PLEASE DON'T TAKE MEDICAL ADVICE FROM THESE FORUMS

PJ64
PJ64 Posts: 866 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
I love MFP. It has helped me greatly and I LOVE the commaraderie and fellowship but I continually see people giving/getting "medical" advice. This scares me. Just because you had a similar situation does not give you the right to tell someone what to do, you have no idea what their medical conditions(s) are.

I talked about this with my Doctor and she said "as a Doctor I would not give medical advice to someone based on a two line post" So what makes people on here think they are experts and can give medical advice?

VERY VERY SCARY!!

Replies

  • Lozze
    Lozze Posts: 1,917 Member
    Which is why you have this at the end of every page

    Posts by members, moderators and admins should not be considered medical advice and no guarantee is made against accuracy.

    The ONLY time I've ever seen people say your doctor is wrong is when it comes to doctor's prescribing VLCD that is not medically supervised. (i.e. the poster is morbidly obese and is going in weekly, fortnightly or monthly for check ups)
  • stfuriada
    stfuriada Posts: 445 Member
    Completely agree.

    Which is why that post from a month ago about a girl asking people on here if she was pregnant, based on some vague descriptions of weight gain was so confounding to me.

    It's hard enough to diagnose accurately face-to-face if you have no real medical background, but just based on forum descriptions of symptoms? FORGET IT.
  • Lozze
    Lozze Posts: 1,917 Member
    Completely agree.

    Which is why that post from a month ago about a girl asking people on here if she was pregnant, based on some vague descriptions of weight gain was so confounding to me.

    It's hard enough to diagnose accurately face-to-face if you have no real medical background, but just based on forum descriptions of symptoms? FORGET IT.

    Yes and that thread the OP got ridiculed for asking the question. Was told repeatedly to either go buy a pregnancy test or go see her doctor.
  • AlyRoseNYC
    AlyRoseNYC Posts: 1,075 Member
    Which is why you have this at the end of every page

    Posts by members, moderators and admins should not be considered medical advice and no guarantee is made against accuracy.

    The ONLY time I've ever seen people say your doctor is wrong is when it comes to doctor's prescribing VLCD that is not medically supervised. (i.e. the poster is morbidly obese and is going in weekly, fortnightly or monthly for check ups)

    Exactly!
  • susannamarie
    susannamarie Posts: 2,148 Member
    I dunno. Doctors can be wrong. I've HAD doctors be wrong for me and it was only because I *insisted* on a test based on stuff I've found on the internet that I got diagnosed.

    Of course 'you don't need to follow that advice, just lie to him' is ridiculous but I really don't see a problem with 'I would get a second opinion.'
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