Money lost, disease carried
While surfing the social network TikTok, accidentally seeing Dr. L. giving health advice, Ms. H. (suffering from stomach pain for many years, living in Go Vap district, Ho Chi Minh City) immediately interacted and was advised to skip breakfast to... improve her health. Trusting and following, Ms. H. skipped breakfast for 2 months, but her condition did not improve, the pain became more frequent and more severe.
“I continued to listen to another medical expert, who has influence on social networks, with tens of thousands of followers on his personal page, instructing people on how to fast for many days to... detoxify and refresh the body. However, after almost the second day of fasting, I felt dizzy, vomited, and my body was exhausted and had to be hospitalized,” Ms. H. recounted.
At nearly 70 years old, Mr. Tran Quoc Tien (living in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City) has many underlying diseases, so he often goes for periodic health check-ups and buys medicines and functional foods every day. One time, he surfed social networks and saw many articles and videos of doctors talking about the uses of garlic soaked in honey. Seeing that this combined product is considered a "miracle drug", with many uses in preventing cancer, good for the heart, treating coughs and sore throats, Mr. Tien clicked on the link below the article to buy honey and garlic to soak for use.
However, when he consulted a doctor, he was advised not to use honey soaked with garlic to drink every day, because it can easily cause negative reactions such as digestive disorders, increased blood sugar, bloating, indigestion, etc. Mr. Tien was advised by the doctor that garlic soaked with honey is not a "panacea" to cure all diseases as many people often say, and should not be used arbitrarily and regularly.
“At this time, I felt like I had lost faith and was confused about whose opinion I should listen to, because both of them were doctors at major hospitals,” Mr. Tien shared.
Select and evaluate information
According to records, many personal accounts on social networks Facebook, TikTok... claim to be doctors, medical experts, create videos to advise on health and nutrition in an unscientific and unsafe way, causing many people to follow and encounter many health problems.
For example, according to nutrition experts, the “extreme low-carb” diet (completely cutting out starch) that has been a hit on some forums can cause nutritional imbalance, reduce brain function and increase the risk of physical weakness, especially for people with underlying diseases and people who are very active. Or a series of articles and video clips about anti-vaccines, instructions on fasting to detoxify the body, treating diseases with unscientific oriental medicine methods...
According to health experts, it is undeniable that social networks have become a popular channel for sharing knowledge about health, nutrition and medical communication to the people. However, receiving false information and blindly trusting unscientific advice can cause many consequences, seriously affecting health.
In addition, many large, reputable doctors and hospitals are also used by bad guys, with their names and images forged for the purpose of fraud and consulting to sell functional foods and traditional oriental medicine.
Doctor CKI Hoang Minh Dung, Saigon General Hospital (HCMC) said that online medical consultation and treatment (telemedicine) is a strong development trend in modern medicine. However, to be able to accurately diagnose a disease, the doctor must go through all the steps of investigating the patient's medical history, clinical examination and having the patient perform the necessary paraclinical tests. The process of in-depth examination and testing must even be repeated many times to accurately diagnose the disease.
“Online nutrition consultation also has certain benefits, such as helping users access information easily, saving time, users can receive quick advice from nutrition experts without having to go directly to the hospital or clinic. However, people need to identify who is a real nutrition expert, a medical expert with expertise and medical knowledge to avoid misplacing trust,” shared Dr. CKI Hoang Minh Dung.
Currently, the health sector has applied information technology to provide online medical examination and treatment for people. On the information portal of the Ministry of Health and provincial health departments, information about practitioners has been made public. Therefore, before monitoring and consulting health online, people need to verify the information of the consultant, and not arbitrarily use medical treatment methods without consulting a doctor.
In addition, authorities need to step in to "identify" accounts that are truly professional so that people can understand their health issues correctly and not be led astray by tricks on social networks.
Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/loan-tu-van-suc-khoe-online-post785726.html
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