As people age, a normal brain protein known as amyloid beta often starts to collect into harmful amyloid plaques in the brain. Such plaques can be the first step on the path to Alzheimer’s dementia. When they form around blood vessels in the brain, a condition known as cerebral amyloid angiopathy, the plaques also raise the risk of strokes.

Imagine surgeons performing surgery with the assistance of augmented reality glasses. Or doing complex, minimally invasive procedures through an incision smaller than your fingernail. These aren’t some-day scenarios; they represent the latest advancements in spine surgeries, making these procedures more precise while causing less damage to surrounding healthy muscle and tissue.

The marketing messages hit you from all directions. There are apps for weight loss and websites and books and online programs. It’s big business, and the quantity of often conflicting information can be overwhelming. Could it be true that there simply is no magic bullet?

It’s 1982, and a man is having a heart attack. An ambulance rushes him to the emergency department, where he’s given a nitroglycerin tablet and a drug called nifedipine.

The treatment doesn’t seem to work, and the man’s heart sustains serious damage. An emergency physician delivers the news to the man’s family: “He might not survive the night. We’ll keep him comfortable, but there’s nothing else we can do.”

For years, this scene was a common one, played out again and again in emergency departments across the nation. Physicians did their best to care for heart attack patients—but their best too often wasn’t enough. That’s because nifedipine and other drugs used at the time simply weren’t effective.