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題名と表紙が一見宗教本みたいで、持ち歩くのがちょっと恥ずかしかったのですが、読み出すと、次々と生まれてくるリサーチのアイディアと、さまざまなNunとの交流が読者を飽きさせず、また、それぞれのNunの生育暦や筆者とのやり取りのエピソードがheart-warmingです。Nunに「リサーチの被験者になってほしい」とお願いする場面のやり取りは、心を打たれ、印象的でした。
筆者の表現力もすばらしい。この本は、一般向けに書かれていますが、研究者として社会科学的見地からも十分楽しめるし、いずれ来る老いを見つめる一人の人間としても、明るい老後を描けるので、老後のことに思いをめぐらせている人々におススメしたいです。
Nunを研究対象にするというものすごくユニークなアイディアには脱帽でした。疫学研究で、これほど環境要因がコントロールされた被験者を見つけることは他ではないでしょう。
Nunの生育暦、自分史、脳の解剖、認知と運動機能等をもとに、アルツハイマー、うつ等の精神医学的な研究から、栄養と長寿、知的レベルと健康などなど、豊富なリサーチの結果が次々と紹介されて、とても興味深いです。
アルツハイマーや老年医学に興味がある人はもちろん、修道女の疫学研究って、どんなことするの?と、興味をそそられた人、長生きできる人って、どういう人なの?歳をとったらどうなるの?という素朴な疑問を持っている人に、何らかの答えを投げかけてくれる本です。若いときの過ごし方も老後に関連してくる(二十歳前後に書いたBiographyの質的なデータから60年後の心身の健康状態を予測できる!)ので若い人にも読んでほしい一冊です。
専門用語は文中に繰り返し出てくるので、すぐ覚えられます。英語も一般向けのノンフィクションとして書かれているので、とても読みやすいです。TOEIC 500前後~ で、それほど難なく読めると思います。
This intriguing book brings many of those same factors to light and reveals that growing old, can also mean a time of renewed energy and vitality, expanded intellectual knowledge, spiritual growth, active participation, and emotional and physical well being. The book is extremely well researched and well written. Regardless of age, there is a lot to be learned here that we can all put to good use in a quest for a long, happy, healthy and fulfilling life.
Professor Snowdon is an epidmiologist who has had great success with studying religious communities. Because of the similar environments and habits involved, these communities can more clearly demonstrate the factors that favor or disfavor disease. He has also done work with Seventh Day Adventists and diet, for example.
The School Sisters of Notre Dame is a teaching order, and its members are highly educated. For example, of the elderly nuns studied 85 percent held bachelor's degrees and 45 percent master's degrees. This is in sharp contrast with the rarity of these degrees in the general population among women of similar ages. Obviously, they have also led a life of strenuous service to God and to teaching others.
The study benefits from many other unique qualities. Each nun also wrote an autobiography when she was young, and just joining the order. As a result, it is possible to go back and study those writings. The sisters have also generously agreed to donate their brains for research when they die. This means that the physical brains can be compared to the results of cognitive and physical tests to see what the causes of mental and physical dysfunctions might be.
Early in the study, Professor Snowdon also gained another advantage. He was encouraged to develop a relationship with the sisters, rather than just to study them. The book's many examples reflect his personal connection and observation of their aging experiences.
Although the study is continuing, it has already yielded some remarkable insights. In the area of Alzheimer's disease, the research has shown that higher education and better vocabulary and reading comprehension skills when young help prevent or delay the disease. In brains equally ridden with distortions of the disease, functionality of the person varies a lot due to those factors. You are advised to read to your children as a way to help them avoid Alzheimer's disease when they are older. Brains of those with Alzheimer's disease show plaques and tangles. The study suggests that the tangles are important, and the plaques less so. Keeping blood pressure under control to avoid stroke also helps to stave off Alzheimer's disease.
Interestingly, more education and greater mental capacity when young are also predictive of longevity.
The book also looks at the genetic impacts on Alzheimer's and seems to suggest that these can be overcome to some extent by education and mental development.
There are also diet suggestions, like getting plenty of folic acid (found particularly in cooked tomatoes).
The stories of the individual nuns will stay with you for a long time. These are very admirable people, and I learned a lot from reading about their lives. If you are like me, you will be saddened to think about the sister who had Alzheimer's who feared that she would forget God. You will also be saddened by the sister who was incorrectly diagnosed as having Alzheimer's and lived four very unpleasant years with this misapprehension.
There's good news here if you do live a long time. "The older you get the healthier you've been." So after around 85, many sources of health risk don't seem to get any worse. The stories of active minds and bodies over 100 will inspire you.
After you finish reading this book, I suggest that you locate some elderly people (ideally over 90) and get them to tell you about their lives. In that connection, you will also receive much inspiration for the potential you have yet to fulfill, and help make someone's life more meaningful, too.
May you become more filled with grace, as you age!
I picked up this book because my great-great-aunt, Sister Matthia Gores, is one of the nuns "featured" in it. (She died a couple years back, just shy of her 105th birthday.)
I found the science interesting; but the book does not offer a blueprint to growing older without losing mental faculties or growing frail. It turns out the science is giving a more complicated picture of aging than that.
But what really appeals to me about this story is the desire of these women to keep growing their minds right up to the ends of their lives. (One nun got a masters in theology when she was 71; one began missionary service in Africa only when she reached her 70s.) It is this faith that we can continue to expand our own human potential while serving God and our fellow humans that makes this book such a delightful read.
I don't care if I live to 105, but I hope I can be as brave about seizing opportunities to grow as these wonderful women have been.
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