Logging-on is enough to make anyone feel ill F

OLK are as likely to log on to their computer to selfdiagnose these days, as they are to make an appointment to see the doctor.

More than a third of Americans say they check with Dr Google if they think anything is wrong.

But they would, because they don’t have a National Health Service.

As one US expert said: “Health care is expensive so, if the internet can give you reassurance that what you have is benign, maybe you can avoid a costly visit to the doctor.”

Self-diagnosis is fraught with obvious dangers, especially for those of a nervous disposition. I once checked online and thought I’d died a week last Wednesday.

You could easily discover you have an incurable disease in your right forefinger which might drop off at any moment. Good grief. What will you pick your nose with?

Everybody has scare stories. But you usually know instinctively if your condition needs a visit to the doctor.

If you’re leg is hanging off, then a visit to Accident and Emergency is probably more appropriate.

Let’s face it. You’ll probably start feeling better if you stop looking up diseases on the web.

Consulting the internet can be as hazardous as believing those old wives’ tales your grandma used to swear by.

I grew up with the fear of getting terminal piles from sitting on cold steps. Or pneumonia if I left the house with wet hair.

How does wet hair become a health hazard?

And there’s no point relying on home remedies even for minor ailments.

A Pharmacy Outlet survey found only three out of 12 actually work.

Gargling with salt water can help a sore throat, olive oil can ease earache or remove wax, and lemon juice eases insect bites.

A hair of the dog or a nightcap to help sleep are not recommended.

And only expect a placebo effect from sweating out a cold, carrots to improve eyesight, seawater to clean a cut, butter to soothe a burn, urinating on a jellyfish sting (vinegar is better), rubbing turmeric powder into the scalp to cure baldness, and wearing socks with onions in overnight to combat a cold.

If anyone is daft enough to try the last one, jumps out of bed to go to the loo in the middle of the night and thinks they have grown corns the size of onions, I have a home remedy for that, too.