Internet is a great tool that provides us with all kinds of information, including a host of medical pages, many of which talk about the disease and its symptoms. Therefore, it is very common that anyone feel the need to figure out on your own what happens. But it is not a good idea, and I’ll explain why.
One symptom is hard to describe
Think about when you go to the doctor and you tell your symptoms. Usually a professional will make several questions to clarify what you mean exactly. Give you an example: imagine that it hurts somewhere. Not enough to tell you what hurts. The doctor will ask if it is a dull or sharp, constant or intermittent pain, if it hurts more when you move or when you are in certain positions, etc … Often the doctor, thanks to his experience, knows how to find images to help explain more precisely what you get.
In addition, a person without medical studies may be confused about the meaning of words, and not being able itself to properly describe their symptoms.
For these two reasons, you have much chance to go wrong on the symptom that you think have, and therefore see information about diseases that have nothing to do with what you have.
In Internet talk over serious diseases
Do you know where you have an appendix? If you have an idea about where we needed this vestigial organ, it may ever have felt pain precisely at this point. Chances are that this pain was simply due to gases, but the proximity of Appendix perhaps you have been searching for “appendicitis symptoms” into Google. Because on the Internet if you describe your condition it is nonsense as the pain caused by the pressure of the gas in your digestive system will have a very small place, while they stand out more serious conditions such as appendicitis.
You have no idea of the probability of each disease
Other symptoms to look classic theme online is that you’ll find a list of possible diseases, but no order from high to low probability, or if you are in a very basic way. Being a doctor has to do with statistics. A doctor knows the symptoms related to the probability of disease and other symptoms that let you quickly find the suspect. That is the result of a decade of studies, which cannot match, even informing much Internet.
You return, see a list of suspects ranging from a simple excess stress to a possible cancer (in almost all the symptoms you find out the Internet find cancer as a cause), and logically, you worry a lot, and in the vast most cases, so unfounded.
No physical examination
Some people think that in the future a medical consultation will be as simple as getting into a web page, go answering some questions, and get a diagnosis. The problem with that is that some of the “questions” that usually makes a doctor are nonverbal. It is the physical examination of the patient. You need to see, and often touching, to better understand the possible symptoms. Something that clearly cannot do it from home, and even if you could explore yourself, you would not have the necessary knowledge to hit.
The quality of the pages can be highly variable
One of the main problems of the Internet, and by that I mean more to the Google search is coexisting pages of highly variable quality. The same thing you come across an excellent site (e.g. the official website of the ministry of health of a country) and stumble upon the speculations of various charlatans. It can be difficult to differentiate a medical information website recognized with a person who believes in alternative theories without any scientific basis.
Therefore, if you are looking for information, you risk finding data that are not even reliable. Even in the Wikipedia, we tend to rely, for errors, because it is a user-written page whose knowledge can be very variable.
If you make your own diagnosis, chances are you self-medicate
Finally, I wanted to note that the greatest danger to seek information on the Internet is probably medicating finish on your own. Of course, no need to navigate through the network to do so and in fact many people take drugs without medical opinion. But it makes sense if you think you’ve found your ailment and has at hand the means to solve it, you take action to resolve the problem of how to think correctly.
This is extremely dangerous. Unfortunately, many people use leftover medications prescribed to heal before, when they are not trained to diagnose and medicate. This type of behavior makes, for example, many antibiotics are used more than is necessary, with the imminent health hazard involved. Worse, self-medication can have serious consequences for your health, because the drugs are double-edged swords. Usually they solve a problem and create another, especially when used frequently.
Go to the doctor
Of course, if you occasionally have a headache and you take a painkiller, nothing happens. I’m not telling you to go to the doctor for any nonsense. But if you have a question, if a seemingly trivial symptom persists, or if you’re worried about anything, the best thing to do is find out for sure going to see a professional. If you rely on the Internet it is more likely to worry more and even to diagnose you correctly predict.
