Health, medical & nutrition sites

If you come across an unfamiliar web site in your search for medical information and want to know how reliable it is, look for the seal of approval from the Health on the Net Foundation (HON); the seal is usually located at the bottom of a site’s home page. HON has a stringent accreditation-application process, requiring web sites to meet an eight-point qualification code that includes an independent audit of who writes for the site, who funds it, and who conducts the studies it posts.

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - This excellent site can be searched via a subject tree or keyword. Includes scientific data and statistics.
• CNN's Health News: Diet & Fitness - This all-purpose health site includes information about a wide range of health issues, medical tips for self-care, doctors' insights, and a medical encyclopedia.
• FamilyDoctor.org - This Web site is operated by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), a national medical organizations representing more than 93,700 family physicians, family practice residents and medical students. All of the information on this site has been written and reviewed by physicians and patient education professionals.
• FDA Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition - This complex site provides access to many government resources on nutrition.
• girlshealth.gov - This site was created to help girls (ages 10-16) learn about health, growing up, and issues they may face. It focuses on health topics that girls are concerned about and helps motivate them to choose healthy behaviors by using positive, supportive, and non-threatening messages. The site gives girls reliable, useful information on the health issues they will face as they become young women and tips on handling relationships with family and friends, at school and at home.
• Healthopedia - a medical and health consumer information resource containing comprehensive and unbiased information in patient-friendly language from trusted sources on over 1,500 health topics, 70 focused health centers, and more than 11,000 drugs and medications.
• Johns Hopkins Medicine - An excellent source for information about medical issues.
• KidsHealth - KidsHealth is the largest and most-visited site on the Web providing doctor-approved health information about children from before birth through adolescence. Created by The Nemours Foundation's Center for Children's Health Media, the award-winning KidsHealth provides families with accurate, up-to-date, and jargon-free health information they can use. KidsHealth has been on the Web since 1995. It has separate areas for kids, teens, and parents — each with its own design, age-appropriate content, and tone. There are literally thousands of in-depth features, articles, animations, games, and resources — all original and all developed by experts in the health of children and teens.
• Mayo Clinic - Searchable by topic or keyword. Includes a excellent drug database.
• MEDLINE and The National Library of Medicine - This site contains the world's most extensive collection of published medical information. It includes a free link to MEDLINE, a database of bibliographic citations (and some abstracts) to journal articles from the medical field.
• MedlinePlus - MedlinePlus will direct you to information to help answer health questions. MedlinePlus brings together authoritative information from NLM, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other government agencies and health-related organizations. Preformulated MEDLINE searches are included in MedlinePlus and give easy access to medical journal articles. MedlinePlus also has extensive information about drugs, an illustrated medical encyclopedia, interactive patient tutorials, and latest health news.
• Medscape - This site provides timely news from medical journals. It requires a one-time, free registration. The site includes a Drug Interaction Checker.
• MedWeb - Links to medical conditions, medical advice, nutrition, electronic medical publications.
• National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information - A superb source of information about alcohol and other drugs.
• NewsRx.com - NewsRx breaks and tracks global health news. The New York Times described the company as "the world's largest producer of weekly health information."
• NOAH (New York Online Access to Health) - This site, recommended by the Medical Library Association, provides information on health issues and illnesses. It can be accessed by Health Topics or through Index A-Z.
• OncoLink -Sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center, this enormous information bank contains news on the latest treatment trends and provides direct links to cancer journals. It also allows you to search for data specific to a particular disease.
• US Public Health Service - At this site you'll find online exhibits like the Visible Human project, which provides unique photos of the inside of the human body. Other resources include Health and Human Services pages for students, teachers, and parents.
• WebMD  - This site provides answers to basic health questions and doctor-vetted articles on almost any condition. The SymptomChecker tool helps you define symptoms and determine the next course of action.
• National organizations: The following national organizations are excellent sources of information on a variety of health and medical issues.
  • American Dietetic Association 
  • American Heart Association 
  • American Medical Association 
  • National Cancer Institute 
  • National Institutes of Health 
  • National Institute of Mental Health