YOU can pick up a thousand cures for cancer, diagnose glandular fever in your tea break and identify any number of diseases likely to strike in the next 24 hours. But while the internet may be a mine of medical information, it is not always good news for your health.

Concerns about people using the internet to self-diagnose — leaving GPs overwhelmed with visits from “cyberchondriacs” — has prompted doctors to set up a website offering independent and jargon-free health advice.

The website, BestTreatments.co.uk, was officially announced yesterday by the British Medical Journal in an attempt to help patients struggling with myriad sources of information on symptoms and therapies on the internet. The website covers information on more than 120 different conditions ranging from long-term disorders such as cancer, back pain and depression, to acid reflux, wisdom teeth and infant colic. It not only covers symptoms, treatments and questions to ask the doctor, but current evidence on medical research.

The website is partly a result of the surge in unsourced online information on health, which is now the second biggest topic on the internet after pornography. One example is a search for the word “cancer” using Google, which brings up more than 400 million hits.

Cherill Hicks, the website’s UK editor, said that the site offered high-quality advice, allowing people to share information about the benefits of treatments.

“It allows patients to be able to weigh up the pros and cons of different treatments. We are not in the business of people either self-diagnosing or trying to treat themselves,” she said.

“This site is very much about using the information so that people can work with their doctor in partnership to decide the treatment that is right for them.”

Research by the Harris polling organisation, conducted last year, suggested that three quarters of adults using the internet had searched for health-related information. It found that the average cyberchondriac went online for health advice seven times a month.

Ms Hicks said that the information on the site came from the same source as that used by doctors — the BMJ publication Clinical Evidence, which was the “gold standard” for evidence-based medicine for doctors.

Brian Fisher, a GP in Lewisham, southeast London, said that the evidence was that patients who were given more information and took part in shared decision-making with doctors had better outcomes and used the NHS less.

He said that the site was a “really powerful and important tool” for supporting patients in shared decision making.

People wishing to access the site, however, need to be careful how they type: the website www.bestreatments.co.uk also offers health advice, although much of the material shown is sponsored and its provenance is not known.

ADVICE ON THE INTERNET

Best of Britain’s commercial health sites: www.netdoctor.co.uk

Warnings of poor medical information in circulation: www.quackwatch.org

Website of the US National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health: www.medlineplus.gov

Great Ormond Street site explains conditions and treatments for children: www.childrenfirst.nhs.uk

Leading cancer charity is strong on the science of cancer and statistics: www.cancerresearchuk.org

Sensible, impartial information on allergies: www.allergyuk.org

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