This month I had two unexpected medical emergencies where I needed expert advice. So of course, I started by looking on the internet to do some basic fact gathering. My first emergency was an abscessed molar that I had a root canal performed on 3 years ago. The second emergency was my mother crashing her car which led us to suspect she’s suffering from dementia.
Since I’m not an idiot, I didn’t look at Google’s “sponsored links”, nor did I visit sites like Healthline, Webmd, Psychology Today, and other generic info-lite sources. Instead I looked for information from the National Institute of Health, PubMed, The Alzheimer’s Association, Mayo Clinic and National Institute on Aging, the ADA, the AMA and similar credible, scientific organizations.
Except for a few obscure research papers on PubMed, they all offered the same advice:
- Go see a doctor (or dentist)
- Get adequate sleep.
- East healthy meals.
- Get adequate exercise.
- Make sure you are drinking water to not get dehydrated.
- Maintain social connections.
- Take NSAIDs and use ice for pain relief.
Are you f***ing kidding me?!
These are the guidelines for just about every health issue you could look up on the internet. Everyone already knows them because they are regurgitated ad infinitum (and usually verbatim).
Thank you for nothing.
That, my friends, is what qualifies for “I did my research” on the Internet.
I did eventually find some helpful information – from YouTube videos made by endodontists and caretakers of elderly parent with dementia from niche forums and subreddits focused on dentistry and dementia. Of course I had to weed through self-promoting bullshit, “alternative medicine” scams and uninformed opinions of the people with no expertise. Nonetheless, the peer to peer information was more comprehensive and helpful than anything else I read.
Go figure.
Common Nonsense. Alzheimer’s hernia tooth extraction Covid all have the same treatments healthy eating moderate exercise social activity adequate sleep liquids If you weren’t doing it before you’re not starting it now. If you were doing it before you’re still doing it if you are able to from nih Cleveland clinic Mayo Clinic National association on Alzheimer’s Ada ama thanks for nothing.