Are you looking for MS information? Some online forums allow people to post MS questions and answers on them. Such multiple sclerosis questions and answers constitute a useful informal source of MS information.
Informal MS resources such as the ones described above do not meet the standard for official medical information. Thus, patients should not give them the same authority that they would give a doctor whom they were consulting. However, they are still useful. This is because, on them, patients can ask questions about multiple sclerosis and learn about alternative diagnoses, potential MS complications, and treatment options that their own doctors might not have considered. They can then do further research on these subjects so that, when they next visit their doctors, they are better informed individuals with a broader sense of their options. Such patients tend to do better coping with their condition: they are often more hopeful because they know they have options.
The Diversity of Experiences Reflected in MS Questions and Answers
Any information that patients encounter on these forums may or may not apply to their respective situations. This is why it is important for them to do research on it and to discuss it with their medical doctors before adapting it into their daily routines. MS questions and answers might give them insight into herbs that are effective in treating some of their symptoms, for instance. However, they should not simply start using these herbs. Herbs are a form of medication, potentially as potent as pharmaceutical drugs. They provoke adverse reactions in some people. In other people, they are not effective or they cause new problems because they have negative interactions with the drugs that they are already taking. These are among the reasons why it makes sense for patients to do some research and to talk to their doctors before adopting such non-conventional treatments.
Sometimes the multiple sclerosis questions and answers on discussion forums are particularly useful because they reveal to those who read them that there are myriad possible answers to certain questions. For instance, patients discussing symptoms such as hair loss during MS treatment may indicate that various different medications may be the cause of their hair loss, or that they may have additional conditions like thyroid disease. People reading these discussions will quickly come to the understanding that, for some MS topics, there are no easy answers. Everybody is likely to have a story of his or her own to tell. It is this diversity of experiences and opinions that makes MS discussion forums similar to MS support groups.
