Internet Health Information

Better.TV discusses why more and more people are turning to the internet and not their doctor to get health information.

Audra Lowe: Welcome back everybody, it's our hot topic time. We've got lifestyle expert Mina Jacqueline Au here with us. Good to have you back. Mina Jacqueline Au: Hai, thank you. Audra Lowe: Still doing good? Mina Jacqueline Au: Still doing good. Audra Lowe: Good, okay. We talked earlier in the show about the fact that apparently more people are turning to the Internet to get health information, then they are going to their own doctor. Apparently more than half of Americans are going online to find about certain ailments, you know you have certain symptoms and you start typing it in there and only 5% actually communicate with their doctor by e-mail. Mina Jacqueline Au: Right. Audra Lowe: Right, which I think is really interesting, but why do you think that people are going to the Internet more so than the doctor? Mina Jacqueline Au: Well it's a sense of convenience. Obviously, when it's 9 o'clock or 10 o'clock at night and it's not urgent enough, you know it's not urgent enough to go to the emergency room or even call your doctor, then you start going on the Internet. Now, I think the only problem is that you misdiagnose yourself and then you start finding, thinking that you have cancer or brain tumor and everything and then you go crazy. Audra Lowe: I think a lot of people want to go online just to find out what the possibilities could be. Mina Jacqueline Au: Right. Audra Lowe: So that they can inform themselves before they go to the doctor, because -- Mina Jacqueline Au: Right. Audra Lowe: How many times have you looked up on the Internet and said, hey it could be this, this or this, this cough or whatever. You go to your doctor and they either dismiss it or you know -- Mina Jacqueline Au: Right. And it happens a lot. I mean even with me I, you know some of my doctors are really, really great and even so you know because they are so medically educated that sometimes they know it's not a big deal, even though to you it's the uncomforting thing ever. Audra Lowe: Exactly. Mina Jacqueline Au: And they just tell you go home it's fine and you are like, well may be it's my doctor and then you start going online and doing all these research. Audra Lowe: Yeah, we were just talking to someone earlier who said that it's better -- she felt more comfortable knowing that other people have these symptoms and she said you know what they're not medical answers to what I have but it's trying natural herbs things like that. Mina Jacqueline Au: Right. Audra Lowe: And she says, I'd rather try out what other people are saying than to just stick with what my doctor is saying and also some people may not even bother the doctor for something that they feel might get trivial too, so -- Mina Jacqueline Au: Right, exactly. Audra Lowe: The other thing is apparently too much of a good thing, social networking -- everybody these days is on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, blogging so forth and so on. But there was an article USA Today that says a lot of people are getting away from it, they say it's too consuming, it's taking time away from their families, spending time doing with what they normally used to do. Facebook I didn't know has 400 million users worldwide. Mina Jacqueline Au: Really. Audra Lowe: That's a lot of people. Mina Jacqueline Au: Really and it's a fairly new application, I mean not new as when it just came out, but it's only been around for couple of years I think. Audra Lowe: Yeah. Mina Jacqueline Au: Wow that's amazing. Audra Lowe: But it's still very popular. The thing is a lot of people are saying that others are using it for different reasons, to promote this, to promote that, not necessarily to stay in touch, which is what is started out being. And that they are afraid lots of pictures may resurface, information may resurface. There are these strangers coming out that are saying they are my friends and I don't know them at all. Mina Jacqueline Au: Right. Audra Lowe: I don't know them at all. But do you that it's turned into something that could be becoming something negative? Mina Jacqueline Au: You know, I think, depending on how you use it, it could be good or bad. The good thing is that you can keep in touch. I mean I found half of my high school friends. Those are people who I had never talk to and I can see what's happening in their lives now. Audra Lowe: Would be a pressure now to keep up with the posts and things like that. Mina Jacqueline Au: I don't only because I don't see it that way but I can also see some people that misuse it. Using it to pry on other people's privacy and you know of course -- but then you hear that Facebook has been an alibi for people in crimes and things like that. Audra Lowe: Right, it's a way you use it. Mina Jacqueline Au: Right so I think this all depending on the person that using it. Audra Lowe: One guy summed it up, he said I was so busy updating my various sites, there wasn't a social desire left in body. That was it. Alright good to have you back Mina thank you so much. Mina Jacqueline Au: All right, thank you. Audra Lowe: We'll be back after this. .