One of the most compelling on-going population-based research projects is Dr. David Snowdon’s “Nun Study.” The Nun Study is a longitudinal study of aging and Alzheimer's disease funded by the National Institute on Aging. Study subjects are 678 American members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame religious congregation who are 75 to 106 years of age. Nearly all of these nuns have agreed to donate their brains to the research project.

Numerous studies based on this population have been published. For information go to www.mc.uky.edu/nunnet/

Based on this research, Snowdon theorizes, and many other researchers agree, that AD develops as the result of a complex cascade of events that take place over many years. If you can intervene and weaken or break any of these links in the chain, the disease may be prevented or its severity diminished.