Unbounded Medicine

Yesterday at Health-Hack.com they made a list of six of the most evident symptoms of some serious illness, via WebMD:

From WebMD:

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

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

3. 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.

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

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

6. For women: Vaginal bleeding after menopause is a waning sign of possible cancer.

6. 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.

Via Lifehacker.com

I’ve been asked –and consulted- about “rare chest pain” in several times. I could notice that people is always worried about any kind of chest pain because the fear of suffer a heart attack or a pulmonary problem. Chest pain is one of the most common symptoms that require medical attention. You –as physician- should always exclude this topics (cardiac and pulmonary) in the first place. You should keep in mind that there is a disease called costochondritis (Tietze’s syndrome) once you ruled out the main fear conditions (pulmonary and cardiac).

Costochondritis is an inflammation of the costo-sternal joint (rib-sternum) or it could be an inflammation between the costo-chondral joint (rib-rib cartilage). The group mainly affected is that woman over 40s.

Etiology (causes): Direct injury to the chest, viral infections (cold / flu), idiopathic (the cause cannot be found).

Its clinical manifestations: Pain, tenderness in those joints I already mention earlier. This pain and/or tenderness get worse when you touch the involved site or move in a certain direction.
The diagnosis it’s mainly a clinical one and the physician should always exclude a heart attack and other important things.

The gold-standard of treatment is NSAIDs (non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs like aspirin, diclofenac, naproxen, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, etc.) for one or two weeks (this disease usually lasts for this period of time). Some patients respond well to putting a local heating pad.

You have to remember that when you have chest pain, you have to look for a health care provider immediately to exclude other serious conditions.

Regards,

Jon Mikel Iñarritu, M.D.

Spanish (Español) article