Pull Information from Database to Navbar?

[evenmonkeys]

I've got two types of users: regular users and premium users. Premium users have access to the download section whereas regular users do not. I've got a special section on the navbar for each usergroup and I'd like to add to the regular user's drop-down list.

I'd like to be able to tell them how many files are in the download section. How would I retrieve the number from the database so that it would just simply display like...

Downloadable File: 538

That number is just an example though. =P I just want to pull a number.

Thanks.