The Nun Study
É um estudo longitudinal do envelhecimento e da doença/mal de Alzheimer com freiras de um convento católico da School Sisters of Notre Dame . Dr. David Snowdon investigador do estudo, originalmente começou sua pesquisa na Universidade de Minnesota, mas mudou-se para a Universidade de Kentucky em 1986. Em 2008, com a aposentadoria da Universidade de Kentucky, o estudo voltou à Universidade de Minnesota. O estudo das freiras, que começou (oficialmente) em 1986 com financiamento do National Institute on Aging, incide sobre um grupo de irmãs católicas americanas . Estudando um grupo relativamente homogêneo (sem uso de drogas, pouco ou nenhum álcool, histórias semelhantes de habitação e de reprodução, etc) e minimizando assim as variáveis estranhas que possam confundir a investigação uma semelhante.Os pesquisador também acessou o arquivo do convento para analisar documentos acumulados ao longo da vida das freiras no estudo. Entre os documentos analisados foram ensaios autobiográficos que tinham sido escritos por freiras após o ingresso na Irmandade, após análise, constatou-se que a falta de um ensaio de densidade linguística (por exemplo, a complexidade, vivacidade, fluência) funcionaram como um importante preditor de risco de seu autor para desenvolver a doença de Alzheimer na velhice. Crucial para a nota, com relação a este achado, é que a idade média aproximada das freiras, no momento de escrever era apenas 22 anos. Aproximadamente 80% das freiras, cuja escrita foi medida por falta de densidade linguística passou a desenvolver a doença de Alzheimer na velhice, enquanto isso, aqueles cuja escrita não estava faltando, apenas 10% posteriormente desenvolveram a doença [1].
Globalmente, os resultados do Estudo Freira sugerir "que os traços, no início, meio e fim da vida, têm forte relacionamento com o risco da doença de Alzheimer, bem como a deficiência mental e cognitivo da velhice."
The Nun Study
- Official Nun Study homepage
- Nun study video: video 1
- Photoessay by Steve Liss for TIME, 2001
- "Nuns Offer Clues to Alzheimer's and Aging" by Pam Belluck for New York Times, 2001: Article contains, among other things, quotes from the nuns' autobiographical essays which may help to elucidate what is meant above by a "lack of linguistic density."
- "Landmark Study Links Cognitive Ability of Youth With Alzheimer's Disease Risk Later in Life" National Institute on Aging, entry on Nun Study, 1996
- Agatha Christie And Nuns Tell A Tale Of Alzheimer's, on NPR
- ^ Riley KP, Snowdon DA, Desrosiers MF, Markesbery WR: Early life linguistic ability, late life cognitive function, and neuropathology: Findings from the Nun Study Neurobiology of Aging 26(3):341347, 2005.
- ^ The University of Minnesota's Nun Study FAQ page, 18 Dec 2009, http://www.healthstudies.umn.edu/nunstudy/faq.jsp.
The Heart of a Saint - Nun’s Donate Life and Brain for Alzheimer’s Research
by Jessica Hasson
For almost 20 years, over 675 elderly nuns between the ages of 75 to 102 have subjected themselves to extensive research to help better understand Alzheimer’s Disease and how it works.
The appropriately dubbed ‘Nun Study’ officially began with 678 participants from the Notre Dame congregation. The study, led by Dr. David Snowdon, administers on-site annual assessments and interviews of the Nun’s mental and physical health, and after passing, the nuns donate their brains for research into the causes of Alzheimer’s disease and stroke.
“I feel that taking part in this study is for my present well-being, and it promises to improve my life condition,” Sister Columbine said in a recent telephone interview. “The interviews allowed me to explore areas in my life which, until then, I was totally unaware existed,” Sister Columbine said. “And the memory tests showed me that my memory is still keen.”
The Nuns Study represents the largest brain donor population in the world, and acts an ideal base for study because of the Nun’s solemn lifestyle. According to the Study’s Web Site, “many factors that confound (or confuse) the findings of other studies are either eliminated or minimized because of the relatively homogeneous adult lifestyles and environments of these women.
Participants in this study are non-smokers, drink little if any alcohol, have the same marital status and reproductive history, have lived in similar housing, held similar jobs, and had similar access to preventive and medical care.”
In 1957, Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed “to be an organ donor means to carry out an act of love toward someone in need, toward a brother in difficulty. It is a free act of love that every person of good will can do at any time and for any brother.”
The Nun’s of Notre Dame have taken this decree to heart.
“My impression of the sisters whom I first met in 1985 when I began the study has not changed,” says Snowdon. “It shattered all my stereotypes of how 80- and 90-year-old people are supposed to behave. They seem so mellow after a lifetime of contemplation. They are living saints and sages.”
“The Nun Study is an ongoing, one-of-a-kind resource for the study of brain diseases in the elderly. We expect that data, tissue, and genetic material collected in this study will be used by scientists for decades into the future.”
The Nun Study is located at: http://nunstudy.org
Dr. David Snowdon has written a book on his studies of the Nuns. There is an excert of the book here - Link, and you can purchase a copy of the book through Amazon here - Link.
Resources from AGIS.com:
Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia
On-going Reasearch on Alzheimer’s
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