D.W.
As some one involved in health education, I think your idea is a good one as long as you position it correctly.
A recent survey found that over 40% of all information claiming to be health related on the internet is actually misinformation leading the average person to be really confused and often led down the wrong path.
If you position your site as stories about health conditions but not as an authority on health conditions specifically, I think you'll have a lot more traction. There's no doubt that there's a big movement towards natural treatments (I personally don't subscribe to that movement as a biologist). I think the responsibility needs to be presenting accurate information in the proper context so people can choose to investigate and research more.
In the spirit of social media, though, I think it's a great idea. You may want to do some intense searches on Google/Bing/Yahoo! to see if there's anything similar to what you're doing out there and see how they've been able to be successful or to learn from some of their missteps.
Good luck!