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THE DOCTOR IS IN CYBERSPACEMyriad sites offer feedback and supportSoon after his 86-year-old wife suffered a debilitating stroke last October, Bill called out for help. He posted a message in the ''strokes'' folder at the SeniorNet site on the World Wide Web. ''I can't control my crying even though I am 80 years old,'' Bill wrote. ''Being without her is driving me up the wall...[I'm looking forward to] the day that the rehab frees her to come to me.'' Within hours, Bill received encouraging replies from several stroke victims and their family members. Ever since, he has been a forum regular, reporting on his wife's good days and bad. Such conversations are common in SeniorNet, a service for adults over 55. Available on America Online as well as the Web, SeniorNet also provides health-related discussion areas on prostate cancer, hips and knees, and hearing aids. DIETARY HELP. A growing number of senior citizens who are in failing health, or who must cope with the suffering of loved ones, are leaning on friends in cyberspace. While SeniorNet or the AARP WebPlace (www. aarp.org), actively target elders, the Net also has a variety of health-related mailing lists, newsgroups, and Web sites that naturally appeal to older adults and their children, covering everything from Alzheimer's to arthritis. Seniors can pose questions to doctors, pore through medical journals, and get the scoop on drugs. Those afflicted with common maladies can usually find a specific site. The National Osteoporosis Foundation site (www.nof.org), for example, offers information on risk factors, prevention, and treatment of the bone disease. OncoLink (www.oncolink.upenn.edu) from the University of Pennsylvania delivers cancer news. And the Diabetes Homepage (www.nd.edu/ hhowisen/diabetes/html) includes chat rooms and dietary information. For those seeking general information, MedicineNet (www.medicinenet.com) is an extensive site from Information Network that provides a medical dictionary, plus databases on pharmaceuticals and their side effects, and diseases and treatments. In the ''ask the experts,'' section you can query online physicians. A Q&A with the main guy is at the core of Ask Dr. Weil from HotWired. Dr. Andrew Weil, a specialist in alternative medicine, responds to questions posed by visitors, roughly 15% of whom are over age 50. You can search the archives for free to find questions you're interested in or consult a database of common ailments (memory loss, constipation) SEARCHES. Alas, the Internet is rife with snake-oil sellers, ready to pounce on older Americans with promises of miracle vitamins and cures. Then too, even people with the best intentions can pass along unsound advice. That's why the notion of getting a second opinion takes on greater meaning online. To a large degree, Internet bulletin boards are self-policed. However, anyone searching the Net for health recommendations should carefully consider the source. More likely, you would trust data from a reputable medical school or Web addresses affiliated with, say, the American Medical Assn. or National Institutes of Health, than those sites that lack such credentials. But finding the most useful online health information can be daunting. Besides conducting searches with the usual Internet engines such as Yahoo! and AltaVista, try a health-related search tool such as Achoo (www.achoo. com) or HealthAtoZ (www. healthatoz.com). You can also consult Health Online by Dr. Tom Ferguson ($17, Addison-Wesley Publishing), a fine book with listings on Internet newsgroups and Web sites. Ferguson also has a Web site with online articles and links to medical sites (www.healthy.net/selfcare). Another option for self-help resources on aging is Mental Health Net (www.cmhc.com/guide/aging. htm). However, many seniors are distrustful of personal computers, so if you have an elderly parent, you might want to dig up health materials on your own, then show your folks where the materials came from. Once hooked, many older adults are finding out that the kind of quality information that's readily available on the Internet--plus the time they spend with new-found pals--might turn out to be the best medicine of all. ADVICE: Carefully check the source--not everything on the Net is all that reliable
By Edward Baig
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Updated June 15, 1997 by bwwebmaster
Copyright 1997, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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