NIH MedlinePlus Magazine is a new quarterly guide for patients and their families. It brings the latest and most authoritative medical and healthcare information from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as featured online on the MedlinePlus Web site.

Health News for You & Yours

On behalf of the Friends of the National Library of Medicine (FNLM), welcome to the Summer 2008 NIH MedlinePlus magazine. This issue, we focus on two common cancers, leukemia and lymphoma, including a personal interview with U.S. Senator Arlen Specter on his battle with lymphoma.

You will also find out how to protect your eyesight for life, learn about a little-known but dangerous circulatory condition called P.A.D. (peripheral arterial disease), and read the latest on understanding and avoiding the knee condition called anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear (what Tiger Woods has). And we offer a practical guide to clinical trials: what they are, what to expect, and how to participate.

In a special photo feature, you will meet some of the people who are working to improve health care across the United States, including U.S. Senator Tom Harkin.

For more than 20 years, Sen. Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, and Sen. Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, have worked together to spearhead support for the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

We take pride in bringing you the most up-to-date, trustworthy information to keep you and your loved ones healthy. And we invite you to help us make sure that this magazine reaches as many other Americans as possible.

To “help out for health,” please contact the FNLM at the address below.

Sincerely,
Paul G. Rogers, Chairman
Friends of the National Library of Medicine

Download NIH MedlinePlus Magazine, Summer 2008

PDF format, 1.4MB, 32Pages.

Highlights
Leukemia & Lymphoma
Keeping Your Sight
Peripheral Arterial Disease
ACL Injuries
Food Safety

Visit MedlinePlus Website

FROM THE NIH DIRECTOR
The Value of Medical Research

As director of the National Institutes of Health, Elias Zerhouni oversees the activities of the world’s leading medical research organization. He spoke with NIH MedlinePlus’ Christopher Klose about the value of medical research and clinical trials.

What does medical research mean to the average person?
Dr. Zerhouni: Medical research is the search for cures to illness and disease. It has been one of the most important human activities throughout history. But it is important to note that modern medical science, based on molecular biology, only began in earnest with the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953.

What was so important about the discovery of DNA?
Dr. Zerhouni: Until then, diseases were understood to be caused by external factors, such as germs. DNA told us we had to go in a completely different direction and understand the structure and function of biological molecules and the information they conveyed; to deal with the intrinsic biologic pathways of human disease.

Could you give an example of disease that is caused by internal factors?
Dr. Zerhouni: For more than a century, there was the theory that viruses cause cancer. Some, such as cervical cancer, are triggered or aggravated by viruses. But a great many others do not seem to be. What is clear is that “cancer” is a disease that expresses itself, always, by a tumor that grows and invades. With more than 200 types and subtypes known today, the research challenge is to understand and block all the pathways to cancer so that people don’t end up in its irretrievable late stages.

Where does medical research stand today?
Dr. Zerhouni: We are in the infancy of medical research. After 50 years of molecular biology and genetic research, we realize that you don’t get to a disease through just one cause or abnormality.

There may be multiple, interacting ones.

For example, when I became NIH Director (in 2002), I would receive a few reports each year that a certain gene or protein was involved in a particular disease. That happens every week now. The Cancer Genome Project just reported three new DNA abnormalities in glioblastoma, the brain cancer Senator Kennedy is fighting. ...

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