Why you should stop treating Google as your doctor

Are you among those who log in to Google every time you are down with body ache, fever or cold, only to get more confused and scared?

Many young Indians with smart phones in their hands are falling prey to the “Google-as-your-doctor” phenomenon and the dangerous trend is on the rise in the country, health experts feel.

Although there is nothing wrong in checking your symptoms or trying to find more about your illness on the internet, they say that one should know where to stop.

The ideal situation is to use search engines only when someone is diagnosed with a certain medical condition and wants to know more about it.

The information available on internet should be used to educate one rather than trying to find a cure for the disease.

“The biggest problem is that internet is loaded with enormous information which could be correct too but then your symptoms could be similar to some other disease which may cause confusion.

Therefore, correct diagnosis of your health abnormality is very important,” Dr. Satnam Singh Chhabra, head (neuro-spine surgeon) at the Sir Gangaram Hospital here, told IANS.

He has observed many young Indian adults getting hooked to the internet to look for every little thing, even self-diagnosis.

For instance, if one has a health abnormality, then the instant reaction is to Google the symptoms before seeing an expert or a doctor.

“But one should be careful as people normally look for symptoms to get rid of curiosity and anxiety but to the contrary, it just worsens the scenario and leaves them more anxious,” Chhabra said.

According to Dr. (Prof) Raju Vaishya, senior consultant (orthopaedic and joint replacement surgeon) at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, one should beware of getting trapped into “Google as your doctor” behaviour as this may cause more harm than good.

“Yes, there is an increasing surge in young Indians with smartphones who google common health symptoms. I find more such patients coming to me with queries related to hand, wrist and elbow,” Vaishya told IANS.

Dr. R K Singal of the BLK Super-specialty Hospital had an interesting case study to share: “Once a patient in his mid-30s came to me with severe headache. He told me that he thought he had a brain tumour.

After diagnosis, we found that headache was due to prolonged sore throat and rhinopharyngitis (common cold).”

“The patient visited me after a month of self-diagnosis through internet. Whatever he found on the internet made him believe that he had a brain tumour,” Singal told IANS.