Social Networking & Medical Advice

Social networking is everywhere these days, but is it a good source of medical information?

Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace are everywhere these days. These sites allow us to keep in touch with the world all day long. For the most part that can be fun and informative. However, when it comes to your own health, you might want to take a step back. Relying on information you get from a social network site might not be the best step.

As a matter of fact, a new study in the American Journal of Infection Control shows that over a 4-month period in 2009, hundreds of Twitter users posted casual misinformation about antibiotics -- which, in turn, reached more than a million people who followed them.

The problem is when experts looked at this information, they found some of the advice was wrong and could potentially lead to more health problems.

Not all the advice is wrong, but since it's hard to tell the good from the bad, experts have tips on what to do with the information you get from any web site.
1. (& most important) Verify the site with a reputable Website and talk to your doctor. You wouldn't take a pill someone off the street offered you, yet that's essentially what's happening with a tweet.
2. Know the source. If they are trying to sell something, be extra cautious.

Again, not all the information is wrong, but you need to do a little homework to figure out which ones are OK.