Health Articles Aren't Meant to be Health Advice

Posted by Emily Amhearst on November 27th, 2019

Health isn't something I take for granted. I've been through several series of events that have left me forever grateful that I'm as healthy as I am today. I never thought I'd be a health nut but here I am: counting down the minutes until my lunch filled with organic foods, preceded by supplements to aid in digestion, and looking forward to my daily exercise.

My lifestyle has changed dramatically over the past few years. I made the changes I needed to assure that I was safeguarded my health as best as I knew how. How'd I come by the knowledge to make such changes? The Internet. 

I've used the Internet to find clues as to how my health issues remained a mystery to most doctors I've been to. I've done some silly things, considered doing some downright dumb things, and read enough to give me decision paralysis in many cases. I can't say the Internet was pivotal in getting me to where I can today but I do offer words of caution.

Reader Beware

The Internet is an ever-changing, ever-growing, and often-bewildering entity. I became an avid forum reader following a series of negative trips to traditional doctors. I was given non-diagnosis describing problems that were preventing me from living my life how I wanted. I received many SAPs (Standard American Prescriptions) of SSRI + Anti-Anxiety combinations for problems that had nothing to do with mental health.

After quickly recognizing these weren't solving anything I began looking for doctors that cared. Actually, I swore off doctors altogether and began scouring the Internet looking for people in similar situations as myself. The results were alarming.

I found thousands of people describing the same experience I went through. Mysterious, hard-to-define health problems met with dismissive diagnosis and prescription medication laden protocols. There were no happy endings to many of them. Years-later follow-up posts from users often described new, often worse, symptoms in response to Rx medications. I wasn't excited.

Trend Spotting

Then I started noticing a trend: the users that did report positive changes all talked about similar things. They talked about nutrition, exercise, eating clean foods, and using dietary supplements. You know, all that "healthy living" bs we were told was for hippies and Vegans.

I didn't know much about how to make healthy lifestyle changes. Fortunately, I also noticed these posts often referred to a handful of the same type of doctors. Integrative, Functional, Naturopathic, and Homeopathic were terms that popped up a lot. I tried them all. One resource I found particularly helpful was the Optimus Medica website. It didn't have the same overwhelming number of articles but they were clearly written without commercialization in mind.

I was amazed at how much more personal my visits to the doctor's office became. Practitioners listened to what I was telling them. They spent hours going over test results, giving physicals, and trying to piece together my issues. There were no immediate miracles but I started seeing actual change for the better. 

Parting Advice

I left out the part of this story where I read things online, tried them, went into a tailspin, and spent hours at a time in hellish physical and mental responses. I lost weight, gained weight, had panic attacks, and became couch-bound at times. There were some positive experiments in the mix but I was, more or less, trying to treat myself by using the approach others used. It was an approach doomed to fail

After my trips to actual doctors however, I had insightful test data, seasoned advice on how to interpret them, and the advice from professionals with a more holistic view on health. Also, the lack of Big Pharma reps hanging around in the waiting room was a good sign.

So I conclude by saying this: the Internet has been pivotal in my approach to bettering my health. It's like a minefield though, and without someone to help guide you through it you're as likely to cause yourself harm as you are to find that "missing piece" to the puzzle that is your health.

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Emily Amhearst

About the Author

Emily Amhearst
Joined: November 27th, 2019
Articles Posted: 1