In The News

Forewarned is forearmed; information can be just a click away

A good friend of mine recently found out that he was going to have to deal with prostate cancer. After the initial shock of receiving this information from his doctor he decided that he was going to do battle on two fronts, one front would be considering his doctor’s recommendations and the other would be his own information gathering.

So he considered his options in gathering other opinions and information. Seeing other doctors would incur more cost but probably one good option, information gathering through the library and the Internet would be the other.

It seems the Internet is about everyone’s first choice.

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, the Engaged E-Patient Population, somewhere in the neighborhood of three quarters of all Internet users search online for health information. Those with chronic health problems said that Internet advice entered into their decisions on how to treat their problems.

According to an article in The New York Times by John Schwartz titled “Logging On For A Second Opinion,” the use of the Internet for more information on health issues has become the “second opinion” of many health decisions.

Unfortunately the plethora of health information that is available can also lead individuals to throw their hands up in the air in utter exasperation trying to decipher all the information they just gathered.

It is now being suggested that patients use sites that allow them to “dig” a little deeper into their ailments with the help of medical research, disease specific and patient support sites.

Medical information sites such as Web-MD ( webmd.com), The New York Times ( nytimes.com/health), Discovery Health ( health.discovery.com) and the Mayo Clinic ( mayoclinic.com) can provide information on all types of illnesses and advice.

Research sites like the National Library of Medicine, PubMed ( ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed), federally funded studies at clinicaltrials.gov and the National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine ( nccam.nih.gov), can give latest statistics and studies.

Sites like the ones for the American Diabetes Association ( diabetes.org), American Heart Association ( americanheart.org) and the American Cancer Society ( cancer.org), can give specific information and contacts for these diseases.

According to this study patient specific sites are becoming very popular. Sites like Association of Cancer Online Resources ( acor.org), e-patients ( epatients.net), Patients Like Me ( patientslikeme.com) and Trusera ( trusera.com) share stories, treatments and results.

There are so many ways to gather knowledge, opinions and help that if and when you have to deal with an illness or disease, you can increase your ability to cope or overcome these problems dramatically if you know where to go.

So keep the information in this article available. These organizations could be your lifeline to staying or getting back to good health.

God willing you will find the motivation and determination to get regular medical exams, consume the right foods, exercise and find the time to relax so that you dramatically lower your chances to need some of these very helpful tools.

Helping you stay on the right track to a healthy, happy life is our job.

For advice, nutritional information, exercise guides or just motivational discussions you can give us a call at (888) FIT-ROAD or get on the Web site, fitnessroad.com.

We also have a monthly phone conference on the fourth Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, with special guest speakers from different medical fields. Give us a call for more information.

God bless you and yours, Mick.