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Medical topics listed to the left
What's with the topics listed to the left? Well, sometimes I work with people who have been diagnosed with a sickness, and I spend a certain amount of time helping them plug into the resources for their particular problem. Why? Well, I'm good at information. Better at information than, say,putting on a pink outfit, being pleasant (heaven forbid!) and carrying flowers around a hospital, you know?
Ready for a rant? Today's medical situation is more exciting and more difficult than ever before. Gone are the patriarchal, comforting, know-it-all doctors of yesteryear. Today's doctors are working side-by-side with their patients and the patients' families, researching new treatments, tracking the performance of solutions, and trying to stay on top of the huge amount of information out there.
If you have a sickness, make sure that you find an online support group. Spend the time. Find out which hospitals are the best in treating your problem -- then see which groups deal with those hospitals. This will help you.
People care. They help one another. And in every online group there are several type-A mavens, who seem to know every single thing about the condition. These people are awesome. Get two or three of them feeding you information (and sources, don't forget SOURCES for any ideas and treatments that you hear about. Anything that you give to your doctor must be valid.) At any rate, get two or three of these people and it's like having Superman on your side.
This is a tremendous benefit and one of the hidden ways in which the internet is literally changing how we live. The internet is letting people reach out, between cities, states, countries, and continents, to help one another. Use it.
Okay, moving right along here...
Internet medical links
There are a few people who host regular medical websites. Remember Dr. Koop? Well, he has a website! Good guy. Another one is Dr. Dean Edell, who has a site named HealthCentral.com.
Haveyou heard of sleepnet.com? It's for people with sleep problems.
Check out obgyn.net if you're looking to compare female treatment info data or get questions answered.
Netwellness is from the folks at Ohio State university, University of Cincinnatti, and Case Western Reserve University. Answers questions, provides general information.
This is a very interesting site. It's called ResilienceNet, and it's put out by extremely respected organizations (Early Childhood and Parenting Collaborative, College of Education at the University of Illinois, and is funded by the Bernard van Leer Foundation. At any rate, it contains "information for helping children and families overcome adversities." Here is information about Resilience.net.
Women's Diagnostic Cyber looks like a useful site. Chock full of information for women, including such topics as which birth control pill to use and whether or not it's right for you, fibroids, estrogen replacement, and so forth. Seems like a great place to check things out (so is www.about.com)
There is a blog called HealthLaw that writes about new developments in health law. Written by Thomas Mayo,an associate professor at the Dedman School of Law. Mayo also has some interesting health law links.
PsychCentral has mental health and psychology resources online.
Advocacy sites
Turns out that there are a lot of interesting and wonderful advocacy sites. The following sites were listed at the Grassroots Connection.com website, which is a support and advocacy group for people who have Parkinson's. This group is in the forefront of people who can really use new research and new medical breakthroughs which involve things like stem cell research.
Alternative Medicine
I really don't have a ton of information on this, even though I am a Californian. But I am looking for a really good doctor who is conversant with more than one type of medicine.
Personally, I have no idea who these people are, but there is something called the Holistic Healing Health Page that contains a huge amount of referrals to all different practitioners, from massage to naet.
Herbalist links
It's good to know about herbs. The Ontario Herbalists website has some fascinating information.
I also just found a really neat site called Henriette's Herbal Homepage. It's written by a Finnish woman, contains both medicinal and cooking herbal information, and is just lovely.
To Medicine -- and beyond
I just found (when looking for something else) a fascinating link to NYU's Medical Humanities database, including the literature, arts, and medicine database. Not something which traditionally intersects, or so I thought. Just fascinating stuff. Confronting cancer through art, women physicians, history of medicine at UCLA, etc. etc.
Art and healing
Art as Healing is an amazing site. It will "immerse you in the field of art and healing. By art, we always mean storytelling, poetry, music, dance, visual arts, painting, sculpture, everything that is usually thought of as creativity. We believe that art and healing are joining together to become one. "
The Art as Healing links are absolutely, wonderfully neat.
Hmmn. Have you heard of the Art Heals organization? They have an amazing amount of links to art therapy organizations. Here is their mission statement: "...serves as an international resource for anyone interested in the healing potential of art, especially environmentalists, social activists, artists, art professionals, health care practitioners, and those challenged by illness. Our hope is that the information presented here will educate and inspire."
