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- SPORT
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The viral issue
THE internet is a wonder enabling us to discover everything at the touch of a button, but we are guilty of relying too much on it.
By Arlene Harris
According to a new report, 50% of women used the internet to check medical symptoms and one in four has misdiagnosed an illness by doing so. The research commissioned by a feminine health brand, Balance Activ, found the symptoms most likely to cause women to consult the internet were sleep problems, headaches, depression and anxiety. The most common false alarm is breast cancer. Dr John Ball, of the Irish Association of General Practitioners (IAGP), says asking ‘Dr Google’ for a diagnosis can be a dangerous mistake. “The internet has an immense influence on providing medical care and up-to-date evidence-based information which can be searched very quickly and given to patients in a user-friendly manner. However, it is a dangerous place to make a self-diagnosis as so many symptoms overlap with different illnesses.
“The main disadvantage is the anxiety caused by some internet searches. For example, if you are anxious about a cough and search all the causes, will it help to know that lung cancer can present with a cough? The internet can be invaluable, but diagnosis requires the full story of your complaint, an examination, and sometimes the use of investigations. A good GP with a personal knowledge of you, your history, and possibly your family, should be the best place for that.”
Dr Bernadette Carr, medical director of VHI, says while the internet can be useful, it can cause patients to misdiagnose or ‘develop’ symptoms after reading about the worst-case scenarios. “There is no problem with checking the internet to be reassured about a health issue or to validate symptoms. But as plenty of conditions have similar symptoms, online websites may lead people to assume they have a more serious illness than they actually have,” she says.
“Web searches often show skewed results — research may expose too much information on rare diseases and readers will often get more information than they bargained for. Also, sometimes, internet browsing can make people believe something is likely to happen despite the chances of it happening being low. It is great that patients can be more informed, but sometimes they can get carried away and will fret endlessly about diseases they don’t have. The internet can bring out the hypochondriac in us if we are not careful, which is why regular visits to a doctor will address issues appropriately as they arise. Routine examination by a medical practitioner will help to catch problems while they are treatable and small.”
For more medical advice, visit www.vhi.ie
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