The Dayton Daily News asked area health professionals if they saw the same trends in cases and if people should rely on what they read in an online search.
While Dr. Josh Ordway of Premier Health’s Springboro Family Medicine didn’t see an abnormally high number of strep throat cases last year, but said he saw more cases in older patients. Typically, strep throat is common childhood illness.
“It is very contagious,” said Ordway, adding the bacteria that causes strep throat is spread by respiratory droplets.
Ordway said he’s often asked about cholesterol and blood pressure. Paying attention to those numbers help patients address risks for heart disease and heart attacks, he said.
“Bad cholesterol increases your risk for a cardiovascular event like heart attack and stroke. High blood pressure also increases your risk for heart attack and stroke,” Ordway said. “If you’ve got high blood pressure and high bad cholesterol, it really increases your risk for one of those bad, potentially fatal things happening.”
Those numbers could be elevated due to genetic factors and/or lifestyle choices, he said, and the best way to lower them is through eating healthy and exercising regularly.
People should try to eat five-plus servings of fruits and vegetables a day, Ordway said, while also trying to limit carbohydrates, to limit or eliminate trans fats, and to limit saturated fats.
“Cardiovascular exercise is amazing for both of those,” Ordway said. He suggested exercising, getting your heart rate up in some way, for about 30 minutes a day for five days a week.
What is safe online
It’s okay to find health information using a Google search, but local public health experts say you should make sure it’s coming from a reliable source.
“The CDC website, the Health and Human Services website, those sites have a large amount of information about a lot of different topics, and then they may also provide additional resources,” said Dan Suffoletto, public information manager at Public Health - Dayton and Montgomery County.
Known local health care providers and accredited universities, particularly medical schools, may also have articles related to different topics and also articles related to new research, he said.
People can also check the website’s domain, said Nate Smith, communications coordinator for the Clark County Combined Health District. Websites with domains like government (.gov), educational (.edu), and healthcare institution (.org) are almost always more reliable than commercial (.com) websites, he said.
“Additionally, be cautious of personal blogs or sites with a clear commercial agenda,” Smith said.
Other ways to determine the reliability of a website include making sure the information has an up-to-date publication date, cross-checking information, looking for citations and references, and checking for bias, he said. Well-edited content is also more likely to be reliable.
Understanding the purpose of the website is also important, Smith said. Educational and informational sites are more reliable than site selling products or promoting specific views.
Factors that could indicate a source may not be trustworthy include a lack of authorship or attribution, no citations or references, overly sensational or biased language, inconsistency with other sources, a lack of transparency, commercial intent or advertising, anonymous or unverifiable claims, and/or lack of editorial review, Smith said.
Top searches
Below are the top trending health questions of 2023, according to Google:
- How long is strep contagious?
- How contagious is strep throat?
- How to lower cholesterol?
- What helps with bloating?
- What causes low blood pressure?
- What causes warts?
- Why do I feel nauseous?
- What causes preeclampsia?
- How to stop snoring?
- How long does food poisoning last?
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