Nun Study

The nuns study ( engl: Study Now, even now Minnesota study) is a longitudinal study ( longitudinal study ) on aging and the factors of Alzheimer's disease in women in the United States.

Description of the study

The study was conducted by the epidemiologist David Snowdon at the University of Kentucky ( Sanders Brown Center). She ran from 1986 with the participation of about 600 American Catholic nuns from the Congregation of the School Sisters of Notre Dame ( School Sisters of Notre Dame) (teachers Medal ) 76-107 years of age. A special feature here is the homogeneity of life over a very long period, such as the diet, and on the methods side, the high duration of the longitudinal sections and the prospectivity. Both laboratory parameters such as psychological and brain sections post mortem could be used. The monastery archives offered insights into the CV of the participants and their mental activities decades ago.

A striking result was the deviation of the pathologic brain finding (multiple Alzheimer's plaques) of the repeatedly raised mental / intellectual performance of the same people in his lifetime. This means that even in individuals who were able to solve until just before her death mentally challenging tasks in the section heavily modified brain findings were noted.

Comparable to the importance of the results for research on aging is the monastery study by Marc Luy, which could point to the significantly longer life expectancy of monks compared to men in the general population with life table data from twelve Bavarian women 's and men's monasteries. It reaches nearly approach the life expectancy of women of the same generation.

Film

• Thomas Liesen: The mystery Alzheimer's. The fight against forgetfulness. Documentation, D, WDR, 2008, 30 min