₦airaland Forum

etting sick seems a lot more stressful now that we have the internet. You can research your symptoms, but inevitably you'll fall down a rabbit hole of illnesses that are so unlikely, every search will turn up a life-threatening disease. It is possible to get reliable, useful information, vet it properly, and even get an expert opinion, all online. Here's how.

Before we begin, a disclaimer: We're not doctors. We spoke to several for this story, but don't think you'll be able to walk away from this post able to diagnose your own symptoms. Our goal is to help you find reliable sources to turn to when you have minor aches and injuries, and give you an idea of what's up if you can't get an appointment right away. Keep in mind though, if diagnosis were easy, doctors wouldn't have to train so long to learn how to do it. If you have a serious condition or don't know what's going on, always consult a doctor as soon as possible.

Beware Dr. Google: Most Web Sites are Terrible at Diagnosis



We all know what it's like: you have an ache you're not familiar with, or a bruise suddenly appears and you have no idea where it came from. You fire up Google and type in the symptom, as specific as you can make it, and you're instantly overwhelmed by the dozens of possibilities, keywords, illnesses, and other scary terms. Unfortunately, no site can diagnose an illness based on symptoms that you type into a search box. Sure, you probably know if your stomachache just happened to set in a few hours after visiting the oyster bar, but keep in mind that a heart attack can have symptoms very similar to a bout of bad indigestion, and it can be difficult even for trained and experienced professionals to tell the difference without equipment or specific tests.

Every doctor I spoke to for this story warned against using Google for diagnoses, and noted that the world of medical information on the internet will just make you crazy with wonder if you search blindly. No one wants to sit in the dark at their computer at 2am wondering if the ache in your leg is a pulled muscle or a pulmonary embolism when one site says to rub some athletic cream on it and go to sleep while another says you need to go to the ER immediately. So what do you do instead?

Search Smart, and Use Interactive Doctor/Patient Services That Really Help



Scatter-shot symptom searches are almost always a bad idea, but there are some services and sites that are better than others. In most cases though, a cool head is much more valuable than a page full of scary search results. When you're struggling with symptoms, here are some important things to remember:

How confident are you that this is minor/major? There's no foolproof way to tell a minor issue from a major one, but things like pain or discomfort level can help. Try to stay calm, especially if the symptoms are unfamiliar, and think things through. Is it getting better or worse? Have you experienced this before, and how does this time compare? If you think the issue is major or don't know what you're dealing with, seek professional help. If the issue is minor, remember that as you research, so you don't get carried away.
Search with Occam's Razor in mind. Several of the doctors I spoke to mentioned that some patients wind up panicking because they dug up search results that aligned with their symptoms, but were so unlikely that they're almost never correct. This is one of the biggest issues with searching by symptom on the web: someone with a bad cold may come away thinking they've come down with dengue flu just because the symptoms may be similar. Remember, common conditions are the most likely ones (eg, a sprained ankle not a broken one, or a headache not an aneurysm.) Still, leave diagnosis to the pros: see a doctor so they can look you over and run tests if necessary—just be open to the fact that whatever you found online may not be the issue at hand.
Learn to tell good medical sources from questionable ones. This point comes up frequently in the Quora thread we mentioned earlier, but it's critical. Healthfinder.gov, The Mayo Clinic, Ganfyd; they're all great sites, but those sites are good because their articles and other content written by, vetted, and reviewed by actual medical professionals before they're published. When you're reading about the symptoms you're experiencing, make sure the information was written or at least reviewed by a doctor, and you're not reading the comments of an otherwise informative article or some user forum where everyone's a self-proclaimed doctor. Also, make sure the doctors you're reading are experienced in the areas you're researching—a nutritionist can tell you how to eat well, but they can't tell you if your twisted ankle needs heat or cool to get better. Stick to established, trusted sites with authoritative voices, and when in doubt, print out what you're reading and ask your own doctor for a final say. Remember, nothing you read on the internet is a substitute for real, in-person analysis by a physician. It can be informative and useful as a way to talk to your doctor, but never the final word.
Use a service run by doctors that connects you with doctors. A number of new services and apps have appeared recently to combat this issue. HealthTap, a service we've mentioned before, even has mobile apps to connect you with doctors on the go. One of the doctors I spoke to uses it himself to connect with people looking for help and offer guidance—and of course to suggest they see a professional when necessary. The app has a database of questions asked by patients and answered by doctors who have signed up to help, and if you find a doctor you like, you can follow them to see more questions they answer, or communicate with them directly. The app even helps you find a doctor in your area and make an appointment.
HealthTap really shines when you have symptoms you want to know about though. Before you ask Dr. Google, the app's "virtual private consultations" allow you to pose your question to a live, on-call doctor, ready to offer their best opinion based on the symptoms, photos, video, or other information you provide. They still cost money ($10 per conversation), but it's still cheaper than many co-pays, and gets a real professional opinion in a short period of time. If you're experiencing something unfamiliar and don't want to go to the ER, or between health insurance providers, it's a useful way to talk to a doctor about what you're going through. HealthTap isn't the only service that puts real doctors on your computer screen or on your smartphone, but it's the best we've seen.

