Do you spend hours after hours huddled around your desktop or laptop PC looking for medical information? If you, you may be like many if us -- and what experts are calling "cyberchondriacs."

All that self-diagnosis (much of which is generally false) reminds many of first-year medical students due to so much information being present to anyone with internet access these days. Result: people become overly anxious.

Information can be empowering, but too much of it and a lack of context to go along with it can be almost dangerous. Always seek the guidance of a medical professional when in doubt.

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What's the first thing you do when you have a new ailment? Do you call the doctor, chat about it with a spouse or colleague (assuming it's not embarrassing), or check online for more information?

Chances are, you chose the latter. A new poll shows that 160 million people used the Internet to find information about their health problems, which is up 37% from the two previous years. In fact, the practice is so common, that these so-called "cyberchondriacs" make up a whopping 84% of all online adults.

The good news is, that people seem to be finding whatever it is they're looking for -- and, even better, is that the majority of them are then using this information to have an informed conversation with their doctor.

Because let's face it, no matter how much you read, you don't have a medical degree, and there's an enormous amount of information out there -- some of it skewed to scare you, and still more that's just flat out inaccurate. If you're worried about a health problem, the Internet is a great resource, but make sure you follow up on real concerns with your doctor.

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