Health & Medicine : Editor's Choice
by Kathleen McFadden

The Alternative Medicine Homepage
www.pitt.edu/~cbw/altm.html
Not surprisingly, university library staffs prepare some of the best collections of electronic reference materials. The Alternative Medicine Homepage assembled by the Falk Library of the Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh is a salubrious example. These links explore the world of unorthodox therapeutic practices such as folk medicine, herbal treatments, faith healing, chiropractic, acupuncture, massage and music therapy. Long scorned by the medical establishment as mere quackery, alternative medicine practices have slowly begun to shed their back-alley reputation and reach wider acceptance among patients dissatisfied with the assembly line practices at many doctors' offices.

In 1992, the Office of Alternative Medicine was established at the National Institutes of Health with the purpose of evaluating the efficacy of alternative treatments and helping to integrate them into mainstream medical practice. While there are indisputably some snake oil peddlers in the bunch, an overwhelming body of evidence shows that many of these "outmoded" treatments work for many patients, especially the modalities that take a holistic, mind-body interaction approach to wellness. The Alternative Medicine Homepage includes links to the significant sites and collections on the Internet so that interested wellness explorers can learn more about this fascinating field.

Connecting with Nature
www.pacificrim.net/~nature/
Long before the Industrial Revolution, long before agribusiness, long before the Computer Revolution, our ancestors knew that we were inextricably bound to the energies of the Earth -- that our spiritual and mental health depended in great measure on our integration into the natural order. At our current spot on the historical timeline, the traffic, cell phones, grocery stores and cities have cut us off from the natural world.

We see the effects everyday, from personal unhappiness to vague feelings of dislocation to a yearning for something that actually matters. Project NatureConnect seeks to bridge the gap between the modern and the ancient, by providing psychological insights and tranquility through ecological activities and a free online course. Here's a restorative for the modern soul "that lets thoughtful sensory contacts with Earth catalyze wellness, spirit and responsibility."

Food and Drug Administration Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition
vm.cfsan.fda.gov/
Do your food-handling practices send a hearty "all aboard" to bacteria and invite them to take a ride into your intestinal tract? Don't get indignant; take the Food Safety Quiz prepared by the FDA. If you've ever tasted raw cookie dough, eaten a rare hamburger or chopped the onions on the same board you used to cut up the chicken, you have put yourself at risk of pathogenic infection.

The FDA does a fine job of highlighting important safety issues in food selection, storage, preparation, and food-drug interactions. Find out why pregnant women should not eat soft cheeses, check your raw egg savvy, read raw oyster facts and more. Special online brochures address food safety issues for persons with AIDS and those with liver disease, diabetes and gastrointestinal disorders. Link to the FDA's Bad Bug Book, a hypertext handbook that provides information about Salmonella, Listeria, red kidney bean poisoning and other "bad bugs" you've never even heard of. They're all out there lurking, waiting for you to drop your guard. You'll never look at food the same way again.

Genentech, Inc.
www.gene.com/
Genentech manufactures and markets six protein-based pharmaceuticals. Their corporate home page contains the usual self-promotion and product descriptions, but here's a drug company that gives something back. The Science, Science, Science section provides a remarkably clear and interesting explanation of the drug discovery, testing and approval process, a virtual mystery to the health care consumer who only knows that prescription drugs are outrageously expensive but has no idea why. But best of all is the Access Excellence program, Genentech's online resource for high school biology teachers.

Access Excellence is full of ideas, activities, networking opportunities and news, all geared toward biotechnology and life sciences education. The monthly seminar feature includes a background paper on the selected topic, focus discussions, related Internet resources and a suggestion box for feedback and ideas. Previous seminars are archived and cover such kid-friendly topics as fishkeeping, leeches and allergies. The resource center is crammed with life science links to use in the classroom. Genentech deserves a hearty round of applause for their commitment to biology education and the obvious care and preparation that have gone into Access Excellence. With well-designed graphics and engaging text, the Genentech site is a real find.

The Heart: An Online Exploration
sln2.fi.edu/biosci/heart.html
Take a guided tour of the human heart courtesy of the Franklin Institute Science Museum and the Unisys Corporation. Virtual travelers can start with The Heart Preview Gallery, a detailed, hyperlinked introduction to the full exhibit. The preview highlights the interactive activities, images and movies, educational materials, and audio files folded into the virtual tour. Travel on to the table of contents to customize your tour and pick your destinations. Choose from presentations covering healthy hearts, the artery-vein-capillary connection, the oxygen-carbon dioxide tradeoff and the "fascinating fluid of life."

Test your blood I.Q. Listen to the difference between a healthy heart and a heart murmur. Look at a comparison of two heart x-ray images. Watch a video of heart bypass surgery -- if you dare. Besides all the medical and scientific stuff, the exhibit doesn't neglect the popular images of the heart in movies, books and songs. How many novels with the word "heart" in the title can you name? Check your answers against the list and add any that aren't there. Heartened visitors are even invited to submit original poems. If it's heart-related, it's here, from the purely scientific to the purely whimsical.

