Aging with grace

Dr, Snowdon received a PhD in epidemiology in Minnesota university and later started the Nun Study at the Sanders Brown Center on Ageing at the Kentucky University of Medicine. He is a professor of neurology and one of the leading experts on Alzheimer disease.
The religious groups study long-term health related questions because they want to demonstrate the superiority of living. Studying the long-term health related issues is fundamental because it helps individual to live a health life thus living for a long period without ageing quickly.
The motto of the nun study is to praise, to bless and to preach the gospel (Snowdon, 2001).
Sister Carmen agreed to let Dr. Snowdon to talk with the nuns on the ground that Dr. Snowdon must agree to be a nun before visiting the nuns to carry out research. This made him uncomfortable because of asking him numerous personal questions of a nun and demanding him to be a nun.
Dr. Snowdon was motivated when he was a young boy who raised chickens to earn income. He learnt a lot about the way it takes to stay healthy from taking care of those chickens something that motivated him to study factors affecting the health of a population. Moreover, he became interested to take this study when an ex-nun told him the story off the ageing sisters thus it encouraged him to study epidemiology.
The heritage room was a room for studying and it has archival records as well as artifacts displayed everywhere in the floor and the walls. The heritage room changed the study of Dr. Snowdon through motivating him to carry out his practical study effectively.
During the study of the Adventist women in 1976, Dr. Snowdon discovered that women’s reproductive organs are the indicators of the overall health in the ageing women. From the age of thirty up to menopause, women experience more anovulatory circles, abnormalities in chromosomes and spontaneous abortions. Other organs decline in terms of performance but they keep on functioning with advancing ageing thus an indicator of their overall health.
According to the order of nuns in Notre Dame, the ‘bluebird’ means serving and helping others to experience the goodness of God (Snowdon, 2001). The term is used to indicate that as sisters should help each other in order to avoid loosing their habitat, which is described as a bluebird.
Sister Nicolette believed that praying for her health, wisdom and did some exercises daily something that she believed would maintain her good health.
After Dr. Snowdon presented his data of mortality risk and Alzheimer development risks, he realized that he made a mistake of not identifying factors increasing the disease as well as causing death in early, mid and late life.
The hypothesis about the brain function that Jim Mortimer discuses with Dr. Snowdon is the cognitive functioning theory of the nuns especially in the nun’s late life.
The ‘greatest gift’ is to live a health life and live longer.
The first nun who agreed to donate her brain passed away in 1991.
Eugenio Pacelli and John Cornwell are the two nuns who left Germany in the 1930s because of being driven out by the Nazis.
Sister Dolores Hicks wants to work at Abbey of Regina Laudis as a nun.
According to Dr. Snowdon, there is no clear cause of dementia but diverse factors influence this disease. Alzheimer is one of the common causes of dementia among the ageing people. In his epidemiologist research study, Dr. Snowdon asserts that age-associated cognition changes and functions of the brain are associated to dementia disease.
Amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles are the most common features seen in the brain of individuals suffering from Alzheimer disease (Snowdon, 2001). The plagues are the extra cellular amyloid deposits in the gray matter of the brain and the tangles are aggregates of hyperphosphorylated protein, which is the common marker of Alzheimer.
The Braaks found tangle lesions in brains of people as young as early in age thirty.
When Dr. Susan Kemper read the autobiographies of sister, she realized that writings differed in density of ideas and in their emotional content. Thus, she helped the nun study by analyzing the emotional content and comparing them with thee early autobiographies of the nuns.
The best way parents can help their children to avoid Alzheimer is through advising them to live a health life by employing the ideas of the nun study especially eating more fruits and vegetables. This is because fruits contain antioxidants, which are essential for a healthy growing.
Tumor is a type of brain lesion that Dr. Alan Roses believes to be the causative of Alzheimer disease.
TIA stands for Transient Ischemic Attack but some people call it a mini-stroke. It results when blood flow to the brain thus interrupting the brain temporarily.
Apart from the brain lesions characteristics seen in plagues and tangles, other types of damages found in 93% of the nuns with behavioral dementia include loss of memory, confusion, language difficulties, aggression and irritability.
The study performed in 1965 found that aluminum caused lesions in the brain of cats.
Dr. Snowdon asserts that for proper nutrition, meals need to nourish essential nutrients such as vitamins, fatty acids, amino acids and dietary minerals.
Dr. Snowdon found that vitamin A, vitamin C, Vitamin E, lycopene, retinal, keratin and gluten are categories of antioxidants in the blood thus high consumption of tomatoes is a vital predictor of health.
Folic acid, which is known as vitamin B9 or Vitamin Bc, is a fundamental nutrient associated with neural tube defects in embryo developing. It plays a bigger role in reducing homocysteine, which is a damaging biochemical.
The level of positive emotions expressed in the nuns’ writings done in their 20’s predicted those stressful life events is the cause of their poor health thus will affect their ageing.
The estimation for the centenarians will be living in the year 2050 is 4.1 percent globally. Currently, Sweden is the only country with 5 percent of people having more than one hundred years. The most remarkable increase of centenaries is expected to take place in Japan but still the number of centenary across the globe will decrease because of associated diseases at old age (Snowdon, 2001).
The risk of developing Alzheimer for people living beyond their nineties is higher. This is because the research revealed that there are high incidence levels of getting Alzheimer disease for individuals above ninety years. The lifetime risk is the probability for high dementia for people ageing (Snowdon, 2001).
Late in the afternoon On December 14, 1998, a few weeks to Sister Matthia’s 105 birthdays, she asked the nun beside her bed to inform her family that she was dying. Sister Matthia then received her holy communion and passed away.
From the nun study, I believe that the scientific finding of antioxidants found in tomatoes is the most promising for future prevention as well as treatment of Alzheimer. This is because they help in preventing damage caused by free radicals thus keeping the body healthy.
From the Snowdon’s book, there are diverse things that I believe can help my family members or friends to age successfully. First, eating varieties of fruits, vegetables and reduction of dietary fats intake are essential for families that want to age successfully. This is because they protect the body or fight against any disease that may affect one’s health. Snowdon (2001) points out that there are vital antioxidants in blood useful in predicting health and this is achieved through consumption of tomatoes. Secondly, I believe that apart from eating balanced diet food especially taking essential nutrients, frequent exercises and above all praying for a health family is fundamental. Snowdon (2001) discovered that Sister Nicolette believed that praying for her health and wisdom is something that she believed would maintain her good health.
My personal definition of aging is staying engaged with life through being physically and mentally healthy as well as living a healthy life whereby there is absence of diseases. Moreover, through flexibility and motivation in life, I can be able to practice acceptance and optimizing what I have is fundamental. This is because successful ageing does not necessarily mean being healthy but accepting the challenges and realities affecting my life, I can be able to live longer.

Reference

Snowdon, D. (2001). Aging with grace: What the nun study teaches us about leading longer,

healthier and more meaningful lives. New York, NY: Bantam Books.

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