The following sites offer information about a variety of health topics, medications, and advice about diet and nutrition.
Cleveland Clinic Health Library
Medically reviewed information about a variety of medical conditions and health topics. You can search by particular condition or treatment.
Harvard Health Publishing: Health A to Z
This site offers free, medically-reviewed, easy-to-search information about a wide variety of medical conditions. It includes tips on when to call a doctor.
This site publishes articles about a variety of health and wellness topics, including nutrition, sleep, and vitamins/supplements. The site also offers information about medical conditions such as breast cancer and migraines. Although it is a for-profit company, the site maintains editorial independence.
This site was founded by the parents of a daughter who killed herself. They wanted to honor her life by empowering readers with information about strategies for mental health. It has since expanded and covers a wide variety of topics related to physical and mental well being, aging, and relationships. Reviewed by a variety of experts (social workers, dietitians, psychologists, etc).
The Mayo Clinic is a respected hospital in Minnesota. This site offers a “health library” with links to information about a variety of medical conditions, tests and procedures, drugs and supplements, and other topics.
Published by the US National Medical Library, the landing site offers links to information about a variety of health topics, medical tests, drugs and supplements, and even has a site offering healthy recipes.
Although it is geared towards medical professionals, this site does offer interesting news and perspectives on particular health topics.
This site offers information about a wide variety of medical conditions, as well as articles about drugs and supplements (including an interaction checker), and an interactive symptom checker. It is a for-profit company, but maintains editorial independence.
Medically reviewed articles about a variety of health topics. These are more than fact sheets; they offer in depth information that is medically reviewed.
Deeper Dives
The Cochrane is an international nonprofit organization based in the United Kingdom. Experts all over the world review interventions and assess how well they work. The goal is to enable people to make informed decisions. This site can be tough to navigate at first, but you can search “clinical answers” and browse by condition or intervention.
TheNNT: Quick summaries of evidence-based medicine
A quick way to check how likely it is that you will benefit from an intervention, and the likelihood that you will experience a side effect. The “number needed to treat” is a statistical calculation, often used in clinical trials, to determine the number of people who undergo a treatment or take a medication to avoid one adverse outcome.
Medical News Sites and Newsletters
Brown Health Be Well newsletter
Brown Health offers a website with various health topics, all medically reviewed. You can sign up for a weekly newsletter to receive articles by email.
This Substack newsletter is written by Eric Topol, MD, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. Topol comments about medical studies in the news, and offers a detailed but easy-to-understand “take” on what the research means.
Harvard Health Publishing’s Healthbeat
You can also search the Healthbeat archive to see articles published in the past.
This Substack newsletter by Dr. Jeremy Faust, and emergency medicine physician and public health researcher who comments about developments in medicine and health policy. His insights and interviews often explore controversial topics.
Medical news for professionals; offers in-depth information for people interested in particular topics. The “perspectives” channel provides opinions about medical news.
A Brown University professor of economics writes this newsletter, which discusses health topics using data. Originally aimed at young parents, the newsletter has expanded its scope and touches on a variety of health topics.
STAT Newsletters (STAT is published by Boston Globe media (annual fee is expensive); offers several free newsletters, including Morning Rounds and Daily Recap)
Authored by an OB-Gyn and pain medicine physician, this newsletter focuses on health of the vagina and uterus, with a particular emphasis on perimenopause and menopause. A bit edgy in tone, but it offers useful information about how to separate fact from fiction.
Ann MacDonald 