Kentucky Nuns Leave Brains to Science for Alzheimer's Research

Kentucky Nuns Leave Brains to Science for Alzheimer's Research

The Nun Study, conceived by University of Kentucky medical researcher Dr. David Snowdon, enlisted 677 members of the Roman Catholic order of the School Sisters of Notre Dame twenty years ago to help him research Alzheimer's Disease and other age-related diseases.

What was asked of these elderly retired nuns? Help Dr. Snowdon research Alzheimer's disease and other age-related diseases and track their progress by submitting to batteries of tests at intervals throughout the years. The study, often called the Nun Study, is being hailed as one of the most comprehensive neurological research projects in the world.

Although the nuns, themselves, "pooh pooh" the idea that they are doing or have done anything remarkable, each will donate her brain to science after death, and the brain of each will end up in a medical lab in Kentucky. (A wag might say it's a variation on, "Is this heaven? No. It's a University of Kentucky medical lab.")

At a recent University of Kentucky-Auburn basketball game on January 10th, University of Kentucky First Lady Patsy Todd and President Dr. Lee T. Todd, Jr., as well as Dr. David Snowdon, the Director of the Nun Study honored Sister Anne, a 101-year-old nun who represented all the School Sisters of Notre Dame who took part in the study.

From analysis of the research done so far, interesting results are already being seen. For one thing, the periodic testing shows that people who challenge themselves intellectually (Trivia, anyone?) can stave off or prevent the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms. Positive attitude and folic acid are other variables that Dr. Snowdon has been checking carefully over the twenty years the study has been ongoing. As Snowdon said, ""We'll continue to learn from the sisters for many years to come."

What do the sisters, themselves,... the women who have been poked and prodded for twenty years,.... have to say about their participation in the Nun Study? [Sixty-one nuns from the original 677 enlisted still survive and are undergoing their last round of intellectual and physical tests now.]