Healthy Lifestyle:
Includes information about alternative and complementary health, preventive health, environmental health, diet and nutrition, travelers' health, and patient safety and advocacy.

Alternative and Complementary Medicine

Diet and Nutrition

Disaster Preparedness

Environmental/Occupational Health

Patient Safety and Advocacy

Preventive Health

Traveler's Health

Diet and Nutrition

American Dietetic Association on the Net
Includes nutrition fact sheets, daily nutrition tips, and healthy lifestyle tips.

Dietary Guidelines for Americans
Includes a wide-range of food and nutrition topics.

Food and Nutrition Information Center
This site is developed by the Food and Nutrition Information Center, one of several information centers located at the National Agricultural Library. This site provides links to resources for consumers, nutrition and health professionals, educators and government personnel. Includes nutrition-related topics such as food allergies and sensitivities, AIDS/HIV, eating disorders, nutrition and cancer, nutrition and heart disease, herbs, and fitness and sports nutrition.

NutritionData: Nutrition Facts Calorie Counter
Offers a quick way to find out what's good and bad about the foods you eat. This interactive website allows you to search its database of food composition data, and receive a concise nutritional analysis for each selected food.

Nutrition Explorations
Developed by the National Dairy council. Provides material for educators, parents, school food services, and kids. Includes a variety of activities, recipes, family guide to healthy eating, materials catalogs, and a nutrition bookshelf.

Nutrition.Gov
Guide to nutrition and health information available on Federal Government websites.

Disaster Preparedness

Ready.Gov
Developed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Provides extensive disaster preparedness information. Includes a Threat Advisory level, which provides information about the potential for a terrorist attack in the United States. Also includes sections for business owners, U.S. citizens, and children, along with a virtual library and electronic reading room. The site is also available in Spanish.

Environmental/Occupational Health

Haz-Map
Developed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM). Provides information about the health effects of exposure to chemicals at work. This site links jobs and hazardous tasks with occupational diseases and their symptoms. Haz-Map is part of NLM's TOXNET system of databases on toxicology and environmental health. Also includes a glossary of technical terms.

Household Products Database
This database, from the National Library of Medicine (based on the Consumer Product Information Database ©2001 by DeLima Associates), links over 4,000 consumer brands to health effects from Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) provided by the manufacturers. Allows you to research products based on chemical ingredients. Includes information about: chemical ingredients and their percentage in specific brands; which products contain specific chemical ingredients; manufacturers of a specific brand; contact information; the acute and chronic effects of chemical ingredients in a specific brand; and links to other information available in other toxicology-related databases from the National Library of Medicine.

Tox Town
An interactive guide from the National Library of Medicine which provides information about commonly encountered toxic substances found in a typical town. Includes: everyday locations where you might find toxic chemicals; non-technical descriptions of chemicals; links to chemical information on the Internet; information about how the environment can impact human health; and Internet resources on environmental health topics.

United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
This comprehensive web site from the EPA includes coverage of such topics as human health (including health assessment, health effects, children's health, occupational health, and sun protection), pesticides, pollutants/toxics, pollution prevention, wastes, and water. There is also a separate web site for children, "Environmental Kids Club." The EPA's mission is "to protect human health and to safeguard the natural environment (air, water, and land) upon which life depends."

Patient Safety and Advocacy

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
Medical Errors & Patient Safety Research Page
Includes both consumer and professional information and fact sheets, including "Five Steps to Safer Health Care," and "Twenty Tips to Health Prevent Medical Errors."

Cochrane Collaboration Consumer Network
Keep informed about the best treatments for specific diseases and learn tips on how to understand medical research.

Mederrors.com
Developed by Bridge Medical. Offers resources for reducing medication errors and improving quality.

Medical Device Safety Reports
Developed by ECRI (Emergency Care Research Institute); offers reports which focus on helping consumers understand how they can reduce medical device safety problems, and risks.

National Patient Safety Foundation
Includes patient safety web sites and other resources relevant to health care providers and/or patients and families.

Patients' Bill of Rights
Read the American Hospital Association's Bill of Rights for hospital patients.

Self-Help Sourcebook Online
A searchable database of over 800 national and international model self-help groups and self-help clearinghouses. Ideas on starting a local self-help group. Sponsored by the Mental Help Net.

To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System
Features a study report which outlines a strategy for changes to reduce and eliminate medical errors throughout the healthcare system.

Preventive Health

My Family Health Portrait
To help focus attention on the importance of family health history, U.S. Surgeon General, in cooperation with other agencies within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has launched a national public health campaign, called the U.S. Surgeon General's Family History Initiative, to encourage all American families to learn more about their family health history. The web-based tool helps users organize family history information and then print it out for presentation to the family doctor. In addition, the tool helps users save their family history information to their own computer and even share family history information with other family members.

Upper Valley Trails for Life
In an effort to increase awareness about the importance of physical activity as part of Upper Valley Trails for Life, UVTA, in association with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, has initiated a prescription walking program. Clinicians at DHMC have now been trained to write prescriptions for a set amount of physical activity to sedentary patients.

Your Disease Risk
Created by the Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention. Allows users to determine their potential risks for various diseases, including diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, and strokes. By answering a few questions, visitors can learn about their various risk levels for these diseases, and also peruse a list of nine ways to stay healthy. Another section of the site answers such commonly-asked questions as "What is prevention?" and "What is a screening test?". The "Community Action" section of the site offers helpful tips on achieving some personal wellness and preventive goals through fact sheets on reducing tobacco use, promoting physical activity, and limiting alcohol consumption.

Traveler's Health

Centers for Disease Control: Travelers' Health
From the National Center for Infectious Diseases; includes information about outbreaks, diseases, vaccinations, traveling with children, and news information advisories from the U.S. Department of State. Includes travelers' health concerns, e.g., anthrax, tropical diseases, etc.