Have you ever had a weird ache that had you umming and ahhing about whether to book a doctor’s appointment? Or wondered if you need to get this probably minor thing checked out?
Our modern lives of overworking, poor sleep routines and general life stress all exacerbate a wide variety of symptoms. However, there are some things that, though seemingly small, may require a second opinion.
The Independent spoke to Dr Lori Solomon, chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at New York Medical College, and Dr Estelle Williams, medical director for CityMD for the southern New Jersey region to get their thoughts on which symptoms should really not be ignored.
Going to the bathroom too frequently
Waking up in the middle of the night needing to pee is totally normal, Solomon tells The Independent. But if that’s something you’re doing two or three times per night – every night – that might be indicative of a more serious problem.
Over-frequent urination can be a symptom of diabetes. “When your sugar is high, one of the ways the body tries to get rid of the sugar, is to get rid of it through the urine,” Soloman says. “During the day, you just go to the bathroom more often, but at nighttime, you often have to wake up.”
Williams agrees, adding that other worrying signs can be feeling more thirsty and a significant increase in appetite. “Those are the types of things I think need to be checked sooner rather than later,” she says.
Pain in the night
Any pain that wakes you up during the night could be a problem. While pulled muscles, physical injuries, or other discomforts may hinder someone getting to sleep – they shouldn’t be disturbing you once you’re asleep, Solomon says.
“If you’re waking up in the middle of the night with a headache, you’ve got a problem… because usually we don’t wake up with headaches in the middle of the night,” she says. “If that’s waking you up at night – I’m a little bit more worried about that.”
Sudden headaches
Headaches are “super common,” and shouldn’t necessarily be considered worrisome, Solomon says.
However, if a headache is accompanied by other things such as vision changes, nausea tingling in the extremities, weakness – those may be a sign that something neurological is going on.
Williams cautions those who jump to label sudden, severe headaches as migraines. “A migraine is actually a very specific diagnosis and headache pattern, requiring neurologic evaluation,” she says. “It’s good that you get evaluated if you’re having a headache that’s unusual for you, if it’s very intense.”
Such high-intensity episodes, coming on quickly and out of nowhere, can be what is known as “thunderclap headaches” should definitely necessitate a trip to the emergency room, says Solomon.
Shortness of breath or fatigue
Another symptom that crops up fairly frequently that shouldn’t be ignored is sudden shortness of breath – especially if it’s not something you’ve experienced before, says Williams.
“If you’re like, ‘that’s weird. I was just doing my regular activities and I became very winded and short of breath,’ get that checked,” she says. “I would also say, if you take a deep breath and you develop pain in your chest or your back that you’ve never had before, that can sometimes be a soft sign for a blood clot in the lungs, called a pulmonary embolism, that we certainly want to see for sooner rather than later.
Fatigue too – while common in many people due to hectic work schedules or other lifestyle commitments – should not be significantly interfering with things you would do day-to-day such as exercising, Solomon adds.
In very severe cases, fatigue can be symptomatic of heart disease, sleep apnea, and even some cancers.
Indigestion
There is one less obvious and very typical symptom of heart disease. “It’s very common for people who are having a heart attack to think they’re having indigestion,” Solomon says. “If you’re taking a walk and all of a sudden you feel like, ‘Oh, I’ve got some indigestion’, and then it gets better when you stop walking, that’s your heart.”
A combination of fatigue and indigestion, unconnected to a big meal, is something that people should see the doctor about, she says. It could be due to a lack of blood flow to the heart.
Williams says that bouts of indigestion-like symptoms – pressure or tightness – that last for 15 minutes or 20 minutes can be telling, especially for those who do not typically suffer from indigestion or heartburn.
“Sometimes people think ‘Oh, I just ate something weird, and I must have a bubble of gas in my chest,” she says. “That sensation of indigestion is something that can be an indicator of heart disease… It can be a masker of something more serious.”
Blood in your stool
Monitor your bowels, says Williams, because being constipated or having diarrhea is something that’s different is worth getting checked out. And while it may seem obvious, seeing blood in either your poop or pee is definitely something to see a doctor about.
“If you’re having a change of bowel habits – if you see black stool or a lot of blood when you’re using the restroom, I feel like that’s perhaps not a subtle sign,” William says. “That’s something a little more concerning that means you should come in.”
People often associate blood in the stool as a hemorrhoid, but should not be ignored as it can be a common presentation for colon cancer, according to Solomon.
“In general you generally don’t want to see blood in the urine either,” she says. “But that’s usually kidney stones or urinary tract infections.”
Persistent symptoms
Solomon also warns people to pay attention when things just don’t clear up on their own.
“If there’s a cough lasting more than four weeks, you generally want to see somebody about that,” Solomon says. “There’s lots of reasons you can have a cough, but generally, if you have a cough after a cold, it generally goes away in a few weeks. So if it lasts longer than a month, we generally want to know about that.”
Williams agrees, adding that things that have been happening for months that may seem innocuous may still be worth investigating. Losing weight unintentionally is definitely something worth mentioning to your primary care doctor.
Above all, Solomon recommends that to avoid anything too concerning, take regular visits to your primary care physician, who is better qualified to notice any changes, concerning or otherwise. She encourages people to be over, rather than under-cautious.
“Sometimes people feel silly about coming in with all these different symptoms, but I don’t think we could expect that people are going to know everything that doctors know,” she says.
“I’d rather say it’s nothing and reassure them than miss something that could be really serious if we didn’t catch it in time.”
