Fifty years ago, the Index Medicus, the main index of medical research, ran to a couple of slim volumes. Today well over half a million new medical articles are published each year and the number of web pages on health is rising by at least 20m a month. No one on their own can keep up. The range of kitemarks available is itself confusing, and it is likely to be years before any international standard is agreed. Another problem for anyone seeking health information online is that the quality of sites can change rapidly.
Bad ones can become good.
And new ones are being added all the time. Even by the time you read this, things will have changed. So what follows is much less a guide to sites for particular conditions than a guide to the sites which can point you to the places where it is likely you will find what you are looking for. As the net continues to change, these sites will remain useful starting points.