It has become an ongoing trend to self diagnose using internet. Thanks to certain innovations everyone of us has easy access to internet whenever and wherever we want. You must know the hazards of self diagnosis and self medication. One should not rely on Google’s diagnosis. Put simply, here are 7 reasons why you should NOT google your symptoms.
The Hypochondriac patients are sensitive about any information as they react more than required. If the patient has a simple headache he may Google and panic having a brain tumor. This can create unnecessary panic situations and causes further distress rather than helping the patient.
There are websites used for promoting a product and can have marketing strategies which result in giving misinformation to the consumers in order to sell the product.
Few examples:-
– Certain Herbal medicines claim to cure cancer which is false information for desperate patients who are ready to try anything in desperation.
– Or a quack could misguide the patient leading to serious complications.
There are various opposing opinions about the disease condition which can freak you out on whom to believe and whom to not believe and as in what is right and what is wrong.
The website could misguide you which can lead to misdiagnosis leading to wrong treatment hence resulting in not only missing out on the right treatment but the wrong treatment also leads to side effects resulting in creating unnecessary complicated diseases and cases.
For example in cases of Hair fall, some may misdiagnose as an Autoimmune condition called Alopecia Areata. So instead of simple multivitamin patients may end up taking corticosteroids or immuno-suppressant unnecessarily which leads to low immunity and side effects of steroids.
There are many patients who read information online and self-medicate resulting in serious problems.
For example:- A pregnant woman decides to deliver at home without proper medical guidance and in cases of pre-eclampsia or post postpartum hemorrhage or fetal distress complications, by the time she will reach hospital and medical attention it may result in serious or fatal results.
There are many dangerous advises which should not be followed and patients do not know till they try.
For example, some sites write about the complete cure of cancer or clearing heart blockage by simple oil or herbal infusion leading to further spread of cancer and resulting in death.
Let us consider another example, many websites promote unnecessary use of multivitamins. There are few vitamins which are excreted by the body( Water soluble Vitamins) when not required but few get deposited and causes hyper vitaminosis leading unnecessary disease conditions.
There is a reason why doctors spend years studying in medical college and doing internships because Medicine is tricky.
It’s all about the medical experience about assessing a patient and knowing what symptoms are not dangerous and which one should not be ignored.
Yet people still insist on taking a medical diagnosis from a glorified personality quiz to save money not knowing what is at risk is their own life.
