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What Kind of Health Seeker Are You? What kind of health seeker are you? Are you a “blunter”—the kind of person who thinks that the less he knows about his health the better? Or are you a “monitor”—the kind of person who tracks down every last scrap of information about her health problems? If you’re a blunter, a monitor, or something in between, you still need to know the basics about your health condition. So here are a few good places to start: Online In search of a quick rundown on your condition? The National Institutes of Health Web site might be the best place to start searching. The site allows you to search for information on your condition by its location in the body, the disease name, or health issues such as smoking or weight gain. NIH’s MedlinePlus is a good one-stop-shop for basic health information. The site includes a medical encyclopedia to look up tricky words, information on hundreds of prescriptions by brand name, and links to doctors, hospitals and medical libraries across the country. National Health Information Clearinghouse, part of the NIH system, lists more than 1,400 organizations and government offices that provide free health information upon request to consumers. WebMD/Medscape is an old reliable standby in the online medical universe. The site offers much of the same general information as the two sites mentioned above, but its style may be more friendly to Web surfers who don’t normally browse government sites. You can also start your seeking at one of the newer consumer-oriented sites that offer basic health information complete with video guides, chat rooms, expert blogs, newsletters and personal health recordkeeping services. Revolution Health is a good example. And don’t forget disease-specific sites—such as the American Diabetes Association (www.diabetes.org) —for good information on common conditions such as cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and Alzheimer’s On the Phone The National Institutes of Health offers much of the basic information available on their Web sites through toll-free hotlines. Hotline operators can send you basic information on diseases, treatments and clinical trials. The first 20 pamphlets you request are free, and the rest can be sent for the cost of shipping. Increasingly, the hotline information is also available in Spanish. Some of the major hotlines include: HIV/AIDS: 1 (800) HIV-0440 Excerpted from Jessie Gruman’s Aftershock: What to Do When the Doctor Gives You—or Someone You Love—a Devastating Diagnosis, Walker and Company, 2007.
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