Shad Turner
Northern News Services

Inuvik (May 27/05) - Finding information on health promotion, nutrition, and disease can be a tricky task, especially if you use the popular media as your main outlet for information.

Take, for example, the butter vs. margarine debate, the recent popularity of low carbohydrate diets and the disagreement about the value of screening mechanisms for certain types of cancer.

Information professionals recommend turning to a few core health reference books in the library or one of the few truly excellent health web sites.

An authoritative, Canadian, one-stop and first-stop guide to health, medicine, and disease is the Canadian Medical Association's Complete Home Medical Guide. With a whopping 1,104 pages, this reference is guilty only of including too much information.

With sections on every conceivable topic of health from pregnancy to communicable diseases to personality disorders, this title should be considered the first step in personal or academic research.

When it comes to web sites, there are three or four trustworthy sites for starting health research.

My favourite has got to be MedlinePlus.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's mammoth health site.

In addition to the easy-to-use medical encyclopedia, dictionary and pharmaceutical database, there are fabulous added value features like interactive tutorials on medical tests and diagnostic, surgical and treatment procedures.

If you still need more information, call or drop by your local library.

The two sources named here barely scratch the surface of the wide world of consumer health information available.