Journal #7, July 27

Health 2.0

This article was basically speaking on the internet health craze. In this age and time when people get sick they want to find out as much as they can about their ailment, ways to be healed, and how others dealt with the same issues. The internet is the perfect medium for that. There are tons of websites, chat rooms, and discussion boards for people to discuss their various illnesses. A person can go to a internet search engine and type in the same of their illness and find websites giving information about it, as well as support groups to help them through their illness. People can also go to websites such as WebMD and search their symptoms they are experiencing and find diseases and medical issues that might be the primary cause of their symptoms.
This article mostly talks about the cons of this boom in the online health world but I for one think that this boom has also done some good. My mother was just recently diagnosed with Bell’s palsy. Before she got it I had never heard of it. I did a search on yahoo and found many sites about the illness and got a vast amount of information about the condition. I also have used these medical site support groups and chats. I have a brother with cerebral palsy and unless you have it, or have a family member who does it’s hard to relate to someone in my or my brother’s shoes. It’s nice to hear the stories of others in my shoes and to be able to share my story with others. Being able to do that alone is a healing in its own right.
But having all this access to medical information is a hypochondriac’s worse nightmare…or maybe his fantasy. I’ve gone to these self diagnosis sights and typed in the symptom I was experiencing at the time and gotten results varying from a simple cold to cancer. It’s bad for those who like to diagnosis themselves without getting medical help. Say you’re very sick but the symptoms you are experiencing are similar to those as the flu and you use the remedies you find online only to find out months later it’s not the flu you have, but lung cancer. Most of these sites, in fine print, tell you they don’t give medical advice but being able to type in your illness or symptoms and find diagnosis and therapy information allows a person to self doctor.
So in turn the internet health boom is a great but something that must be viewed and used with caution

http://www.webmd.com/brain/tc/bells-palsy-topic-overview
http://www.webmd.com/policies/about-terms-and-conditions-of-use#part1