How to google your symptoms without freaking out | John Whyte

You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. Hugh. A billion times a day. But what happens when even a doctor with 20 years of experience starts doubting his own treatment because of what his Instagram feed is telling him? We're very willing to have this attitude of, why not try it? What's the harm? You know, someone else had a good experience, so maybe we will too.

That's John White, a physician and the former chief medical officer of WebMD. In his talk, he explores why we're so quick to trust online sources of information about our health and how you can search your symptoms without spiraling. These are powerful tools in terms of generative AI and ChatGPT and Google, but they don't know your history. They can't do a physical exam. And in many ways,

More confusion. I want you to become informed. I want you to become empowered. But the challenge is information isn't knowledge. That's coming up after a short break. And now our TED Talk of the Day.

It's human nature. We all have searched for symptoms that we might be having. Maybe it's a a mole on our skin, a cough that we're experiencing, or a headache. And what happens after ten minutes? We don't become more clear what we'd be having. We're more confused and more concerned. So we're talking about joy. But then how can we have joy when we're searching about our health and we're having some of these challenges? As I said, we all do it.

You know, I used to come out and ask people, how many of you have searched health conditions online? Now I say, how many of you have searched for health issues today? Because I want to share a statistic with you. A billion. A billion, nine zeros. That's how many search on help there is every single day. And it's actually going up. And when you put it into context, is how many is that every hour, every minute?

And up until recently, I was the chief medical officer at WebMD, and many of you likely ended up at WebMD. And at WebMD, the motto is better information leads to better health. And as a physician, I firmly believe that. I want you to become informed. I want you to become empowered. But the challenge is. Information isn't knowledge.

Remember the phrase TMI? Do people still say that? Too much information? Typically, we would say it about what? We'd say it about someone's giving you too much personal information. Makes you feel awkward, maybe a little anxious. Well, TMI also is around health. Too much information when you're searching for your symptoms actually can create anxiety, can actually be dangerous.

So I saw a patient two years ago, true story, I'm gonna call her Mary, that wasn't actually her name, but Mary came in because she had what's called serumen impaction. Anyone ever hear that? Basically means your ears clogged with wax. It's very common. Now Mary had searched it online. And she saw rightfully that hearing loss can lead to dementia. So she was very concerned that she was having decreased hearing, even though it was only for a day, very concerned about it.

She also read that too much earwax could be signs of infection, which I'll tell you that's not the truth. But she was very focused on getting the wax out of her earwax. So she had read that hydrogen peroxide is actually pretty good if you mix it equally with water. But what she did was she microwaved it. And then she put it in her ear. And obviously she came into the office because she had a burned ear canal, very red, very irritated, and I said to her, Mary,

Why? And and maybe I shouldn't have said it like that, but that exactly is how I said it. Why? And she said, I read it online. And I thought it wouldn't hurt. But it did. And and that's the challenge.

Remember the phrase hypochondriac? People that have symptoms and every symptom is always the most serious. Well now we have this phrase and you might have heard it, cyber conjuriac, right? You go online. I always feel cyber conjuriacs should be like crime solved. because they look at every detail, everything is magnified, and it's always the worst case scenario. My twelve-year-old is a little bit of a cyber conjureactor. So The summer, he had a bit of a blister on his foot.

Because he needed these Kobe cleats that were too big for him, but he insisted he needed them and he developed a blister. It wasn't healing after a couple days. It started to look a little infectious. And my wife took him to urgent care. They cultured it, they gave him an antibiotic, they came home that evening and I said, you know, how did it go? And he says to me, you know It could be merciless.

And I thought, hmm, that's that's pretty clever for a 12-year-old, but MERSA's still kind of unusual. And he said, and this antibiotic doesn't cover. And and he was right in terms of the information that he found. Now, the next day I get a call from the doctor's office. It's Mursa. And I think, how am I gonna tell him that? Uh but it was and he he did need to have the antibiotic changed. And and my point is sometimes

The information you search is correct. Often it is, but you have to put it into context. Now, just to be fair, my wife had some knee pain uh just last week after starting back up at the gym and he goes over to her and he says, be jumper's knee which is uh the teller tendonitis it it it's not it's just she just started to work out so now her knee is bothering her but I get it the are powerful tools in terms of generative AI and ChatGPT and Google.

But they don't know your history. They can't do a physical exam. And in many ways, they're causing more confusion. What I talk about is it's really the issue of clarity versus confusion. And if you want to have joy, if you want to use uh symptom checkers and the web and AI to understand your health better. And I want you to become more empowered. It is about having clarity versus confusion.

And that can be challenging. There's a lot of misinformation out there. And algorithms often drive you to inaccurate information. So um The feeds on Instagram are often driven by algorithms and what you search. So um my younger son, that's my older son. I have a younger son who very much wants a golden retriever. So my Instagram feed is loaded with Goldies where I think everyone has a Goldie, or it's on a lot of wellness information, having been at WebMD and a physician.

And like many people in the population, I'm on a statin. for primary prevention because of high lipids. And I've been starting to um I like to read other doctors' feeds. And there's a bunch of cardiologists that are saying you don't really need to be on a stack. it really should be diet and exercise and that statins actually can increase dementia, not decrease dementia. Now here I am, I've been a physician for twenty plus years. I know the data on statins, and I'm starting to think

Maybe I don't need a statin. And then I'm getting more doctor's feeds that are saying you don't need to be on a statin. And I'm thinking, this can't be right. So what do I do? I dig a little deeper. I see that many of these physicians that are talking about this are selling a particular product. Some of them have had some issues with their medical license.

But the algorithms drive you to the same type of information that you're already receiving and that can make it more challenging because it really comes to an issue of trust. Who can you trust? And it's about that human interaction. Are you gonna trust a chat bot or an influencer? Are you gonna trust the relationship that you have with your doctor? The pharmacist.

When you think about searching for health information online, and we all do, and that is a good thing and can be a powerful tool because I want you to be empowered. Here's what I want you to think. When you search for financial information, What do you do? Do you just listen to any influencer that has a million followers or two million followers to do cryptocurrency or to invest in a certain product?

No. What do you do? You check the credentials of that person. You try to corroborate that information somewhere else. You think, does it make sense? Can I really make fifty times my investment in a short period of time? And what do most of us do? We ask someone that we can trust. We ask an expert, does this make sense? And why do you do that? Because it's your money. And that's important. Your future. But I would argue your health is even more important, certainly for your future.

And sometimes when it comes to our health, we're very willing to have this attitude of Why not try it? What's the harm? We're willing to listen to anyone. You know, someone else had a good experience, so maybe we will too. But you're much more discriminating when it comes to your finances. So we talk about joy. We talk about our health often contributes to our joy or takes away from our joy.

So it's important That you do become empowered, you do become educated, but then you have to take that next step. And think about that connection with a human. I think there's a great role for technology. Uh sometimes I think there might be too much technology. I don't know if others agree with that as well. But when it comes to your health, the most important element that you have You want clarity, not confusion. And that comes from those elements of knowing who the messenger is.

checking that information, corroborating that information, knowing if it sounds right to you, and then talking about it to someone that you can trust. Thank you. That was John White at TEDx Nashville in 2025. If you're curious about Ted's curation, find out more at TED.com/slash curation guidelines. And that's it for today. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. Fact checked by the Ted Research Team and produced and edited by our team.

Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Lucy Little, and Tonsika Sungmarni Vong. This episode was mixed by Christopher Fazy Bogan. Additional support from Emma Tobner and Daniela Ballarazzo. I'm Elise Hugh. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening.