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Web Scout
Logging on For the Health of It
By Marcia Koth de Paredes

Nearly thirty five million people are expected to log on this year for health info on everything from simple first-aid advice to reports on current research results. Internet helps prepare to go to the doctor with better information and questions for more active participation in health care decisions as well as to find ways to lead a long and healthful life. The more than twenty five thousand web sites currently online mean that undoubtedly some of it is inaccurate, so it is important to choose carefully. The following offers a selection to help understand medical treatment options with emphasis on non-commercial sites many of which offer information in both English and Spanish.

Search Engines
Most Internet service providers have developed elaborate health categories with search possibilities, selected links, chats and message boards. Google (http://directory.google.com/) and Yahoo (http://health.yahoo.com) are two in both languages. Ask your doctor the exact name of a disease or medicine (both brand and generic) in English and/or Spanish. You will find plenty of information in both languages but more if you use English to search.

U.S. Government Gateways
1. www.firstgov.gov/Citizen/Topics/Health.shtml This is a government gateway for consumers that leads to topics such as General Health, Health Topics A-Z, Food, Nutrition and Fitness, Health Insurance, Services as well as categories by age group and culture (infant, child and teen, men, women and minority). For example: www.girlshealth.gov, www.4women.gov, www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/menshealth.html, www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/seniorshealth.html

2. www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ A service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. This is a great place to find descriptions to understand causes and effects of diseases. It is especially helpful to understand proper use and dosage, precautions to take during use such as interactions with other medicines, and possible side effects. Search or see the sections by health topic, drugs & supplements, the encyclopedia and dictionary. This site has excellent tutorials in both English and Spanish. See www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/spanish/tutorial.html

3. www.cdc.gov The Center for Disease Control and Prevention site gives information on public health matters including not only epidemics but well developed sections on travellers´ health (www.cdc.gov/travel/tropsam.htm), vaccines and immunizations (www.cdc.gov/node.do/id/0900f3ec8000e2f3), workplace safety (www.cdc.gov/node.do/id/0900f3ec8000ec09) as well as many other topics.

4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi The National Library of Medicine (Pub Med) sponsors a database with more than ten million articles from scientific and medical journals. If you want to get very serious this is a good site to use.

5. www.niaaa.nih.gov National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information provides info on research, treatment resources, and plenty of links.

Privately Sponsored Sites
1. Associations funded by foundations and non-profits sponsor good places to study specific problems. See for example: American Cancer Society www.cancer.org American Heart Association www.americanheart.org, American Diabetes Association www.diabetes.org, National Mental Health Association www.nmha.org, Women's Heart Foundation www.womensheartfoundation.org, Trust for America's Health http://healthyamericans.org/newsroom/links for links to other health associations and foundations.

2. Hospital webs allow you to double-check government sources since they are working hard to prepare specialized information. See: Texas Heart Institute www.tmc.edu/thi/hislinks.html and Mayo Clinic www.mayoclinic.com I like the First-Aid Guide for what to do in emergencies. www.mayoclinic.com/health/FirstAidIndex/FirstAidIndex Also, check out the hospital in your home town.

3. Media sponsored webs are also useful. The webs of most online newspapers and television will have a section on health. Forbes, for example, reviews web sites and selects a list of “favorites” each year that can be particularly useful if you want to look at commercial sites.
www.forbes.com/bow/b2c/section.jhtml?id=9

Spanish Portals
Medline Plus is being translated into Spanish, so is the CDC. Also, the National Network of Libraries of Medicine has an excellent online manual that includes a very good list of consumer health materials in Spanish. http://nnlm.gov/scr/conhlth/chspanish.htm

The Harborview Medical Center of the University of Washington prepares Ethnomed permitting access to patient education materials. For Spanish see http://www.ethnomed.org/ethnomed/cultures/hispanic/patient_ed.html

Alternative Medicine
Promoters of alternative medical procedures are frequently online for everything from acupuncture to experimental medicines. Some of these webs are extremely useful; others are prepared by snake-oil salesmen and can be dangerous to your health. Here are a few I find interesting:
National Institutes of Health National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine http://nccam.nih.gov/health
DMOZ Directory is portal to nearly 6,000 webs. www.dmoz.org/Health/Alternative
Forbes´ selection of web sites includes recommendations you may want to consider. See www.forbes.com/bow/b2c/category.jhtml?id=149
Mind Body Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School www.mbmi.org/basics/default.asp
Dr. Andrew Weil has a useful web site: www.drweil.com/u/Home/index.html

Next Month: The Web Scout will look at fitness, food and nutrition.

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