I'm a nurse. One of the things HCPs hate are sites that give "diagnoses" when you punch in symptoms. I've had people who assume they have Hanta Virus (YES, there have been a whole SEVEN cases this summer! All in one place.) Every "syndrome" on the sites, myriad food "intolerance" with no symptoms other than "fatigue" (usually from women with 3 kids under 3 years old, it's pretty obvious why they are "fatigued") "parasites" that weren't there and more. Not to mention people with treatable, but serious conditions who waited too long, and by the time they got to a doctor, the condition was no longer treatable (including my husband's best friend, who "treated his own arthritis"... which turned out to be lung cancer, by the time he got to a doctor it had metastasized, and now he's gone, leaving a wife and child behind.)
If you are ill and your symptoms aren't self limiting (meaning they go away by themselves and are not severe) the best way to get a real diagnosis is to.... see someone educated and certified in Health and Medicine. You shouldn't be given an impossible to follow diet or massive lifestyle changes (reduce fat, sugar and increase fiber and fresh food and exercise; YES, eliminate 1000 different, healthy foods from your diet to "cleanse" the inside of your body; NO. If you eat well, your body is self cleansing.)
People learn medicine over many years, because so many conditions look and sound just like other conditions to the untrained. If it's bad enough to worry about, (meaning it isn't self limiting) then it's probably bad enough to get a real, educated opinion about it.
Most self limiting conditions will ride themselves out and usually don't need health care aside from some Tylenol or a hot bath. But, serious, painful worrying symptoms should be diagnosed and treated by people trained in such areas.
Using medical sites to "diagnose" and "treat" yourself is not only confusing, but can be very VERY scary. Some very major things have similar symptoms to very minor things... the best bet, IF you are worried and the symptoms are severe, violent or persistent is to see a qualified Health Care Professional, NOT try to diagnose and treat yourself. There's a reason doctors and nurses have LONG training periods, see thousands of people BEFORE they become certified and require ongoing training and education and NEED to be licensed, certified and continue their education. Health care IS that confusing and complicated.
JMO, Mileage and all that.
