Get help of "Symptoms Checker" to know more about your health

As the site has clear policy about this tool, I want to say it before starting my post that " This tool is only a guide. You can use as an information source but it is not an alternate of a health professional or your doctor"

I had one or two medical softwares, where sometimes I entered data for my symptoms and it showed the possible disease which I might have and also details about it. So I never took it very seriously, rather using it as an information source. The same tool you can use free from Mayo Clinic, which is a very popular web site, prodiding you health information, self-improvement and disease management tools.

How it helps you?

Site has provided very interactive tool, which shows symptoms catagory for adults and child, so you can click the link matching with your symptoms. For example I searched for child-constipation topic, and the result page took me to another page, where possible causes of constipation were present, based on scientific factors. I checked the boxed provided according to symptoms and next page gave me the results, diseases and conditions associated with the symptoms provided.

Use this tool:
Symptom Checker
For more tools and health information:
Mayo Clinic,

"Health Authority " helping us to Improve health by changing behaviours!

Knowledge about risk factors to our health is essential, as it can help us keeping safe and protective. Today even doctors don't have time to tell us what precautions we can take to keep us healthy and sickness free. Internet is an enormous source of information about health topic. Only need is to search for specific sites, and go through the guidelines provided by means of articles, research based studies and etc.

Health Authority offers a practical perspective on the most useful and important changes you can make to improve your health.


Why we need to change our lifestyle?

The top five causes of death in the U.S. (heart disease, cancer, stroke, pulmonary disease (COPD), and accidents) are the result of a combination of genetic predisposition and lifestyle behaviors such as smoking, diet, exercise, and stress.
"lifestyle" diseases are the primary causes of death in the United States, with heart disease and cancers now accounting for over half (54%) of all deaths.

Some diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or emphysema, are almost totally preventable by making one simple lifestyle change - not smoking. Even for those diseases with strong genetic factors, such as some cancers, lifestyle changes greatly reduce the risk of these diseases.

Information at the site are based on the scientific research, by PICS, Inc., a research company dedicated to providing innovative methods to assist people improving their health.

The HealthAuthority website is edited by Allison Sowell, M.S., Research Associate and William Riley, Ph.D., Director of Research at PICS

What you can get from the site?
These links provide you with research based information, which you can take as a precaution measure to change your lifestyle for the better and healthy future:

* Tobacco dependence

* Alcohol dependence
* Weight loss

* Fitness

* Stress

* Cancer risk factors

* cardio risk factors

* Pain management

* Insomnia

"Mental health" resources!

1- The Mental Help Net website exists to promote mental health and wellness education and advocacy.


Site link: Mental help

- Sign up by entering your e-mail address to get their newsletter :Sign up page

2- Psych Central is the Internet's largest and oldest independent mental health social network created and run by mental health professionals to guarantee reliable, trusted information and support communities to consumers, for over 12 years.

Regularly maintained by Dr. Grohol and a staff of contributing editors, it is one of the Net's best information sources for mental health information, as well as providing annotated guides to the most useful websites, newsgroups, and mailing lists online today in mental health, psychology, social work, and psychiatry. We now receive over 650,000 visits per month, acting as a reliable and accurate source of mental health information for the over 42 million visitors who have stopped by since we first went online.

Psych Central is privately and wholly owned and operated by Dr. John Grohol.

* Psych Central offers the popular "Sanity Score", a free online mental health screening test.

What is Sanity Score screening test?

The Sanity Score™ quiz, a mental health and wellness test that has been scientifically designed to help you figure out what's going on in your life and your mental well-being.

At the conclusion of the test, you'll be given specific action-items to help you improve parts of your life, articles to learn more about specific conditions that are relevant to where you are in your life, and additional quizzes to help you better pinpoint the issues in your life and what you can do to help improve them.
Over 35,000 others have already taken the test.
Link to the test page:
Sanity Score

3- Counselling Resource is one of the web's largest and most comprehensive mental health sites focusing on counselling and psychotherapy.

What you get at the site?

- Counselling and psychotherapy explains why you need counselling or psychotherapy.
- Books and articles about the topic
- Screening tests and quizzesare fun and educational, and they may help increase your awareness of particular experiences or of particular forms of psychological distress.

They are not by themselves tools for diagnosing any type of health or mental health condition. All quizzes are guaranteed to be scored by your own web browser: your answers are never transmitted to our server.

Welcome to Our Psychological Screening Tests and Quizzes Our psychological quizzes are intended to be fun and educational, and they may help increase your awareness of particular experiences or of particular forms of psychological distress. They are not by themselves tools for diagnosing any type of health or mental health condition. All our quizzes are guaranteed to be scored by your own web browser: your answers are never transmitted to our server.

