Nuns teach aging with grace.
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A look inside a well-known Alzheimer's study that began 20 years ago
By TOM DUNKEL
''How old are you, Sister?''
Sister Agnes Barbara Hettel smiles.
''I'm 92,'' she replies. ''I'm one of the young ones.''
That's an inside joke. Dr. David Snowdon gets it. Probably only God knows more elderly nuns.
Snowdon, a Kentucky neurologist, makes his way through the halls of Villa Assumpta, a converted mansion north of Baltimore that is headquarters -- ''the motherhouse'' -- for the School Sisters of Notre Dame.
About 80 retired nuns live here. Most are former teachers and administrators. In younger days, they taught students in Catholic schools here and shaped careers at the College of Notre Dame. Some keep busy staffing the reception desk or maintaining archives. Some are occupants of the third floor, a licensed medical unit, that is home for sisters with Alzheimer's disease.
That's where Snowdon, 54, is now.
Twenty years ago, Snowdon began research that now encompasses nearly 700 School Sisters across the U.S. As participants in his ''Nun Study,'' these sisters undergo annual physical and mental tests that gauge the effects of aging. Snowdon will track them until the day they die -- and beyond.
Their hope is to unravel the mysteries of Alzheimer's, the creeping dementia that affects 4.5 million Americans and, at a cost of $100 billion annually, ranks among the country's most expensive health problems.
The School Sisters in Snowdon's study left the classroom long ago. Now they're teaching a larger audience what it means to age well and with dignity.
By TOM DUNKEL
''How old are you, Sister?''
Sister Agnes Barbara Hettel smiles.
''I'm 92,'' she replies. ''I'm one of the young ones.''
That's an inside joke. Dr. David Snowdon gets it. Probably only God knows more elderly nuns.
Snowdon, a Kentucky neurologist, makes his way through the halls of Villa Assumpta, a converted mansion north of Baltimore that is headquarters -- ''the motherhouse'' -- for the School Sisters of Notre Dame.
About 80 retired nuns live here. Most are former teachers and administrators. In younger days, they taught students in Catholic schools here and shaped careers at the College of Notre Dame. Some keep busy staffing the reception desk or maintaining archives. Some are occupants of the third floor, a licensed medical unit, that is home for sisters with Alzheimer's disease.
That's where Snowdon, 54, is now.
Twenty years ago, Snowdon began research that now encompasses nearly 700 School Sisters across the U.S. As participants in his ''Nun Study,'' these sisters undergo annual physical and mental tests that gauge the effects of aging. Snowdon will track them until the day they die -- and beyond.
Their hope is to unravel the mysteries of Alzheimer's, the creeping dementia that affects 4.5 million Americans and, at a cost of $100 billion annually, ranks among the country's most expensive health problems.
The School Sisters in Snowdon's study left the classroom long ago. Now they're teaching a larger audience what it means to age well and with dignity.
COMING: 'Down to a system'
posted by Valery Yermalitsky at
9:32 AM
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