Does Dr. Google outshine your personal physician when it comes to advice?

When it comes to getting advice the Internet, or rather Dr. Google's advice is the authority on health information most parents follow when it comes to finding answers to health and nutrition questions that their personal physicians won't or can't answer.

Does the Internet outweigh personal physicians advice due to a doctor's possible lack of training in specific areas of health outside their specialty--for example nutrition? Does Dr. Google win out because the Internet answers are better at weighing the benefits against the risks of supplements and nutraceuticals or vegetarianism?

According to the article Sacramento Bee article by Anna Tong of November 8, 2009, "Patients often turn first to Dr. Google for health care advice," (reprinted in the Nashua Telegraph), "The public’s appetite for Internet health information has fundamentally altered the doctor-patient relationship."

Most doctors, including veterinarians, think it's the wild west out there online when you ask them questions such as is it healthier to provide an anti-cancer, grain-free diet to dogs that includes bovine colustrum and anti-viral mushroom extract with polysaccharides? To a physician or veterianian used to providing conventional medicines and commercial foods, what will the doctor's response probably be?

The human response might be to take the patient, human or animal to a holistic physician or veterinarian using various natural extracts or a combination of herbs and conventional prescriptions. The alternatives are all online. For humans, a question such as, will talking cod liver oil and vitamin K2 (MK-7) from natto extract along with COQ10 and multiple minerals prevent osteoporosis better than taking conventional prescription drugs? The patient is trying to avoid reactions and side effects by turning to the Internet, also known as Dr. Google. (See the frequently answered questions site on COQ10 rubbed on gums for gingivitis/periodontal health at the Dental Health Institute.)

Doctors are no longer perceived as the only authority on health information. The reason that patients no longer have a patriarchal relationship with their physicians anymore is because Dr. Google is matriarchal. Yes, that's right, the Internet holds answers given by Mother Nature. And physicians, male or female, are perceived in society as a fatherly bunch.

On one hand you have Mother Nature, which is Dr. Google. On the other hand you have Father Time, which is the patriarchal dome of conventional medicine, the large pharmaceutical corporations, and well, time-tested advice. Dr. Google is up against Father Time, symbolically speaking.

What the Internet or Dr. Google, including Dr. Bing, and various other search engines and medical informational websites, you have data and access to the latest research papers that most physicians may not have time to read and keep updated. Just ask the average dentist whether he or she recommends COQ10 for healthier gums or chewing on pomegranates to help keep away gum disease? Most dentists haven't read all the medical research on COQ10 and how it fights gum disease.

With physicians, many prescribe statins without prescribing COQ10 for artery health and other benefits. These professionals may not have time to read the latest research online. And when the large pharmaceutical corporations invite doctors to dinner and pitch marketing material by having renowned speakers that also work as faculty in the most admired medical schools, doctors just don't run to the Internet, in many cases, as much as patients seeking answers their doctors don't have the time to give them in depth.

The field of integrative medicine, though, is ready to listen to Dr. Google, in many cases. the Manhattan Research group looks at healthcare trends. According to a recent survey of physicians, almost all U.S.A. physicians indicated that numerous patients bring in information they received online when they have appointments with their doctors.

You get only a few minutes with your doctor. You can't bring in the latest book or a printout of information from the web for your doctor to read. The doctor only wants to set his or her patients on the path of conventional medicine. What's the right track to the patient may or may not be the right track with the doctor's experience and training.

The problem is whether or not the patient will come in misinformed loaded with informational material from Dr. Google, that is, the web. Now it's up to the doctor who has to take more time to convince the patient that what the individual found on the Web is misinformation. Will the patient believe the doctor or what he or she finds on the web or hears on a radio program?

If the patient comes in thinking the doctor is misdiagnosing the patient, which in some cases actually happens now and then, can the patient find the correct diagnosis by clicking on Dr. Google?

According to a 2009 survey from Pew Research Center, Washington, DC, sixty-one percent of Americans look online for health information. Pew also found that doctors come first over advice given online. The survey found that most people turn to their doctors, then to relatives, and finally online for health information answers to what every health questions or issues they have. Dr. Google is consulted when people can't come up with answers after doctors and family (or family history) are first consulted.

