25 Years of Contribution: Alberta's Health Study in Retirement

Me and 55,000 fellow Albertans have been contributing our insights and our bodily fluids to a massive research project for the last 25 years! The Alberta Tomorrow Project (ATP) is a large-scale research study, involving men and women aged 35 to 69 from across the province, to study the causes of cancer and chronic diseases over a 50 year period. Halfway through and there’s lots to celebrate! ATP recently presented a Town Hall event for participants in the project called ‘Preventing Cancer Together – how your data is driving discoveries’. And what a lot of data they have! ATP has collected over 11 billion data points over the last 25 years – each data point is a single piece of information, which could be the answer to a survey question or a lab test result from their collection of blood, saliva, urine and stool samples over the years. I signed up to be a participant right at the beginning of their project, when I saw a poster that they were looking for volunteers for this long-term project. I was leaving my mammogram appointment at the time and, because I had just lost my mom to breast cancer the year before, I signed up in part to honour her. One of their many findings from the study shows that women who breastfed for longer over their lifespan were less likely to experience menopause before the age of 50. You guessed it – early menopause is linked to a higher risk of breast and ovarian cancers. Given that breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women, this finding could save many lives. Other findings and reasons for optimism: the mix of microbes found in a person’s mouth might help predict their risk of developing colon cancer, and eating fruits and vegetables mitigates the cancer-causing effects of red and processed meats. Some of the studies were focused on issues beyond cancer – cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental health – many health studies have been assisted by this ATP research. They ask very little for the results they get! Over the past two and a half decades, I have participated in surveys of varying length every year or two. The priority in general is establishing thorough information on preventative lifestyle choices, so my diet and fitness, stress levels and overall mental health details are thoroughly documented. There are opportunities along the way to sign up for more intensive studies, and I took part in a COVID-19 Antibody Testing study. In June 2020, as a terrified world worked to figure out the pandemic, the Government of Alberta commissioned ATP to collect blood samples over four time periods to provide data which was used to inform public health decisions and research. Over 4,000 participants took part in this study and each time they took my blood I said little prayers that answers to this deadly situation might be found. Then vaccines arrived, because real people worked real hard to expand real science to make it happen. I’m proud to play a teeny part in this massive project! Thank you to everyone involved in the Alberta Tomorrow Project, from individual volunteers who keep giving, to doctors who keep believing, and to everyone who works their magic all along the line. Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow! Visit Sandy’s website at LifeInRetirement.ca