That was the question posed by Dr. Charles Bender at last night’s Boca Raton Computer Club meeting at the South County Civic Center.

“Which should you read? Which should you believe? There are so many out there,” said Charlie: “The Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, Federal Drug Administration, National Cancer Institute, WebMD, Centers for Disease Control, to name just a few. How can we know what is fact and what is fiction?

Yesterday chocolate would clog arteries; today chocolate will protect me from a heart attack. Alcohol is good. Alcohol is bad. Eggs-the perfect food. Eggs have too much cholesterol. Spinach is wonderful, leafy green vegetable with lots of iron and vitamins—unless it is tainted with E. coli germs, in which case you will really get sick. You get the idea.”

Dr. Bender offered a few tips on how to sort through the ever growing number of websites seeming to be the authority on medical information. (Author’s note: Ask.com listed no less than 37,910,000 medical information websites currently on the web.)
“No matter how legitimate the web site sounds, check to see whose site it really is,” continued Bender. “If it comes from a university or a medical journal, take the time to see what it has to say. If it comes from a pharmaceutical company, understand it is biased information. If the site has a governmental affiliation it should be pretty reliable. When a website quotes from ‘experts’ ask yourself who those experts really are. It could be a Harvard faculty member or a physician from somewhere in California who may be receiving money from a drug company to conduct trials that turn out in a favorable way. And last, check multiple reliable websites and ask for the same information. If they agree, good! If you get differing opinions think about what it means.”

Using a power point presentation, Dr. Bender listed websites most of us are familiar with and then listed little known sites that are invaluable sources of medical help. You can access this information at the Boca Raton Computer Society site: www.brcs.org. Dr.

Bender serves as Program Chairman for the Computer Club.

We asked Ellie Lingner, Charlie’s wife who is a retired journalist to tell us about her 81 year old husband:
“Charlie Bender loves technology every bit as much as his five children and ten grandchildren. Show him a new “toy” (so called by his wife, Ellie Lingner), and he will want to know how it works and then own one.

In addition to his three computers, which he considers his most relaxing pastime, Charlie also loves movies, music, theater, science fiction, fierce Trivial Pursuit games with close friends, and the hobby he calls “Cora’s Words of Wisdom.” Nearly every day for the past decade, Charlie has e-mailed an inspirational quote to hundreds of friends and acquaintances around the world. The name comes from his cat named Corazon (“heart” in Spanish) whom everyone calls Cora or Corabeth, and across the bottom of the screen walks an animated cat.
“People love it,” he says, “and I love doing it—researching the quotes and passing them along. I might meet someone in a movie theater or at the public library and end up chatting about computers. The next thing you know,” says Charlie, “they’re on the Words of Wisdom list.”

Born and reared in South Philadelphia, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps after graduating from high school in 1943, and taught radio/electronics at Truax Field, Madison, Wisconsin. He was later stationed at the Radar School (BRAAF) in Boca Raton on which property now sits FAU.
After the war, he returned home and took advantage of the GI Bill to attend Temple University, Philadelphia PA, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in 1951. Charlie earned his medical degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1958, interning in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He practiced family medicine in New Jersey from 1959 to1970 when he relocated to Florida and for the past 36 years has practiced in Broward County.

Charlie and his wife, Ellie Lingner, have been married for nearly 25 years, which, they both say may be his greatest accomplishment. He swears that she is the person he would most like to emulate, but she says she told him to say that. “

‘She has the qualities I admire most,’ he says, ‘a great sense of humor and a quick laugh, diplomacy, self-discipline, insight, and great organizational skills. I would still be sitting at my computer and she would have six tasks accomplished,’ he says.”

> Discuss this entry