Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id OAA29953 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 7 May 2001 14:25:19 +0100 Subject: Fwd: Nuns Offer Clues to Alzheimer's and Aging Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 09:20:53 -0400 x-sender: wsmith1@camail2.harvard.edu x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas Est Veritas From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: "memetics list" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable Message-ID: <20010507132110.AAA5904@camailp.harvard.edu@[128.103.125.215]> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
I throw this at youse here because of the mention of 'idea density'
included, as well as the general interest of the study, and the
specificity of the subject group for this data- all important, IMHO, for
valid planning for memetic research.
- Wade
****************
Nuns Offer Clues to Alzheimer's and Aging
By PAM BELLUCK
MANKATO, Minn., May 2 A spiraling road slopes gently up to Good Counsel
Hill, where the convent of the School Sisters of Notre Dame perches
peacefully. Within its thick red brick walls are bright paintings of nuns
and children. Organ hymns waft from a circular chapel, and nuns attend
Mass and murmur rosaries under a white vaulted dome.
But this crucible of faith is also the site of an extraordinary
scientific experiment. For 15 years, elderly Catholic nuns here have had
their genes analyzed and balance and strength measured. They have been
tested on how many words they can remember minutes after reading them on
flashcards, how many animals they can name in a minute and whether they
can count coins correctly.
The autobiographical essays they wrote for their order in their 20's,
when they took their vows, have been scrutinized, their words plumbed for
meaning. And as they have died, their brains have been removed and
shipped in plastic tubs to a laboratory where they are analyzed and
stored in jars.
The experiment, called the Nun Study, is considered by experts on aging
to be one of the most innovative efforts to answer questions about who
gets Alzheimer's disease and why. And now in a new report it is offering
insight on a different subject whether a positive emotional outlook
early in life can help people live longer.
"The Nun Study has certainly been pioneering," said Dr. Richard Suzman,
chief of demography and population epidemiology at the National Institute
on Aging. "It's helped change the paradigm about how people think about
aging and Alzheimer's disease."
By studying 678 nuns at this convent and six others in the order, in
Connecticut, Maryland, Texas, Wisconsin, Missouri and Illinois Dr.
David A. Snowdon, an epidemiologist at the University of Kentucky, and
colleagues have come up with tantalizing clues and provocative theories
over the years.
Their research has shown that folic acid may help stave off Alzheimer's
disease; that small, barely perceptible strokes may trigger some
dementia; and, in an especially striking finding, that early language
ability may be linked to lower risk of Alzheimer's because nuns who
packed more ideas into the sentences of their early autobiographies were
less likely to get Alzheimer's disease six decades later.
The new report, being published on Monday in The Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, says nuns who expressed more positive emotions in
their autobiographies lived significantly longer in some cases 10 years
longer than those expressing fewer positive emotions.
"It's an important finding," Dr. Suzman said, "and I think it will lead
to lots of additional studies."
The nuns are ideal for scientific study because their stable, relatively
similar lives preclude certain factors from contributing to illness. They
do not smoke, hardly drink and do not experience physical changes related
to pregnancy. The School Sisters are white and eat in convent cafeterias,
and most were teachers in Catholic schools.
The study is also considered powerful because it has information from
several stages in its subjects' lives, including when they were too young
to manifest Alzheimer's or other diseases related to aging.
"I think the Nun Study is very important because it uses information
obtained about people before the period of illness," said Dr. Robert P.
Friedland, professor of neurology at Case Western Reserve University and
author of a study showing that people with Alzheimer's were, as young
adults, less mentally and physically active outside their jobs than
people without the disease. "So we know from the Nun Study and others
that Alzheimer's disease takes several decades to develop, and the
disease has many important effects on all aspects of a person's life."
All this has given Dr. Snowdon, author of a new book on the study called
"Aging With Grace" (Bantam), a rare window through which to examine why
some nuns thrive and others deteriorate so much they lose speech,
mobility and much of their memory. The differences show up even in nuns
with virtually identical backgrounds, even those who are biologically
related.
At 93, Sister Nicolette Welter still reads avidly, recently finishing a
biography of Bishop James Patrick Shannon. She knits, crochets, plays
rousing card games and, until a recent fall, was walking several miles a
day with no cane or walker.
But a younger sibling, Sister Mary Ursula, 92, shows clear Alzheimer's
symptoms, Dr. Snowdon said. Several times a day, Sister Nicolette feeds
and reads prayers to Sister Mary Ursula, who uses a wheelchair and can
hardly lift her head or gnarled hands.
The other day, Sister Nicolette prompted Sister Mary Ursula to remember
her age and birth date, but when Sister Nicolette asked if she recalled
when "Sister Julia told you to pick up the Kleenex people used after Mass
and you didn't want to," Sister Mary Ursula's eyes glazed, showing no
hint of recognition.
Another Welter sister, 87-year-old Sister Claverine, is still active and
clearheaded. A fourth sibling, Sister Mary Stella, died in 1996 at 80.
"I wouldn't have any idea why this happened to Mary Ursula," said Sister
Nicolette, "but I just feel like I'll keep my mental faculties."
