Asperger's and Illness

I feel as though I have never been good at determining when my son is not feeling well. He doesn't tell me. He just goes on with his day - feels crappy and behaves badly. I am not sure if he knew when he felt bad when he was little. How could he with so little to compare his physical feeling to an no tangible link as to why illness came when it did? He needs that link after all - so it makes sense.

Not only does he not complain when he feels poorly, he doesn't typically display any signs of being ill like a fever, a cough, a runny nose. Of course, if it's a severe enough illness like the flu or something, there is no mistaking his symptoms, but colds and other minor maladies . . . nothing. The health issue that most typically affected my son was an ear infection. With these (as well as sinus infections) there is not always outward displays - until they get pretty bad. Where my son was concerned, the way I began to really know that he wasn't feeling well was when he begins behaving differently that I know he is supporting some virus or bacteria. They tend to bring out his obnocious side. So many times as a little boy I only knew he was sick when he got mouthy or overly defensive.
I suppose we all lose our ability to tolerate situations a bit when we are not feeling well. We lose our patience and our stamina. My son is no different. He loses his ability to make those learned decisions about what an appropriate reaction might look like and says the first words that come to mind. Often and because he doesn't feel well (he crabby) they aren't the best choice.
Instead, he worries. He asks 'questions like: "Will I die?", "Will I be like this forever?" and "What if I don't get better?"
-All extremely legitimate and concerning.

As a teenager he deals with illness or any physical symptom - the same way he approaches all other curiosities - with research! He makes a list, checks his symptoms against it and then rules out ailments through reason and investigation.
Unfortunately, this leads to a fair amount of hypochondria. In an world where the internet provides daily proof that nobody is really sure what is going on or why, the incomplete data surrounding just about everything, seems to ensure that we are left not with a better understanding than we had before we went looking for answers as we believe the internet should be able to provide, but a complete and utter lack of any concrete or definitive information that we can ascribe to our situation, ailment or condition.
He could have anything from a very quick and lethal cancer, to a mosquito bite. Usually, he worries that it's something really bad - because how can anyone be sure in a world where the whole of the internet could be a possibility?

My son is older now (still just a teenager) but he still navigates his life through the portal of the internet. He is less likely to ask if he might be a diabetic when he is simply exhausted. He is less prone to believing all that makes him sure he will one day become a hefty and sickly human - would this were possible from his 5'9" - 125lb, intensely active frame.

Stress tends to bring out the hypochondriac in him. When he worries, it's hard to stop somewhere. When he concentrates as he worries, his ideas grow. As he follows his thought pattern they become larger than him. Unfortunately, the same capabilities and aptitudes that make him one of the best problem solvers that I have ever met, also make him the worst worrier about his health ever.