Greetings from the National Library of Medicine and MedlinePlus.gov

Regards to all our listeners!

I'm Rob Logan, Ph.D. senior staff National Library of Medicine substituting this week for Donald Lindberg, M.D, the Director of the U.S. National of Medicine.

Here is what's new this week in MedlinePlus.

To listen to Dr. Lindberg's comments, click here

The new edition of NIH MedlinePlus magazine features a profile of singer Randy Owen's contributions to children's health as well as articles about eating disorders, global health progress, plus a child vaccination schedule and a celebration of GenBank's 25th anniversary.

In the cover story, former Alabama lead singer Randy Owen describes his song, 'Braid My Hair,' which is about a young girl who loses her hair from treatment for an illness. Owen is donating all the song's publishing royalties to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital based in Memphis, TN. The song was recommended to Owen by his mother.

A sidebar to the Owen profile adds the five year survival rate is now at 85 percent for the most common children's cancer (a form of leukemia). This represents a significant improvement in children's cancer treatment, which remains the leading cause of death by disease of Americans, ages 1-14.

A separate story explains how to recognize eating disorders and where to find more information in MedlinePlus.gov, Clinical trials.gov, and other reliable sources. A list of symptoms and warning signs is provided for the three most common eating disorders: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder.

The article counters perceptions that eating disorders are exclusively found among teen girls and young women. While most cases of the most common eating disorders occur among women, 35 percent of binge eating disorders actually occur among men.  The article notes eating disorders are common among male teens and young men, who are more vulnerable than is widely perceived.

A series of articles also notes some progress (and the challenges) to enhance global health. Currently, the National Library of Medicine's on-site exhibition is about global health, as we noted in a previous podcast. Among other articles, a special section in NIH MedlinePlus magazine lists how international research to thwart diseases improved the health care of many Americans.

For example, American children routinely are immunized against hepatitis B. The article notes the antigen for hepatitis B originally was found in blood samples in Australian aboriginals.

NIH MedlinePlus magazine additionally provides a schedule of 20 childhood vaccines, which readers are encouraged to clip and save. The easy-to-read table explains the appropriate age to immunize children, what vaccine to use, and why it is important for children to receive approved and recommended vaccinations.

The final article in NIH MedlinePlus magazine describes the 25th anniversary of GenBank, the pioneering website which contains the world's largest database of genetic sequences. Genetic sequences contain the instructions needed to develop and direct the activities of almost all living organisms. While GenBank is the world's leading resource for DNA research about humans, the database covers animals, including the platypus' fascinatingly-varied genome that recently received international attention.

The article notes that in just a quarter century GenBank has become one of the key tools that scientists globally use to conduct biomedical and biological research. GenBank is part of an international scientific consortium with partners in Japan and in Europe, who exchange data daily.

GenBank is a product of the National Center for Biotechnology Information, which is a branch of the National Library of Medicine. Similar to all of NLM's services, GenBank is free and open to anyone with internet access. To find it, simply type 'NCBI' in a search engine, such as Yahoo or Google, open NCBI's home page and click on the link to GenBank on the upper left side of the page.

Additional articles in the current NIH MedlinePlus magazine include:

• A description of the future of nursing research that includes helping teens manage diabetes, and improving a patient's return to home care following a hospital stay.
• An interview with NIH director Dr. Elias Zerhouni about NIH's commitment to improving global health and enhancing public health education around the world.

NIH MedlinePlus magazine is distributed to physicians' offices nationwide by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Friends of the National Library of Medicine. You can subscribe or find the latest edition online by clicking on 'NIH MedlinePlus Magazine,' which is on the bottom right side of MedlinePlus.gov's home page. Previous editions of the magazine are available at the same site.

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Your comments about this or any of our podcasts are always welcome. We welcome suggestions about future topics too!
Please email Dr. Lindberg anytime at: NLMDirector@nlm.nih.gov That's NLMDirector (one word) @nlm.nih.gov

A written transcript of recent podcasts is available. Just click on the 'Director's comments' link on MedlinePlus' home page.

The National Library of Medicine is one of 27 institutes and centers within the National Institutes of Health. The National Institutes of Health is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

It was nice to be with you….