  We elaborate on a recently proposed extension of the Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn
(GDH) sum rule which is achieved by taking derivatives with respect to the
anomalous magnetic moment. The new sum rule features a {\it linear} relation
between the anomalous magnetic moment and the dispersion integral over a
cross-section quantity. We find some analogy of the linearized form of the GDH
sum rule with the `sideways dispersion relations'. As an example, we apply the
linear sum rule to reproduce the famous Schwinger's correction to the magnetic
moment in QED from a tree-level cross-section calculation and outline the
procedure for computing the two-loop correction from a one-loop cross-section
calculation. The polarizabilities of the electron in QED are considered as well
by using the other forward-Compton-scattering sum rules. We also employ the sum
rules to study the magnetic moment and polarizabilities of the nucleon in a
relativistic chiral EFT framework. In particular we investigate the chiral
extrapolation of these quantities.
