to provide more samples.
Over the years, they will build up a profile and use it to see if anything shows up that would be helpful in early detection of diseases like Alzheimer's .
Anyway, the psychologist told me after it was all over that they don't often give feedback but she said that I had done really really well. And so then the scary bit will be trying to do as well again next year.
So there are some good things underway, and I think that trying a different approach is always an interesting thing to do.
