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Nuns reunite to mark 1967 calcium study
2007-04-25
Sister Suzanne Vandenheede likes tomato soup. The 76-year-old nun from Omaha's Servants of Mary likes it so much she's been known to eat it for lunch every day for a week or more. And when she has, she's practically licked the bowl clean. Vandenheede's eating habits aren't simply odd; they're part of a long-running study of calcium metabolism that's become known as the Omaha Nuns Study. Nearly 200 nuns from the Omaha area enrolled in the study that Creighton University researcher Robert Heaney began in 1967. Results gathered over 25 years of in-hospital studies, and later from biyearly checkups, serve as the basis for calcium intake recommendations for adult women. On Wednesday, Vandenheede and about 30 other nuns reunited to mark the 40th anniversary of the study. Refreshments included bone-shaped cookies and, of course, milk. Representatives from the National Dairy Council were also present, offering milk mustaches to many of the nuns. "We are so much in the debt of these people," Heaney said. He noted that nuns were studied because their risk of osteoporosis was representative of women, and they were free of family and job commitments that would have limited their participation. Osteoporosis affects an estimated 10 million Americans, mostly women, over age 50 who face a high risk of debilitating bone fractures while an additional 34 million have less severe bone thinning that also increases risk. Heaney compared the study to a map that traced calcium's path through the body. He said calcium was measured in the nuns' food and in their urine and feces to determine how much the body was absorbing. Bone scans showed how the body was using the calcium to build and repair bones. "You were making contributions," Heaney told the nuns Wednesday, "but you didn't know what we could do with that information." Dr. Robert Recker, director of Creighton's Osteoporosis Research Center and vice president of the National Osteoporosis Foundation, said the findings "wrote the book on dietary calcium needs." He said it was the first and only study of women before, during and after menopause that looked at calcium metabolism and variables such as exercise and intake of calcium and vitamin D. The database created from the nuns' information was a "gold mine" that continues to be analyzed, according to Recker, who collected data in the earliest stages of the study. During the first 25 years of the study, paid for by the National Institutes of Health, the nuns committed eight days and nine nights to research every five years. Vandenheede, now a chaplain at Immanuel Hospital in Omaha, said she was allowed to select her meals and an evening snack from a list of options typical of her diet, but they had to be the same every day for the entire stay. And there were limitations: Nuns could not pick fresh fruit or vegetables or homemade soup -- canned was OK -- because it was hard to get accurate nutrient levels from them. Vandenheede ordered tomato soup, crackers and cheese for lunch. For her snack, she picked crackers and a beer. Sister Zita Marie Sharrow, also of Omaha's Servants of Mary, recalled the precise measurements taken of her meals and the need to eat every scrap of food. "We had to use a spatula on our plates to be sure we had consumed every bit," the 77-year-old said. They also had to rinse their glasses twice with distilled water to ensure they'd drunk all the liquid that had been measured, she said. The spatulas made a return appearance during Wednesday's celebration -- a bright green cup filled with them sat on the lectern as Creighton researchers addressed the group -- but they were simply part of the decor. "We did give you a whole new meaning to 'clean your plate,'" Heaney said. Recker said it's important to continue assessing the nuns' calcium metabolism as they age and face a greater risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures. "Now is when the payoff is coming," he said. According to Recker, half of the nuns, now in their 70s and 80s, still come in periodically for bone scans and blood tests. Many of the others have died. "This was really a beautiful and unique study," said Dr. Felicia Cosman, clinical director of the National Osteoporosis Foundation. "It really helped define some of the issues we knew were related to changes in calcium metabolism," such as aging and metabolism. She said such studies aren't done anymore because money isn't available for extra-long-term research in the hospital setting. ___ On the Net: National Osteoporosis Foundation: http://www.nof.org/ Osteoporosis Research Center at Creighton University Medical Center: http://osteoporosis.creighton.edu/
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