Getting your medical questions answered online

A visit to your doctor's office can be costly. While some acute or alarming symptoms obviously require immediate care, you may have symptoms which are puzzling, but which are more of a curiosity than a worry. For example, you may get frequent colds which are annoying. You don't run a day care, so you can't attribute this to increased exposure. You work at home, but still get a cold every other month. You wonder why. You decide enough is enough. Instead of waiting for your next regular checkup, some months away, there is an alternative. The net is full of useful information which just may clear up your problem. Get these sorts of medical questions answered online!

If you Google 'causes frequent colds', you'll probably get hundreds of thousands of leads. There are plenty of conventional and alternative health websites which can supply the answers you need.

However, if your symptoms are more unusual, such as a rash that comes and goes but doesn't seem to be a health threat, you'll have more difficulty sifting through the mix of medical websites and commercial vendors to get your medical questions answered in a quick search. Still, you're curious enough to try to determine if this rash is symptomatic of an underlying, more serious condition.

In this type of search, you'll cut to the chase quickly by searching the medical search engines. Type 'search engines medical' into Google or your favorite general search engine. This will bring up a list of search engines with medical databases devoted to getting your medical questions answered.

Many of these sites are geared towards the layman. Some sites have nurses and doctors who will take a look at your particular medical question and give you a rundown on the possibilities and their recommendations of action. You must expect that this type of online diagnosis may not provide a clearcut answer to a medical question. However, you will receive enough information to decide whether a doctor's appointment is your best course of action.

Another way to get medical questions answered online is to take a nutritional approach in your search. In the case of a rash (or the frequent cold), you may find that a vitamin deficiency is at the root of your problem.

Try a search on 'vitamin mineral deficiency rash'. You may well find your mysterious medical question answered on the first link you follow! For example, diabetics often suffer a form of psoriasis, particularly on the face and neck. Diabetics are also known to be commonly deficient in the mineral selenium. This condition may clear up entirely by taking this in a supplemental form.

Your research to get medical answers online may well save you lots of time and expense at the doctor's. Ask your doctor if that selenium supplement might help. With your doctor's approval, go ahead. Mystery solved.

If your symptoms worry you in any way, always give the Doc a call!