Health social networks are not extremely numerous, but are very helpful for those seeking to gain knowledge that their doctor may not be able to offer. Either time constraints or even lack of the newest information sometimes prevents your doctor from being able to fill you in on the details

Health social networks do wonders to help inform and has an added bonus of actually interacting with others who are dealing with the same health challenges or who have already gone through it.

Myspace Comments

Checking out a health social network in the waiting period of a test or just to find out more is such a blessing in this age of the Internet. Searching for specifics is often difficult. The time taken while sorting through the masses of results given when trying to locate helpful sites on, for instance, cancer, can be overwhelming. Going to a interactive social networking site focused health and wellness issues generally will gain far greater and more case specific search results.

While doing searches for these health related social networks, I noticed that they were actually few and far between with most being forum style set ups. These are useful as they allow interaction, but are also a bit limited and sometimes difficult to sort through a 1000 plus thread post topic. Which member of the forum posted the best information and will we then need to read through all 1000 plus posts to find our answer?

There were only a few health social networks that really stood out. One being Trusera. A recent event has left them in need of partners, but they will be alive and well until at least late April, 2009. Trusera is a true health related, topic oriented, information filled social network.

Interacting with like members who are either going through or have been where others are now in their health challenges. Remaining anonymous is easy or you can choose to be as open as you wish while connecting in a social setting to find answers to your health questions or to offer up a health related experience of your own. Getting practical answers and insight from others just like yourself during stressful times is calming.

The power of having been there is incredible to someone who is currently “going through” a health related situation. The site for breast cancer that I found is a forum based interaction site to gain knowledge of side effects, get answers to your testing questions, treatment choices, and research information related specifically to breast cancer issues. BreastCancer.org comes complete with support and community connections.

WebMD is probably the most well known social type health network for not only finding and connecting with other people like you, but for the wealth of health related information at their fingertips. From blogs to message boards to being able to ask the experts, this health stockpile has it all covered. Discover links to other health issue sites, meet a multitude of individuals from all over the Internet, and get a peace of mind that only detailed knowledge can bring. WebMD has headline news, polls, a pill identifier, locate a doctor or hospital in your area, or browse through the health centers topic list to find the answers you are looking for.

Google Health, while not exactly a health social network is an outstanding resource for communicating your total health information to your newest doctor or at an emergency room visit to keep the physician aware of what treatments you are getting or have received in the past. This awareness is paramount especially if you are taking medication. Google Health allows it’s users to input securely their medical information from every individual hospital, doctor, or medical center, keeping all in one place to ensure the whole of it all gets to the eyes of each health care provider you encounter. A system like this absolutely will stop medication conflicts if filled in correctly and could head off problems before they can begin. Google Health puts you in charge of your health information safely, securely, and best of all it is free.

Locating other health social networks, forums, and information is easy when you know which search engine to use. Google has topic specific search engines as a starting point, but I found MedStory. A health information search engine currently in Beta testing. If you need more avenues than mentioned here, check into MedStory for more.

Listen into our Blogs and Social Networks show Health Social Networks for more

Stevie and Stephanie Haile aka Blogheiress and Wavecritter

Updates at Live Journal:

With the Photo Bucket integration, now you can access all your photos without leaving Live Journal

“What’s In a Name?” section located on the home page at Live Journal is pretty cool. Ever thought you have the very worst username? Find recently discarded usernames here for your Journal

Join in on the Global dialogue at Global Views to discuss news and current events with Journalists from LJ International Partner Newspapers.

The biggest new info at present at LJ is there piece on Internet Safety called keeping your Journal Safe. A must read as the virus weirdness keeps on coming.

With 19.2 million journals and communities created since 1999, there is always something new at Live Journal

Facebook:

Everyone seems to be going Facebook crazy and they either like the updated “real time” streams or they do not The real time stream of posts from your friends and connections has arrived so take a minute to control your streams if it get’s to be to “Twitter-esque” for you by adjusting the filters to the left on your log in home page or visit http://Facebook.com/sitetour/homepage_tour.php which is the link also on your log in Facebook home page. You have more control than you would think with these newest updates. You can control what friend streams and info you will actually see on your home page.

