Health Subforum Rules - PLEASE READ!

1. The Health Forum is a space for sharing thoughts, personal experiences, and info regarding wellness topics. Just a heads-up: please use any information or advice found here at your own risk. This isn't a substitute for professional medical advice from your doctor.

2. Please be respectful. Harassing other members or leaking anyone's private business without permission is strictly forbidden. To keep everyone safe, don't post any sensitive personal data...

3. Don't go copying entire articles from other websites or using someone else's writing without giving them credit. Also, try not to clutter the forum with massive, unreadable walls of text. If you want to share an article, just drop a link instead!

4. We aren't really a chat room, so please avoid sending rapid-fire messages like that; moderators will step in and delete them if they become disruptive.

5. No direct advertising allowed.

6. Promoting illegal activities or pyramid schemes is a huge no-no. This includes posting hyperlinks to those kinds of sites or anything containing adult content.

7. Our moderators are here to protect our community and make sure everyone follows these guidelines to keep things running smoothly.

The following rules are now officially in effect:

8. The Health subforum is strictly dedicated to conventional, science-based medicine. You aren't allowed to push alternative medicine or methods here. For the sake of clarity, anything deemed ineffective or harmful by mainstream science is considered an alternative. If that’s what you're interested in, head over to the alternative medicine subforum. Additionally, promoting any medications that haven't been cleared by the FDA is strictly prohibited.

9. Discussions regarding how to consume illegal drugs or tips on how to hide drug use are forbidden. Most importantly, attempting to influence or encourage someone else to use drugs will be met with severe penalties.

10. Any posts containing text in a foreign language must include a brief English translation.

11. Posts that include links must provide a description explaining what the linked content actually is.

12. I’d suggest that users check out the topic list and use the forum search tool before starting a new thread. Creating a new topic when an identical one already exists on the list or on the first page of the subforum may result in sanctions, depending on the moderator's discretion.

13. Do not comment on moderator warnings, decisions, or interventions within the threads of this subforum. If you have an issue with a moderator, use PMs or contact the Administration.

Most of these "new" rules are just old, unwritten ones that certain users have stubbornly ignored, even after being warned by moderators.

HOW TO USE THE SEARCH FUNCTION

Since quite a few of you—despite browsing through our topic list (and for that, I suppose, my thanks to 😉)—occasionally struggle to locate an existing thread and end up opening a duplicate one unnecessarily, we would suggest utilizing the Search function. To reach the specific discussion you are looking for more efficiently, one really ought to understand how to navigate the forum's search tool. So, to begin with:

The Search tool is located in the upper right-hand corner. If your interests lie within the Health/Women's Health subforums, you really should enter those specific sections first before clicking on the search icon.



Now, once you type a term into that field, you will likely be presented with a deluge of threads that may or may not actually relate to your query—simply because many posts contain your keyword, even if they aren't discussing what you actually care about. It happens quite often that the exact information you need seems missing, when in reality, the thread exists; it just didn't surface. For that reason, we don't particularly recommend basic searches, but rather the so-called advanced search. It is quite useful if you are hunting for a very specific discussion.

Within the advanced search, you have several options at your disposal:



The options highlighted in red represent the most effective method for finding topics, as shown in the image above. In the advanced search field, you can input multiple related terms, such as: bacteria bacterial infections bacteriology bacteriological swab and so forth.

It is also worth noting—and this might be a bit of a nuisance—that the search engine usually won't pull up a word or acronym shorter than four letters; things like HIV or HPV might not show up on their own. Therefore, it is necessary to pair those terms with something else, perhaps virus swab infection transmission therapy and so on. This can occasionally act as an obstacle to finding the right thread, so please feel free to reach out to the moderators if you find yourself stuck.

Once you have located a thread of interest, please post there. If there happen to be multiple similar or identical threads, the moderators can easily go in later to edit, merge, or move posts to a more constructive single thread. Of course, if a topic truly does not exist, then you are perfectly welcome to start a new one. 😉

So, dear forum members, we hope this makes searching a bit easier for you, even though we have tried our best to ensure almost all significant discussions in the Health section are available in our Topic List—which we update daily to prevent the creation of unnecessary duplicate threads. Happy posting. 👋

Just a heads-up: on the Health subforum, selling, trading, or even giving away meds, supplements, or whatever else is strictly off-limits.

If you’ve got some extra pills sitting around and were thinking about selling or gifting them to someone, please don't post about it here.

Don't spam the same question across multiple threads or hunt for answers by jumping from topic to topic. If you have a question, post it once and wait for someone to get back to you.

The moderators will delete duplicate posts, leaving only one standing.

We don't delete posts or active threads just because a user asks. There are rare exceptions—extreme cases where someone’s private info, like a full name or phone number, is exposed.

To our community members: please think twice before you hit send. Ask yourself if you're truly comfortable with this information being public.

Once it's out there, it stays. We won't honor requests to scrub posts later simply because you changed your mind about sharing details regarding your life or medical history.

We ask all members to refrain from personal attacks against anyone, including specific healthcare professionals you may have had negative encounters with.

The Health subforum is not the place for that kind of language. Please respect the community standards. This includes insults such as "idiot," "moron," or any other derogatory terms directed at others, even when naming specific doctors or practitioners.

Posts containing this type of content will be removed and subject to sanctions without further notice.

Thank you for understanding.

To all our community members,

We are updating and clarifying the policy regarding discussions about alternative medicine (anything falling outside the scope of mainstream medical practice):

fadedmarlin402 notes:
8. The Health subforum is strictly tied to conventional, science-based medicine. Imposing alternative views or treatment methods is prohibited. Within these rules, alternative medicine refers to any substances or methods that lack support from mainstream medicine and science—specifically those deemed harmful or ineffective. For such topics, please use the Alternative Medicine subforum.

The rule is being revised and expanded. Please read it carefully; failure to comply will result in sanctions.

In the Health and Pediatric Health sections, it is strictly prohibited to directly or indirectly testify in a positive light (sharing personal anecdotes like, "I’m just sharing what worked for me, not telling others to do it"), to solicit positive testimonials ("I'm just wondering if this has ever helped anyone"), or to advocate for/positively promote:

a) any form of "treatment" that falls outside of medicine and which the medical establishment considers life-threatening or dangerous (this includes, but is not limited to, MMS drops, colloidal silver, "Vitamin B17," and other toxins), regardless of whether an individual claims these methods helped them;

b) any form of "treatment" outside of mainstream medicine, with the exception of herbal preparations, vitamins, minerals, and dietary supplements (for instance, discussing homeopathy, bioenergy, or biorezonance is not permitted), regardless of whether an individual claims these methods helped them;

c) advising others, either directly or indirectly, to abandon a therapy prescribed by doctors following standard medical protocols.

Discussions regarding herbal preparations, vitamins, minerals, and dietary supplements are permitted, provided they are not toxic or life-threatening, and provided the posts do not suggest—directly or indirectly—that one should disregard the instructions of a licensed physician acting within professional standards.

Hey everyone, if you're looking for some help from the community with research or running a survey, BEFORE you go ahead and start a new thread or drop a link to a survey, you absolutely have to check in with the Health section moderators via DM. Just shoot them a private message explaining what the goal is, who’s running the show, and why you're doing it. I guess the topic just needs to actually be relevant to the Health subforum. You can only post that stuff AFTER the mods and admins give you the green light. If you don't, we'll just have to delete the threads or posts, and the people posting them will get sanctioned.

Hey everyone, heads up!

The admins just dropped a new rule: from here on out, IT IS NOT allowed to post links to photos of genitals, even if you're just trying to describe some health issue.