Great article on ALS & BFS

[BethU]

Hi, "Slate" has a great article about the hazards of self-diagnosis online, and it centers on ALS and BFS.

It explains why the rarest and most dire diseases end up at the top of search results, and how this placement affects searchers psychologically.

It also has some good information about new search procedures that will help people who are researching their symptoms get more accurate results. Ideas being considered include having search engines pre-screen searchers by asking age, gender, etc. to give results that are most likely for that specific person.

It's a great read. Here's the link:
http://www.slate.com/id/2206521/

 

[wheeler641]

great article, thats how I got here, went to a website called wrong diagnosis.com, on this particular website, you put your symptoms in one at at time until you diagnose yourself, I put in twitching, cramping, numbness and lo and belold right on top was ALS and I wound up here. Needless to say I freaked out, but thanks to the kindness and compassion of all of you I am now content to sit back and wait for an accurate diagnosed, thanks

 

[planningguy]

BethU,

Thank you for the great link. The Times ran a similiar article not too long ago, but this one seems to have a lot more information on BFS/ALS. I like how it mentions that most BFSers never feared disease in the past until they went online and had the ALS scare. I sympathize with things that make grown men cry.

I imagine it is only a matter of time before medical schools start offering a class on, "treating the internet expert."

Robert

 

[perplexed]

I liked Robert's comment, and Beth is always thoughtful.

Having said that, I don't wish to be the voice of Cassandra, but it strikes me that many, if not most, of the people writing here have already run the gamut of tests and are in that no-man's land awaiting a diagnosed of something. In other words, their neurologists have given them cause to be concerned - not necessarily of ALS but since the symptoms of myasthenia gravis, myopathies and ALS mirror each other, of course they will be frightened. It also helps to know that while they may be frightening themselves unnecessarily, it is human and okay to research in an informative manner. In other words, they are not looking up symptoms in a vacuum.

 

[11bravo]

Thanks for the great article, How true it is, I can only hope that internet fear and worry are many of our problems who have not have a diagnosed yet.