Dr Google - helpful or dangerous

[sunshine244]

I recently realised I needed vitamin D and iron testing thanks to Dr Google (specifically the medical part of chat GTP) recognising my symptoms. GP had entirely brushed off my concerns about tiredness, hair loss, migraines etc. A quick private blood test and a few months of supplements and I'm back to normal and bouncing with energy again. I might have taken another year to get the same result otherwise.

However, I also understand that a lot of people self diagnose via online searches or AI and are spectacularly wrong. I'm curious what patients and medical professionals think about people diagnosing themselves online.

Most people are a little iron/vit D deficient, rarely in a way that is the actual cause of symptoms though. If they were meaningfully deficient that would likely trigger quite a bit of follow on to understand why.

I've heard colleagues say add vit D on as an additional request with patients who keep attending with spurious symptoms (it's almost always low) it's suspected are actually normal ageing/depression/stress/mh - so that when the bloods come back instead of all being normal and having all the hard work of addressing the real cause (usually quite a lot of time and effort and PT just insists they're being "fobbed off" so in the end goes to waste and PT keeps representing) - you can now pin it on something being 'abnormal' for which the treatment is fairly harmless/without side effects and available over the counter. Bonus points often you get a bit of placebo effect and they might actually feel better.

Generally access to information is good, so long as the person using it has the ability to recognise a credible source.