Some believe the Internet provides the right answers because the doctor spends so little time questioning their symptoms. Others go to naturopaths that also have MD degrees and practice integrative medicine from both fields--conventional medicine and natural solutions not based on prescribing commercial pharmaceutical pills.

Parents of children with problems such as autism will look up health information online. There are support groups online for parents of children with various issues ranging from autism to rare genetic variations. It's a social network of parents that discuss vaccinations and food plans, something physicians can't take the time to do when they must see a different patient every few minutes. At home online, a parent has a lot more time to research a child's needs or personal health issues.

Parents turn to Dr. Google to do research online. Most doctors feel their diagnosis and prescriptions are in competition with the research available online which could be misinformation or could be helpful, depending upon what the answers are and whether they work. Parents might decide to vaccinate or not vaccinate children depending upon what information or misinformation they read online or hear on radio talk shows.

Dr. Google is not only competing with Dr. Mom, but also with the family physician and even some specialists. Note the popularity of the excellent book titled, Is Your Cardoliologist Killing You? Also see the PDF file article online, "Is Your Cardiologist Killing You?" According to a review of the 2009 book online, "Medicine has had a free ride by drugging every symptom for long enough. The evidence is clear that drugs merely work by poisoning a pathway that makes the symptoms subside. However, in doing so you have missed a golden opportunity to actually cure the problem. So eventually the problem worsens and requires more medications."

Why patients bring online information to their doctor is obvious, but they first go to their doctors before going online for more answers. According to the Manhattan Research Group, about "two-thirds of doctors think online health research is a good thing." In fact, the surveys show that most doctors report that, according to the article, Patients often turn first to Dr. Google for health care advice, "The Internet makes the patient a partner."

Why traditional medical practice often is dubbed a patriarchy is that before the Internet started being used for health care research by consumers to answer specific questions, the patient entered his or her doctor's office as a passive recipient of healthcare. In your doctor's office, you're just a bystander. Your doctor doesn't have time to talk to you as a partner in many cases. There are too many patients to see. So you become a passive bystander in a medical office waiting for a diagnosis and a prescription. That's what conventional medicine is about.

When you enter your doctor's office and are sitting in an examination robe on an exam table, you're a passive bystander. You could have researched your specific condition for months online, but in your doctor's office, you're told the basics.

What patients want and why they go online for health answers is to get a list of questions to ask doctors that is not so much about the basics, but how to get at the root of the problem rather than cover the symptoms with a bandaid-type prescription.

If you ask your doctor for a vitamin-enriched detox cocktail to get the lead out of your body that you got from living near too much traffic air pollution, you might be laughed at, in many cases. But if you visit a specialist for your chronic disease and show the doctor a list of nutrients that get at the root cause of your problem, the causes rather than patch over the symptom, some specialists welcome the e-patient, that is the patient who researches online for answers from credible medical journal research articles or other validated information.

Dr. Google helps the doctor talk to patients at different levels than the very basic information. Some doctors have their own online information networks. Some HMOs, for example, have interactive websites where patients can watch videos and find information on their health issues, and get answers. One good source online might tell the patient how to prepare for surgery, what to eat or not eat, for example.

Dr. Google should be a tool for patients and doctors to communicate more intelligently. The web is supposed to make doctors more approachable. Patients dream of doctors that answer email that becomes patient-focused. What consumers want is a patient-centered medical professional to answer questions.

When you have a chronic condition, are isolated, frail, older, you'd like email sent to you by your doctor. You'd rather email your doctor than have to call an advice nurse. When you're old, can't hear well, and your voice is cracked or you have speech difficulties, you don't want the doctor phoning you because you may not understand if he or she talks too fast. You'd rather have email in writing you can read several times.

Some doctors do email patients directly. It only takes a few sentences to answer a patient online. Dr. Google gives doctors more free time to spend with patients. The big question, is how do you get more doctors online that actually practice integrative medicine?

These doctors could offer natural solutions to patients that don't want to start taking drugs if the root of the problem, the cause of certain chronic conditions, lies in a nutritional deficiency or a toxic environment and is not about severe pain control? Where is the place of the e-patient who uses the Internet to look up answers to medical questions online? And how do consumers know the difference between misinformation and news articles that explain in plain language the validated medical research in the standard scientific journals?