Healthwise
www.columbia.edu/cu/healthwise /
The Columbia University Health Service presents Go Ask Alice, an interactive health question and answer service. Alice isn't afraid of your questions, no matter how difficult or potentially embarrassing. There's no obfuscation or half answers here. Alice responds authoritatively and engagingly, but never in a condescending way. She treats all questions seriously and provides facts, comfort and suggestions for sources of additional help. Fortunately for Netizens, all of Alice's past questions and answers are archived and readers can search or browse through discussions of sex, relationships, drugs and alcohol, fitness and nutrition, emotional well-being and general health.

Alice gets her share of bizarre questions, such as whether nose picking is a health hazard, but she also deals with a variety of serious, real-world issues such as the emotional fallout following abortion, obsessive-compulsive disorders, cervical cancer, alcoholic binges, sexually transmitted diseases, exercise problems, dietary guidelines and more. Even if you don't have a specific question, the Alice archives are a good read and a marvelous source of information.

Marty Howard's HIV/AIDS HomePage
www.smartlink.net/~martinjh/
There may be AIDS/HIV pages on the Web with more information than Marty Howard's, but you'd be hard-pressed to find them and Marty's is definitely the place for the most current news. HIV-positive Marty Howard loads this page with links to articles, product information, mailing lists and support groups, clinical trials reports and medication data. The link to Dr. Tim France's text list contains descriptions and URLs for 43 AIDS/HIV sites, including indexes from Yahoo and the World Wide Web Virtual Library, along with government sites from the CDC and National Library of Medicine.

But what's more important, Marty puts a face on this disease; he personalizes it the way government databases and CDC updates and World Health Organization reports never can. And Marty is so polite. He closes every explanatory paragraph by thanking the reader. No, thank you, Marty, for devoting so much time and effort to this vital source of information.

The Medical Reporter
www.dash.com/netro/nwx/tmr /tmr.html
The Medical Reporter's masthead states that this free online journal emphasizes "preventive medicine, primary care, patient advocacy, education and support, as well as topics in sub-specialty medicine of interest to men and women." That's a dauntingly wide scope, but this monthly electronic publication lives up to its promise. Readers will find a combination of reprints and original material covering up-to-the-minute news on a broad spectrum of health issues and recent research findings. Subjects of the full-text articles in a recent issue include depression, the HIV home test system, chlamydia screening and the AMA's recommendations for preventing summer recreation injuries.

Published solely in cyberspace since April 1995, the journal's past issues are archived and can be read online. The May 1996 edition contains a superb article on pap smears and cervical cancer, as well as a frightening discussion of "mad cow disease" and a report on the incidence and treatment of rosacea. Want to know more about antibiotic treatment for ulcers, infertility, cerebral palsy research or the use of black tea for stroke prevention? How about impotence, long-term hormone treatment, endometriosis or antioxidants? With its broad range and wide target audience, The Medical Reporter truly has something for everyone.

MedWeb: Biomedical Internet Resources
www.cc.emory.edu/WHSCL/medw eb.html
For sheer volume of information, you can't beat Emory University's MedWeb, a meta-index to medicine, medical science and health resources on the Internet. What do you want to know today? How to handle suspected health fraud? The source of the name of the Ebola virus? The fat content of fast food restaurant offerings? The answer to just about any medical or health question can be found somewhere in the MedWeb pages.

The home page table of contents lists over 70 primary categories in alphabetical order, from Aerospace Medicine to Virtual Reality. Secondary pages are also categorized, some containing a few and some a few dozen subcategories. For extra help, some links are followed by brief explanatory text. Forget all those print-based medical almanacs and encyclopedias. MedWeb is far more complete and up-to-date. It is an authoritative, easy-to-use, and comprehensive index to health and medicine targeted equally to clinical professionals and health consumers.

The On-Line Allergy Center
www.sig.net/~allergy/welcome .html
Many of us have experienced the nasal drips, red eyes and sneezing, but did you know that hyperactivity, depression and loss of short term memory are also allergy symptoms? Dr. Russell Roby of Austin, Texas, knows and has authored this page "to provide helpful allergy tips and information to allergy sufferers worldwide." Dr. Roby explains the allergic reaction so simply and clearly that a child can understand it. Follow along with the good doctor as he enumerates the vexing manifestations of allergies, read his tips for keeping symptoms at bay and find out how ultraviolet light can eliminate mold spores.

The site also boasts three interactive newsgroups devoted to allergy, asthma and migraine. For those who suspect food allergies, Dr. Roby includes a program and specific schedule for assessing reactions to certain types of food, along with remedies for food reactions and a form for monitoring food intake. Dr. Roby can't write you an online prescription, but he does share a sizeable snort of allergy how-comes and how-tos.

