Ashley! Good Job on your articles. I think that you have chosen a great topic and covered all the major details required. My mother has MS and I have learned alot from her about this disease. You go into great detail on how it relates back to anatomy and physiology. The main thing to know about the effects of MS is how the myelin sheath is destroyed and you explain in great detail these steps.

Website Review Corrections:
The major website I used was the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke http://www.ninds.gov/disorders/multiple_sc...tiple_sclerosis.htm

The minor website I used to review was Health Central http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/1866/15857

I do not see anything missing from your reviews, except maybe that you should identify which is the major and which is the minor, although I can guess which is which.
 I think that, for the first review, your best feature is how well you link the disease back to what we’ve covered in class. You wrote in great detail and I like that. I don’t really see anything with this review that needs work. I think that, for the second review, your best feature is how you didn’t repeat anything from the last review, and that you focused on what you felt was relevant. Again, I do not see anything really wrong with this review.

Ashley, I think you've covered all the information that you needed. My only suggestion is you might want to include which one is the minor/major websites. That's all I have for you. Good job!

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: Everything You Wanted To Know About Multiple Sclerosis. http://www.ninds.gov/disorders/multiple_sc...tiple_sclerosis.htm
By: Ashley Armstrong

 This website is a wealth of information on Multiple Sclerosis, posted by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. They provide a plethora of information on the basic description and components of the disease, along with diagnosis, treatments, research findings and more. In addition to educating the general public, I believe this site seeks to give hope and encouragement to MS sufferers.
 This site and the topic of Multiple Sclerosis, greatly relates to the material we have just covered in our anatomy and physiology class. We have just finished discussing the Central Nervous System, which consists of the Brain and the Spinal Cord. The Central Nervous System is responsible for integrating, processing, and coordinating sensory information and motor commands. This sensory information relates information about conditions inside or outside the body, while the motor commands control or adjust the activities of peripheral organs such as skeletal muscles. The Brain, Spinal Cord, and rest of the body communicate this sensory data and motor commands through electrochemical messages or action potentials which are carried along an axon through sensory and motor neurons. In Multiple Sclerosis, an unpredictable disease of the Central Nervous System, the communication between the brain and areas of the body are disturbed. When an attack of M.S. occurs, the white matter of a neuron of the CNS becomes inflamed or enlarged, in patches known as plaques, which are distributed randomly. White matter consists of myelinated axons. This myelin covering an axon, and made of Schwann cells is destroyed or damaged. This myelin is used to help speed along the action potential. As a result of the myelin being damaged in M.S., the transmission of electrochemical messages is either stopped completely or greatly slowed, which has many ill effects on the body.
 Overall, I believe this site does an excellent job of providing an abundance of information, with lots of research, that is easy to understand. However, I think that the fact that it can seem very medical at times with no personal stories, can make it feel perhaps cold and repetitive.

Health Central: An Inside Look on Multiple Sclerosis: http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/1866/15857

By: Ashley Armstrong

 Health Central allows those who suffer from Multiple Sclerosis, along with family and friends, experts, professionals, caregivers and many more, to post and read blogs of their experiences with the disease and thus connect with each other for support and possible new treatment solutions.
 Multiple Sclerosis, as discussed in my last website review, has to do with the deterioration of the myelin sheath that encases axons and speeds up the transfer of electrochemical messages (action potentials). This inside look at the communication between the Central Nervous System and the rest of the body is a topic we have greatly discussed in class. Also, related to class, is the topic of Proprioception, in which the position of joints, the tension in tendons and ligaments, and the state of muscular contraction is monitored. This is discussed in the online dairy of Gina Gunkel on the Health Central site. Gina expresses her frustration with Multiple Sclerosis, and the fact that at times, due to the disease, she feels numbness on one side on her lower limbs, but does not know on which leg she is feeling this numbness. This reminds me of the Proprioception lab we did in class, in which we used toothpicks at different distances from each other on our lab partners to see if they could differentiate in different parts of the body how many toothpicks were being used. We found that places such as the tips of our fingers are more sensitive than say the lower limbs.
 This site displays interesting personal stories such as Gina’s, and allows a firsthand experience that is more valuable than just hearing the textbook version of the disease. Health Central gives you the opportunity to better understand what it would be like to live as someone with Multiple Sclerosis, from the trials and tribulations of everyday life to treatment options. It is a way for those close to the disease to encourage each other, and for those who are not personally involved to relate. Although the site is very beneficial in these ways, one is overcome with advertisements upon entering the site, and it doesn’t offer a lot of treatment options.

National Istitute of Neurological disorders. This website is really easy to access. I thought it was neat that you can look up how you get MS, what may be the cause, and how it affects your body.
 Health central. People living with Multiple Sclerosis. This website was interesting yet, I thouhgt it was more based for a person who has MS for more of a blog to communicate their problems with eachother.
 WebMD, Multiple Sclerosis gene found (IL7R) Artlicle Written By a women of the name of Miranda Hitti. She Talks about how it is a gene related to people with MS and and is found in people with week immune systems that are ofeten sickly.
 Havard School of public Health. Really cool how researches in Boston Recently found that Vitamin D may help reduce the chances of devoloping MS. People should take vitamin D either way. But definately if you may have family members with MS.

Ashley, interesting topic and you do a great job of telling who is posting each site, why and what we would find there. Obviously, NINDS, Harvard and WebMD are all pretty major sites and you could use any of those for your review. For a lesser website, I would just choose on of the blogs from the health central website.

Thanks for your detailed peer feedback.

