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If you search for Hillary Clinton and health on Google, youre likely to come up with some pretty terrifying stuff and much of it is false.Photos of the 68-year-old Democratic presidential nominee apparently soweak that she has to behelped up a short flight ofstairs by aides. Speculation that thehead injury she suffered in 2012is still affecting her.Documents purportedly summarizingvisits to a medical provider for an unspecified illness.

Regardless of whether you think its fair, Clintonshealth is becoming an issue in the campaign, and its almost impossible for the average personto sort through themisinformation and fake information online to get to the facts.

For the record, Clinton hasreleased a letter from herpersonal physicians attesting to hergood health and fitness toserve as president of the United States, should she be elected.(Clintons Republican rival, DonaldTrump, who appears to be healthy, has done the same, althoughthe letter is highly unusual.)

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Also for the record,the photos of her being helped up the stairs arent recent but from months ago; her doctor has specifically addressed the issue of lingering effects of the old accident on her brain (there are none); and those papers which appeared, then disappeared were apparentlyforgeries.

That hasnt stopped some critics of Clinton from seizing on the rumors to portray her as being in poorhealth.Rudy Giuliani urged people toGo online and put down, Hillary Clinton illness, and take a look at the videos yourself. Fox Newshost Sean Hannity has described Clinton shaking her head as almost seems seizure-esque to me. And who can forget Trump's allegations that she took a short-circuit in the brain?

For more specifics, check out The Washington Posts Fact Checker, where reporterGlen Kesslerhas posted a detailed analysis of what has been said about her health and how those comments hold up.

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From the days ofWoodrow Wilson (whose failinghealth was concealed by his inner circle of advisers) and Franklin Roosevelt (who despitehis weight loss and weakness ranfor his fourth and final term),thehealth of presidential candidates and presidents has long been a source of public interest and debate.In 1999, when John McCain first ran for the highest office, he made public1,500 pages of medical and psychiatric records. Then in 2008, after he had been diagnosed and treated for cancer, McCain allowed reporters to review even more records toconfirm that he was cancer-free. During the2004 campaign, George W. Bush released records that showed, among other things, extensive dental work.

As with every other presidential candidate in the past including the youthful Barack Obama questionsabout Clintons health are legitimate. In December 2012, shecontracted a stomach virus while in Europe as secretary of state, became dehydrated, fainted at her home and suffereda concussion. Doctors monitoring her found a blood clot, and she was treated withanti-coagulants and soon returned to her regular routine representing the country.

Since then, her health and age have periodically been an issue. In 2014, when her name began to be mentioned more frequently as a presidential contender, theNew York Post ran this headline Karl Rove: Hillary may have brain damage. Rove told The Washington Postthathe had not gone that far but only said that she should provide more information about the head injury.

Of course she doesnt have brain damage, Rove said, according to my colleagueKaren Tumulty. However, he said, it was a serious health episode andshe is going to have to be forthcoming.

But in todaysera of social media, sometimes the most important (that is, true) information doesnt always riseto the top.

That leads us totodays news and the fact that Farhad Manjoo, the influential New York Times tech columnist, has called on Google to figure out a way to solve this issue of bogus information.

Google should fix this. It shouldnt give quarter to conspiracy theorists, hetweeted.

The search enginedid recently revampits medical symptoms searches.But Googletypically doesnt like to fiddle around with search results, and the controversy is another reminder that health informationcan be among the most tricky things to research online.

This post has been updated.

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Dont believe everything you read about Hillary Clintons ...