Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Wealth of Online Health Information

Much health information can be found online. We take this free massive amount of information for granted. If we have a quick question that does not involve illness or risk, we can look online. For health and science in formation, we must make sure that the Web sites have authority control. this means that they have been written by and-or peer reviewed by physicians, scientists, nurses, physical therapists and others who know what they are talking about. (Different Strokes: Whatcha talking about, Willis?) Now, some sites with no authority control, like Wikipedia, have been shown to be overall reliable. This must be "look good" patrol, but that's another blog post. Other Web sites, such as WebMD, Livestrong, Yahoo Health, etc., cannot be relied upon alone. Often they are written by writers who are not educated or experienced science writers who have referenced articles. Use your common sense to see if the source of the data is reliable.

Some good health Web sites are: www.pubmed.gov, www.cdc.gov, www.who.int, www.aarp.org and www.mayoclinic.org. As with physicians, get a second opinion.

Disclaimer: None of the above information can be taken as a substitute for advice from a medical professional such as a physician.

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on www.louizapatsis.com, http://www.authorhouse.com, www.bn.com and http://www.amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Louiza Patsis said...
This comment has been removed by the author.