There is truth in numbers - so the age-old adage says.  It's also believed that knowledge is key.  Well, if you apply those two terms to what your friends and neighbors are searching for online you come up with some interesting information.

A recent survey of the popular search engine Google's top-ranked inquiries - ranked by state - sheds light on the situation. Many of the top-results for each state make sense if you consider their geography or the demographics.  A good majority of the states search results partner well to the percentage of occurrence in that state.  (Example - Nevada's search results for "skin cancer", tied to their sunny environment or California's "syphilis" result in comparison its occurrence in the state).

Looking at our region, we find that "hemorrhoids" is the most-searched medical item in Minnesota, "ADHD" is what gets Googled most in Wisconsin, and "endometriosis" is the most-often searched medical term on Google for Michigan.  Looking across all 50 states, the top three searches (in order) were ADHD, syphilis, and HIV/AIDS.

Any conversation about using the internet as a source of medical information should come with the (obvious) disclosure that web-searches aren't always highly-credible; just like any subject matter, medical sites can be full of misinformation and untruths.  No medical search should be used in place of personal medical advice from an actual physician.

 

More From KOOL 101.7