Some of Dr. Snowdon's research suggests she might be right. Sister
Nicolette's autobiography, written when she was 20, was full of what Dr.
Snowdon calls "idea density," many thoughts woven into a small number of
words, a trait correlating closely with nuns who later escaped
Alzheimer's.
One sentence in Sister Nicolette's essay, for example, reads, "After I
finished the eighth grade in 1921 I desired to become an aspirant at
Mankato but I myself did not have the courage to ask the permission of my
parents so Sister Agreda did it in my stead and they readily gave their
consent."
Compare that to the essay of another Mankato nun, who is in her late 90's
and has performed steadily worse on the memory tests. The nun, who sat
quietly by a window the other day, wrote in her essay, "After I left
school, I worked in the post-office."
The Nun Study's latest published findings offer similarly provocative
ideas about how positive emotional state in early life may contribute to
living longer. Experts say linking positive emotions in the
autobiographies to longer life echoes other studies showing that
depression increases risk of cardiovascular disease and that people rated
as optimists on personality tests were more likely than pessimists to be
alive 30 years later.
The findings also raise questions like, What underlies the positive
emotions?
"How much of this is temperament?" Dr. Suzman said. "How much of it is
affected by life events and critical relationships with parents, friends,
teachers, peers?"
Overall, Dr. Snowdon says, the nuns live significantly longer than other
women. Of the 678 in the study, 295 are alive and are all 85 or older. In
the Mankato convent alone, there have been seven centenarians, many free
of dementia.
One is Sister Esther Boor, who at 106 speeds through the labyrinth of
halls with a royal blue walker, glazes ceramic nativity scenes for the
gift shop and pedals an exercise bike every day, her black veil flapping,
an orange towel draped over her legs for modesty.
"Sometimes I feel like I'm 150, but I just made up my mind I'm not going
to give up," said Sister Esther, who gives her exercise therapists yellow
notes with phrases from books she reads. "Think no evil, do no evil, hear
no evil," she wrote recently, "and you will never write a best-selling
novel."
Sister Esther's autobiographical essay, written 80 years ago, is
similarly upbeat, speaking fondly of her family and her decision to
become a nun.
Dr. Snowdon's condition that nuns donate their brains was a stumbling
block for some of the sisters.
"I had a hard time with it," said Sister Claverine, who delayed signing
up. "I had an image of myself being buried intact."
But Sister Rita Schwalbe, the convent's health administrator when the
study began, said she had told them that as nuns they had made "the
difficult decision not to have children. This is another way of giving
life."
Many nuns now see brain donation through a liturgical lens or a
humorous one.
Sister Nicolette said: "After the resurrection, our bodies will be
perfect. We'll be so happy we won't care what happens to our brains."
And Sister Miriam Thissen, 89, said: "Que serα serα. After you're dead,
so what?"
After completing the cognitive and physical tests including identifying
everyday objects and opening small doors with different latches the
nuns get summaries of their results and can see if their performance has
changed.
"Every time I get out of there I feel like an idiot," said Sister Blanche
Becker, 88, who does crossword puzzles and reads Danielle Steel novels.
"Here I am of sound mind and body and I sit there and open and close
little doors and look at pictures and try to remember them all. But maybe
it's made me more tolerant of people with Alzheimer's. I am afraid of
what's going to happen to me, yes. How stupidly am I going to act? Will I
know people? How long will it take me to die?"
Dr. Snowdon, 48, has become unusually close to his subjects. He says that
when he was in Catholic school as a child, the nuns were more rigid and
strict than the warm, good-humored School Sisters he sees almost as
grandmothers. That relationship has made him acutely aware of sensitive
ethical issues, like how forthright to be with nuns who show slight signs
of Alzheimer's.
"Do we really want to tell these dear women who are having memory loss
that they are in the early phases of Alzheimer's, that they should start
taking something?" he asked.
Dr. Snowdon is quick to agree with other experts who say his conclusions
need to be corroborated by other studies. There are limitations to the
autobiographies, for instance, since the nuns knew a mother superior
would see their writing and therefore may not have been totally candid.
"He's pointed us in some directions," said Dr. Bill Thies, vice president
for medical and scientific affairs at the Alzheimer's Association, based
in Chicago, "but I think it's going to take a fair amount of work before
we start making public health recommendations about behaviors that will
prevent Alzheimer's."
Still, Dr. Snowdon hopes his study will encourage people to do things to
ward off the disease, like quit smoking and other stroke-causing
behaviors, and read to children to stimulate language development. His
current project involves analyzing old photographs of nuns for
personality clues in their face muscles to see if personality correlates
to Alzheimer's or longevity.
And, although he cannot prove it scientifically, he contends the nuns'
spirituality and community living helps them too.
"You don't necessarily have to join a church or join a convent," Dr.
Snowdon said. "But that love of other people, that caring, how good they
are to each other and patient, that's something all of us can do."
Several nuns agree.
"The science is important," Sister Miriam said. "But the science is
dictated by providence anyway."
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