Significant brain damage from Alzheimer’s disease can occur years before symptoms such as memory loss and cognitive decline appear. Scientists estimate that Alzheimer’s-related plaques can build up in the brain two decades before the onset of symptoms, so researchers have been looking for ways to detect the disease sooner. Currently, physicians use PET scans and lumbar punctures to help diagnose Alzheimer’s, but these tests are expensive and invasive.

In the United States, overall rates of new colorectal cancer cases and deaths from the disease have decreased steadily since 1980, largely owing to recommended colonoscopy screening starting at age 50. However, for reasons that remain unknown, new cases of, and deaths due to, both colon and rectal cancers have been increasing for younger adults ages 20 to 49.

Two new studies answer important questions about the process of giving birth. The findings may help pregnant women, working with their obstetricians, make choices that will benefit their health and that of their babies.

The patient room I enter is quiet. It’s late morning, and I’ve walked here from my desk at the other end of the hospital after receiving a text message that says I’m needed. I feel uneasy at first, an interloper in a space that’s unfamiliar. But the nurse I meet in the room is grateful I’ve arrived and tells me so. Then she talks with me about her patient, who is in the bed near where we stand. His name is Frederick. His eyes are closed, his body still, his breaths shallow.

Sarah Smith, RN, BSN, CLC, (at left, in the purple shirt) and Heather Weiler, RN, (in the colorful skirt) began their nursing careers in their 40s after working in other fields. Smith was an elementary and preschool teacher, sold real estate and worked in institutional development. Weiler held positions in physicians’ offices and worked as a medical claims processor. Both were working moms and both experienced the loss of a young child: Smith, a twin son after a difficult pregnancy; Weiler, the sudden, tragic death of a young nephew.