OWNING a Facebook account does not mean you can give all your friends dodgy medical advice, doctors have warned.
The British Medical Association said having a social media profile is not the same as six years of medical school, however confident you feel about diagnosing ill people.
GP Tom Booker said: “We’re asking the public not to leap in with bullshit medical advice whenever a friend is unwell, such as telling them eating lots of cheese is good for migraines.
“On Facebook people constantly ask for advice and tell you their intimate medical problems, so we can see how users could become confused about not actually being a doctor.
“We’d also ask them to refrain from scaring people shitless, for example by convincing someone with a perfectly ordinary cold they’ve got Lassa fever.”
Facebook user and armchair medic Donna Sheridan said: “I can’t believe these so-called doctor idiots are trying to undermine my 11 years of medical training on Facebook.
“I told my friend Derek to keep using my favourite herbal remedies and I’m sure his appendicitis would have cleared up if they hadn’t rushed him to hospital.”
