Health

A few months ago, I woke up with this pain in my rib cage. Actually, I couldn't figure out where it was hurting exactly; was it coming from my back? Or maybe my lungs, ( I am a smoker after all) or even my breasts? But in either of these cases what was it? What was wrong with me?

And like many people, I rushed online, in search of an answer:

Ok... So here we go, these are my symptoms... and I... have... LUNG CANCER!

I ended up only having muscle pains from having exercised on a rowing machine the day before...

But more to the point, I hear more and more about people self-diagnosing in the same way.

But is it such a good idea? And isn't this changing our relationship with our local GPs?

Aleks Krotosky (2011), in the series 'Untangling the web', talks about an international healthcare survey made by Bupa and the London School of Economics. One of the conclusions of this was that « more of us than ever are using the web to find out more about an ailment before or instead of visiting the doctor. More health-related websites, tools and social networks are available to support this demand. And, most alarmingly, only a quarter of the people surveyed checked the reliability of health information they found online by looking at the credibility of the source. »

All this surplus of information is something we have to learn to filter. We have to use it in an intelligent way. Although it is true that certain of these forums are somehow comforting, making us feel like we are not alone. We still have to be careful, and remember that maybe consulting a professional directly as well, even if it is not as straight forward, is probably best in the end.

Reference list:

Aleks Krotoski (2011) ' What effect has the internet had on healthcare?' The Guardian, 9 january, [online]. Available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jan/09/untangling-web-krotoski-health-nhs (Accessed : 13/12 /2012 )