Before coming to see their family doctor or a specialist, a good many patients first seek help from ‘Dr Google’ on their own. They type their symptoms into the search engine, and it throws up dozens of diseases, conditions and disorders. And, of course, most of them immediately think the worst. Then they come to their doctors with a ‘Dr Google’ diagnosis, ask for additional tests to be done and prescribe themselves medicines.
But there are also worse cases, when patients follow only the advice from Google and do not go to their own doctor, but take over-the-counter medicines on their own, or somehow even get hold of prescription medicines. Some studies report that more than half of patients buy over-the-counter medicines because they have diagnosed themselves without consulting a doctor?!
Dr Šime Mijić is a specialist in physical and rehabilitation medicine and almost every day sees patients who first looked for information online and then came to his consulting room. It is worth pointing out, however, that Dr Mijić is also a rheumatology subspecialist, so other doctors send patients to him when they have not managed to find the right diagnosis. In medical circles, rheumatologists are said to be the detectives among doctors, just like the popular Dr House.
ALL SORTS OF IDEAS
‘Patients come to me with all sorts of ideas – that they have a tumour, a serious immune disease, a stroke… – and all after “googling”. But I am not against the internet; let people read and learn. In the past it was grannies and aunts… who gave general, sweeping diagnoses; today it is the internet, as well as various apps into which people type their symptoms, and then, of all the diseases the app lists, they always suspect the worst,’ the doctor points out, warning of when ‘self-diagnosis’ can become a problem.
‘Let me say it again: I am not against the internet. However, when a patient comes to see me, they have to tell me their symptoms, not the interpretations they found online. It can be distracting if they mix up their condition with what they have read on some website. As for patients' suspicions, in most cases, of course, they turn out to have been wrong.
‘But it is better that they came with a suspicion than stayed at home. And if those who, let's put it this way, have nothing wrong with them still insist that they have some serious disease, then we deconstruct that idea through additional tests. It is all part of a normal process, because the worst thing is when a doctor simply imposes their will and does not listen to the patient.
‘It is better for both the patient and the doctor to remove every doubt than to send the patient home without having answered all their questions,’ Dr Mijić tells us.
Lately, online articles have also been scaring people with the candida fungus, claiming that it is to blame for all their complaints – aching joints, depression, anxiety, low libido, headaches, listlessness, diarrhoea, nausea, a persistent cough…
So it is ‘to blame’ for at least 100 conditions, disorders and diseases.
And here, too, some ‘alternative practitioners’ have seen a way to make money, convincing people that this fungus is ruining their lives and health and that doctors ‘don't know how to diagnose it’. Their preparations (tea tree oil, bicarbonate of soda, grapefruit and garlic extract, green clay), however, will – they claim – help you get well, even though it is quite likely that nothing abnormal is happening to you at all.
SPITTING INTO A GLASS OF WATER
Here is what one fairly popular web portal writes about this fungus – which, incidentally, is naturally present in our bodies.
‘The fungus Candida albicans is found in the body of every one of us. Problems arise when it starts to grow excessively.
This pathogenic fungus can cause many diseases, so it is important to check the balance of microorganisms in the gut.
‘You can determine the level of candida in your body with medical tests, but they can be expensive and in some cases are not reliable. The most reliable medical test for candida is the immune complex test and the IG test. However, there is also a home test for candida, of unknown origin, which people have been using for many years to determine the level of candida in their bodies,’ says the portal, which then explains an eight-step method for detecting candida.
The method is to spit into a glass of water when you wake up. If your saliva stays on the surface or dissolves, all is well. But if the water turns cloudy, if you can see strands sinking downwards, or if the saliva has collected at the bottom, then there is a good chance that you have a raised level of candida in your body.
And then, of course, the site offers you a solution: buy their products, which will rid you of candida. The article has been shared more than 6,000 times on Facebook and read by tens of thousands of people.
Of course, candida can be a dangerous condition, but it is not diagnosed by spitting into a glass. We asked Dr Šime Mijić what he thinks of this test.
‘Oh, come on! Determining by spitting into a glass whether someone has candida or not? Ridiculous. Home tests like this are usually wrong and unreliable, and they mostly serve to get people to buy some product. Candida is diagnosed from a stool sample, a swab or a blood test.’
