Not So Obvious Signs That Scream You Need To See A Doctor

Sep 10, 2018

Many tend to ignore minor health issues that don’t impede daily life, such as painful periods or copious amounts of hair going down the bathtub drain, shrugging it off as something to deal with later or that will resolve itself on its own.

According to the Public Health Sciences Unit at the University of Glasgow, men are less attentive to minor health issues and seek medical advice for such issues less often and quickly than their female counterparts. Accurate and successful treatment often relies upon early detection and diagnosis. So, while not all minor health issues require the immediate raising of all your red flags, it’s dangerous to completely ignore these and assume they’ll always go away without medical intervention.

Let’s look at some minor problems that might be signaling the need for medical attention.

There are innumerable reasons for lumps to appear under the skin. It can be as simple as folliculitis of a hair follicle. Lipomas are subcutaneous soft tissue tumors that feel very rubbery and are almost always harmless. Neurofibromas are slow-growing masses that usually don’t cause problems unless it compresses a nerve.

However, such lumps and bumps under the skin may also be indicative of skin cancer. Lumps around the neck may be indicative of neck, throat, or lymphatic cancer. Lumps in the breast or armpit tissue may signal breast cancer or hormonal imbalances.

Consult your primary care physician or dermatologist about any lump or bump that doesn’t go away within a week.

It’s not usual to experience some fatigue, minor breathing difficulties, and residual cough following a common cold, but these symptoms sticking around longer than a week could be indicative of an immune system deficiency or walking pneumonia.

Consult your physician if you just can’t seem to shake the cold or you experience unusual sounds as you inhale or exhale, such as wheezing or whistling.

Of course, there are a host of chronic and acute respiratory diseases that list shortness of breath (SOB) and dyspnea as a symptom. But, if you don’t experience other respiratory symptoms, you’re likely to shrug these breathing difficulties off. There are non-respiratory issues that could be causing your periodic breathing difficulties, such as when the stomach’s contents enter the esophagus during acid reflux. Breathing difficulties can also indicate heart disease.

Such breathing difficulties should always be discussed with a healthcare professional as soon as possible.

Changes to your hair’s structure and growth rate and hair loss are the first indicators that something is amiss in your endocrine system. Hormone changes quickly affect the hair because hair cells are the quickest duplicators in the body.

Your primary physician can help you look for other signs of hormonal imbalances, such as weight and mood fluctuations, to determine if you should see an endocrinologist.

It’s not uncommon for teens to experience significant pain in the first few years of starting their monthly cycles. This pain should lessen over time. Severe pain and cramps that continue well into adulthood aren’t so normal. In fact, it’s one of the most common signs of endometriosis, a condition involving the endometrial tissue growing beyond covering the uterus. This tissue has been discovered growing as far as the intestines. Endometriosis is a common cause of female infertility.

If you’re experiencing painful adult menstruation cycles, especially in conjunction with reproductive difficulties, it would be prudent to schedule an appointment with your gynecologist.

Small wounds that won’t seem to heal may be a sign of basal cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer. Men are more prone to it than women, and it can be treated quite efficiently and effectively in its early stages. Keep in mind that these can appear anywhere, such as the scalp, and may not be painful.

When minor scratches, blisters, and so forth seem to take an inordinate amount of time to heal or continually deteriorate, it may be a sign of diabetes. Diabetic skin not only has difficulty healing itself, it is actually significantly more prone to break down.

Consult your primary care physician when any wound doesn’t heal within a few weeks or worsens instead of improves with first aid measures.

Sleepless nights can cause severe irritability in young children, and children not yet talking may not be able to communicate what’s happening. If your child develops sudden morning irritability, look at how they’re sleeping at night. If you find they aren’t resting well, it could be due to a number of issues. Most of these issues will be accompanied by other symptoms that can help you identify the problem; an ear infection, for example, may be accompanied by the child constantly holding or pulling at their ear.

One problem that may not have such obvious symptoms accompanying it is pinworms. These parasites operate at night and may lead to itching and scratching that keeps your child in a sleepless state of discomfort that they can’t explain or verbalize.

Did you know the largest organ in the human body is actually the skin? As such, it’s often the first area that communicates what’s going on underneath it. Science has called the skin the window into general health.

A purple rash on the lower legs may be a sign of hepatitis C infection. Yellowing of the skin may be a sign that the liver is in distress. Darkening of the skin’s natural color, especially around skin folds, may be a sign of hormonal diseases, such as Addison’s disease. Skin that gets red easily and without sunlight may be signaling heart disease or hypertension. Yellowing of just the armpits may signal too much iron in the diet. White patches of skin developing can be a symptom of vitiligo, a disease that destroys melanin in the skin.

Such skin changes should be discussed with a dermatologist or primary care physician.

Dilated pupils are indicative of more than just head trauma. Pupils that stay dilated are indicative of the serious eye, infectious, and neurological disease processes that require immediate medical examination.

As you see, many seemingly insignificant signals your body is throwing off can be a warning sign that something far more serious is going on under the surface. Are you experiencing any of them? Do you plan to seek medical advice? Can you think of any others not listed here? Feel free to use the comment section to tell us about it.

Our content is created to the best of our knowledge, yet it is of general nature and cannot in any way substitute an individual consultation with your doctor. Your health is important to us!