Beware! Googling Your Symptoms Might Be Making You Sicker

Here’s why you should never, ever self-diagnose. On the web, a cough is never just a cough!

Consulting Dr Google might reassure, unnerve or calm you, but it will never, ever treat you. (Photo: iStock/Altered by The Quint)

Scaremongering sells as much as sex.

For kicks, I typed ‘runny nose’ and ‘itchy skin’ in WebMD. Out of the 23 exciting things which could be wrong with me, a couple were drug overdose and cocaine addiction.

We all know the drill.

After a long day at the desk, we often get lost in the web, navigating through sites which prove that the usual work stress is something fancier, scarier, like anaemia or chronic vitamin B12 deficiency.

The white spot on your toe is never from the French pedicure, it is almost always a sign of heart disease. Physical exhaustion is mostly a symptom of tuberculosis, stroke or. holy sh*t, cancer!

Welcome to the age of disease tourism.

The Stages Of Self Diagnosis

Stage 1: Waiting for the web to pronounce a life-altering diagnosis

(Photo courtesy: Tumblr/TheRedComet)

Stage 2: I’m too cool to be bothered by this. But waittt

(Photo courtesy: Tumblr/cravetv.ca)

Stage 3: Panic attack. ‘Mein marna nahi chahta!’

(Photo courtesy: Tumblr/cravetv.ca)

More than HALF of us self-medicate, according to a study done by healthcare company Lybrate, in ten Indian cities. Because why see an expensive, medical-school trained doctor when there is cheap and easy Google! But when ‘sore throat’ returns the deadly diagnosis of oesophageal cancer, it gives rise to massive anxiety.

As with any other tool, using Dr Google to self-diagnose has its pros and cons. There’s a lot of rubbish on the Internet, and sadly, most patients are not sophisticated enough to be able to differentiate between reliable information (for example, that which comes from non-profit libraries, such as <a href="http://www.healthlibrary.com/">www.healthlibrary.com</a>), and sites which are run by quacks, which are out to peddle their solutions to unsuspecting patients. Patients are emotionally vulnerable and do fall prey to these traps.

Dr Aniruddha Malpani, Infertility Specialist

The worst is, after reading about symptoms of a serious illness, people begin to imagine and feel new symptoms out of sheer worry.

Not only does this anxiety increase the number of additional tests you will insist on taking but this condition is significant enough to warrant a name — cyberchondria. The term describes the growing tribe of people who lose their rationale and latch on to the worst diagnosis thrown at them by Dr Google.

On the Internet, a Cough Is Never Just a Cough

The Internet is no crystal ball. (Photo: Nikita Mishra/The Quint)

Cyberchondria has been around for more than 10 years, but a 2009 research by two experts at Microsoft — Eric Horvitz and Ryen White — proved the relationship between online research and heightened general anxiety.

In a systematic data analysis of more than 40 million searches, these scientists found that searches progressed from reading about symptoms to looking at rare and serious medical conditions. One in five respondents in the study admitted to self-diagnosing using Google, 90 percent admitted the results made them “frequently anxious”.

Be wary of medical websites; they are sketchy and inaccurate in most cases. Google has empowered people but on the flip side, it makes patients more anxious than they were before logging on to the Net.&nbsp;

Dr Siva Prakash, Cardiologist

Brain tumour is a classic example of how the Internet is giving us the heebie-jeebies. Brain tumours are very rare; they occur in lesser than one in 50,000 people. Yet Horvitz and White’s research found that ‘brain tumour’ comes up in 25 percent of the Google searches for ‘headache’.

Also Read: Do Medicines Expire? What Happens If You Take Them?

It’s Not Just About Misdiagnosis, Missed Diagnosis is Worse

Self-diagnosis can translate to over-anxiety. It also results in more visits to the doctors, more tests, more drugs and chances of catching hospital-acquired infections. (Photo: Nikita Mishra/The Quint)

The real danger in online diagnosis is believing that symptoms mean nothing and medical attention is unnecessary.

Dr Siva recently did an angioplasty on a 41-year-old fitness enthusiast from Mumbai who repeatedly missed signs of heart disease because he was too busy being doctor on the Net. “Each time he had chest pain or a sensation, he googled and thought it’s the result of his strenuous gym sessions.”

Some patients are convinced that they have all the symptoms of a serious disease but live in constant denial. Awareness is good but if all this education is delaying care, then that can be life threatening.&nbsp;

Dr Siva Prakash, Cardiologist

‘Stop Googling Your Symptoms’ Is a Pretty Futile Advice In the Digital Age

No one can stop a terrified patient from typing symptoms on Google and seeking instant advice. So how do you make cyberchondria a lifesaver rather than a life-wrecker?

The trick is to make sure that doctors guide their patients to reliable websites. This is the concept of Information Therapy, and this will save time for both doctors and patients. Ideally, doctors should create their own websites, so that they can refer their patients to them. Patients will trust these sites, because they are created by their own doctor, who will ensure that he provides only authentic, reliable information.

Dr Aniruddha Malpani, Infertility Specialist

And I repeat — consulting Dr Google might reassure, unnerve or calm you, but it will never ever treat you.