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Emory studying patients to eliminate chronic disease

Emory is on a mission to help people not only live longer but live better.

Emory is on a mission to help people not only live longer but live better.

Researchers are putting together a study that is truly one of a kind and could mean a lot to future generations.

Peggy Sayers often wonders what life could have been like for her mother.

“All of that took years of her life she had to spend focusing on her cancer,” said Peggy Sayers.

Sayers’ mother beat breast cancer twice before throat cancer proved to be just too much.

She died at age 74.

“It’s difficult and it really takes over somebody’s life and you’ve really become very aware of what the impact is.”

A mother of two young boys herself Sayers wants to know more.

“I try not to obsess over it but I try to do what I can to avoid that diagnosis in the future which is why I try to keep up on news that relates to health and breast cancer,” said Sayers.

Her curiosity, wanting to know why cancer is so prevalent in her life is why she will be one of a 100,000 to sign up for Emory’s first of its kind healthy aging study.

“We’re just not going to help people live longer but live longer better,” said Dr. Sharon Bergquist, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Emory School of Medicine.

Over a long period of time, researchers will study participants like Sayers so they can someday treat and potentially cure chronic diseases such as Alzheimer’s and cancer.

“We’re looking for early markers that predict chronic disease and we’re looking to find ways to predict who will develop disease and find novel ways of not only preventing but also treating those diseases,” said Dr. Bergquist.

It’s the type of study Sayers believes her mother would have wanted to take part in.

“She’d probably want it more for other people than herself because that’s the kind of person she was.”

A study with results that could potentially help her family and future generations to come.

Seven out of 10 diseases are chronic.

To learn more about how you can take part in this Emory Healthy Aging Study click on this link, http://healthyaging.emory.edu/.

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