Hello again Praise,

...at the risk of sounding "preachy" before I give you the best links:

1. There is no substitute for a good doctor that you trust. Find a good 'un!
2. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing; drink deeply or not at all.
3. Medical journals are probably not the best place to start. I would suggest going to a good bookstore that lets you read while you're there and read books specific to the condition you're interested in...especially sections on diagnosis. Then when you have a few vocabulary words, maybe try some medical textbooks. Also read the websites of reputable organizations that give general guidelines (disease specific organizations such as the National Cancer Society, or the Center for Disease Control, or the Mayo Clinic, etc.) 4. Take everything you read and hear with a grain of salt until you have time to reflect on it. 5. Don't expect any one person to meet all your needs.

All that said, here are some links:

Medscape Medline - this is the best one I've found for getting access to medical journals. You can read abstracts here, but then need to access a library to get the full article. There are databases that have full articles, but you have to subscribe to a service.

Mayo Clinic - lots of info here and a nice search engine.

MedHunt (at Health on the Net Foundation) - not sure if this link will work.

Medinex - a prescreened search site. This is where I read that 70% of medical information on the web is wrong or grossly misleading.

Health on the Net Code of Conduct (HONcode) - another way to check the reliability and credibility of information.

Remember to send me a personal message.

Take care,
Mary