Lemonick and Alice Park is about one .
scientist and 678 sisters helping to unlock the secrets of the mysterious disease of .
Alzheimer's. .
Sister Ada is wearing only a skirt and a sweater, yet she still wants to go outside .
Into the 23 degree Minnesota weather to feed the pigs. What Sister Ada doesn't know is.
That the pigs have been gone for over 30 years. Her brain has been wrenching back and .
Forth between the present and the past.
Over 4 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease, including Sister Ada.
As time flies, she will slowly lose her memory, her personality and all intellectual .
Function. Old age doesn't automatically lead to senility. Ada's fellow nun, is about the .
Same age and has no sign of dementia. The school sisters of Notre Dame have joined a .
long term study of Alzheimer's disease that can teach us how to avoid this illness.
Alzheimer's disease attacks the cortex and spreads sticky plaques and clumps of .
tangles fibers which disrupt the delicate organization of nerve sells in the brain. It shrinks.
the size and weight of the brain, as well as destroys the neural tissue.
The research that is being conducted won't lead to new drugs, or uncover a.
Page 2 .
genetic or biochemical cause. Doctors have found it will be easier to prevent the disease.
rather than cute it. Doctors are using the branch of science known as epidemiology. .
Epidemiology deal with the rate of occurrence, distribution, and the control of disease in .
a population.
Alzheimer's is said to strike over 14 million Americans by 2050. The cause is still .
a mystery. Most of the knowledge comes from am piece of research called Nun Study, .
Ada is a part of it. Since 1986, University of Kentucky scientist David Snowdon has been .
studying 678 school sisters. He has studied their personal and medical histories, testing .
them for cognitive function and even dissecting their brains after death. He has found the .
links between lifestyle and Alzheimer's.
