Are Online Search Engines Making Your Health Worse?

By Randi Morse 

While the internet is a great tool for shopping and keeping in touch with family and friends, it can be extremely detrimental when it comes to people's health. It's far too easy for someone to do an online search of their symptoms and to wind up reading a website that advises them to do the wrong thing. By taking wrong advice, you could be doing a great deal more harm to your problem. Take neck pain. Neck pain sufferers just want their pain to be gone and often search online for tips and tricks to reduce the pain and inflammation that they're dealing with. Dealing with neck pain incorrectly, however, could lead the problem to be much worse -- and may make the pain worse as well. 

Using Heat 

Heat can be an extremely helpful tool when it comes to relieving sore muscles. Doctors and chiropractors often advise their patients to use heat, 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off, to help bring swelling down on aches and pains. When you're dealing with chronic pain, however, liberally applying heat can do more damage than good. This is because heat increases the flow of blood, which can cause any inflammation pain that you're dealing with to be much more painful. 

Ice is another helpful tool when it comes to pain. Again, it's important to utilize ice in the right situations and for a limited amount of time. Make sure that any icy item you use, no matter whether it's a professional ice pack or a bag of frozen peas, is not pressed directly against your skin. There should always be a barrier between something frozen and your delicate skin. 

Ignoring Pain 

Your body uses pain to tell the brain that something is going wrong. Pain is the body's signal that something needs to be fixed, and ignoring the pain almost always makes it worse. This is because when you ignore your pain, the body recognizes that you're not fixing the problem and makes the pain signals it sends to the brain even stronger. When something in your body starts to hurt, it's important that you give it the attention that it needs. The sooner you seek treatment, the easier the condition is likely going to be to treat. 

While the internet is a fantastic tool, nothing will beat the expertise and experience that you'll find from chiropractors at The Joint Chiropractic. With open office hours and affordable rates, it's now easier than ever before to have any sort of acute or chronic problem handled by a professional. 

To learn more about your health, wellness and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Reno, Nev.