This story is about George Smith, an Army Veteran and participant in the Million Veteran Program (MVP).<\/p>\n
As a teenager, Smith had a choice to make: stay at the pineapple cannery earning minimum wage of $1.25 and wait for the Selective Service to call him into military service or finish out the summer job and enlist.<\/p>\n
Against his mother\u2019s wishes, in September\u00a01968, just weeks after graduating high school and turning 18, Smith signed his name and joined the Army. He left his life on the Hawaii islands and boarded a flight for basic training on the mainland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When it was time to deploy, the Army sent his engineer battalion into enemy territory in support of the 1st Cavalry Division. Operating bulldozers and other graders, they dug into the earth, smoothing the jungle floor for roads, helicopter pads, airstrips and compounds.<\/p>\n
When Smith returned from Vietnam, he served in Texas and Germany, ending his career with the Army at Fort Ord in Monterrey, California.\u00a0He departed military service\u00a0and began a new life in Honolulu.<\/p>\n
\u201cI pretty much exchanged one uniform for another,\u201d said Smith, who\u00a0worked as a police officer for 27 years. He retired from the Honolulu Police Department in June 2005.<\/p>\n
What he loved most about his career, both in the Army and with the police department, was his role as an instructor. \u201cOne of the characteristics of knowledge is that it\u2019s sharable. There\u2019s no sense acquiring knowledge if you\u2019re not going it share it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In January this year, while waiting for a consult with the pharmacist about blood pressure medication, Smith was presented another opportunity to share and give back.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolynesians tend to have heart disease problems,\u201d said Smith \u2026 and it\u2019s true. While research is limited, the CDC found that Native Hawaiians\/Pacific Islanders are 10% more likely to be diagnosed with coronary heart disease than non-Hispanic white people.<\/p>\n
So when an MVP staff member approached Smith in the pharmacy about research to understand health conditions in Veterans better than ever before, Smith heard him out.<\/p>\n
More than 940,000 Veterans are signed up for MVP, making it VA\u2019s largest research program and one of the largest in the world looking at genes and health.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy concern is if I have anything I could pass on to my kids,\u201d said Smith, who always wondered if he was exposed to something that could explain his three unrelated cancer diagnoses. He worries if something may have changed his DNA, and if those changes could have passed down to his grown children and their children.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s the only one in his family with cancer, though he shares a family history of heart disease, like many others in his Native Hawaiian community. This, too, is under-studied and little known.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t need to live forever,\u201d said Smith, 72. But he\u00a0yearns for answers\u2026 for his children, his fellow Vietnam Veterans and his Native Hawaiian family.<\/p>\n
Before\u00a0Smith left the pharmacy, he signed a form agreeing to participate in MVP, rolled up his sleeve for a blood draw and joined the program.<\/p>\n
Already, data from Veterans in MVP have supported the largest genetic studies to date on\u00a0posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)<\/a>,\u00a0major depression<\/a>,\u00a0heart disease<\/a>, and\u00a0suicide prevention<\/a>. Other areas researchers are studying include Alzheimer\u2019s disease and dementia, tinnitus, cancer, diabetes, osteoarthritis and Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n The goal is to use this research to build the foundation for more specialized health care for Veterans. To give all Veterans meaningful answers to long-sought questions about their health and wellness.<\/p>\n You can be part of this, too.<\/p>\nMake a difference by joining MVP<\/h2>\n
![<\/a>Army Veteran George Smith<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nExchanging one uniform for another<\/h2>\nWhen Smith returned from Vietnam, he served in Texas and Germany, ending his career with the Army at Fort Ord in Monterrey, California.\u00a0He departed military service\u00a0and began a new life in Honolulu.<\/p>\n\u201cI pretty much exchanged one uniform for another,\u201d said Smith, who\u00a0worked as a police officer for 27 years. He retired from the Honolulu Police Department in June 2005.<\/p>\nWhat he loved most about his career, both in the Army and with the police department, was his role as an instructor. \u201cOne of the characteristics of knowledge is that it\u2019s sharable. There\u2019s no sense acquiring knowledge if you\u2019re not going it share it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\nIn January this year, while waiting for a consult with the pharmacist about blood pressure medication, Smith was presented another opportunity to share and give back.<\/p>\nA longing for answers<\/h2>\n\u201cPolynesians tend to have heart disease problems,\u201d said Smith \u2026 and it\u2019s true. While research is limited, the CDC found that Native Hawaiians\/Pacific Islanders are 10% more likely to be diagnosed with coronary heart disease than non-Hispanic white people.<\/p>\nSo when an MVP staff member approached Smith in the pharmacy about research to understand health conditions in Veterans better than ever before, Smith heard him out.<\/p>\nMore than 940,000 Veterans are signed up for MVP, making it VA\u2019s largest research program and one of the largest in the world looking at genes and health.<\/p>\n\u201cMy concern is if I have anything I could pass on to my kids,\u201d said Smith, who always wondered if he was exposed to something that could explain his three unrelated cancer diagnoses. He worries if something may have changed his DNA, and if those changes could have passed down to his grown children and their children.<\/p>\nHe\u2019s the only one in his family with cancer, though he shares a family history of heart disease, like many others in his Native Hawaiian community. This, too, is under-studied and little known.<\/p>\n\u201cI don\u2019t need to live forever,\u201d said Smith, 72. But he\u00a0yearns for answers\u2026 for his children, his fellow Vietnam Veterans and his Native Hawaiian family.<\/p>\nBecoming part of MVP<\/h2>\nBefore\u00a0Smith left the pharmacy, he signed a form agreeing to participate in MVP, rolled up his sleeve for a blood draw and joined the program.<\/p>\nAlready, data from Veterans in MVP have supported the largest genetic studies to date on\u00a0posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)<\/a>,\u00a0major depression<\/a>,\u00a0heart disease<\/a>, and\u00a0suicide prevention<\/a>. Other areas researchers are studying include Alzheimer\u2019s disease and dementia, tinnitus, cancer, diabetes, osteoarthritis and Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\nThe goal is to use this research to build the foundation for more specialized health care for Veterans. To give all Veterans meaningful answers to long-sought questions about their health and wellness.<\/p>\nMake a difference by joining MVP<\/h2>\nYou can be part of this, too.<\/p>\nAny Veteran can join. Sign up today at\u00a0mvp.va.gov<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>or call\u00a0866-441-6075\u00a0to make an appointment at a participating VA facility. It\u2019s not required to receive care at VA to participate in MVP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is about George Smith, an Army Veteran and participant in the Million Veteran Program (MVP). As a teenager, Smith had a choice to make: stay at the pineapple cannery earning minimum wage of $1.25 and wait for the Selective Service to call him into military service or finish out the summer job and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":8501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,242],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-million-veteran-program"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8499"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8502,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8499\/revisions\/8502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/04\/George-Smith_r1.jpg\"){kind=link}