FitSugar

All in Your Head: Should You Let the Internet Diagnose You?

CitizenSugar — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 15:30:57 PST

Headaches that are too sharp, too long, too concentrated make my head spin (add vertigo to the list). Maybe it's my first migraine? Or very first tumor? It could be anything. Anything! My acute and impending demise sends me straight to my safe place, the Internet, to disprove whatever disease I've concocted. Only sometimes, it doesn't quiet my fears. It makes them louder.

Cyberchondria sounds like a faddy, fake word for people who aren't ready to call themselves hypochondriacs, but it's actually a very real phenomena. People, including web-savvy Microsoft employees who were surveyed, tend to favor search engines over health sites like WebMD, and they search for symptoms not diseases. To find out why this can make matters worse,

read more. A search for symptoms can return a host of results, most for rare and serious conditions. Since "stay away from the Internet" has proved to be useless advice, researchers are now pushing search engines like Google and Microsoft to take a diagnostic approach to health search. Users would enter risk factors like age, sex, weight, etc., in addition to symptoms. Results would display in the order of what's most likely rather than what's most popular or linked (or however Google is doing it these days). So this all sounds very pragmatic and techy and Web 3.0, but I don't know that I want it. Because the best way to calm Internet disease-digging fears is to disregard its source - the Internet. What happens when that's no longer an excuse? Guess I'll have to go the doctor! Source

Search Engines for Cyberchondriacs

FitSugar — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 03:00:00 PST

Many of us have admitted to being a cyberchondriac, so what's a cyberchondriac to do in this google happy world. Well, stop googling, for one. Instead search for health problems that you may have now and could have in the future, on sites that will only search reputable health sites backed by physicians, not some guy sitting in his basement. Here are a few good ones to try:

Dirline, searches healthy information from the National Library of Medicine.
Medlineplus.gov, searches health information from the National Library of Science.
Imedix.com, a great website/community that helps you find and share health information.
Healthfinder.gov, searches all information on government health Web sites.
WebMD, provides credible health information as well as a supportive community.

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Are You a Cyberchondriac?

FitSugar — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 03:00:00 PST

When you cross a hypochondriac with the Internet you get a cyberchondriac.

Those of us prone to take on the various symptoms we hear or read about, are particularly vulnerable to thinking we have all those diseases we research on the web. The Internet is a useful tool, but there is a lot of information with little context provided, making it easy for the impressionable to jump to conclusions. In fact, in the year 2000, the American Medical Association (AMA) sent a press release asking patients to make a resolution not to go online and surf their symptoms, because so many people were concluding that they had MS or various cancers.

So, I am curious . . .

Source

Are You A 'Cyberchondriac'?

GeekSugar — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 16:00:01 PDT

It all starts with a headache, then you get the chills and sharp pain ensues not long after. What is one to do? Do you raid the medicine cabinet, go to the doctors or ask Mr. Internet what could be the problem? According to a Harris Interactive poll, 160 million Americans tend to use the net instead of their doctor to diagnose medical conditions or to find health information. The amount of these so-called "cyberchondriacs" has increased by 37 percent over the last two years. I'm guilty of it, heck I do it all the time. What about you? Leave your answers below!
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