The Modern Gal has been a bit under the weather for the past 24 hours after what she suspects might be a case of food poisoning (she knew that Taco Bell was a bad idea from the start, yet she went for it anyway.)

As the daughter of two health care professionals, I don’t generally recommend turning to the internets to self-diagnose an illness, but sometimes when you have a pretty good idea of what’s going on with your body a few websites can be helpful.

The sites I buzzed through today to get an idea of what I needed to be doing to take care of myself included WebMD, Healthline and Helia. They seemed to concur in what treatment I needed to seek.

Here are a few of my own tips in using the internet to research a medical condition:
1. Don’t use Google. There’s a wealth of wrong health information out there, and googling may land you on something that looks legit, but turns out to be hogwash. It’s best to go straight to websites that are managed by real healthcare professionals.
2. When researching, perform a search that includes ALL of your symptoms. And do searches on your symptoms rather than the illnesses you think you may have. You’re more likely to end up with a proper diagnosis.
3. If you have any ounce of uncertainty about what’s going on with your body, call your doctor or visit a minor medical clinic.

I basically confirmed what I already suspected I needed to do to treat my symptoms: drink lots of water and eat bland foods. Yippee.