Beware misinterpreting symptoms.

The old joke about the man who went to his doctor saying he knew he was sick because he had just read an article about a disease that had no symptoms isn't always funny to physicians. That's because they frequently see patients who have absorbed so much helpful "information" from family, friends, strangers, and the media that they no longer can sort out their original symptoms from those they have psychologically assumed, explains Leonard Morgan, a family medicine specialist at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

"Physicians depend upon the patient to describe in detail, and in an appropriate time frame, the characteristics and evolution of their symptoms. Then, we can match this with our knowledge of how diseases present, in order to reach a conclusion. When we start with incorrect information, we can't come to a valid diagnosis without the possibility of errors. And when you're talking about disease, errors can be costly, both economically and in terms of health."

Many symptoms are much more general than most people realize. Consequently, they frequently are misdiagnosed by the patient. "We don't have that many systems in the body, and they only have a limited number of ways - meaning symptoms - by which to signal that something is wrong. So, when you get |Symptom X,' there is no way you can say with absolute certainty what is wrong until the problem has...