LF
Choose topic: 10 points
Find four websites: 20 points
Peer reviews: 10 points

Allison Donahue Web Site Review

Site #1- This website was definitely the best sit. I has the most information available and it is coming from a reliable source. I didn’t find anything like testimonials or outreach to other sufferers.

Site #2- A definite problem with this site is all of the pop-up and advertising. It takes away from the job of the website. I did like all of the personal stories. I am sure that sufferers of this disease find it very helpful.

Site #3- This website seemed repetitive to me. There is a lot of review and not a lot different than all of the other sites. It is easy to navigate, and to understand. It seems to be a well trusted website, and a reliable source of information for patients as well as physicians.

Site #4- This paper is good research into M.S. It does worry me that the information is not as current as others. It would obviously only speculate on future medicine, not current advancement into the disease.

National Institute of Neurological Disorders: I found this website to be very informative and it contained a lot of information. I like how in-depth and thorough this website is and how easy to understand it is. I also like that it lists so many different resources to learn more information. I also like the glossary at the end. I really do not see any problems with this website, especially since the information has been updated recently.
 Healthcenter.com: The personal stories on this website were very informative, and it gives a personal insight into the disease. The only thing that I did not like about this website is that I found all of the advertisements very distracting.
 WebMD: This has become a very popular medical information site. This website does not have much information, but nevertheless it is still a good resource because it gives information about a new development in MS: the fact that variations in the IL7R gene may make MS more likely to develop. I don’t see anything really wrong with the information presented.
 Harvard School of Public Health: I like the information offered in this paper; it’s something different that I didn’t already know about MS. The only problem that I had was that the information is from 2004.

Ninds gov site:

Very informative. It's also in spanish, very cool!! Very medical, can be a downfall for those who aren't in the medical field.

Healthcare central site:

I like how it's very informative and has the personal stories as well. I don't have a dislike about this site. It was easy to navigate this site.

WebMD site:

Informative, always a plus. It's repetative information.

Harvard site:

I like it because it wasn't the usual information about MS. I also like that it didn't have tons of links you can be overwhelmed by. No negative comment.

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/multipl...tiple_sclerosis.htm
I found this site to be one of the better ones you had chosen, I like the Publications it offer and the Research literature. I was pretty cool the site even offered a Spanish version. Some of the reading were pretty basic and overall seemed to repeat its self. However this again had the most supportive information on Multiple Sclerosis and treatment options from all your other topic you had chosen.

http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/role/1/
I found this site to be overwhelming with to many pop ups and advertising. It’s not very user friendly and really doesn’t offer a lot of treatment plans. I did like the personal stories the site had to offer.

http://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/ne...clerosis-gene-found
WebMD, Is one of the most common used sites in the health care field and working environment. It offers a ton of information on just about any type of disease your looking for. It’s a standard go to web site. Many people use it for reaches and looking up information. I found it to be just kind of basic it would have been nice to see a little more research. The site mainly offer Doctors and other standing Physicians advise on medical treatment.

http://www.hms.harvard.edu/news/pressrelea...104vitamins_ms.html
This was a really neat paper about Multiple Sclerosis great research. I found it really nice to read and the information it offered was really informative. It was pretty cool how Harvard School keeps a lot of there top research paper on file for the public to view, some of them go way back. The information on vitamin D I only found on this paper not on any of the other researches which was very interesting .

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/multipl...tiple_sclerosis.htm

 This website is posted by the National Institute of Neurological Disorder and Stroke. It provides an interesting background of the first diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis (M.S.), as well as providing the root meaning of the two words from their Greek origin. In addition, it describes the disease known as M.S. as an unpredictable autoimmune disease of the Central Nervous System (Brain and Spinal Cord). It states that the disease destroys the myelin sheath which insulates nerves, and helps to speed the transfer of electrochemical messages that travel throughout the body. As a result, when the myelin sheath is damaged, messages may be delayed or stop completely. This, in turn, can result in anything from visual impairment to paralysis. Lastly, this site gives a thorough basis of information on the disease from possible treatment, diagnosis, and research findings.
 I think, as the title of this website section suggests, “Hope Through Research,” this site was created to provide hope and encouragement for M.S. sufferers.

http://www.healthcentral.com/multiple-sclerosis/c/role/1/

 This website, posted by Health Central, allows those who suffer from Multiple Sclerosis, along with family and friends, experts, professionals, and caregivers to post and read blogs of their experiences with the disease, and thus connect with each other for support and possible new treatment solutions.

http://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/ne...clerosis-gene-found

 This website is posted by the Multiple Sclerosis Health Center and features information on various topics of the disease as well as medical news. The main article I focused on from this site was written by medical writer, Miranda Hitti, and reviewed by Dr. Louise Chang. This article, entitled “Variations in the IL7R Gene May Make Multiple Sclerosis More Likely, New Studies Show”, described a recent finding of an MS Gene, known as IL7R, which could factor into a person’s chances of developing Multiple Sclerosis. This finding could lead to new treatment and research possibilities.

http://www.hms.harvard.edu/news/pressrelea...104vitamins_ms.html

 I chose this website from the Harvard School of Public Health as one of my “big name institutions.” It provides research findings, including a research section I looked at from 1994. This research discovered a relationship between Vitamin D intake and Multiple Sclerosis. The study, which included over 185,000 women, from years 1980-1999, found that those who took a Vitamin D supplement reduced their risk of developing the disease by up to forty percent.

I chose the topic of Multiple Sclerosis because I thought it would be an interesting topic and I want to better understand it and its effects. This relates to our study in class of the Nervous System and the impact of myelin and Schwann cells on nerve axons.