National Institutes of Health (NIH) Links

How to use the NIH website/What you’ll find there

This is the best overall site to get information about health, as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the main organization in the United States for gathering the wealth of knowledge about all health related issues, sharing that info, and directing the nation’s efforts to conduct health research.

From the Health Info tab along the top, you can access links that will take you to:

A to Z Health Topics

You can access loads of health information from this page. You can literally click on a letter of the alphabet and find out about health problems that start with that letter. Or your can browse by Health Category, or Health and Wellness topic, or Conditions and Diseases, or you can look into Procedures or Therapies that a doctor has suggested for you or a loved one.

Another important section on this page is titled Health Information on the Web. Whether you are experienced looking for health information or new at it this section is for you. Take the time to check out the three links here, as they will help you learn how to be a knowledgeable consumer of good health information and how to avoid questionable sources.

The final section of this page to mention is the Health Databases. Links to three of the most complete and popular sources of health information are available here: Medline Plus, Healthfinder and PubMed. All of these are connected to the National Library of Medicine and most every professional health journal worth consideration is available through these sites. Healthfinder even has a section specially directed to Alaska Native Health! The final very important database available here provides information on Dietary Supplements.

Clinical Trials
This page allows you to research clinical trials going on not only here in the United States but other countries as well. Here you can learn of new drugs or therapies being considered for treatment of a particular disorder. Determining if a trial is right for you or a loved one should be a decision made along with your doctor.

Medline Plus
Not only can you look at more than 750 health topics, but you can also access a medical dictionary and encyclopedia with lots of diagrams and pictures. A library of 165 Interactive Health Tutorials is available aimed at educating patients about health problems, tests used to diagnose diseases, surgeries and treatment procedures, and prevention or wellness topics.

Health Hotlines
Provides phone numbers (many toll free) for many health disorders and issues that will allow you to reach a resource person who can suggest who you might contact to get the type of information you are interested in.

Other tabs across the top of the NIH homepage include:

Grants – Where you can learn about funding opportunities that are available through NIH, like the Center Grants program that allowed for CANHR to get started.

News – Provides access to Podcasts on health topics and NIH funded research findings.

About NIH – Has information like their mission statement and history, but also access to health educational resources for teachers and the general public.

Another important tab along the top of the NIH homepage is the INSTITUTES tab. By clicking this tab you can access links that will take you to each of the 20 institutes and 7 centers that make up the NIH. Some of the more interesting are:

The National Cancer Institute (NCI)

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

The National Institute of Diabetes, and Digestive, and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM)

The National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCNHD)