As this edition of Taber's publishes, a new President is in the Oval Office, and the politics of the new administration are very much on everyone's mind. How will its new policies affect the nation's fitness, day-to-day patient care, hospital operations, health professionals, and health education? What reforms are on the horizon? In this time of change, it/s appropriate to ask, is your health, and the health of those you love, better today than it was four years ago?

I certainly hope it is.

And yet, that has not been the national trend. In the main, we are older, more obese, and more likely (whatever our age) to have diabetes mellitus, than ever before. Despite our attempts at calorie restriction, and despite our search for bioactive food components, like antioxidants (to which we ascribe nearly magical healing properties), some of us need laparoscopic gastric banding, gastric stapling, or other bariatric surgeries to lose weight, and most of us are ever in search of ways to increase our metabolic rate without sacrifice. If only we could discover how to get back in shape through obligatory thermogenesis by tweaking the thermic effect of the foods we eat.

Most of us both love food and are neurotically concerned about what we eat. Is that koumiss she is drinking certified organic? Everything added to food in the United States (EAFUS) concerns us. Are we consuming risky foods, or just too much nutrient density? Is it alright that ice cream has thickeners like guar gum? If we want to keep our coronary artery calcification scores low, should we be eating ice cream at all? Are irradiated foods, represented by the radura, the way to keep our nation's food supply safe, or are they toxic? How to nutritionally preempt disease may be complex rather than simple, and may depend on our individual genetic makeup--our nutrigenomics. Tree nuts, to name just one example, may be a good source of ultra trace elements for you, but a serious source of food allergy for your Aunt Maude.

This edition of Taber's--yes it is our largest ever--guides you through the thicket of nutrition, as well as many other fields of interest to you, and to policy makers in our nation's capitol: health screening, public health, health care administration, and advances in nursing practice and theory, to name just a few.

Our editorial staff, consulting editors, consultants, and correspondents have scoured the medical literature for new and updated information about previously unknown drugs, diseases, and approaches to patient care. We have expanded and updated our coverage of alternative, complementary, and integrative medicine; global threats to health; and innovative solutions to our health care needs.

In all we have added about 3500 new terms to this edition of Taber's and we have revised nearly 6000 others. We have added about 100 new images and 25 new tables to the text. The accompanying Taber'sPlus DVD contains a variety of electronic ancillaries enumerated and described on page xi.

The compilation of each edition of Taber's is a labor of love shared by dozens of people working together, including our President, Robert H. Craven, Jr.; the Taber's Editorial Board; and the editorial staff (Arthur Biderman, Brigitte Fenton, Alison Enright, and Joseph Patwell). It has been an honor to share this work with them and with you.

There has never been a more exciting time, or a more crucial time, to be a student embarking on a career in the health professions or a health educator leading students toward professional excellence. The impact you have on the lives and the health of your fellow citizens will spread, in both subtle and overt ways, through the polity at large.

I applaud your efforts to begin your careers at this turning point in our nation's health; and hope you will find the 21st Edition of Taber's to be a trusty, comprehensive, and essential guide to what you need to know, no matter where you live (red state or blue).

Donald Venes, M.D.