Background on These Psychological Screening Tests:

Psychological screening tests of various kinds have been used for many years as clinical tools, as educational tools for learning more about symptoms or particular kinds of experiences associated with psychological distress, or sometimes simply as entertainment. None of these tests should be understood to offer any kind of psychological diagnosis or healthcare recommendation. At best, they may help highlight experiences for reflection.

Link to the page: Screening tests and quizzes include depression screening, depression and anxiety, adult ADHD screening, Schizophrenia screening, Bipolar and mania, Alcohol and drug use, dissociative identity disorder,and Internet addiction.

4- Allpsych.com is one of the largest and most comprehensive psychology websites on the Internet. Site offer educational material on many topics related to psychology

There are over over 920 individual, cross referenced, web pages and an estimated 3000pages of printed material, receives an average of 3,000 unique visitors and 10,000 page views every day. They are referenced by universities all over the world and cited by professional organizations and college textbooks.
Dr. Chris Heffner, started this site in 1992, as a graduate student in psychology. Purpose of the site was to assist with data collection for research and dissenmination of academic material.

Mission statement: (In their own words):
"AllPsych will play a key role in the advancement of psychology and mental health through education and research via the Internet. As a service to both the general public, mental health professionals and students of psychology, we strive to provide psychology related material to help improve factual knowledge, inspire thoughtful discussion, and facilitate a unique understanding of the psychological theories, applications, and needs for research. As an educationally based organization, we will investigate new ways to stimulate learning in order to meet the needs of students and professionals alike."

Site link: Allpsych.com
Like other mental health sites, it offers some online psychology tests, which are:

- Diagnostic Screening tests is developed to help you better understand your own mental health based on general categories of psychopathology and mental illness.
- Self-Help quizzes designed to give you a better understanding of your relationships, communication, stress level, etc.
Remember: these quizzes or tests can not replace a true diagnostic assessment by a licensed mental health professional.
-A useful article about :Internet Addiction Disorder
- Fun and games at the site.

What is creativity and how to be creative?

Creativity is a skill which can be developed like other human abilities.
As a teacher I am appreciated for my creativity skills, but whenever I asked to do some creative work, I was not quite sure how to be innovative or more creative? So this article is first for myself and then for all who want to know what is creativity and how to develop this natural skill?

What is creativity?

According to a definition from California State University,Northridge
"Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others.

In order to be creative, you need to be able to view things in new ways or from a different perspective. Among other things, you need to be able to generate new possibilities or new alternatives. Tests of creativity measure not only the number of alternatives that people can generate but the uniqueness of those alternatives. the ability to generate alternatives or to see things uniquely does not occur by change; it is linked to other, more fundamental qualities of thinking, such as flexibility, tolerance of ambiguity or unpredictability, and the enjoyment of things heretofore unknown"

Enchanted Mind says:
"Creativity is an attitude that can be cultivated and expanded. Once you have learned how to maintain a creative attitude, you can apply it to anything you set your mind to. The way to develop a creative attitude is to stretch and stimulate the mind daily to keep it flexible and resilient. Expanding your brain and mind will accelerate your creative potential.

Science has proven that if you exercise the brain beyond your current limits, you create new neural pathways. Neurologically this is called "use dependent plasticity". In laymen's terms it means use it or lose it. If you attempt to reach beyond the obvious solutions to a problem, you will be permanently opening new neural pathways in the mind. Practiced daily, this technique will create those permanent pathways."
Enchanted Mind provides you stuf to create a daily experience of humor, inspiration and creative problem solving. The combination of these three elements, if practiced daily, will open the mind, allowing creative genius to blossom. With this method you can stimulate creative thinking habits and add a little delight to your day.

An article about Inner creativity at Enchanted Mind.

* A breif Review of Creativity at "Personality Research.org"

* What is Creative thinking? From Brainstorming.co.uk

Creative thinking techniques at "Brain storming.co.uk

Sure Start.gov.uk is a government programme which aims to achieve better outcomes for children, parents and communities by:

Increasing the availability of childcare for all children, improving health and emotional development for young children, supporting parents in their aspirations towards employment.

Sure Start.gov.uk explains in "Why Creativity?":

"Creativity is part of every area of the curriculum and all areas of learning have the potential to be creative experiences. The creative process which includes curiosity, exploration, play and creativity, is as applicable to Personal, Social and Emotional Development; Communication, Language and Literacy; Mathematical Development; Knowledge and Understanding of the World and Physical Development as it is to art, music, dance and imaginative play.
We can use creativity to solve problems and think of new ways to deal with challenges. We can use creative role-play to widen our horizons and creative thinking is an important part of science and maths.

