This is especially true of legal issues here. I routinely see people giving advice for, or arguing over, points of law they clearly have only a surface level understanding of. I see people asking for legal advice on important topics, on which they could be seriously screwed by simple missteps no decent lawyer would make, and getting it from non-lawyers. I've probably sounded like a broken record over the years by saying "stop reading these and ask a lawyer".
It doesn't surprise me that the same thing happens with medical or other types of advice.
The bottom line is, don't take advice on anything specialized over the internet. Talk to a specialist, or do the loads of research yourself that it requires to form an educated opinion.
This is true, but: for many areas of expertise where I am pretty much ignorant, I wouldn't even know about existence of certain terms, ideas and starting points if I haven't first read about them on internet forums. With the obvious disclaimer that I usually do a followup readup on such topics.
So "stop reading these and ask an expert" is obviously a good piece of advice for someone seeking resolution of their own serious problems but there's still value in reading internet discussions.
It doesn't surprise me that the same thing happens with medical or other types of advice.
The bottom line is, don't take advice on anything specialized over the internet. Talk to a specialist, or do the loads of research yourself that it requires to form an educated opinion.