Using Artificial Intelligence for Your Health

People are already talking about artificial intelligence replacing doctors and other medical personnel. I don’t think that time is coming anytime soon.

For several reasons.

Most people would like to talk to another human being about their medical problems. They want some empathy. AI also just spits out information that is fed into it. Garbage in, garbage out. There is complex analysis involved and gut instinct.

Along those lines, make sure you use Artificial Intelligence for research only and as a starting point for discussions with your doctor. Don’t use it exclusively to diagnose or treat a medical condition.

Had to throw that disclaimer in.

That doesn’t mean AI can’t be enormously helpful for your health. I’m a huge advocate for taking charge of your own health. That means making decisions on what you believe is best for your own situation. Or the situation of your friends or loved ones if needed.

Remember though that AI is just gathering data from other sources. If those sources are biased or incorrect, the AI will give you wrong information. So just like doctors, you need to analyze the data and make decisions on what believe is accurate.

Another thing to think about. Uploading lots of your personal data and health records to something like AI is voluntarily giving up your information to a tech company. They can turn it around to push products on you or influence government policy. Try to frame your questions in a generic way so it doesn’t seem like you are providing specific health information.

Human nature also tends to prioritize what is focused on. If you’re researching a particular disease and you read a bunch of symptoms, you can often start telling yourself “Gee that sounds like me. Maybe I have that disease.” Try to recognize and avoid that.

That was the bad stuff about AI. Here are some good ways that AI could help you with your health:

Food

• Input your meals for a week or a month and let it tell you what nutrient gaps you might be missing

• Research food allergies and how certain foods may affect you with ‘side effects’

• Check out the menu at restaurants before you go to figure out what foods to eat and what to avoid

• Create meal plans for you or your loved one with recipes and shopping lists that are consistent with your macro goals

• Make lists of foods that are full of the nutrients you may lack

• Give you ideas of what foods to avoid based on your criteria

Medicine - In order to have discussions with your doctor

• Research the side effects of prescription and non-prescription drugs

• Learn how to taper off medications

• Research symptoms you are having to see all the possibilities

• Help interpret lab results and biomarkers

• Create a list of questions for your doctor based on your medications, symptoms and lab results

• See what kinds of interactions certain drugs have with each other

• Determine if one drug is covering up the side effects of another drug

• Figure out what is the best way to pay for a medical procedure - whether to use insurance or pay cash

I’m sure the list is a lot longer than what I’ve covered here. You could also look into exercises that might give you more information about alternate therapies. I hope this has given you some inspiration to use AI to help with your health.

I’d love to hear other ideas you might have.