
Information About Your Condition
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To learn about your health condition, the first place to start is with your doctor. In addition to what she or he tells you, the doctor may have printed information to give you, or sources to which to point you.
As you research your condition, keep in mind that a lot of the information you're likely to find can be pretty frightening. This is said without any specific condition in mind because experience shows this is what generally happens. Show whatever disturbs you to your doctor for his or her opinion. Just because the worst case happens to some people, doesn't mean it will happen to you.
For more information:
- Contact national disease specific non-profit organizations relating to your health condition. To name a few:
-
- Cancer: American Cancer Society. www.cancer.org
, Tel.: 800.ACS.2345
- Cerebral Palsy: United Cerebral Palsy, www.ucpa.org
Tel.: 800 872 5827 or 202 776 0406
- Cystic Fibrosis: Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, www.cff.org
Tel.: 800 344 4823 or 301 951 4422
- Diabetes: American Diabetes Association, www.diabetes.org/custom.asp
. Tel.: 800 232 3472 or 703 549 1500
- Heart: The American Heart Association. www.americanheart.org
Tel.: 800.242.8721
- HIV/AIDS: National Association of People With AIDS. www.napwa.org
Tel.: 240.247.0880
- Huntington's Disease, Huntington's Disease Society of America, www.hdsa.org
, Tel.: 800.345.4372
- Kidney: American Kidney Fund, www.kidneyfund.org
, Tel.: 866.300 2900
- Leukemia: Leukemia Society Of America, www.leukemia.org
, Tel. 800 955 4LSA or 212 573 8484
- Liver Disease: American Liver Foundation, www.liverfoundation.org
, Tel.: 212.668.1000.
- Lung Disease: American Lung Association, www.lungusa.org
, Tel.: 800 LUNG USA or 212 889-3370.
- Lupus: Lupus Foundation Of America, Inc., www.lupus.org
, Tel. 800 558 0121
- Multiple Sclerosis: National Multiple Sclerosis Society, www.nmss.org
, Tel.: 800 344 4867
- Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, Inc., www.msfacts.org
, Tel.: 800.225.6495 or 954.776.6805
- Myasthenia gravis: Myasthenia Gravis Foundation Of America, www.myasthenia.org
, Tel.: tel. 800 541-5454
- Ostomy: www.uoaa.org
Tel.: 800 826 0826 or 714 660 8624.
- Parkinson's Disease: www.parkinson.org
., Tel.: 800.327.4545.
- Sickle Cell: Sickle Cell Disease Association Of America, www.sicklecelldisease.org/
, Tel.: 410.528.1495
- Spina bifida hotline: Spina Bifida Association Of America, www.sbaa.org
, Tel. 800 621 3141or 202 944 3285
- Stroke: National Stroke Association, www.stroke.org
. Tel.: Tel: 800 STROKES or 303 649 9299
- Cancer: American Cancer Society. www.cancer.org
- The internet has a wealth of information.
- Go to a search engine or search engines of your choice (such as www.google.com
or www.dogpile.com
) and type in the name of your condition.
- Consider looking at such sites as:
- National Health Information Service, www.health.gov/nhic/
, 800.336.4797 is a health information referral service that puts consumers in touch with those organizations that can provide answers.
- National Health Information Service also sponsors www.healthfinder.gov
with health information about diseases and conditions, medical dictionaries, an encyclopedia, journals and more.
- National Institutes of Health, www.nih.gov
, 800.644.6627 has an A- Z listing of health information
- Public Health Services Agency For Healthcare Research and Quality (formerly the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research): www.ahrq.gov/clinic/
, click on Evidence Based Reports: provides science based information on common, costly, medical conditions and new health care technologies
- The National Network of Libraries of Medicine: www.nnlm.gov/
, click on health information. A government site dedicated to making the world's biomedical information available throughout the U.S.
- Cancer Information Service of the National Institutes of Health: www.cis.nci.nih.gov/
, a free cancer information service.
- National Health Information Service, www.health.gov/nhic/
- Go to a search engine or search engines of your choice (such as www.google.com
To learn more about researching information about your health condition, including how to determine whether a site has object or biased, or totally fake information, see Medical Research On The Web.