JEANNE ERDMANN

Telltale Hearts  

NATURE MEDICINE 

Each year, tens of thousands of young people worldwide die suddenly after their hearts stop beating for no apparent reason. Genetic testing for inherited heart rhythm disorders can potentially offer grief-stricken family members an explanation for the loss of their loved ones and provide actionable diagnostic information to help them avoid the same fate. And yet, such 'molecular autopsies' are rarely performed by the forensic experts who investigate unexplained deaths. Jeanne Erdmann meets the medical professionals who are trying to change that. READ MORE

Trace Elements  

NATURE  MEDICINE

Pathologist Lawrence True sat in an autopsy room at the University of Washington in Seattle, reading over notes and trying to get a sense of the man who had just died from prostate cancer. The body was about to arrive. True and a urology resident looked over the patient's recent scans, searching for places, other than bone, to which the cancer might have spread. They had begun to prepare for the imminent procedure only a few hours earlier, after a page from a family member of the deceased individual alerted them to the death. READ MORE

How Old Are Your Knees?  

WOMEN'S HEALTH

Allyson Jackson is 31, but she walks on the knees of a senior citizen. Years of playing sports, followed by weight gain and a boxing injury, stressed her joints until they needed a surgical fix. Now, she sometimes ices her knees up to six times a day.

Allyson's experience is part of a growing—and scary—trend: Osteoarthritis (OA), a progressive joint disease, is increasingly striking young women, most commonly in the knees. In 2000, just over 53,000 women ages 20 to 39 saw a doctor for a diagnosis of OA. READ MORE

The Story of You  

FAMILY CIRCLE

Somehow, in the one-stoplight town of Melbourne, Arkansas—population 1,500, a secret was kept. And not just for a few years, but more than three decades. 

But that secret began unraveling four years ago when Ronicia Smith, 35, was searching for a special Christmas present for her father, Ronnie. She decided to create a family crest for him by digging into his genealogy, giving him a DNA kit to confirm what she learned online. While she was at it, Ronicia ran her own DNA. And that's when things got confusing. READ MORE