Medical question are unclear in [help]

Question

The only thing that the help centre (in on-topic section) state about medical advice is:

General injury treatment or medical advice (off-topic)

This does not state why these are a bad idea nor does it define the "general" aspect. These should be defined more clearly.

Those might be defined in Are Questions About Treating Injuries Off Topic? However, the answer there are incomplete and are not included in the FAQ.

What should be the text linked to the FAQ?

PS: Thanks to tjfuke for pointing this out.

Answer 1

I'm a mod on two other related sites, fitness and health.

On both of those sites, questions asking for health guidance or diagnosis are closed as being off topic. Where it gets a little gray, is when they are asking about training with the injury but not about treating the injury.

If the question is something like "I have pain when I do a pushup, whats wrong?" it's closed. We can't tell what's wrong, and even if we guess, we could be in error and cause greater injury. Same with "I broke a bone, when can I train again?" - only answer is "When your doc says ok". And so on.

If the question is more along the lines of "I have a pectoral tear, what are some exercises I can do as an alternative to push ups" that would be ok. It is acknowledging the injury, but not asking for treatment/diagnosis on it. If I answer, I usually say to work with a medical professional as well.

So if it is about figuring out what causes/caused something, is my "X" healed, why does X hurt, kind of questions, off topic. The rest, case by case basis usually centered around how it is worded.

Answer 2

I'm not good at short statements, so I'm not going to be much good in providing a succinct summary of the argument, but I do agree with Sardathion's comment in the question that inspired this that we are not medical professionals, and should not offer suggestions of treatment (and should be wary of providing advice for people with pressing medical issues), but that injury prevention (e.g., how to hold your kicking foot so that you don't twist your ankle on impact on a side kick, or why bending your knee to the outside in Capoeira on an esquiva helps prevent knee injuries if stepped upon) and how to work around an injury (e.g., mental visualization, or doing "chair exercises" while recovering from a broken ankle) are perfectly reasonable.