15 silent signs your body might be in big trouble

The human body can be truly incredible, yet totally bizarre. Your body even knows how to signal that something isn’t right with your health. Everything from skin rashes to a cough that just won’t quit could be a sign that your body is in trouble. Here’s what to watch out for, according to doctors.

If you’ve lost more than five kilograms with no diet or exercise changes, get it checked out, says Dr Richard Wender, chief cancer control officer at the American Cancer Society. Unexplained weight loss happens most often with pancreatic, stomach, oesophageal, or lung cancer.

Here are 30 more cancer symptoms you should never ignore.

“I often get referrals from dentists with patients who don’t feel heartburn or other reflux symptoms, but their teeth enamel is completely worn down,” says Dr Evan Dellon, a gastrointestinal (GI) specialist. Many are shocked to learn they have acid reflux. While sugary drinks wear down teeth at the front of your mouth, acid from your oesophagus tends to dissolve the enamel of teeth at the back.

Other subtle but suspicious symptoms of reflux include a persistent sore throat, coughing, unexplained wheezing, or a frequent foul taste in your mouth. If you or your dentist notice any of these warning signs, see a GI specialist promptly. Untreated reflux not only leads to tooth decay but can also increase your risk for oesophageal cancer. (Beware of these everyday mistakes that ruin your teeth.)

Learn 12 common teeth-cleaning mistakes that make dentists cringe.

This reaction, which breaks out on the elbows, knees, butt, back or scalp, may look suspiciously like eczema, but it could be a more serious issue: coeliac disease, an autoimmune condition in which ingesting even the tiniest amount of gluten causes your body to attack its own intestines. Up to 25 percent of people with coeliac have this rash, known as dermatitis herpetiformis. Many patients have no digestive symptoms. When someone with coeliac consumes gluten, the body releases an antibody known as IgA, which attacks the intestines; sometimes IgA also collects in small blood vessels underneath the skin, triggering the telltale rash.

Unlike people with other forms of coeliac, patients with dermatitis herpetiformis don’t have to undergo an endoscopic biopsy for a definitive diagnosis. A doctor can biopsy the rash and look for antibodies that indicate coeliac. Once you start a gluten-free diet, the rash should disappear, and you’ll protect your body from other long-term, serious damage of coeliac disease, such as osteoporosis or small intestine cancer.

Here are 10 more skin problems that could signal a serious disease.

Weeing more or less than usual could indicate bladder or prostate cancer. Constipation or diarrhoea may signal colon or ovarian cancer. You may attribute gassiness or bloating to your diet, but talk to your doctor if it lasts more than a week.

Try these 11 surprising home remedies for constipation relief.

About one-third of patients with Crohn’s disease – an inflammatory disorder of the GI tract – have a form that affects just the anal region. It manifests as sores, ulcerations, or fleshy growths outside the area, which can be mistaken for haemorrhoids. “Patients will say sitting is so unpleasant, it’s like they’re perched on top of a marble,” says gastroenterologist Dr David Rubin. This type of Crohn’s disease is often the most painful and has the worst prognosis, says Dr Rubin. (If left untreated, Crohn’s can lead to bowel obstruction, painful fissures, and even colon cancer.)

If you have what appears to be haemorrhoids that don’t respond to treatment, Dr Rubin recommends seeing a GI specialist for a second opinion as soon as possible. He or she can run blood tests to check for white blood cell count, C-reactive protein, and other markers that can indicate undiagnosed disease.

How to treat haemorrhoids: 12 home remedies for haemorrhoid relief.

When you think of Parkinson’s, you probably think of tremors, but a more telling early Parkinson’s warning sign is handwriting that gets much smaller. “I have patients write a sentence such as ‘Today is a nice day’ 10 times,” says Michael S. Okun, MD, national medical director for the Parkinson’s Foundation. “As they write, each sentence gets smaller and smaller, and the words become more crowded together.”

Parkinson’s disease occurs when nerve cells in the brain become damaged or die off. They stop producing as much dopamine, a chemical that sends signals to produce movement; this causes muscle stiffness in hands and fingers, which affects handwriting. Two other early red flags of Parkinson’s: loss of smell – so you don’t notice mouthwatering odours – and really intense dreams in which you thrash, kick and punch during sleep. If you notice any of these symptoms – and they last more than a couple of weeks – see a neurologist. The earlier Parkinson’s is diagnosed, and the sooner you get control of symptoms, the better your quality of life will be.

Discover 8 early Parkinson’s disease symptoms that are too easy to miss.

For many people, depression doesn’t translate to weeping or lying listlessly on the couch. More than half of patients with depression have irritability and anger; in fact, those depression symptoms are associated with a more severe, longer-lasting form, according to a 2013 University of California, San Diego study published in JAMA Psychiatry.

“A classic case: Someone never suffered from road rage before, but now if they get cut off, they get so furious, they go crazy blaring their horn,” says professor of psychiatry DrPhilip Muskin. If you’re constantly snapping at your spouse or the slightest annoyance gets your heart racing – and these reactions have lasted for more than two weeks – there’s a real chance that depression is the culprit.

Many cases of major depression respond well to a combination of antidepressants and cognitive behaviour therapy, a short-term therapy that teaches skills to avoid damaging thoughts or actions. A study published in The Lancet found that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, which helps increase awareness of negative spirals, was as effective as meds in preventing a recurrence of depression over a two-year period.

Here are 8 hidden signs of depression to watch out for.

Coughs don’t usually mean cancer, but if you develop a cough that won’t disappear, even though you’ve never had allergies, asthma or sinus problems, take note. It could be lung cancer or – if accompanied by hoarseness – cancer of the larynx or throat.

Here are 13 signs of cancer men need to stop ignoring.

It’s a commonly known symptom of sleep apnoea, which is associated with increased heart disease risk. But snoring may play a bigger role in cardiovascular disease than experts thought. A 2013 study published in The Laryngoscope found that even among patients without sleep apnoea, snoring was linked with thickening of carotid arteries in the neck; such damage is a precursor to stroke and heart attack. Snoring was more strongly associated with this wall damage than were smoking, high cholesterol, or being overweight.

Why? Snoring may damage the carotid arteries, which supply blood to the brain. “We think the arteries are reacting to the vibration of the snoring, since they’re very close to the throat,” says study author Dr Kathleen Yaremchuk, chair of the Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

Learn 12 things you need to know if you or your partner snore too much.