Lemondrop

It all starts with a tickle in your throat. It's probably nothing, but you plug your symptoms into Google anyway, and you're rewarded with a "House" episode's worth of scary-sounding diseases. Got a muscle twitch? It's a stroke. No, wait, Parkinson's. A little cough? More like a death rattle.

But don't start drafting your bucket list just yet. Cyberchondria is nothing new -- the term was coined in 2000 to describe the paranoid practice of expecting the worst after looking up symptoms online. But two recent studies reveal why going on the Web for quick health advice is a prescription for trouble.

Worst-Case Scenario Syndrome
While investigating health-related search terms, Microsoft researchers discovered that searching for a symptom (say, a headache or cough) often brings up extreme, "worst-case scenario" results rather than more common and generally less threatening ailments associated with the same symptoms. In fact, serious or life-threatening conditions were as or more likely to come up than their more harmless counterparts, despite being more rare and therefore more improbable.

For instance, someone searching "stomachache" might see a slew of links about tapeworm or appendicitis, when in actuality the condition boils down to a little too much Taco Bell for dinner. Microsoft also surveyed its own employees to see how online health searches impacted them, and more than half admitted that looking up serious medical conditions had interfered with their daily activities at least once.

Click here to see the scary news researchers found about Wikipedia.

What Wikipedia Misses
The second cyberchondria-related study comes from Nova Southeastern University in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Researchers honed in on Wikipedia, the popular encyclopedic database of user-generated information that's often used as a medical resource.

After examining the Wikipedia entries for 80 different drugs, the research team discovered that the site omits important -- and potentially serious -- details about the drugs' side effects and risks. In other words, if you're relying on Wikipedia rather than your doctor for information regarding medication, you could be seriously risking your health.

Real Docs Respond
So what do medical professionals think about their online competition? Says Rory Stern, Psy.D., "While credible sites offer reliable information, they are limited in the scope of what they offer. They provide generic information that, without proper context and guidance, can be vague at best. At the same time, there is a great deal of information on the Internet from people who have an axe to grind, based solely on opinion or self-proclaimed 'personal experience' -- who in turn can be less than supportive with their message."

Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo, a clinical psychologist and physical therapist based in Wexford, Pa., also deals with patients who arrive expecting the worst. "I often see people convinced they have a disease because of a few symptoms they have, only to later find out their worry and angst was all for naught," Lombardo says. "In medical school, this is called 'Intern's Syndrome,' where medical interns learn about different disorders and then 'know' that they have them. With the Internet, Intern's Syndrome is spreading at epidemic proportion."

What the Internet Does Well
Of course, the Internet doesn't only cause unnecessary angst. An Internet search helped writer Alisa Bowman deal calmly with a bleeding ear. Says Bowman, "I, of course, thought I was about to drop dead of a cerebral hemorrhage.

"I thought about waking my husband and asking him to drive me to the ER, but I decided to consult Google first. I turned on my computer and typed: 'Blood coming out of ear' or something to that effect. I eventually learned two things: 1. The proper terminology is 'ear discharge,' and 2. I was not going to die. I went back to bed and called my doctor in the morning. So this is a case where the Internet did some good: It saved me from wasting my entire night sitting in the ER only to have an ER doc laugh at me for my stupidity."

Bottom line: The Internet can be a helpful resource, but take the information with a grain of salt until you have the opportunity to see a doctor. And don't forget the immortal words of Arnold "Kindergarten Cop" Schwarzenegger: "It's not a toomah." (Probably.)

Tell us: Has searching your symptoms online ever made you paranoid ... or saved your life?