Ever been in pressing need of health advice, but not in the position to get it in the form of a doctors appointment? If you know that you’re not feeling one hundred percent, but can’t put your finger on what the problem is, odds are that something actually is amiss with your body and you’ll need to take steps to remedy it. But where can you turn for health help that’s quick and free?
Keep in mind that if your symptoms are serious, you shouldn’t waste much time doing preliminary research. You need to schedule an appointment with your physician, or quickly get yourself to an urgent treatment facility or even a hospital.
Of course if your symptoms are relatively mild, a good first step can be to get better informed by looking up some relevant health advice online. For many people, seeking out online health advice is a matter of composing a question about their symptoms and submitting to a site like Ask.com or Yahoo! Answers. Since Ask is a search engine service, what you’ll get there is links to other sites, whereas you’ll get detailed responses form individual users on Yahoo! Answers. Not all of the health help you get this way will be reliable, but you’ll generally find that at some point a seasoned professional will chime in and refer you to someplace where you can get better information.
So how about some places to search extensive databases of health info? One of the most recommended places to get reliable health help is the Mayo Clinic website, which has an enormous reference library of hyperlinked articles about diseases and conditions, drugs and supplements, and general symptoms. The web site of the Johns Hopkins Medical Desk Reference is another great resource, as are Healthfinder.gov and MedlinePlus. There are many more resources you can turn to for informed health help, but starting with these sites should give you some good terms and ideas to work with.