You want to lose weight but are overwhelmed by the myriad diet books. You’re not sure if aspirin will relieve fever or increase it. For muscle pain, how many pain relievers should you take--and is there a danger in taking too many? One place to get answers is Everyday Health (www.everydayhealth.com).

Everyday Health surpassed WebMD (www.webmd.com) in audience appeal by attracting 28 million visitors compared to 21 million for WebMD, according to Score’s Media Matrix data in 2011. Everyday Health’s mission statement says, “We’re here to help you manage your own health and your family’s conditions and overall well-being through personalized advice, tools, and communities.”

Everyday Health is organized into Home, Health A-Z, Drugs A-Z, Symptom Charts, Food & Fitness, Community, and Everyday Health TV. Clicking the Health link brings the reader an array of specific information on topics such as allergy, arthritis, breast cancer, and fibromyalgia. Moreover, readers can sign on and track their daily calorie intake, bodyfat, health symptoms, and even take a look at pollen counts.

Ben Wolin, CEO of Waterfront Media, which owns Everyday Health, has said, “Our products, content, and tools encourage visitors to come back daily, to check a pregnancy calendar or use a diet tool or diabetes tool.” The site launched in 2002.

As at many web sites, videos play a major role. Everyday Health offers scores of videos on specific medical topics. If a reader is interested in breast cancer, for example, “Dr. Oz’s Top 10 Tips to Prevent Breast Cancer” or “When to Start Having Mammograms” might be good videos to view. To lure viewers, the site emphasizes celebrity videos, such as “Why Jack Black Is so Sensitive About Autism.”

The articles display the Everyday Health formula, which is focus on one medical topic, offer advice from an expert, and emphasize simple can-do lists to help readers deal with the ailment. The articles are not written in a technical, scientific manner. They are lifestyle pieces with simple language, and they offer specific actions readers can take to alleviate the ailment.

Everyday Health tries to take the mystery out of remedies and eliminate physicians’ complicated medical jargon. One article on the site is titled, “Folk Cures for Back Pain.” Another is titled, “4 Simple Daily Habits to Help Manage Fibromyalgia.”

On the first day of summer 2012 when the temperature reached 97 degrees in the Northeast and many people faced the possibility of heat stroke, Everyday Health’s lead article, written by its editors, was titled, “Mother Nature Delivers Heat Wave Wallop.” The article included a list of Do’s and Don’t’s. Though the site has a medical orientation, some of the advice found there is simplistic and written with a light, casual air.

Some, but not all, of the articles are written by experts or based on interviews with physicians. The site is still an interesting read for ailments that readers are concerned about.