Lauren Bannon, a mother of two first noticed she was having trouble bending her fingers in the morning and evening and was told by doctors she had rheumatoid arthritis despite testing negative for the condition.
Lauren Bannon, who owns a marketing company then had to turn to ChatGPT after experiencing strong stomach pains and being told by doctors it was acid reflux, in order to find the cause of her symptoms.
She then tested positive for Hashimoto’s disease while having no family history of the disease, there’s one catch though, the doctors were only hesitant to test for the disease after it was ChatGPT who made the suggestion that she might have Hashimoto’s disease.
The doctors after she tested positive and ChatGPT turned out to be right performed an ultrasound of her thyroid and found two small lumps in her neck that were confirmed as cancer in October 2024.
She now credits ChatGPT with saving her life after not knowing the cause of her symptoms and what was happening to her saying that it seemed that doctors were just interested , it seemed to her, in giving out medication.
She says she “felt so desperate” not getting the answers she needed.
Lauren Bannon was using ChatGPT for work and when she asked which conditions appear similar to rheumatoid arthritis, ChatGPT answered she might have Hashimoto’s disease and to ask her doctor to check her thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPO) levels.
After the cancer diagnosis in Jan 2025, Lauren Bannon underwent an operation to remove the two lymph nodes from her neck and she will be under lifelong monitoring.
She now believes her condition would have remained undetected had it not been for ChatGPT as she did not present the typical symptoms of Hashimoto’s disease, she felt neither tired nor exhausted, she would’ve just taken the rheumatoid arthritis medicine and the cancer would’ve spread from her neck to other parts of the body.
All of the tests were coming back negative.
While Lauren Bannon is encouraging others to investigate their health concerns with ChatGPT she recommends acting with caution and that if it gives something to look into to ask one’s doctors to test them.
“AI is not a replacement for human medical expertise” Dr. Harvey Castro said he urges caution while welcoming the role of AI in raising awareness and prompting faster medical action, a board-certified emergency medicine physician and national speaker on AI based in Dallas, Texas.
