I work on cars nearly as much as I work on people.

That is the price I pay for having older vehicles.

And while I have a pretty good tool collection, the greatest tool I have at my disposal now is the internet. Because I have older cars, when something goes wrong, I can do a quick internet search and find a solution. Someone else is bound to have had that “oil light flashing” problem that my old Acura is having.

So I go to the search engine and enter my question. And voila, there are 260,000 answers available in just 0.41 seconds! Now I just have to comb through those quarter of million answers to find the actual solution to the problem that my car is having.

And then I can apply the solution…assuming it is something I am brave enough to tackle on my own.

If not, I can take it to a mechanic…and probably be asked to pay more in repair bills than the car is worth.

How many of you do this when you hear that rattling noise in your car? Or when your “Check Engine Light” comes on?

But really, how useful is that information to you? Are you going to fix your own car? With today’s more-complex-than-ever automotive control systems, are you really well-educated enough on how a car engine works, and how it’s emissions systems work, and how the computer system handles the information, and…well, you get the point. It’s a pretty complex system.

So you do the wise thing and consult with an expert…you know, the guy down the street that is always under the hood of his car. Except, he only knows his car model’s troubles, not the full automotive universe’s troubles.

So you’re left with taking the car to the mechanic to have it properly diagnosed and fixed correctly. Then you drive away feeling confident that things were done well, and confident you will get many more years of reliable use from your vehicle.

Because the internet is easy to use, you can now do the exact same thing to diagnose your health problems.

If you’re like most people, the first thing you do when you have a new pain, problem, or symptom in your body is go to the internet. Surely, someone else has had the same symptom and has already gotten it diagnosed. You can just apply the same methods that fixed their problem to your problem, right?

So you try the “fix” that worked for someone else…but it doesn’t work for you. Why not? Was there something you missed? Did you miss/skip a step in the method?

So the simple thing to do is go back to the source…the internet!

You do the same search, but now you are armed with new information. You know what didn’t work for you. So you skip the first link you used, and you move on to the second one that looks promising.

So it’s on to the second method to “fix” your problem.

But that doesn’t work as well as you wanted, either.

So down the rabbit-hole (i.e.: the internet) you go, again.

How long would it take for you to realize that the information on the internet isn’t working for you?

As an example, I had a parent that brought his son to me for the son’s “swimmer’s shoulder” problem. As I worked with the son, the father asked a question.

“So do you work with people other than swimmers?” he asked.

“Of course,” I replied. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, because I have been suffering with plantar fasciitis for a while and was wondering if you could help me.”

“What have you done so far to treat it?,” I asked.

“Well, the internet said…” he replied, as he went through all that had been suggested by the internet on how to deal with plantar fasciitis. He had tried it all, but did not have any relief.

So I asked, “Where exactly is your pain?”

He pointed to his Achilles tendon.

To be clear, the plantar fascia does not go up the back of your leg. He had been trying to treat a problem with his Achilles tendon using information that was intended to treat plantar fasciitis. These two problems are close anatomically, but are miles apart in how you go about treating them.

I offered a simple suggestion to try at home to address the Achilles tendon. On the next visit with his son, the father reported a great reduction in his own heel pain and no longer had the Achilles tenderness. (His son was also improving and had returned to swimming without pain, just in case you were wondering.)

This father had done what we all do, nowadays. He had looked up his symptoms on the internet, found what sounded like his problem, and applied the “fixes” that were listed.

The only trouble was, he didn’t have that problem.

He had wasted time and effort, not to mention put up with his pain and limitations for far too long, in an effort to fix himself.

But it would have been far easier, quicker, and more effective if he had just used the internet to find the right professional to consult regarding his problem. The internet is a great tool in that way.

It’s no wonder that “doctors and nurses frequently try to discourage their patients from turning to the internet for answers. And yet patients will continue to Google their symptoms and medications because the internet doesn’t require an appointment or a long wait, it is not rushed, it doesn’t judge, it doesn’t require a hefty co-pay and it often provides information that seems simple to understand.” (Quote from Dr. Haider Warraich, a fellow in heart failure and transplantation at Duke University Medical Center, from an Opinion article in The New York Times.)

So, back to the original analogy.

If you use the internet to diagnose and fix your car and are successful with fixing the car on your own the first time, every time,…well, then you are probably a professional auto-mechanic.

If not, then you are probably just guessing at what is wrong and applying a fix that might work, if you are lucky. It is more likely that you will be throwing away time and money, and might still be left stranded by a malfunctioning vehicle.

If you use the internet to diagnose your health problems, the consequences could be far worse. After all, if you think that a car is complex, think about how much more complex the human body is.

And when things malfunction with your body, you can be left with larger problems than just being stranded on the roadside.