By David Blyweiss, M.D., Advanced Natural Wellness
July 15, 2020
Living in this information age is both a blessing and a curse. Just look at an average trip to the doctor’s office.
Twenty years ago, I would have a patient walk in the door without a clue as to what was ailing them. I would listen to their symptoms and go through the routine steps of diagnosing their problem.
You know the drill…
I would check their physical appearance, look for signs of illness, compare their health to previous visits, carry out diagnostic testing, and review the results… THEN decide how I could help.
Today, people just spend ten minutes with Dr. Google and they think they know exactly what’s wrong!
Many of my patients who come to the clinic have already diagnosed themselves. Some of them even come in with a laundry list of tests they want me to run and the medications or targeted nutrients they want me to prescribe.
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They’ve looked it all up online. And Dr. Google gave them an answer.
But I must warn you: This is risky business!
Depending on how you search your symptoms, web results can lead you to any number of diagnoses. And many of them will be wrong.
For example:
Wrong Diagnosis #1 – I’m A-Okay.
I once had a patient who suddenly started experiencing fatigue, severe headaches, dizziness and problems concentrating. Instead of giving me a call, she started browsing the Internet and decided she was suffering from migraines.
Like a lot of folks, she treated herself using advice from the web. But just a couple of days later she landed in the emergency room… with a stroke!
Turns out she had been experiencing minor transient ischemic attacks or TIA’s without even knowing it. These are basically mini strokes that are caused by reduced blood supply to the brain. Many times, they are a warning that a stroke is headed your way.
How I wish she had called me when she first became concerned!
Wrong Diagnosis #2 – I’m Gonna Die.
I recently had another patient with similar symptoms. Fatigue, dizziness and problems with concentration. After searching the web she was convinced she had some sort of brain tumor.
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The frantic woman called my office for an appointment. “It’s an emergency!” she said. “I have to see him today!”
I squeezed her in and she instantly began rattling off all the reasons she had brain cancer.
But I already had a preliminary diagnosis. Simply taking a close look at her pale skin, nail beds, hair and tongue, I suspected iron deficiency anemia. A routine blood test confirmed it.
As soon as she increased her iron intake, her symptoms started fading away. And all of her initial fear and anxiety were for naught.
These are two different sides of the coin, but they are all too real.
The Internet is Not Your Doctor
Depending on how you perform a Google search, you’ll get any number of ailments associated with your symptoms.
This is true even if you use an online symptom checker. The accuracy of these tools is generally low.
As a matter of fact, when 23 symptom checkers were used in standardized patient evaluations, they only provided a correct diagnosis 34% of the time.
That means they were wrong about two out of every three times! That’s not good.
So let me put it to you straight. The Internet is not a doctor.
It can’t assess your appearance, take and interpret a comprehensive history, perform diagnostics, review your medications or take your previous medical and lab result history into account. It cannot be relied upon to properly diagnose what ails you.
That being said, if you’re so concerned about a symptom that you’re spending time searching the web, it’s time to make a doctor’s appointment.
Your doctor can save you hours of anxiety and fear that would occur if you over diagnose yourself on the Internet. And they could save your life if you have under diagnosed your symptoms.
But I’m not saying the Internet doesn’t have its uses.
Once you’ve been properly diagnosed with a health condition, the web is a great place to learn how to improve your circumstances (as long as you use reputable sites.)
You can also join forums that allow you to share your experiences with others. And you can find out what they are doing to successfully overcome their issues.
The Internet can also be very helpful when it comes to treating minor conditions. Things like how to take the itch out of bug bites, sunburn treatments and how to wrap a sprained ankle can all be found online.
You can also learn about exercises for back pain, whether to use heat or cold to treat a pulled muscle or how to properly treat a minor cut.
So use the Internet judiciously. It can be a helpful friend… but never your trusted physician.
SOURCES
Semigran HL, et al. Evaluation of symptom checkers for self diagnosis and triage: audit study. BMJ. 2015 Jul 8;351:h3480.
