Health information is plentiful on the world wide web and many web sites offer specifics on particular illnesses or conditions as well as useful material on staying and keeping healthy. Finding the information can sometimes be a challenge.
This year, nearly 34 million people will log on to the Internet looking for health material. With the information gained from the Internet, patients now can go into their physicians armed with better questions. Online support groups and message boards can connect you with others across the world.
Here is a sampling of sites that can help you find health material for you, the children in your childcare program, and their parents.
Multi-purpose sites
More than 25,000 health sites are now on the web. Several of the bigger sites include sections for news, reference, messages, and more. These commercial sites (meaning that ads appear on the site) are general sites, or places where you can find information on a multitude of medical needs: accenthealth.com, cnn.com/health, discoveryhealth.com, drkoop.com, healthatoz.com, healthcentral.com, intelihealth.com, mayohealth.org, webmed.com.
Non-commercial sites
A number of Internet sites hosted by universities, hospitals or government agencies can provide access to medical databases. For example, chid.nih.gov is the Combined Health Information Database (CHID) for the National Institutes of Health. Another federal site hosted by the National Library of Medicine, nlm.nih.gov, includes links to other federal sites and to medlineplus.gov. Medlineplus includes a medical dictionary and links to dozens of organizations that offer information on specific health topics.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) site, cdc.gov, includes a database as well as recent medical news.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services hosts healthfinder.com which includes links to libraries and other health sources along with a database. Healthfinder.com has information available in English and Spanish. Other information in Spanish can be found at salud.com.
Topic-specific information
There are literally thousands of sites on the Internet that focus on a specific medical condition such as arthritis, cancer, cardiac care, diabetes, dieting, fitness, and more. Many of the general purpose sites listed above includes links to other web addresses. One such site is located on MedlinePlus, medlineplus.gov. It also may be helpful to use a search engine such as Altavista, Yahoo, Infoseek, or Dogpile. Look for information in sites such as americanheart.org, arthritis.org, cancer.org, diabetes.org, lungusa.org, lupus.org, and mentalhealth.org.
Discussion groups
Many sites include discussion groups where you can communicate with others or just read information posted by other readers. To find a discussion group for a particular medical condition, go to deja.com and enter the name of the condition in the discussion group search window. A complete directory of Usenet news groups is available at tile.net/news.
Fitness Facts
Looking to stay fit and need help? Look no farther than your computer where the Internet can help. Check out these sites:
