Found this

[Nikki J]

Happened across this today and it so explains the DIHALS!


Type just about any medical symptom you're experiencing into your browser of choice and you'll find a wealth of potential causes, cures and complications, ranging from the mundane to the catastrophic.

But calling your doctor because you suspect a brain tumor or stroke every time you have a headache only fuels more anxiety, uses up your precious time and, frankly, annoys the heck out of your doctor. After all, he or she didn't go through years of education and training so you could just diagnose yourself on the Internet.

"nformation is not knowledge or understanding, both of which require objectivity, balance, the view from altitude and interpretation," David L. Katz, M.D., MPH, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center, tells HuffPost Healthy Living via email. "Our culture routinely equates information access with understanding, and that is a very costly mistake in health care."

 

[MaxEidswick]

great, why not add a couple of sentences about ALS typing difficulty, please read the following, etc. and make it a #1 sticky?

 

[JimInVA]

Nice find!

 

[adozi]

Also, when you type in twitching to web MD, ALS comes up.

 

[affected]

To be honest, I think that the DIHALS section of the forum should not be available to google so they can't pull up those threads in their searching.

 

[GregK]

> the DIHALS section of the forum should not be available

I'd second that. Call out robots.txt!

 

[dalvin]

A lot of them actually seem to think they can get a diagnosis here. I don't think they actually read the purpose statement and site description when they register. Has any one else noticed that some of them seem to think the forum is specifically for them

 

[MaxEidswick]

right at the top of the Google page:

Muscle twitching: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia
www.nlm.nih.gov/.../003296....
United States National Library of Medicine
Considerations. Muscle twitching is caused by minor muscle contractions in the area, or uncontrollable twitching of a muscle group that is served by a single ...
‎Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - ‎Muscular dystrophy - ‎Spinal muscular atrophy

 

[MaxEidswick]

>To be honest, I think that the DIHALS section of the forum should not be available to google so they can't pull up those threads in their searching.

nice idea but I think this is impossible. Just recently Google was asked to remove several obsolete search links. They did it and then undid. No idea why.

 

[affected]

well yes, google would probably hold on to all the previous links. I have sites that are blocked from google and it works fine.

Dalvin I think that when they type into google asking for a diagnosis, then come here, they certainly do NOT take the time to see just what kind of site they have found, they are totally absorbed in their own anxiety.

This is why they get quite surprised and upset that we aren't all sitting here waiting for them to come so we can help them ...