--the learning curve is quite long; the symptoms can be caused by so many etiologies.

People often come here with baffling symptoms and want simple, direct answers, when there may not be such things. Many of us are mysterious, multifactorial, and under-informed, at least at the start, and, unless we are very lucky, our doctor's don't typically help much. It takes time to transform into a proactive, searching, discriminating consumer of medical info and to parse the possibilities as more or less likely, and to eventually become a critical evaluator able to drive the investigatory and therapeutic protocol.