Yesterday evening, I finished Aging with Grace by David Snowdon, Ph.D. It describes the research of a unique study on Alzheimer’s by intertwining the stories of individual nuns with research findings.

I enjoyed reading about the research process. I am familiar with some aspects of the research process (things like peer review and ethical issues involving human subjects) because of Michael’s work, but I think Snowdon describes things well enough that you don’t need to know a lot about academic research to enjoy the book.

This book isn’t terribly exciting, but that’s fine (and probably good). It doesn’t have any miracle supplements (the closest is folic acid) or actions (although reading to children is encouraged). I would be interested to see how this work fits with research by people using other techniques such as SPECT studies (which he never mentions). I think I would also enjoy seeing what is happening now, since the book was written nearly a decade ago.

I would recommend the book to those concerned about Alzheimer’s.

You might be interested in knowing the study is returning to the University of Minnesota.

Grandpa’s Last Lesson by Kirsten Ekstrand won first place at this year’s Jenkins Writer Awards at Moody. This excellent essay tells of Kirsten’s grappling with her grandfather’s Alzheimer’s. (The link goes to the announcement, to read the essay click on the link for the PDF file.)