Several years ago I fell for the marketing lingo in a commercial for an allergy pill I was interested in. I went to the doctor and explained that I had seasonal allergies, and would love something to help alleviate the symptoms. They wrote me a prescription, but it wasn't for the drug I was thinking about. I asked about that specific drug, parroting their marketing line and asking "are you sure I don't need something for indoor allergies and outdoor allergies?"

My doctor tilted her head and said "You watch too much television," before explaining that allergies are caused by a histamine reaction, and that the source of that reaction—whether it's "indoor" (like pet dander) or "outdoor" (like pollen or mold spores)—is the same, and can be treated with the same class of medications. I felt like an idiot—even more so looking back on it with what I know now—but let my embarrassment be a lesson: you don't want to be an "internet patient," so caught up in marketing language and far-fetched diagnoses that you can't tell a sniffle from internal bleeding, or worse, won't listen to the doctor when they explain it.

After the Diagnosis: Do Your Homework and Ask Questions



With luck, your searches will turn up useful data that you can apply immediately, as opposed to vague diagnoses that leave you rattled and afraid. If the issue is minor and you can treat it at home, great—if you see a professional, let them know what you turned up in your searches, and ask for their opinion. Once you have a real diagnosis, you can Google a bit more freely.

Many of the sites we've mentioned, like Healthfinder.gov and Medpedia are great for looking up conditions and prescriptions after you've been to the doctor. For example, if your doctor says you have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) because you've been waking up with heartburn every other night for the past three weeks, you can read all about it, what you can do to adjust to it, and more. Before the diagnosis though, searching for those symptoms would have led you everywhere from the right diagnosis to some rare form of stomach cancer. Similarly, if the doctor prescribes medication, you can read all about it and its side effects as well.

The web's wealth of medical information is really only useful to individuals with health conditions after you've talked to a doctor, but any doctor will tell you that an educated and engaged patient is a good one. Don't hesitate to do your homework, but go in to conversations with your doctor with an open mind. If you're looking for medical information before seeing a doctor, make sure you take what you find with a grain of salt, and if you're really concerned, make an appointment, visit the ER, or use a service that connects you with a doctor right away.

http://lifehacker.com/5946540/how-to-get-reliable-medical-information-on-the-internet-without-turning-into-a-hypochondriac?

bumfem: Area boys masquerading as doctors. Nigerians have suffered in the hands of these disgruntled elements. NMArelevance is being vanished . I can see u guys are struggling to keep afloat.
A responsible ''union "rejoice at industrial action as some of u guys.
Doctors went on strike in lagos and ekiti, nurses covered effectively well without much ado.
who say docs are indispensable. Not all docs senseless though.I commend those that love the job not only for money but see it as a calling .
Many actually went to med schl to escape poverty.This informed there disdained attitude to colleague in other health profession.

