Science Takes Aim at Elders' Frailty.

A story that appeared in the Boston Globe offered some wonderful news captured in the headline of Alice Dembner's story, "Science Gaining on Elders' Frailty."

Frailtya "weakened condition that often leads to disability, hospitalization, and death"affects millions of elderly Americans. "Researchers estimate that at least 7 percent of those over 65 are frail, and about 20 percent of those over 80," Dembner writes.

If it can be treated (or prevented), the impact would be almost incalculable.

Although Dembner does not directly address it in this article, the "weakness, exhaustion, and weight loss typical of frailty" is a fertile ground for depression, the kind that can weigh an elderly person down and offer an opening for those who whisper in their ears that their life is "not worth living." If older people can avoid frailty it would also reduce the cost of care, the stick that "quality of life" bioethicists use to beat those of us who subscribe to the equality of life ethos over the head.

The impetus for much of the research, not surprisingly, is the much-discussed "aging" of the population. The demographic implications of a much older population are obvious.

Dembner's opening paragraph is important, substantively and symbolically. "Throw out another convention of old age," she writes. "Researchers are finding that frailty may not be the inevitable result of aging but rather is a preventable and perhaps treatable condition."

What wasn't obvious, at least to me, was how much work is already going on or how differently frailty is now viewed.