PlaneTree Health Library

Previously Featured "Website of the Week"

Best sunscreen: Understand sunscreen options

Many of us know the importance of applying sunscreen when exposed to sunrays. However, choosing the right product for you might prove to be overwhelming. This Mayo Clinic Health Information page offers professional guidance choosing sunscreen.

Managing Summer Heat, Travel With Diabetes

For many of us summer time is associated with vacation and high heat. This CDC website page provides advice for people with diabetes on how to cope with poor air quality, exercise, and stay health during the summer.

Music is therapeutic! Good for your mental and physical health.

Downtown San José you′re invited
Where? Plaza de Cesar Chavez
When? Thursdays, June 2-Aug 25
Link to Band Bios http://www.sjdowntown.com/bands.html

Free summer concert series at the Park in Los Gatos .
Where? Los Gatos Civic Center, on Main Street and Fiesta Way in Los Gatos
When? Sundays June19 -Aug 28
2011 MIPerformers http://www.lgmip.com/miperformers.asp

USDA Choose My Plate A USDA Press Release dated June 2, 2011announced that "First Lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today unveiled the federal government’s new food icon, MyPlate, to serve as a reminder to help consumers make healthier food choices. MyPlate is a new generation icon with the intent to prompt consumers to think about building a healthy plate at meal times and to seek more information to help them do that by going to www.ChooseMyPlate.gov. The new MyPlate icon emphasizes the fruit, vegetable, grains, protein and dairy food groups. "

Cal Quality Care This unique site provides "unbiased and easy-to-use information about the quality of care they deliver. That’s CalQualityCare.org. Sponsored by the California HealthCare Foundation, this Web site is a free resource that provides ratings of long term care providers throughout the state, and helps you choose among options such as nursing homes, home health care agencies, and assisted living facilities."

FluGov

Flu.gov

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month organization: NBCAM celebrates its 25^th anniversary in 2009 This page offers advice and information to breast cancer patients. It also suggests ways to help promote awareness. Fact sheets and links to other organizations, full-text articles, and blogs dealing with breast cancer are made available.

Office of the Dietary Supplements (NIH): Vitamin D has been associated with bone health and cancer prevention. Ongoing research suggests it "might play a role in the prevention and treatment of type 1 and type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and other medical conditions". There are two major vitamin D sources: sun exposure and food intake. On the other hand, excessive vitamin D can have negative impacts on the human body and too much sun exposure is not recommended. This dietary supplement fact sheet provides information about vitamin D risks of inadequacy, deficiencies and excess, as well as about Vitamin D balanced intake, sources and interactions with medications.

The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA): Gardening with Allergies Having asthma or allergies should not stop you from having a garden with flowering plants, shrubs, trees and grass. This page explains how to reduce the number of allergens growing in your backyard. Lists of “Garden Foes” and “Garden Friends” as well as a number of prevention tips are provided.

The American Psychiatric Association (APA): HealthyMind.org: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD) "is a psychiatric disorder that can occur in people who have experienced or witnessed life-threatening events such as natural disasters, serious accidents, terrorist incidents, war, or violent personal assaults like rape." In this brochure " Let's talk about facts: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder" APA presents facts, describes symptoms, suggests avenues for treatment, and provides links to various associations and institutions related to PTSD.

Mental Health America:: Stressed? Being stressed is a natural aspect of life. When ignored, it can affect your daily activity. This site offers advice on how to anticipate and cope with stressful situations. It also offers links to pages providing information on other mental health related subjects such as anxiety and depression. A crisis hotline number is provided.

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) website: "Seasonal Flu" page: has three main sections: Flu Basics, Preventing the Flu and What To Do If You Get Sick. It also links to the CDC's 2008-2009 Flu Season page which includes links to:

The site provides information and advice, to health professionals, parents, schools, adults with asthma, diabetes, and HIV/AIDS as well as for the workplace. Information is also available in Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. Links to Avian Flu, Canine Flu, Swine Flu, and Pandemic Flu sites are also provided.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Recalls, Market Withdrawals and Safety Alerts

"This page includes the most significant product actions of the last 60 days, based on the extent of distribution and the degree of health risk. The recalls on the list are mainly Class I. A record of all recalls (Class I, II, and III) can be found in the FDA Enforcement Report. Definitions of Class I, II, and III recalls." The site offers the choice of receiving recall updates through e-mail or RSS feed. It also includes links to:

as well as links to rercalls by topic.

The National Library of Medicine: Drug Information Portal: provides "a gateway to selected drug information from the National Library of Medicine and other key government agencies."Resources include, but are not limited to, selected topics from NLM's MedlinePlus, PubMed, Toxnet, and from other sources such as, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH)and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Sources of information can be searched by "intended audience" or "drug class". Drugs can be searched by generic or trade names.

MedlinePlus: Health Information in Multiple Languages: "... a new multilingual feature, providing access to high quality health information in languages other than English and Spanish. This service benefits people who prefer to read consumer health information in their native language, and also helps the information professionals and health care providers who serve them. Over the years, many MedlinePlus users have requested this enhancement, which helped lead to the development of this important service. The new collection contains over 2,500 links to information in more than 40 languages and covers nearly 250 Health Topics. Continuous growth is expected..."

The Dietary Supplements Labels Database of the National Library of Medicine: "offers information about ingredients in more than two thousand selected brands of dietary supplements. It enables users to determine what ingredients are in specific brands and to compare ingredients in different brands. Information is also provided on the health benefits claimed by manufacturers." The site can be searched by brand name or active ingredients as well as by manufacturer's name. For better understanding of supplements use and adverse effects, relevant links to PubMed and MedlinePlus are provided. Links to the FDA "Recalls" and "Warnings" are found at the bottom of the home page.

Want to decipher the results of your lab tests?: Lab Tests Online is very complete in addressing questions people have about almost any lab test. The site is non-commercial and peer-reviewed, and "is the product of a collaboration of professional societies representing the lab community." In addition to explaining hundreds of common and uncommon lab tests, it also includes "topics in the news" as well as "conditions and diseases" and a section on "screening tests." Languages other than English are under construction.

Do you want to live a "greener" life, but aren't sure how to do so?: What, exactly, is a "free range chicken?" How can you donate your old cell phone to a worthy cause without worrying about all the personal data you've stored in it? What are the real-life (not the EPA's hypothetical) gas mileages, plus the passenger and load capacities, for all new cars, vans, SUVs and light trucks? Visit greenerchoices.org, a free website offered by Consumer Reports, for answers to these and many other perplexing environmental questions.