Health Search Engine

Stinley

I work for NHS in health information and I think its a really good idea to look for information about your condition. However as some posters have already pointed out, you can't be sure that some of these sites aren't looking to push their products or even just their own agenda.

Anyway I recommend looking at NHS Choices in England and Wales and NHS 24 or Health Information Plus in Scotland. These sites have the trust factor and provide information in an easy to use format. If you are looking for more in depth information NHS Evidence, Clinical Knowledge Summaries and The Knowledge Network (was NHS Scotland e-Library) give access to evidence based guidelines (eg NICE, SIGN, Cochrane) as well as free databases of journal articles from the major medical publishers. I really think going to the NHS sources or major charity resources first to get a good knowledge of your condition is the best option. Then you can read other less mainstream sources and be able to filter the good from the rubbish more easily. You can also ask your local librarian to help you find information. Also a lot of the major charities offer a telephone helpline on the condition they cover.

giantmutantbroccoli

http://www.patient.co.uk/
is the website your doctor uses. The patient plus articles are intended for healthcare professionals (GPs, nurses etc) and are very informative provided you've got a dictionary handy.
I wouldn't trust any natural healthcare advice given over the internet. I get emails from loads of sites that look similar to the ones listed, and many of them say some very strange things indeed. I have no idea what advantage someone could gain by claiming that all obesity is caused by tapeworms or that aspirin works by killing off brain cells, but they must get something out of it.

devonsdreamer

I find this site http://www.medworm.com/ very useful has loads of information on it.