Why is creativity important?
Being creative helps us to adapt and respond to a rapidly changing world. We don’t know the challenges that the children we work with will grow up to face, but we do know that for them to meet these challenges they will need to be creative and imaginative."


Creativity Pool Free Ideas and Creativity Resource. Search the database for solutions and inspiration, or donate your unused creativity.
Some links from the site:
- Getting Free ideas
- Their forum has totla 4655 members, with 12586 posts, including 4652 topics.

- Web site rules

Life is not always easy----- Few quotes!

Quotes are a way of giving ourselves motivation and encouragement. Here are some motivational quotes, which may give you an understanding and true meaning of life.

Truly great


Life is not always easy. And that is a major reason why it is so precious.
Many of life's best rewards are possible only because you must work your way through difficult challenges to get to them. If everything in life were easy, there would be no opportunity for real fulfillment.
If the only things you experienced were pleasure and comfort, it would be impossible for you to fully appreciate them. A life of total ease and a complete lack of challenge would be unbearably tedious.
When the next challenge comes your way, when the next obstacle blocks your progress, find it in yourself to be thankful. For the difficulties provide you with truly magnificent opportunities to create value, to find meaning and fulfillment in living.
The challenges enable you to give of yourself and to make a real difference. And that's something you desire at the deepest level.
Life is not always easy. And because of that, you have the opportunity to make it truly great.

By- Ralph Marston

Life's little annoyances

Don't let a relatively small setback ruin an otherwise beautiful day. Choose instead to take it in stride and quickly get back to being positive, productive and effective.
Don't waste your time being outraged or offended by someone else's careless, inconsiderate remark or gesture. Use the opportunity to strengthen your valuable sense of patience, and move on ahead to something that truly matters.
Life's little annoyances can quickly add up to have a big negative and destructive impact if you let them. Fortunately, you don't have to let them.


Instead, you can choose to let them go. You can decide to see the small, relatively meaningless annoyances for what they are, and move quickly beyond them.
Do you really want your attitude to be held hostage by rude, careless, inconsiderate people or random events beyond your control? Of course not, because within you is a positive purpose that is big and beautiful and filled with real meaning.


Each time one of life's little annoyances comes along, let it just keep on going right past you until it fades away into its own insignificance. You have plenty of much more positive and valuable things upon which to focus your attention.

(By- Ralph Marston)

Weakness into strength By recognizing and admitting your own weaknesses, you begin to move beyond them. When you're clear and honest about what you need to work on, you can make real progress.
When you identify a weakness, you've found an opportunity. By exploring what's holding you back, you can create a realistic and workable path to success.
Weakness is nothing to hide from or to be ashamed of. For in each weakness is the promise of real strength.


From each weakness there is much that you can learn. By understanding your limitations, you can find a way around them.


Instead of constantly fighting against your weaknesses, work on getting rid of them completely. Then all your time and energy can be put into moving quickly ahead.
Have the courage to look clearly at your weaknesses. What you'll see in each one is the potential to create powerful, effective new strength.

(By-Ralph Marston)

For more motivational links: Great Day

Do you blame God for your sufferings?

Very naturally when we feel blue, we blame God for our sufferings, our sorrows.
And many times when I felt myself very lonely in this world, a thought came into my mind that why it is happening to me, why me?------Why I have to suffer?
Whenever I talked about this topic with my fellows, they mentioned the same stage of mind at the time of sufferings. First we try to blame any one who is involved in this situation, including ourselves, and at the last it is clear that it was from God, and we have to have patience.

During times when God allows suffering, we seldom understand why. We cling to our hope and hold to our faith, but we still ask, Why, God, do you allow my suffering and pain? ----When God is Himself very kind and merciful. There are some answers we can get:
- It is because, through sufferings, we come closer to our God.
- When He allows us to suffer, He allows us to see his presence and to love Him more deeply.
- Sometimes, pain and sufferings come as a test and God rewards the faithful.
There are a lot more answers, but you would agree with me that for those difficult times, you need to think positively, and more religious. In my down times of life, I desperately needed someone who could give me some advice, show me encouragement and way to self help.

Few days ago, I saw a site which was exactly fulfilling the topic I described above. It is in fact a course which is called “Alpha Course”, and it is a personal level, self help course helping you in getting the specific answer to our question why god allows suffering?

It would be interesting to know what media is telling about this course:

The Daily Telegraph, London
"Alpha is an unqualified triumph."

Newsweek
"Alpha…uses modern marketing methods to promote and explain Christian teachings around the world."

"God honors those who have suffered – and helps those in pain".