Don’t you just hate click bait? I do!

While searching for real information about Behcet’s Disease–because, WE NEED IT!–I came across this; an article about Behcet’s treatment by Business Standard.

After dangling that golden “There’s a Treatment!” carrot in front of my hungry-for-answers self, the article tells me…  nothing!  Whoo-hoo! Some doctor in India gave some talk in Brazil that had the words “homeopathy” and “Behcet’s”  and “treated” in it! But it doesn’t actually say what the doctor recommends or anything.  I mean, seriously?!?

Yes, it regurgitates info about Behcet’s that anyone with Behcet’s ALREADY KNOWS, and it’s good to give people basic information.

But after the headline, “Behcet’s disease can now be treated with homeopathy”, I expected more!

The least it could do, other than telling us how Dr. Gupta decided Behcet’s could be treated by homeopathy, is give some useful advice. It could warn a person that it’s important to consider alternative medicine, such as homeopathy, carefully, for instance. It could remind people that when you’re feeling desperate about your disease, you should probably take a step back instead of stepping in front of a magic bullet. There is no magic bullet, people!

Here are some tips on how to find decent, useful  information on the worldwide web:

1. Consider the source: Usually if the source is connected to a national medical board/government, a hospital, university, or a well-established organization you can safely trust the source

• Look for .gov (which identifies a government site in the United States) or .org (which usually identifies nonprofit organizations/NGOs) or .edu (which identifies educational institutions) in the website address.
  • Here’s a link to US National Institute of Health’s National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases information about Behcet’s
  • Here’s a link to the American Behcet’s Disease Association
  • Here’s a link to Johns Hopkins Medical Center page on Behcet’s
• Scroll down to the bottom of the homepage and look for HON (Health on Net Foundation) symbol: , which means that the website has received certification for following an international code of ethical conduct when it comes to presenting medical information
• In the United States, you can also look for the symbol of the National Health Council symbol, and the US National Library of Medicine has an online tutorial on evaluating internet health information

2. While you’re down there at the bottom of the page, look for a copyright date. Medical information often changes a lot over the years. You want to make sure that the site is keeping things current.

3. Next, click on the “About Us” section of the website and who is creating and funding the site. It should tell you  how they select the information they include and who vets the info–it’s a good sign when there’s a medical review board and actual doctors contribute.

4. There are also some really good sites started by patients for patients. After all, no one has a more vested interest in learning about the latest research and information than we do!

And, if you REALLY want to read something about homeopathy and Behcet’s you could visit Dr. Weil’s site.

If you are as sick and tired of click bait articles as we are, share this rant with your social networks to help inform them where to find relevant and informational articles for their disease!

And of course don’t forget to mention us at Patient Worthy :).