A doctor has shared three common symptoms you might think are normal but 'must not ignore', including back pain, eye floaters, and chronic fatigue.
It's easy to do. Live gets in the way, you have a lot to get through at work or just so many family and friend events in the calendar that you ignore some discomfort or symptoms you think aren't that serious. But in some cases, those symptoms are actually warning signs, and you should speak to your doctor to get them checked out. With the latest health news making headlines, it can be difficult to differentiate when something should be discussed or not. One experienced doctor has explained what health experiences you shouldn't look past and advised people to visit a healthcare professional to ensure no underlying issues exist.
Back pain is a common symptom you 'must not ignore'
Doctor Dra Ahmed (@dra_says on TikTok), shared three symptoms that must not be ignored.
The first potential warning sign is back pain. Back pain can have many causes, and most of them are completely benign. However, Doctor Ahmed advises people who have suffered with the discomfort for more than six weeks to check with their healthcare provider.
According to Mayo Clinic, back pain is one of the most common reasons people seek medical help and is a leading cause of disability worldwide.
Second on the list is eye floaters, and they shouldn't be ignored, either. Eye floaters are small specks, strands, or clouds that move across your field of vision. Healthdirect explains that eye floaters become more common with age and are caused by changes over time to the 'jelly' (vitreous) inside your eyes, which is attached to the retina.
If you suffer from eye floaters your vision is probably altered with what looks like 'squiggly worms', which Doctor Ahmed says can be see-through or opaque and generally get worse while or after looking at bright lights. Two types of possible treatment exist to remove these - surgery to remove the floaters and laser treatment.
Most of the time there is no unserious underlying cause, but eye floaters can rarely be caused by medical emergencies like a tear, hemorrhage (an acute loss of blood from a damaged blood vessel), or detached retina.
If you experience a sudden increase in the number of eye floaters, or if you can see lots of black spots in your vision, you should ask a doctor.
Fatigue is often unchecked
The final common symptom Doctor Ahmed emphasizes is chronic fatigue.
This fatigue feeling does not refer to being slightly tired all the time or having a clear reason for tiredness, like a busy work day or after a long exercise. Extreme fatigue occurs when you can't function and there is no reasonable cause.
He suggests you should get checked out by a medic to ensure nothing else is going on with your health.
There could be a reason behind it, say a missed diagnosis or a condition like ME.
CDC states that myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a serious and often long-lasting illness that keeps people from doing their usual activities, making physical and mental exertion difficult. Symptoms can include trouble thinking and severe tiredness.
The one thing that is for certain, these symptoms could be warning signs, or they may not. The important takeaway is to get them checked out and to go for check-ups regularly with your doctor.
Better safe than sorry.
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