How to Find Health Info on Medline Plus

The Internet is full of unreliable information, but reliable medical information can be found on Medline Plus. The information in Medline Plus is from the United States National Library of Medicine. It's designed to be used by patients and health care providers alike and is updated daily. Follow these steps to find health info on Medline Plus.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

1. Go to www.medlineplus.gov. Become familiar with its home page.

2. Enter the term for the info you are looking for into the box next to "Search Medline Plus." You should receive a list of articles about the term you're searching for. Read through the list and choose the articles that best apply to what you're looking for.

3. Know that there's a medical dictionary available from the home page to help you find the correct spelling for your term. Click the link in the left column that says "Dictionary."

4. Click on the link in the left column that says, "Drugs and Supplements". You'll see a list of alphabetic letters under the words "Drug" and "Supplements". Choose the letter that's the first letter of the drug or supplement you have questions about and click to see the list of all drugs or supplements that begin with that letter. Then click on the name you want to know about.

5. See that there are many other ways to search for information on Medline Plus by experimenting with its home page. You can explore links for current health news, directories for health practitioners and local resources.