New health study seeks older volunteers

By Margaret Foster

Most of us have never heard of a condition called clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (also known as CHIP). But 10% of people over age 60 have the condition — and may not know it.

“It’s really common in older people,” said Emma Groarke, principal investigator of a study on the condition at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She describes CHIP as “genetic changes that are found in blood cells that seem to predispose people to other diseases that are not blood disease.”

If you have CHIP, you’re more likely to have heart disease, for instance. Researchers at NIH’s National Heart, Lung,