The Prostate Cancer InfoLink
www.comed.com/Prostate/index .html
Prostate cancer is a high-profile disease these days, having lately claimed the lives of such notables as Frank Zappa and Timothy Leary. Approximately 317,100 American men are expected to be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1996, and early detection is complicated by the fact that the disease has no definitive set of symptoms; all the early signs can be caused by other illnesses or normal aging. The Prostate Cancer InfoLink arms its readers with the facts.

Written in simple, understandable language, the page carefully lays out the risk factors and symptoms, along with info on screening and early detection. Men who have the disease can benefit from the extensive information on how to understand and interpret their diagnosis and treatment. The discussion includes the "grades" of the disease and its clinical stages, definitions of related medical abbreviations and acronyms, and treatment options. Finally, the site includes a number of additional resources, including pointers to support organizations, tips on choosing a physician, a FAQ, and the Ask Arthur feature, an interactive question and answer forum.

The Sleep Medicine Home Page
www.cloud9.net/~thorpy/
Snoozing isn't always a soothing balm: Some of us sleep too much, some of us sleep too little, some of us make noises and some of us have bad dreams. All are accommodated at The Sleep Medicine Home Page, a vast compendium of links to all things drowsy. If it's true that "about 40 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders such as narcolepsy, sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, and the insomnias," a lot of people out there are dragging through their days. Help is here in the form of information, treatment options and links to worldwide sleep centers and discussion groups.

Check these somnolent facts: Narcolepsy may be a genetic autoimmune disease. Snoring is not necessarily an indication of sleep apnoea. Still can't snooze? Insomniacs can take the restless legs quiz, find out about sleep disorders caused by prescription drugs, and read Aristotle's musings on the nature of sleep. If Aristotle's tedious recitation of the obvious ("sleep is evidently a privation of waking") doesn't help you close your eyes, it may be time to check into a sleep center.

Stanford Travel Medicine Service
www-leland.stanford.e du/~naked/stms.html
If you're planning an international excursion or a wilderness adventure, the trip won't be much fun if you snag a case of yellow fever, so add the Stanford Travel Medicine Service to your itinerary. The site provides a good overview of the vaccinations required for overseas travel, along with creepy disease descriptions and vaccination contraindications. Find valuable travel alerts and info on malaria, diarrhea and gastrointestinal problems (sometimes known in less polite circles as Montezuma's Revenge), acute mountain sickness and HIV.

The general travel advice and suggestions on medical kits, travel insurance and traveling with children can all help prepare travelers for those unexpected twists in the trail. Particularly useful is the section on how to treat diarrhea in children and preventive measures for avoiding parasitic infection. A world of reference links are provided, including the Centers for Disease Control, National Institutes of Health and World Health Organization. The CDC site in particular contains a suitcase full of useful travel info. Another excellent link is The International Travelers Clinic from the Medical College of Wisconsin. And for the indecisive traveler, the U.S. State Department Travel Warnings will advise you where not to go.

Web of Addictions
www.well.com/user/woa/
Don't look for smirks or tacit approvals at Web of Addictions (WOA), just cold hard facts about the ravages of drug and alcohol abuse. Part activist site, part stern taskmaster, part educator, the WOA was developed to counteract pro-drug messages, correct misinformation about abused drugs and provide the global community with an educational resource. And educate they do, with a series of public-domain fact sheets that cover every conceivable abused drug. The fact sheets provide a brief history and the pharmacological value (or nonvalue) of the drug, followed by its current use, physical symptoms, short-term and long-term effects, and any possible complications (if you can call death a complication) of drug-drug interactions.

Another feature of potential benefit to parents and teachers is the list of slang terms for street drugs. Everybody knows that amphetamines are called speed, but did you know that they're also called "jellybeans" or that crack cocaine is called "Conan"? There's a lot to learn at WOA, and the authors include a selection of articles that help evaluate a person's risk for substance abuse, target teens and their exposures, and discuss treatment options and benefits. WOA is a must-read for all parents and their children.

World Wide Drugs
community.net/~neils/new.html
Neil Sandow, a Pharm.D., is a person you'd like to see behind the counter at your local drug store. Here's a guy who has all the answers to drug-related questions or knows where to find them. Neil may not compound your prescriptions, but he has made his knowledge accessible by compiling this impressive catalog of pharmaceutical sites. The first entry on the prescription pad is the Rx List, a cross-referenced index of over 4,000 prescription and over-the-counter drugs.

Next, take a dose of Martindale's Virtual Pharmacy Center. Martindale's is packed with drug databases, medical dictionaries, online pharmacy journals, and scary facts about drug interactions and reactions. Want more? Check out the World-Wide Web Virtual Library Pharmacy. Neil also includes several universities and general medical sites with their own databases, research updates and drug news. For those who don't hold with chemical remedies, the alternative medicine and homeopathic links provide some natural options. So the next time you want drug facts, don't consult the 1989 Physicians' Desk Reference you picked up at the last library book sale, log on to Neil's site for the best drug sites on the Internet.