Modern health care is delivered multidisciplinarily. Guess what, no one is a superman .We are all very important .Guess why Canada/UK continue to top best countries to live in.

NMA is creating it own healthcare protocol possible only in poverty ridden Africa.

i like your reasoning and i admit the OP came across as callous and vindictive. yes, healthcare is not dependent on one single individual but on a team and like the human body is made up various organs and systems, all must work together in other to achieve unity.

unfortunately, politics and disharmony has produced rots between the various arms of healthcare. although it is not unique to Nigeria alone but selfish political interest between individuals is tearing the health sector apart and utilizing healthstaff as unknowing pawns. granted, there are issues in the health sector but politics has reared its ugly head.

look beyond the media, don't be fooled by the press and think.
have said enough

phoinix: pls expand on this hola, there seem to be many apps named hola on play store.

it has the orange smiley face icon with red flames on top.
in regards to your other question, don't know of any other means.

don't know if this thread is stil active but for those that might come across this in the future.

the Wii is a nice entertainment system. not as hardcore as xbox360 or a PS3 but it can be fun for the family. like the PS3, the pads are cordless and utilize bluetooth thus batteries but unlike other consoles, it utilizes quite a lot of accessoriess i.e numchuks, fishing rod, steering wheels and remote jacket.

in regards to games, the wii can be dissappointing. first, the Wii has no HD quality. then, most video game producers refused to make quality games on it so good games are quite few. finally, consider an xbox 360 or a PS3 pad broken into two and held in each hands; a bit clumsy.

on the plus side, the wii has back compartibilty i.e can play gamecube games on it using gamecube pads. it is very very easy to softmod; requires no hardware chip and after softmoding you can rip and play wii games on it. can install NES,SNES, Nintendo 64 and gameboy emulators on it.
Because it was a pipe dream by nintendo, locating good game CDs on it might be difficult. but you can download them from various free sites.
currently have a wii with 15 games on it with 5 gamecube games and 7 N64 games.

have you jtagged ( chipped) your xbox 360? have 90 xbox 360 games copied games (CD and soft copy) selling at 3k each. check my posts for the games i have.

FINALLY, finally back. I really missed Nairaland; was having withdrawal syndrome.
to celebrate Nairaland coming back from the dead, here's a new tip.
want to enjoy Hulu and Netflix on android? install Hola, change the country to USA and watch or download to your hearts content. ( phone must be rooted though).

lifehacker: Guys I'm not getting an ota from at&t for my vivid even through wifi, what may be the problem..... Keeps shouting server unavailable?

have you tried forcing OTA update on the phone? l read an article about forcing OTA updates on phones, something about deleting a system apk file. google how to force Android OTA update. hope it helps.

anyone checked out the Android Vega IM-A820L for 28k?

TD4real: hey bro, can u sell some games?

not selling but if i could get that stuff i could copy them for you.

just ordered for two but not for charging phones. hope this might be an inspiration for a money making venture for someone.

i have one of those blue rechargeable lamps that stop working one week after buying them. i also have a 1000mAh PB. i simply removed the board inside the lamp and connected the LEDs directly to a female USB port. using the 1000mAh PB, i get close to 2hrs 30mins of light.
want to try the 12000mAh on a rechargeable fan destined for the dustbin

HEY, ironic
i have a friend that bought two Vivo phones last week,the V5 version. was quite nice ; gorrilla screen, NFC and a P2P function that turns the phone into a credit card ( didn't understand it) and fast. the problem was she bought the LTE version and i was in a hurry at the time. she got it for less than 32k. will recheck it tmw

Here's the deal....

i need a samsung CD-ROM drive, specifically the SH-D162C (need it to repair my xbox360). if you have access to one i would greatly appreciate it if you could you send it to me.
In return, i will send you five xbox360 games of your choice from the list below. will need an address because i will send it to you via NIPOST at no cost to you.

PM me if you are interested.

