Don't drown in medical waters of the Web

Where can you turn when you need to know more about your health or a medical condition than you learn from your doctor or nurse?

There's an ocean of medical information available. It's easy to get into, and just as easy to drown in.

Some of it is straightforward, unbiased information that can educate and illuminate. A lot of it isn't. It isn't always easy to tell one from the other.

To help you navigate these sometimes mysterious waters, here is a brief guide.

Where to start. The National Library of Medicine has collected a vast storehouse of medical information at pubmed.gov. It's the premier starting point for a health information search for everyone from curious consumers to doctors.

The "Consumer Health" link on the left side of the PubMed page is the gateway to general health information on topics ranging from abdominal pain to zoonoses (animal diseases that can affect humans). From there, you can browse or search topics, look up information on medications and supplements, find a doctor or a clinical trial, read the latest health news, take an interactive tutorial, and even watch videos of angioplasty, bypass surgery, aneurysm repair, hip replacement, and other operations and procedures.

If you want to see what your doctor is reading, PubMed lets you delve into the medical literature. The search engine will return links to practice guidelines, reviews and research papers from the 1950s to today. Usually you get a brief summary of the paper, though some journals provide links to the full text for free.

Focus on the heart. PubMed offers plenty of information on heart diseases. But there are a number of Web sites devoted solely to cardiovascular health and disease that are also worth visiting. One is hearthub.org, published by the American Heart Association. Another is cardiosmart.org, from the American College of Cardiology. Both provide information for general audiences.

In addition to offering descriptions of various cardiovascular conditions and tools for managing heart disease, these sites also have online forums where people with heart diseases can connect with others who are living with the same conditions.

Web sites like WebMD, AOL, Revolution Health, media sites and others provide decent information on heart disease. Some of it is original and some is a repeat of what you'll see elsewhere, borrowed from the National Institutes of Health or licensed from Harvard Medical School, the Mayo Clinic and other publishers.

Save Google for last. Using a search engine is like casting a giant net into a part of the ocean teeming with life. You'll pull up some keepers, to be sure, but you'll haul in a lot of stinkers, too. Type "coronary artery disease" into Google and you'll be inundated with more than 5 million items.

Included in the top 20 are useful sources of information, like the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, mixed with hospital Web sites, drug promotions cleverly couched as medical information, and information about oral chelation, an unproven and dangerous scam that promises to rid the body of atherosclerosis. That's why we recommend starting out with a few trusted sources, then branching out when you've gained some confidence.