Sites for the curious or hypochndriatic

Once again the blahs of winter are upon us. And, as usual, the cold and flu gods of Indiana use this time to wreak havoc on our sunshine

deprived bodies as the temperature can't seem to make up it's fickle mind. Every little sniffle brings pangs of paranoia as you wonder whether this is the beginning of some involuntary winter vacation. For the elderly this can be even more threatening. Every sneeze begs the question, "Do I have the flu, or is this some rare case of Indiana

Bubonic Plague?" Although I can't help you with the Plague, I can help you find the resources that may answer whatever health or medical questions you do have.

The first site I would recommend is the Drs. Cates & Jensens Research Link Page. This site is the Eureka of medical links pages. The webpage begins with three search engines that will allow you to type in

keywords. Don't be afraid to type in something like Sternocleidomastoiditis because this search engine might actually know what you're talking about…even if you don't. From there, the links are divided up into many categories: QA & UR (Quality Assurance & Utilization Review), Chiropractic (which I am very partial to), Medical, Journals, Radiology (X-ray), Neuro (Nerves), Ortho (Bones), Sports, etc. "Chiropractic" is further divided into four subcategories. The medical section contains three subcategories. This last section is the one that most people would be interested in. It has over 100 links to medical web sites allowing one to do everything from an online check-up, to learning first aid. Suffer from Indiana Bubonic Plague Paranoia no more, go do your homework.

The second page I would recommend is called Medical Resources on the Web. Now I know what you're thinking. You're wondering, "Hmmm what could be on that web site?" Well, in case the title didn't tip you off, let me just say that this web site contains medical resources on the web. Does that clear it up any? Good. Ok, this medical links page is

divided into the following categories: Medical Education, Women in Medicine, LGBPM, Minority Affairs, Community & Public Health, Health Policy, Career Development, Other Medical Organizations,

Research, Patient Education, Government Sites, and Beanie Baby

Related Psychosis. Ok, ok, I made the last one up to see if you were paying attention, but the other ones were real. This site has more links to peripheral medical issues rather than addressing actual symptoms, although it does have links to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and National Institute of Health (NIH) which may deal more with

specific health questions.

The last site I would recommend is Ask Dr. Weil. No one knows if this guy really exists or not, but with the increasing popularity of e-mail and chat rooms, who needs to see a real live person? This site seems to be more into holistic medicine, but there is a section that you can go to where you can ask any medical question. Your question is then zipped into some cyber void where several doctors chained to a lab table in some basement in Enid, Oklahoma, work on an answer. The enslaved doctors then vote on whether or not your question had enough common sense for general main stream appeal. If so, you may be listed on their 10 Ten Questions list, or be enshrined in their Q & A library for others to read. In addition they will e-mail you an answer. There is also a link to Dr. Bernie Seagel's Homepage as well as Dr. Ruth's.

You can always go to Yahoo or Webcrawler and type in some keyword, but then you get a million in one listings for things that may have

nothing to do with your keyword. The sites listed here are excellent medical resources for anyone, and just about anything. For example, if your dad is going into the hospital to undergo a bypass surgery, go to these web pages and find out about other treatment options, or find out about the medications he's taking, etc. But what ever you do, don't sneeze on me. I'm just getting over the Plague from last year.