A new drug, Lyrica, has been approved for fibromyalgia -- a disease some doctors don't even think exists. (See New York Times story.) Chances are you know someone with fibro. Find out more about its mysteries -- what it is, how it's treated -- with the quality resources listed on the Fibromyalgia WisdomCard.
A lot of people think they have the answers to Type 2 Diabetes. For most people with the disease, there's no one right answer, though it's pretty clear that exercising and staying away from junk food are good ideas. OrganizedWisdom has a WisdomCard on Type 2 Diabetes that offers high-quality, physician-reviewed health resources to help you explore your options.
There's no truth to the rumor that you can lower your cholesterol by looking at the Statins WisdomCard. However, you can find the best resources to help you understand these cholesterol-lowering drugs and learn more about combining lifestyle changes with medication to lower your risk of a heart attack. If you or someone you know has diabetes, reading up on these drugs may be particularly useful in light of today's news recommending statins for diabetics.
Do you know the difference between "good" and "bad"? The Cholesterol WisdomCard offers you the best resources on how cholesterol works, how to prevent problems, and who needs to pay attention to those numbers.
It may have been a while since you read up on HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. What's new in research and treatment? Are you taking the right preventive steps, and giving your kids the right messages? The HIV WisdomCard can put you on the right track with reliable, physician-reviewed information.
You may have seen the Simpsons episode where Homer and Bart get leprosy, but what is it really? Find out more with the Leprosy WisdomCard.
Have people in your life commented on your snoring? You may well have sleep apnea, a common ailment that causes the sleeper to stop breathing many times in the night without waking up. Of course, if you're doing all that, you're not getting good sleep, which can lead to lost productivity, decreased mental and physical function, depression, and (yes) sleepiness. Find out more about sleep apnea and how to treat and prevent it with the human-guided, physician-reviewed resources on the Sleep Apnea WisdomCard. (Photo: Andrew Stawarz)
My friend's 4-year-old has autism. This little girl is intelligent and adorable, and her parents are smart, loving people who will do what it takes to help her live the best life possible. Yet it was a relief when their second daughter was evaluated and found not to have autism.
The Autism WisdomCard offers high-quality resources on autism to help you better understand this mysterious disorder, including the important early signs that can help get a young child into treatment as soon as possible. You'll also find links to recent news about autism, including a new study refuting the belief that mercury in vaccines causes the disorder.
Today's news tells us that anxiety may increase the risk of a heart attack, especially in men. But everyone is anxious sometimes -- so what kind of anxiety really does damage? The Anxiety WisdomCard pulls together the best available information on this condition.
The good news? Anxiety is treatable, and this WisdomCard can help you get started finding help if you need it, or better understand this condition and how it affects others in your life.
Have you ever known a New Year's resolution that made a lasting change in someone's life? So for 2008, we'd like to encourage you not to bother with the same old health resolutions. Instead, think about how you can move your body more every day. The Exercise WisdomCard, compiled by an expert guide and reviewed by a physician, offers inspiration -- facts, not cheerleading:
If that's not enough, there's new evidence that exercise helps women who are suffering from symptoms related to menopause. (Photo: Don Fulano)
I'm in Atlanta this weekend for the Lighthouse Lymphedema Network conference. (Look for updates from the conference on my personal blog.) This is a conference put on by patients, inviting health professionals, manufacturers, patients, families and other interested folks to get together and talk about a condition that is difficult to manage and often painful and embarrassing. Already I've met some terrific people and discovered some new products that may help me manage my own condition. I've also been talking about what we're doing with OrganizedWisdom Health -- making health search on the Internet faster, easier and better. People seem to like the idea!
This conference is an example of what people can do when they are empowered to gather information about their health and actively work to make things better for everyone. It's inspiring -- and it's one of the reasons we include blogs and message boards among our sources for our WisdomCards. (For example, check out our cards on Breast Cancer or Bursitis.) I know that as a patient, I learn best when I hear from both medical authorities and other people who have been through what I'm going through. That's why I'm here, and it should be a good weekend.
The latest news on Medicare's prescription drug program is troubling, on the face of it: More than 3 million low-income seniors who are eligible for the program have not sought the government subsidy or signed up for a plan. One of them is my mother-in-law.
Vivian is nearly 80, one of the nicest people I know, and also one of
the healthiest. You can see her dancing at left. (And yes, that's her natural hair color, for which she credits a Native American grandmother.)
Rather than follow the government's advice to sign up for a prescription drug plan, she's decided to keep paying for prescription drugs herself. Why? Because she's only on one regular prescription, and it costs $10 a month. Most of the available plans have co-payments higher than that, plus monthly fees. Like her, quite a few of these 3 million people may have simply done the math and decided they were better off without a government program. They're making decisions for themselves.
When the plan was first introduced in 2005, the choices were confusing enough federal officials encouraged elderly people to have an adult child or friend help them. I did this for my dad -- again, someone who doesn't take others' word for anything regarding his health, but looks at the information and makes his own decision.
Today, everyone is a health care consumer, and a lot of what we need to know, we have to find out for ourselves. It's not always easy. That's why I'm excited that OrganizedWisdom is going to be making it even easier to share and find the wisdom you need to make good health decisions. Look for these changes over the next several weeks, and watch this blog -- I'll tell you more about what's coming up as our plans solidify.
In the meantime, here are five tips for evaluating the health information that you find online:
Film critic Roger Ebert was never known for his movie-star looks.
Still, it startled some people when he made plans to appear at a film
festival after cancer ate away part of his jaw. Two operations to
replace the missing section had failed, and he had lost the ability to
speak, wore a gauze bandage on one cheek and had a drooping mouth. (Photo by Dom Navolla, Chicago Sun-Times)
So why appear in public? "We spend too much time hiding illness. There is an assumption that I must always look the same. I hope to look better than I look now. But I’m not going to miss my Festival," Ebert wrote. "I have been very sick, am getting better and this is how it looks."
In decades past, cancer was whispered about, feared, hidden from others. It was ground-breaking when First Lady Betty Ford went public with her own experience of breast cancer. Today, Newsday reporter Lauren Terrazzano, who has lung cancer, has written a dozen stories under the title "Life, With Cancer." Presidential candidate John Edwards is continuing his campaign while coping with his wife Elizabeth's incurable breast cancer. This spring, thousands of ordinary people will wear "I'm a Survivor" shirts while they walk to raise money during the annual Relay for Life.
The decision to go public about a disease or treatment is an intensely personal one. That's why OrganizedWisdom allows users to post their wisdom under a screen name of their choice, or even anonymously if they choose.
Yet increasingly, public figures and ordinary people are refusing to stay "in the closet" (in the medicine cabinet, maybe?) about their illnesses. When disease doesn't hide behind closed doors, then we can talk about it, see what it looks like, share information about it, and reach out to help those who need it. At its best, that's what OrganizedWisdom is about -- giving illness and treatments a real voice, a real face and real wisdom.
Contact Us about any press inquiries, partnership opportunities, general questions, comments, and feedback.