1. Dead space
2. Mass effect 2
3. Spiderman; Shattered Dimensions
4. Star Wars; Force unleashed 2
5. Halo Wars
6. Shadow of the damned
7. Need for speed; Hot pursuit
8. Brink
9. Assassin's creed; Brotherhood
10. Medal of Honor
11. NBA 2k11
12. Crysis 2
13. Call of Duty; Black ops
14. Castlevania; Lords of shadows
15. Resident Evil 5
16. Vanquished
17. James Bond: Bloodstone
18. Kane and Lynch 2
19. Mafia 2
20. Call of Duty; Morden warfare 2
21. Split Second
22. Tales of Vesperia
23. Borderlands
24. Naughty bear
25. FIFA 11
26. Alan Wake
27. Naruto; Rise of a ninja
28. Naruto ultimate ninja storm 2
29. Conan
30. Red Dead Redemption
31. Blur
32. Prince of Persia; the forgotten sands
33. Singularity
34. Assassin's creed 2
35. F.E.A.R 2; Project origins
36. Mortal kombat
37. GTA 4
38. Homefront
39. Battlefield bad company 1
40. Chronicles of Riddick
41. Dragon Age 2
42. Far cry 2
43. GTA Liberty city
44. peration flashpoint; Red River
45. Splincter cell conviction
46. Fable 2
47. Darksiders
50. Bioshock
51. Bioshock
52. Halo 3
53. Halo reach
54. Dante's Inferno
55. Bulletstorm
56. Lost planet 2
57. Dark void
58. The orange box
59. Just cause 2
60. Enslaved
61. F.E.A.R 3
62. Gears of war
63. Final fantasy 13
64. Majin
65. Fallout; new vegas
66. Dark sector
67. Alice madness returns
68. Dungeon siege 3
69. Duke nuken forever
70. Portal 2
71. Fable 3
72. L.A. Noire

lifehacker: Thanks guy,... WILL LOOK FOR IT ASAP

BTW Does anybody know the effect of my hand on the back of the phone? Its almost like it stops going haywire when i place two or three fingers on it and the charger z connected

you are earthing it. think of it as a lighting conductor duing a thunderstorm.

someone please call 911.

swim cash: I did a factory reset on my phone (tecno n9 tab) yesterday. But after reseting everything and the phone switched back on it keeps writing SalesTrackerSystem has stop syddenly., if I press ok it comes back again I can't get past it., any help pls?

use a pin or toothpick to depress the reset button at the back of the tablet. keep it depressed until the tablet restarts

raynold: pls guys what is the code for the mtn night plan, the one with the data cap of 3.0g and 1.5g bonus..

102 to 131

Dikachiii: thanks a lot. I've just charged the battery with desktop charger and it charged perfectly does that mean it's from the charging port?

stop charging with desktop charger. it destroys the battery in the long run.

m003: bro jst tell me hw to flash it nd i'll do d rest 4get abt d version tnx in advance

follow the instructions from wherever you downloaded the ROM but I must remind you to do a backup of your ROM using your clockworkmode before you do a data wipe/ factory reset. backup your apps with titanium backup before starting anything.

[quote author=tayo_ast]Hi guys.
I use 9300 and have cyanogenmod running JB 4.2.2.

Thinking of upgrading to 4.3 and I'm contemplating going for another rom, say slim bean.

Question is, what advantage does cyanogenmod have over slim bean, and vice versa?

Thanks.[/quote]currently using slim bean 4.3.1. haven't tried cyanogen for a while so can't compare. I chose custom ROMs based on battery life and I'm enjoying this one. it's also slick and faster than neat ROM.

m003: hi guyz pls cn sum1 post hw to flash SLIM-BEAN 4.2.2 rom for galaxy s2 .......it is rooted tnx in advance

what the heck are you using 4.2.2 when there is 4.3 slim bean?

aspiliqueta: which phone is that i kinda like it

any Android phone

NANDROID MANAGER

Lucky patcher

arome file manager

titanum backup

tasker

file fast transfer

rom manager

pdf max

wifi file manager

dspoilt

backtrack

filesheep

fing

network mapper

droidwall

volume plus

Naija Hotline: Please my android 2.3 phone is having problem, the homekey and minimization of apps is no longer working after i cleared the phone's system due to frequent disturbance now even the screen lock is no longer working.

please what do i do?

