Dr Pallav Prajapati, BAMS, CAD, CCYP (BHU), is a Neuropanchkarma expert specializing in chronic skin and joint disorders. He is the founder of Chetanya Ayurveda and serves as the president of the Student Committee in the Ayurveda Federation of India. He has also published articles in health magazines. With four years of experience, he is a trainer and now does private practice. He is based in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. As a health practitioner, he frequently encounters patients who fall victim to medical hoaxes.
When a patient explains to you about their health problems, what are the most common mistakes they make in their communication?
They don’t share their complaints but after self-diagnosis they usually explains about disease. For example, generalizing their symptoms/complaint of headache, they came with a conclusion that they have migraine problems. Ironically, there can be other half a dozen reasons for a headache.
What does health literacy mean to you, and why is it important in patient care?
Health literacy is too important so that they should know about severity, signs and symptoms of disease. If health literacy is good, then morality index should definitely fall and also with a good knowledge about symptoms and signs they can have a good communication with doctors. This improves choosing the doctor, importance of vaccines and saving the self from scams.
If a patient is knowledgeable about the basics of their health condition, how helpful is it for the overall treatment procedure?
When a patient is knowledgeable about their basic health condition, it definitely helps in making a proper diagnosis. Such patients are more likely to take their medication on time, follow medical advice, and maintain a healthy routine. Additionally, an informed patient can help and guide others to seek treatment from qualified doctors. A knowledgeable patient contributes to the smooth functioning of the healthcare system (also by deterring medical hoaxes) and is far more beneficial than those who rely on Google to self-diagnose their conditions.
How much can medical misinformation impact treatment procedures?
Many times, wrong information related to medical treatment makes the patient worried. It often increases the stress even more which makes him mentally upset. Frequently, it happens that the patient is wandering from place to place for a good treatment in which he loses a lot of money. The right treatment is not available on time and the same problem, which is in the acute phase, goes into its chronic phase. The problems which is real now, is therefore curable. It slowly starts going into the incurable state.
What are the most common myths or misinformation you see your patients falling prey to?
Specially to the term ‘home remedies’. By falling prey to such remedies, they usually play with their health. I have seen patient who had breathing problems, took Madar leaves with milk and applied on tongue, as she saw YouTube. By doing this home remedy, not only her mouth turned swollen and developed ulcers, but she was also unable to eat, and her breathing problems persisted for longer.
What is your most common advice to patients to stay away from health misinformation online?
According to Ayurveda, everyone’s body type is different. Medicines are different for everyone, so whatever is being told on YouTube may be for a particular type or it may be false information (or medical hoaxes). It is possible that you may not have that problem. You may not have that type and this thing can also cause you a lot of harm.
YouTube and Google always show the worst-case scenario of the condition, so it is possible that the disease you are thinking about or searching for is shown the worst scenario. Because Google always says that it is showing the best result, it is possible that you have a small problem with the skin, and it shows you cancer which can make you panic.
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