Hey Thelma

I absolutely agree with you that everyone should always be very careful about not converting personal experience and knowledge gathering into making diagnosis or assumptions about other people's conditions.

Where we share info and experience here and on whatever other health forums we participate in, yet it can never take the place of consulting personally with a qualified healthcare professional.

And yes, we should all be very careful in not allowing sharing of personal information to become an attempt at diagnosing someone else or dispensing medical advise to them.

A very fine line, and one we do always need to be reminded not to cross!
I personally think the members here are generally very respectful of this

I do think tho that sharing our experience and knowledge is nevertheless a very valuable thing....because sometimes it can provide someone with a nugget of information to take to their physician to consider, and that in turn can make a pivotal difference in their health

That was true in the case of my own son...where his intolerance of every medication that the docs tried him on meant that we had no viable treatment options for him, and his prognosis was not good. If I had not come across someone sharing info on nutritional methods that had helped her child, I shudder to think how different my son's life would be.

However
the CRUCIAL issue is that I took that information to our doctors and sought their advice and guidance and in that way we were able to bring a turnaround for my son.

So where we should be very careful, yes, not to attempt to "diagnose" others nor to "prescribe" treatments for them, still we should also not feel stifled to share personal experience as that too can be valuable to someone somewhere, provided they use that information wisely and filter it through the guidance of a qualified healthcare professional!

Definitely a fine line, but one that we do need to be frequently reminded of, that sharing experience and knowledge and ideas and opinions does not equate to making diagnoses nor prescribing medical advice