Sources for specifically medical information. For food & nutrition sources go here
These are the sources we consider reliable. Note: We deliberately avoid health blogs, influencer posts, forums, supplement-company sites, and articles that promise miracle cures. MedlinePlus advises checking who funds the content, looking for ads, and considering whether commercial interests might influence the information.
| Source | Best for | Why we’d trust it |
|---|---|---|
| MedlinePlus | Patient-friendly overviews of conditions, symptoms, tests, medicines | Run by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, part of NIH; designed for patients and families. |
| NHS Health A to Z | Symptoms, conditions, treatments, when to seek help | Clear, practical health guidance from the NHS. |
| MSD Manual Consumer Version / Merck Manual | Detailed condition explanations | Uses external authors, peer reviewers, pharmacologist review, physician editors and final editorial review. |
| Mayo Clinic | Plain-English condition and treatment summaries | Uses a structured process including medical review, copy editing, annotation and publishing. |
| Cleveland Clinic Health Library | Clear patient education on symptoms, conditions and procedures | Good for education, though it explicitly says it does not replace diagnosis or treatment from a doctor. |
Guidelines and evidence-based medicine
| Source | Best for | Why we’d trust it |
|---|---|---|
| NICE Guidelines | UK clinical guidance, treatment pathways, medicines, public health | NICE produces evidence-based recommendations using independent committees and stakeholder consultation. |
| Cochrane | Systematic reviews of treatments and interventions | Cochrane reviews are internationally recognised as a high standard in evidence-based healthcare. |
| WHO Health Topics | Global public health, diseases, vaccines, outbreaks, policy | Useful for global health context and international guidance. |
| CDC Health Topics | Infectious disease, vaccination, travel health, prevention | Strong for public health, disease prevention and outbreak-related information. |
| BMJ Best Practice | Clinical decision support for professionals | Updated daily using evidence-based methodology and expert opinion. |
| UpToDate | Professional-level clinical summaries | Widely used by clinicians; evidence-based, but often subscription-only. |
| DynaMed | Professional evidence-based decision support | Built around evidence-based clinical decision support and shared decision-making. |
Medicines, side effects and drug safety
| Source | Best for | Why we’d trust it |
|---|---|---|
| BNF / NICE BNF | UK medicine doses, prescribing, cautions, interactions | Core UK medicines reference for prescribing and safe medicine use. |
| electronic Medicines Compendium — eMC | UK patient leaflets and official product information | Contains regulated prescribing and patient information for licensed medicines. |
| MHRA Drug Safety Updates | UK drug safety alerts and warnings | Official UK regulator updates on medicines and devices. |
| MHRA Yellow Card | Reporting side effects or device incidents | Official UK system for reporting suspected side effects and medical device problems. |
| FDA Drugs | U.S. drug approvals, safety, shortages, labels | Official U.S. drug regulator; includes FDA-approved prescription, generic and OTC drug information. |
| DailyMed | Official U.S. medicine labels | Provides current drug labelling submitted to FDA and published by the National Library of Medicine. |
| European Medicines Agency — EMA | EU medicine assessments and product information | Official EU agency for evaluation, supervision and safety monitoring of medicines. |
Research databases
| Source | Best for | Why we’d trust it |
|---|---|---|
| PubMed | Searching biomedical research papers | Contains more than 40 million biomedical citations and abstracts. |
| PubMed Central | Free full-text research papers | Free NIH/NLM archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature. |
| ClinicalTrials.gov | Registered clinical trials and trial results | Database of clinical research studies and results, run by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. |
| TRIP Database | Searching guidelines, reviews and clinical evidence | Clinical search engine designed to help find high-quality evidence. |
| Epistemonikos | Systematic reviews and evidence mapping | Useful for finding and linking evidence-based health information across languages. |
Major peer-reviewed medical journals
These are useful, but I’d treat single studies cautiously. A systematic review, guideline, or consensus statement is usually stronger than one paper.
| Source | Best for |
|---|---|
| The BMJ | Medical research, reviews, health policy, clinical education. |
| New England Journal of Medicine | Major clinical trials, reviews and editorial content. |
| The Lancet | Global health, clinical research, public health and major reviews. |
| JAMA Network | General and specialty medical research. |
Specialist sources to also consider reliable
| Area | Sources |
|---|---|
| Cancer | Cancer Research UK, American Cancer Society |
| Diabetes | Diabetes UK, NHS diabetes information |
| Mental health | Royal College of Psychiatrists, NIMH, NHS Mental Health |
| General public health | WHO, CDC, NHS |
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