Can Researching Your Symptoms on the Internet Endanger Your Health?

My stomach aches, and it's an odd pain that comes and goes on the right side. My grandmother would have headed for the phone to call kindly Dr. I-Make-Home-Calls. My mother's inclination is to look it up in one of her Reader's Digest medical series books.

I know better: I immediately head for my computer and the Internet. Calling Dr. Google...he's always in, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, even holidays. What could be more sensible than to research it myself? And...what could be more risky?

The danger to providing my own medical diagnosis is simple: I'm not an expert. A quick search for "stomach pain" causes yields 55,200,000 results, ranging from ulcers to stomach cancer to lactose intolerance to the flu. And that's just a click here and a click there, not all 55,200,000 responses, of course! Then there are the online versions of infomercials (e.g. magical pills that are supposedly safe, guaranteed to work, and only cost $19.99...)....I quickly close that browser window before I suffer from an overdose of self-diagnosis!

There are, however, some methods of utilizing online medical information that actually can be GOOD for your health. Let's say, for example, that your child has frequent nosebleeds, and you want to research the best ways to halt the nosebleeds.

Here are some suggestions for finding reliable resources for medical information:

1. Look at government websites, in particular the U.S. National Library of Medicine: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed. PubMed, as it's often called, is easy to search and highly regarded by medical experts.
   
2. Visit the Mayo Clinic's website, MayoClinic.com. It's written in a user-friendly style, easily searched, and considered an authoritative resource.
   
3. 
   Search only HONcode websites. The HONcode stands for Health on the Net foundation, and sites that pass their certification are reviewed by experts before they qualify for that honor.
   

Last but not least: don't take a risk with your health. Looking up possible causes of mild symptoms is very different from conducting research, diagnosing yourself, and selecting a "natural" remedy as your cure. I have a very close friend, for example, who kept experiencing severe headaches. He found an online "remedy," which he ordered and took. Unfortunately, that remedy contained licorice, which caused his already high blood pressure to soar. My friend ultimately had a stroke, and still suffers from the aftermath of that serious experience. Remember: your health is too precious to hand over to "Dr. Google!"