Social media users have only just learned about the scientist who has been preserving the brains of nuns for nearly 40 years in the hopes of finding treatments for Alzheimer’s.
Alzheimer’s and Dementia are diseases that have touched most of u|s on planet Earth, with over 55 million current patients and around 10 million new cases each year. Though research has come a long way in recent years, with some scientists turning to simple herbs for remedies, it’s believed that around 153 million people will be battling the disease by 2050.
The Nun study began in 1986
Mathematics professor Sophie Claire (@fryrsquared) took to TikTok last month with an interesting story about the room containing the preserved brains of over 700 nuns. Suffice it to say, that social media was shaken.
The Nun Study was started by Epidemiologist David Snowdon, who somehow managed to convince 678 sisters from the School Sisters of Notre Dame to donate their brains to his team following their deaths. At the same time, the sisters agreed to be annually tested on their cognitive skills.
“That was the point of this study,” Sophie explained. “To see if you could connect up what happened to people in life to what happened to people inside their bodies. Do people who have signs of dementia in their life also have signs of dementia in death?”
Interestingly, the scientists found that the connection was not always there. For instance, Sister Mary, who died at over 100 years old and scored top marks on her cognitive tests, was found to have a brain “ravaged by disease” upon her death.
Sophie said that this realization sparked the creation of “Cognitive reserve”, which is basically a fancy way of saying that some people have more impressive brains. With a naturally higher cognitive capacity, those individuals are able to function fine despite Alzheimer’s wrecking their brains. Essentially, the disease is undetectable.
The study also provided a crystal ball of sorts
The success of the study did not stop there as researchers soon discovered personal essays that the nuns had written before joining the order. Through some state-of-the-art analysis, they were able to identify language that predicted the writer would suffer from Alzheimer’s symptoms in later life.
Though Snowdon has since retired and the project passed from person to person, the study is still providing a great basis for future Alzheimer’s and Dementia research.
“In life and in death these sisters continued to be of unique service to humanity and we honor them,” Sister Charlene Zeisset said in 2023.