I like to get more info about a problem before offering solutions, even if time and activities delay my replies. what do you mean "frequent disturbances?" I'm interested in why you had to clear system files.

continue to have faith. after 3 years of searching for a wife i almost gave up. most of the girls i saw or met where nothing to write home about. then God smiled on me and my wife came to meet me.

here's what you can use your phone to do

1) Read Texts in Car
Reads texts out loud, but
only while I'm driving
2) Efficient Charge
When plugged to a power
source, the brightness is
turned down, the screen
timeout is shortened, wifi
is turned off, and mobile
data is turned off. These
settings are returned to
normal as soon as the
phone is unplugged.
3) Heading Home Text
Created a home screen
button that, when
pressed, automatically
tells my wife I'm heading
home. There's also a
screen popup that tells
me the text went through
as a voice confirms my
text was sent.
4) At Home Text
Once my phone detects
my home's wifi, it texts
my wife that I'm home.
But only on workdays, at
the specified time range I
would normally arrive
home (not just every time
it detects my wifi).
There's also a screen
popup that tells me the
text went through as a
voice confirms my text
was sent.
5) Caller ID Ring
Replaced my ringtone
with a voice that a)
identifies the caller if
they're in my contacts or
b) tells me it's an
unknown number if
they're not in my
contacts (It also silences
when the phone is on the
appropriate silent mode)
6) Break-In Report
I'm very proud of this
one. If someone fails to
unlock my phone three
times, it secretly
photographs them, turns
on location services,
attaches the photo to an
email, sends me the
information along with its
GPS/wifi locations, the
name of the last detected
wifi network, and the
phone's battery level. All
whilst the phone is
locked.
I also use Tasker in
conjunction with the beta
app utter! for nearly
complete voice control of
the phone. It also means
that any words spoken
from the phone are
spoken in the new,
smooth voice of the new
Jelly Bean voice search.

how to use tasker

www.lifehacker.com/5930652/unleash-the-power-of-android-with-these-automated-apps

tasker - making smartphones and appliances smarter than phone users

BlackBaron: ^ ^

You'll simply need to run benchmark tests to know read and write rates of the sd cards.

Anyone seen and used 'Reicast' app?

i love android.
Nights and clockwork knight, here i come

faithgokz: HELP ME OOOO!!! My tecno M3 is sucking my mb... And it just started recently.. Please what should i do

Remove the straw?

is your autosync on? what about GPS? did you recently discover youtube? are you running apps with plenty ads?

[quote author=deejay_harry1]lol.. ok bro.. their is the 1.5 for 1gb... 3000 for 3gb and 5000 for 6gb.... its a company plan, they buy data from glo and resell at cheaper rate... i patronize them...


its quite expensive, but much cheaper compared to glo's normal plan[/quote]is that not the normal Glo data cost? I'm interested in how they resell and manage the data

it's not just saying no to your mum. i served in Edo state and i can recall when a woman came back from italy and was openly recruiting girls to take back with her. she was so lavish with money and so sweet talking that parents and girls didn't care, they were ready to go with her. some parents were even angry with their daughthers for refusing the golden chance to travel abroad. i remember arguing with a girl, trying to make her understand what it meant. the woman had bought the girl plenty cloths and paid the school fees for the brother for the whole school period. nothing i said made sense to her. the woman got plenty girls to go with her

thanks

have got my eye on this thread for a while it says for beginners and i'm in the class below dumm.ies. was wondering if i could utilize any of the codes above in the android app "c4droid" to learn c++?

DAvIt0: Thanks for the link
downloaded, after everything this is what I get
"Not in My country"

although it creates a VPN, use another VPN to utilize an american ip then start the app. cumbersome but i want to see if it really makes an impact on data saving. will then wait until it comes out officially

P.S i hope you really read about it and what goes through it. if you are okay with that......