HEALTH: Medical Signals You Shouldn’t Ignore

Diseases, such as cancer, kidney failure, and diabetes, do not start in a day. The symptoms must have been manifesting one way or the other, but many that have been afflicted by these conditions ignored or dismissed them for various reasons – usually negligence.

In some cases, especially for the religious, life-threatening diseases only strike the unfaithful or those who have allowed the devil to interfere. Even when the signs have generated to symptoms, they would rather choose to live in denial or simply continue to ‘reject’ the issues.

Doctors state that 95 per cent of diseases claiming people’s lives daily in thousands could be prevented if people took their health and some signs they give seriously by going to a physician.

They  stress that not every sickness can be ‘rejected’ and hypertension, stroke and heart attack are not a reward for drinking too much, smoking or other vices that many are quick to blame for serious life-threatening diseases.

The Chief Medical Director, Active Hospitals, Lekki, Lagos State , Dr. Odun Johnson,  says the joy of any doctor is a patient that comes on time, adding that by doing so, the life of that individual who would have died of kidney failure if he ignored the blood in his urine is saved.

Johnson says, “I see patients suffer diseases that could have been effectively treated if detected early and no one is more pained than the doctor whose efforts  at saving lives is wasted.

 “No death is sudden if not an accident. The body must have been giving red-light signals like the warnings you see on your dash board. You have been seeing blood in your urine, is it wise to dismiss it? You should know that blood is not meant to show up in that channel, you should complain to a doctor and not pray that it will stop showing.”

 A professor of internal medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, United States of America, Neil Shulman, states that medical symptoms are there to prevent deaths from occurring.

He says, “It happens all the time, a symptom is missed – and it leads to a tragic ending. Or it’s caught just in time, and a life is saved. People feel aches, pains, lumps and bumps. But they must know when it is important or not for them to take a step or dismiss it.”

You need not fear when next you feel that pang of headache, not all medical symptoms will become serious but Shulman, in his book, ‘Your Body’s Red Light Warning Signals,’ gives some medical symptoms that mean that you need urgent medical attention.

• If you have unexplained weight loss and/or loss of appetite, you may have a serious underlying medical illness.

“If you’re on a diet, you’re expecting this to happen. But if you’re eating the same way – and now have to adjust your belt a few notches tighter – you could have a serious problem,” Shulman says.

“With ovarian cancer, the opposite is true,” he says. “Fluid builds in the abdomen, and women think they are gaining weight. But if you have been at the same weight range for years, and doing nothing different, see a doctor.”

• Slurred speech, paralysis, weakness, tingling, burning pains, numbness, and confusion are signs of a stroke, and you should get to an appropriate emergency centre immediately. Early treatment may prevent permanent damage to the brain or even save your life.

Slurred speech can often go unnoticed, says Shulman. However, you might have a blood clot in a blood vessel going to the brain or bleeding in a blood vessel.

• Black, tarry stools may indicate a hemorrhage from an ulcer of the stomach or the intestine. It is important to stop the bleeding and to rule out cancer as a cause.

What you eat changes the colour of stools. But black, tarry stools mean there may be bleeding higher in the intestine, says Shulman. It could be a sign of a bleeding ulcer or cancer in the intestine.

• A headache accompanied by a stiff neck and fever is an indicator of a serious infection called meningitis.

In fact, if you can’t put your chin on your chest, that’s a sign you may have bacterial meningitis, says Shulman. You need antibiotics immediately to kill the bacteria before it infects and scars the brain.

• A sudden, agonising headache, more severe than any you have felt before, could mean you are bleeding in the brain. Go to an emergency room immediately.

A brain aneurysm is rare, but it can happen – even in people under 40. “It can be very disastrous if it’s not treated,” says Shulman. If you have a severe, crushing headache, you may have an aneurysm, which is a blood-filled pouch bulging out from a weak spot in the wall of a brain artery. If treated before it bursts, it could save your life.

• For women, vaginal bleeding after menopause is a warning sign of possible cancer.

Some women are in denial when they discover postmenopausal bleeding. “Others think it’s a little cut, or something in their urine,” says Shulman. But bleeding after menopause is a sign of uterine cancer, which is treatable if caught early.

• For men, a lump in your testicle with or without a small lump in the groin could be serious. Testicular cancer is more commonly found in testicles that did not naturally descend from the abdomen to the scrotum.

Guys, when you take a shower, check yourself, says Shulman. “That doesn’t mean you have to do it every day, but once in a while. It’s so simple, simpler than washing your hair. It becomes an automatic thing, then it’s easier to remember. If you know what ‘normal’ feels like, then you’ll know when it feels abnormal.”

Source: Punch Nigeria