News & Views

Vaccines don't work as well in the elderly as in the young, leaving many of the sickest people vulnerable to disease. But immunologists are learning why immunity falters and might soon be able to give shots more punch.

Many people with Alzheimer's disease don't receive the hospice services they need because these programs are reserved for people with less than 6 months to live. A new prognostic model could make it easier for these patients to get quality end-of-life care.

Older people might be the first to experience the health consequences of global environmental change. These perturbations could put many more at risk of sickness and death from extreme weather, air pollution, and the spread of infectious disease.

Funds spent chasing a cure for Alzheimer's disease (AD) will advance the field of aging as a whole--at least according to proponents of AD research. Others aren't convinced, and they argue that more money should be funneled directly into basic research on aging.

Research on people helps shape medical care, but not all human studies are alike. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the different types of investigations helps researchers, doctors, and the public weigh the evidence for promising treatments.

With hormone replacement therapy (HRT) under fire, researchers who study women's reproductive health and aging are heading back to the drawing board. Last month, scientists from a wide range of disciplines gathered to pose questions about the biology of menopause and to identify areas of research that could lead to potential therapies.

Two years ago, the largest placebo-controlled trial of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was shut down when women receiving treatment showed an increased risk of heart disease and breast cancer. In this special Crossroads essay, two physicians who study the effect of hormones on the development of mood disorders explain why they think the outright dismissal of HRT was hasty and suggest that researchers not abandon their investigations of HRT.

As people live longer and the world gets noisier, hearing loss is becoming a major chronic health problem. Technologies, such as cochlear implants, can restore most hearing, but new therapies might one day go deeper by repairing the inner ear's hair cells and protecting them from damage. In the meantime, activists call for quiet.

One year after the first comprehensive federal medical records privacy law took effect, researchers say that the regulations impede access to patients' files. Without this information, they argue, the nation's health care system--and its recipients--will suffer.

Since President Richard Nixon declared war on cancer in 1971, scientists have unraveled the molecular systems that healthy cells use to multiply, grow, repair internal damage, and even die. And they've discovered the changes that allow cancer cells to subvert these systems. Yet all this information underscores the enemy's ingenuity and complexity--and explains why a cure still eludes.