Pains you cannot ignore

Most of us have had various pains at some point in our life. Pain is a classical symptom that draws our attention to tell us that something is not right. Sometimes pains can be attributed to something one did and aggravated a part of the body. We are all too aware of pains arising due to lifting a heavy object or having eaten too much of a good stuff. It gets serious when pain begins to signal something more sinister. What are the 7 pains that one cannot afford to ignore?

1. Headache: If you feel that you are having the worst headache of your life get medical attention. Simple headaches can be due to stress or sinusitis or even migraines but sinister ones can herald a haemorrhage, a brain tumor or a burst aneurysm.
2. Pain or discomfort in the chest, throat, jaw, shoulder, arm or abdomen: This can be as simple as a heartburn or as complicated as a heart attack. It could even be a symptom of pneumonia. Typically chest pains that feel like a pressure or a band across the chest suggest heart attack. Chest pains brought on by exertion and relieved by rest could be angina.
3. Pain in between the shoulder blades and upper back: Could suggest a muscular spasm or the more catastrophic dissection of an aortic aneurysm.
4. Abdominal pains: Don’t take them lightly especially if you have an intact appendix. Gall bladder stones, ruptured peptic ulcers or pancreatic diseases cause sinister abdominal pains.
5. Calf pains: Calf pains associated with swelling could indiate deep vein thrombosis and can be life-threatening.
6. Burning pain in feet and legs: This can indicate nerve damage as happens in diabetes and can be one of the first signs of diabetes.
7. Vague, medically unexplained pains: This can easily be seen in depression. Various, painful symptoms can be common in depression and as such are dismissed by relatives and caregivers. Help is needed when you have lost interest in activities, lost appetite, cannot think or work effectively, cannot sleep properly or cannot get along with people. Do not suffer in silence.