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Nuns drink beer for humanity
By Sister Julie | June 18, 2007
This has got to be one of my most favorite article titles! Kudos to the www.cathnews.org editor who came up with “Nuns drink beer for humanity.” Check out the article by reading below or by clicking here: “Nuns drink beer for humanity” (13 June 2007).
The article is actually from “A Healthy Habit: Nuns Used in Medical Research … Scientists Turn to Nuns to Conduct Medical Experiments” by Russell Goldman of ABC News (12 June 2007). The full article begins here.
Nuns drink beer for humanity
Spanish sisters who drank beer for 45 days straight as part of a medical research project are part of a growing trend to study nuns whose unique healthy, celibate lifestyle makes them ideal for such purposes.
Every year hundreds of Catholic nuns are weighed, measured, poked and prodded in the name of medical research, the US ABC News reports.
In a study recently conducted by the Centre for Information on Beer and Health in Spain, 50 nuns drank a half-litre of beer every day for 45 days. Six months later they took 400 milligrams of hops, reported Reuters.
The study found that cholesterol rates fell by 6 percent in those sisters with high levels.
“We did it for the good of humanity,” Sr Almerinda Alvarez told the newspaper El Pais.
Sr Almerinda’s American counterparts, who have participated in studies on osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease and other ailments, could not agree more.
Scientists believe nuns’ unique lifestyles, free of sex and children, and the similar health conditions that nuns share with one another, make them an ideal group for broad scientific studies. And the nuns’ willingness to volunteer for studies - some of which follow them for decades - is part of the reason why scientists like working with them.
“One of the major reasons we looked at nuns was because of their altruism,” said David Snowdon, director of the Nun Study at the University of Kentucky’s Sanders-Brown Centre on Aging.
Snowdon’s Nun Study, an effort to discover indicators for Alzheimer’s disease, has tracked 678 members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame congregation.
In addition to their altruism, the nuns were chosen because Snowdon’s team wanted to isolate factors in early life that may contribute to Alzheimer’s disease, and the nuns’ similar lifestyles made them a good control group - after the nuns took their vows, many aspects of their lives, including diet and access to health care, were the same for all of them.
The study initially compared the autobiographies of 93 nuns born before 1917 and written when they first took their vows in their 20s. The scientists found that those nuns who wrote more complicated sentences as young women were less likely to develop Alzheimer’s in old age.
The researchers believe this may offer evidence early in life that indicates a likelihood of later developing Alzheimer’s.
“We had a window into their early lives that we don’t normally get once someone begins losing their memory,” Snowdon said. “We could go back and look at the archives - histories, autobiographies, high school transcripts - and see a version of them 60 to 80 years before they developed Alzheimer’s disease.”
Topics: news on the nunfront |
June 18th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
I think this is awesome. Given the fact that so many sisters are older, and healthcare costs are rising, I just hope that the pharmaceutical companies are paying the sisters well for all their efforts! They certainly have PLENTY of money!
d.
June 18th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
This represents TRUE altruism and sacrafice! I wonder if my minister friend could get into some arrangement like this…I suspect he too would be willing to give it a try.
June 18th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
You knew I’d give you a hearty Amen on this topic! Ain’t no better sister than a beer drinking nun. There has got to be a song in there somewhere. Just giving you a little rib……but I do love the title!
Your Brother,
Reg
June 19th, 2007 at 5:49 am
What I love about this article is that the nuns really are doing great things by drinking beer. It’s true that many communities have participated in various medical studies and these nuns definitely deserve our gratitude. Now where do I sign up for the 45 days of beer drinking?
June 19th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Drinking beer for humanity. Yup. Shows that they’re human. After all, Jesus liked to do the equivalent of having a few beers with his mates.
June 19th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
I know this goes back to the stereotype thing… but I just get this picture of petite, older nuns in their habits sitting around with little shot glasses of beer… and then some Brunhilda in a lab coat walks in with another round… Drink up, ladies! and a collectively long-suffering and tired sigh…
LOL Well, I thought it was funny, anyway…