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San Antonio researchers revive 1979 Heart and Mind Study

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Staff nurse Simaneau with the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) is shown measuring body fat on clinical trial participant.
Archive photo
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FHS
Staff nurse Simaneau with the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) is shown measuring body fat on clinical trial participant.

San Antonio researchers are getting the band back together, in a way. They’re reaching out to people who participated in a groundbreaking 1979 study on heart disease and diabetes in the Latino population to see if they’d like to enroll in a new study.

The San Antonio Heart Study ran from 1979 to 2005. More than 5000 people participated. They were between the ages of 25 and 64, and two-thirds of the participants were Americans of Mexican descent.

"So now the idea is that we want to go back to the original study, invite survivors to participate in a study that will be focused on neurological or brain health," said Dr. Claudia Satizabal.

She will lead the new San Antonio Heart and Mind study at UT Health San Antonio, which will get underway in the spring.

Satizabal said past research on these subjects has been done using largely European American participants, and it’s essential to explore aging and its associated diseases in people of all races and ethnicities.

In this episode, host Bonnie Petrie explores the origins of the 1979 study and the significance of the new study getting underway.