Scenario Number #1: You are walking or running, then feel a chest tightness that seems to radiate toward your left arm, you feel short of breath and are sweating much more than usual during exercise. You do not need WebMD to inform you that these signs could be pointing towards an impending heart attack. You stop your exercise immediately, either call 911 or drive to the local hospital for emergent evaluation. You knew that the symptoms you were having were signs that you may have heart vessel blockage and if you did not address this issue immediately a severe heart attack or even death is facing you.
Scenario Number #2: You have undetected blockage of your coronary arteries, perhaps because you have a touch of diabetes and the neuropathy associated with diabetes prevents you from feeling the angina type chest pain and associated symptoms. You are out running, not feeling any signs/symptoms but all of a sudden you become very light-headed and pass out. Hopefully, someone saw this scenario unfolding and called 911.
The body will often give us “signs” of an impending problem before that problem becomes very serious/deadly. A person may feel a small lump on a part of the body and early workup may show a cancer at a very treatable stage. That early sign saved her/his life. New onset headaches will prompt a person to head in for a doctor evaluation. The MRI may show an aneurysm or brain mass, allowing for treatment before a catastrophic event occurs.
There are many more examples when physical “signs” that occur are a sort of way that our bodies tell us to “do something before it is too late”. In the example cited above with the diabetic heart disease patient, the lack of signs could contribute to death.
Do you pay attention to the signs your body is giving you? Are you more tired than expected for age? Do your joints hurt you to the point when you avoid participating in activities with others? Do you have labored breathing when you exert yourself?
Poor weight control will often provide a myriad of “signs” that your body is not happy with your weight. Listen to your body and do not ignore the signs. These signs will implore you to lose the weight.