Publishing your own updates has gotten super simple with this new Facebook. Prompting in applications for instance as you send “virtual gifts”  to your friends to then publish this message in not only your profile and home pages, but also your friends

Keeping track of birthdays was always fairly easy at Facebook, but now the What’s Going On Today area on the right hand top of your home page keeps you in the know about the events and birthdays today!

What this new streaming actually does is electrify the Google meter over at Facebook. With so many streams of so much of what’s going on, constantly publishing, it is very like merging Twitter, Facebook, Internet Gaming, with linkage and feeds from Blogs, Digg, the whole “All Roads Lead to Rome” theory … well, now, All Roads Lead to and From Facebook which then energizes the Google Ratings because of the amount of visible traffic (posting, publishing, sending of application invites, news, blog posts, feeds, etc.) Facebook has “Lit Up” the Internet sky when they switched on this newness

Vox:

Vox’s built in editor allows you to easily combine words, images, video and audio all in one little box to create brilliant posts every time. While the newness on Vox primarily is the tweaking of the old, they have quite the expert handle on it all with interactivity galore. While Blogger and WordPress are standard Blog Platform sites, Vox takes this Blog Platform to a Social Network level. Interactivity, friending, groups, Vox Hunt Challenges, Team Vox News, and Questions of the Day to prompt you out of any writers block that you may have. Keeping up with the Vox Team is as easy as visiting the Team.Vox.com site

Blogger News:

Straight from Buzz.Blogger.com comes news of the Plinky prompts to alleviate the craziness of Bloggers Block or more commonly refered to as writers block Plinky gives you a prompt to write (much like the Question of the Day over at Vox:) A question or challenge for you to answer and actually Share your Media on Facebook and Twitter!!!

Facebook your Blog at Blogger, WordPress and more, find out how here.

WordPress:

P2 The New Prologue reinvents what it means to “Group Blog” with live notifications, comments in the home page, in-line editing (you never need to refresh and rarely need to visit your dashboard:). P2 is great for school projects, groups, as a class, etc. Check out the WordPress Blog for more on this new theme. “Just Another WordPress Blog”.

February brought a Live Journal import tool, threaded comments, and launched Buddy Press, a set of WordPress MU (multi-user) plugins that transforms a MU install into a social network platform. For newspapers, magazines, Universities, Blog Networks, and such

Post to a later date of course is a feature at WordPress with statistics right now on your personal log in home page

Twitter:

Following the Twitter Blog is one of the best ways to stay on top of Twitter’s newest happenings “)

ExecTweets to find and follow Top Business Execs on Twitter!

The trends tab on Twitter gives you a heads up on what’s hot The topic trends going on over at Twitter, what everyone is Tweeting about

The recent Twitter limits set alleviates robots and whales from going metal or overboard Check out these limits on the Twitter Support Page.

Meez:

Meez users that have not yet checked out the new Carnival Gear arer missing out! Very cool new stuff though I haven’t had the heart to delete my leprechaun from St. Patrick’s Day I have purchased and saved to my closet some of the coolest newest gear

Meez, Living the Virtual You, from Meez Nation chat rooms, new games, new gear, room creations,  and the connectivity with Facebook and MySpace and others via the coolest of widgets, Meez has something new every week!

Read Parts 1 and 2 at BlogsandSocialNetworks.com and BlogsandSocialNetworks.info for even more Blogs and Social Networks Updates Or Listen into our Blogs and Social Networks Online Radio Show on Updates at our favorite Blog Platform Sites and Social Networks

Updates on My Yearbook and MySpace coming soon

Stevie and Stephanie Haile aka Blogheiress and Wavecritter Google Us