What happens when you go to Google with your health symptoms

Google may have earned your trust as the omniscient being that knows the answers to all your questions, but when it comes to health concerns, it pays to remember that the internet never was, and will never be, a real doctor
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How often have you taken to the internet to find a solution for that recurring flu you've spent days dealing with? Or skipped a period and instantly started an online search to hunt down every possible cause? Most of us are guilty of occasionally taking our small discomforts to Dr Google instead of a real, living medical professional—only to find that we're being led down a stressful rabbit hole that, more often than not, ends with a diagnosis we didn't hope for.

According to a study in the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, “The majority of patients [in the study] used symptoms as the basis of their pre-ED (Emergency Department) presentation internet search. When patients did search for specific diagnoses, only a minority searched for the diagnosis they eventually received.” While there is a slight chance that you could get a solution to your health problem by comparing your symptoms to what you find online, it's highly possible that you will misdiagnose due to lack of medical expertise. The aforementioned study also found that the correlation between the patient's pre-doctor's visit Google search and what the doctor finally diagnosed them with was very poor. According to the researchers, “One explanation is patients accessing misinformation on the internet; however, patients' limited medical knowledge and hypersensitivity to dangerous or deadly diagnoses (for example, heart attack, cancer) may drive this poor correlation.”

Taking your health in your own hands can be very risky, considering you could reach a false conclusion and simply not get professional help because you decided to use the wrong over-the-counter medication. And online searches are also notoriously known to direct frantic patients towards a few common diagnoses—cancer, a stroke, dietary intolerance and pregnancy make up a few examples. We chatted with two Mumbai-based doctors—Dr Gayatri Rao, obstetrician and gynaecologist at Womens Hospital, Mumbai, and Dr Jaipal Jadwani, general physician and cardiologist—who shared their years of experience on what really happens when a patient googles their health symptoms, and gave us five reasons to why we need to stop.

Google can misdiagnose your health concern

“A lot of patients come to me with a ‘Google' diagnosis. In actuality, they are worried for no reason,” explains Dr Jadwani. “Many diseases are explained on the Internet on various blogs and portals that are not medically or clinically-based,” adds Dr Rao. “Patients should not follow these as [the websites] are unable to comprehend the exact nature of their illness, and may be misled and misguided into false thinking—hence, they should only consult a doctor.”

You can develop health anxiety

People who self-diagnose every time they find themselves falling sick can develop a condition called cyberchondria. According to Psychology Today, “the core of this type of anxious concern is a tendency to interpret normal variations in the body's functions as reflecting symptoms of a serious disease. Cyberchondria, according to New York State Psychiatric Institute's Emily Doherty-Torstrick and colleagues (2016), refers to ‘searching the web excessively for health care information.'” The previously mentioned researchers concluded that, “Because individuals with moderate-high levels of illness anxiety recall experiencing more anxiety during and after searching, such searching may be detrimental to their health.”

You won't be able to take all important health factors into consideration

You may think that a doctor will be able to put their finger on the issue immediately after you describe all your abnormal symptoms to them—but that's not often the case. Physicians will often probe further, check your vital stats (in some case, prescribe running a few tests) and only then provide you with a diagnosis. When you google your health symptoms, you completely skip these check points, increasing the possibility of a wrong diagnosis. “Trust your doctor,” says Dr Jadwani. “It's not always cancer,” adds Dr Rao. “Google is a fantastic search engine and the internet is a plethora of knowledge, however, in medicine, patients should be careful about what they find. They should not follow what is said on the internet, because [though] it could be true to a certain extent, it doesn't always point to your particular diagnosis.”

Your presumptions can make you second guess the doctor when you finally see them

“Google's medical knowledge is most likely half-baked, especially in terms of medicine, which is why it becomes very difficult to convince the patient that they are not suffering from the disease they think they are,” explains Dr Rao. But according to Dr Jadwani, it is okay to partake in an online research once you have a confirmed diagnosis in place. “A Google consultation is okay after you have seen your doctor. Once your diagnosis has been established or a problem has been identified, then you can go online for further information.” However, make sure you inform your doctor before you try any new medication or remedies.

You can make the situation worse if you wait

If you're experiencing symptoms that are unnatural, don't wait for days or weeks to seek professional help. “There are no set time frames for symptoms to occur,” says Dr Rao. “If a patient feels that they need to be seen by someone, they should go and talk to a doctor immediately instead of checking things up on the internet.” If you find yourself in an emergency situation, it is okay to call your doctor at odd hours too. However, if it is a routine inquiry, it can wait till the next morning. “To answer general health inquiries, most hospitals have intern doctors and resident doctors who can take care of basic needs,” concludes Dr Rao.

Also read:

Sonali Bendre's message to parents who are battling serious illnesses

47 underlying illnesses that can seem like anxiety but aren't

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