“Stop picking at it, you’ll make it worse.”

I must have heard this at least once a week throughout my childhood.

Whether it was a sore loose tooth, an itchy scab healing over a skinned knee, or a midsummer midge bite gone crusty, I was never one for leaving pain alone.

You’d think I’d grow out of it, but as the internet grew alongside me, search engines gave me a whole host of new possible pains to poke and prod at.

These are, of course, the hypothetical health conditions and maybe maladies that afflict any minor hypochondriac with Wi-Fi access.

Over the years, and with the help of Dr Google, I’ve diagnosed myself with brain tumours (migraines), arrhythmia (three shots of espresso in one afternoon) and deep vein thrombosis (calf cramps).

Now, like my long-suffering friends, partner, parents and GPs, you might wish to tell me to ‘step away from the search engine’.

It’s accepted wisdom that Googling your symptoms will only solidify the idea that no, this is not a tension headache and yes, I am in fact going to die tonight.

So we’re generally encouraged to spare ourselves the anxiety of the WebMD deep dive.

However, vindicating new research from Imperial College London has revealed that Google........

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