Never before has so much health-related information been available to the public and so easily found.

After giving Internet presentations or training, I often have people come up to me and ask if there is anything on the Internet about a particular illness, disease or medical condition. These questions are usually from people wanting to understand more about a disease that a friend or loved-one may have.

Fortunately, almost any health-related issue you may want to find more information about can be found on the World Wide Web.

The first place I would start is The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, 16th edition. This is the Web version of "the most widely used medical text in the world. Written by over 300 experts, it covers all but the most obscure disorders. In addition to describing symptoms, common clinical procedures, laboratory tests, and virtually all the disorders that a general internist might encounter, The Manual deals with problems of pregnancy and delivery; common and serious disorders of neonates, infants, and children; genetics; drug dependency; psychiatric disorders; and many disorders covered by other specialties." A search on "asthma" gave 110 listings in the manual and included such useful information as signs and symptoms, diagnosis and staging, pathophysiology and, of course, treatment.

For information about a particular prescription drug, consult The Internet Drug Index. You can search by brand name, generic or category of drug. Each response includes a description, pharmacology, microbiology, indications, dosage, usage, reactions, warnings and more. If you have questions about medicine you are taking, look here for the complete answers.

To keep up with general medical health news, check Reuters Health Information Services. This is a continually updated, online news journal with news stories, editorials, case studies and more. The journal is very well laid out in its Web page design and very informative. Doctors, nurses and other health professionals will likely enjoy this site.

If traditional medical cures and remedies seem unnatural to you and you are looking for alternative medical approaches to your health problems, visit The New Age Journal Online. This online magazine specializes in holistic health, whole foods and fitness. There is a good search engine that lets you look for past articles on your interest and a chat area to discuss your alternative medical choices.

Most herbalists believe that plants and herbs can be used for healing. Mother Nature's General Store: Herbal Explanations caters to those beliefs and offers her explanations for health. Each herb is then broken down into the facts known about the herb, usage and dosage, cautions and side-effects.

If all these sites fail to produce what you are looking for, there are certainly still the general WWW search engines. Just type in the name of the disease or malady you need to find in Yahoo! first. If no sites are found, try AltaVista or Ultra Infoseek. Put quotes around any word phrases to limit your results.

In all the times I have searched for medical information for other people, I have always found a site with the data they needed. The Internet was originally designed for the military and scientific communities and science is still well represented there today.