Show Nuns Health Practices For or nc Why do nuns live longer than their secular sisters Why do they suffer suHer less from gastrointestinal gastrointestinal gastrointestinal gastro gastro- intestinal diseases such as ulcers gall stones BECAUSE LIFE in a nunnery according to James T T. T Nix M. M D D. D surgery professor and Con J. J Fecher PhD Ph.D. of LouIsiana Louisiana Louisiana Lou Lou- State University Is healthier er The researchers base their o observation b s e r v a ti 0 n on continuing studies 1964 through 1967 of nuns living In re religious religious religious re- re communities and on an analysis of 1000 death records THE SISTERS live longer in part because they live more abstemiously and work for more of their lives They do not smoke and they take alcohol only on feast days Their diet is lower In cholesterol than the average diet The nuns most susceptible to gall bladder attacks are Dr Nix notes the Mother Provincials Provincials Provincials Pro Pro- who go on frequent trips to their orders' orders missions They are served richer food usually with a high fat content As a result they get what Dr Nix calls Mother Provincial syn syn- drome STRIKINGLY FEWER nuns died of heart disease and major circulatory ry diseases than the female population population lation latton II in general |