THE NUN STUDY. (cover story)

ALZHEIMER'S disease; NUNS; MEDICAL research; EPIDEMIOLOGICAL research; EPIDEMIOLOGY; HEALTH; MONASTICISM & religious orders for women

Focuses on a study of Alzheimer's disease by scientist David Snowdon which focuses on aging nuns in the School Sisters of Notre Dame order. Study of the differences between the nuns who get the disease and those that do not; Findings which focus on how one's use of expression and language can affect one's health and susceptibility to disease; Details of the study, including the use of the nuns' youthful autobiographies and the necessity of examining the patient's brain after death; Role which diet plays in Alzheimer's.