Symptoms

Almost nobody asks about this out loud, and almost everybody has been through it. Pain around the anus is an ordinary complaint, and most of its causes are…

Bad breath, or halitosis, affects most people at least occasionally, and in almost every case it can be dealt with at home.

Bedwetting is passing urine during sleep in a child who is old enough to be waking up dry.

Bloating is the feeling of being stretched from the inside: the tummy feels full and tight, visibly bigger by the evening, rumbling, and along with it come…

Seeing blood in your semen is frightening, and the first thought is usually the worst one.

Blood in urine almost never hurts. That is exactly why it is so easy to write off: the urine turns pink once, the next day it is normal again, nothing is…

Skin and lips turning blue, dusky or ashen grey is called cyanosis. It means one thing: the blood is short of oxygen.

Sweat on its own is almost odourless. Odour appears when skin bacteria break down its components, particularly those from the apocrine glands in the armpits…

Finding something new in your breast is frightening, and the first thought that crosses most people's minds is the same one.

The breast responds to everything the hormones do, which is why it aches in most women at some point: at one age or another, on particular days of the month…

Exophthalmos is forward protrusion of the eyeball caused by an increase in the volume of tissue inside the orbit.

Most chest pain has nothing to do with the heart. But this is the subject where the price of getting it wrong is highest, which is why the page opens not…

A cough is not an illness but a defence: it is how the airways clear out mucus, dust and anything else that does not belong there.

Blood coughed up from the airways is a symptom that is never left unexplained. Even a single streak in the phlegm needs an answer to the question of where it…

Diarrhoea and vomiting almost always start suddenly and almost always settle on their own.

People use the word "dizziness" for several quite different sensations, and which one is meant decides everything: which doctor to see, what to check and how…

Double vision is an uncommon complaint, and it nearly always means that a precision mechanism has broken somewhere: either the optics of the eye itself, or…

The surface of the eye is covered at all times by a very thin film of water, oil and mucus.

Saliva looks like a trifle right up to the day there stops being enough of it. About a litre and a half is produced every day, and it does more than keep the…

Swallowing looks like a simple movement, but it is fast, coordinated work by the tongue, soft palate, throat, voice box and oesophagus: in little more than a…

Feeling thirsty after exercise, in hot weather or after a salty meal is normal. This is about something else: thirst that does not settle however much you…

Earache is one of the commonest reasons parents lose a night's sleep. It is unfair but explicable: in a small child the tube linking ear and nose is short…

The elbow is a thankless joint. It is small, it works all day and it hardly ever rests, and on top of that three nerves pass through it and the tendons of…

An eyelid is a moving curtain about as thick as paper, and a surprising amount is packed into it: a cartilage plate, two muscles, the roots of the lashes and…

Hirsutism is the appearance in women of coarse, dark hair in areas where it usually grows in men: upper lip, chin, chest, abdomen, back and inner thighs.

Fainting is a brief loss of consciousness caused by the brain going short of blood flow for a few seconds.

Everybody knows the feeling: the stomach turns over, the mouth fills with saliva, the smell of food makes it worse, and it seems the vomit is only seconds away.

The specks, threads and semi-transparent cobwebs that drift across the field of vision and slip away the moment you look at them are familiar to almost…

The foot carries the whole weight of the body and takes several thousand steps a day, so it can hurt for a dozen different reasons — from unlucky shoes to an…

Losing 50 to 100 hairs a day is normal: hair is constantly renewed. The problem starts when density visibly decreases, when the scalp starts to show, or when…

The hand is the busiest part of the body: twenty-seven bones, some thirty joints and around fifty tendons, almost all of them working without a break.

Almost everyone gets headaches, and most of the time the reason has nothing to do with the brain: too little sleep, a missed meal, not enough to drink, a…

Most of the time we are not aware of our own heart. Palpitations are what we call the moment it becomes audible: it pounds, races, stumbles, seems to drop a…

Everyone knows hiccups, and almost every bout settles by itself: a few minutes, sometimes half an hour, and you forget it happened.

A high temperature is not an illness but the way the body answers an infection or inflammation: in those conditions the immune cells work better and many…

A high temperature in young children is common, and in most cases it is an ordinary viral infection that clears in a few days.

"My hip hurts" means very different things to different people: for one it pulls in the groin, for another it aches on the outside, for a third the buttock…

A child gets up in the morning limping, and there was nothing wrong the day before. Or complains that a leg hurts and points sometimes at the groin…

A normal menstrual cycle lasts between 21 and 35 days, and a period lasts 2 to 7 days. Periods are considered irregular when the cycle length varies by more…

Nobody talks about this, which is why people usually turn up at a consultation about six months in, having worked through half a dozen creams and washed three…

Itching is one of the hardest sensations to tolerate: it disrupts sleep, exhausts you and creates a loop in which scratching produces more itch.

Almost everyone has sore joints at some point. What matters is something else: the same phrase, "my joints hurt", covers situations of wildly different…

The knee is built more intricately than any other joint: two bones, the kneecap, two menisci, four main ligaments, several tendons and bursae — and each of…

A limp is not a diagnosis. It is the way a child protects whatever hurts: a shorter step on one side, a foot turned outwards, weight taken only on the toes…

Most people only notice their sense of smell once it has gone. Food loses its flavour, because almost everything we call taste is really smell; the house, a…

A lump is any patch that feels denser or more raised than the tissue around it: a little ball under the skin, a bump, a swelling, a nodule.

Sex drive varies through life and there is no "normal" figure to measure yourself against.

A period is described as late when it does not arrive on the expected date. A few days' shift happens to everyone and almost never means anything, but no…

Forgetting why you walked into a room, or failing to find the right word, is ordinary — particularly when tired and rushed.

The feeling of having held a coin in your mouth, or sucked on a rusty nail, is familiar to a great many people.

Nails record what is happening in the body: they grow slowly and hold the trace of an illness, a deficiency or a medicine for months.

Most adults get neck pain at least once, and it nearly always ends well: an awkward sleeping position, a long day at a screen, a draught, a pulled muscle…

Sweating at night in a stuffy room or under a thick duvet is normal. Night sweats count as a symptom in a different situation: when sweat soaks your…

Nipple discharge means fluid coming from the breast outside pregnancy and breastfeeding. The causes are benign in most cases, and even so it is a symptom to…

Around one woman in five feels a pull or a twinge low down on one side of the abdomen somewhere in the middle of the cycle.

Changes to the skin of the penis are a common reason to seek advice, and in most cases something harmless lies behind them.

Paralysis is loss of movement: a muscle or a whole group of muscles stops obeying, even though the person is awake and trying to move.

Low down in the abdomen, behind the pubic bone and between the hip bones, three systems sit together: the far end of the bowel, the bladder with its ureters…

Pain in the first days of a period is familiar to most women, and on its own it means very little. But it comes in two very different versions.

The menopause is considered complete once a full year has passed without a single period. From that point the womb lining no longer sheds, and any blood…

Priapism is an erection that will not go away on its own and is unrelated to arousal, or that carries on long after arousal has finished.

The feeling of fine needles in an arm or leg is familiar to everyone: you have sat in one position too long, the blood supply to the nerve was briefly…

A rash on a child almost always frightens more than it deserves: the vast majority are harmless and clear up on their own.

Blood on the toilet paper, red streaks on your stool, pink water in the pan, black stool — these are all versions of one thing: blood reaching the bowel or…

A red eye is the sort of complaint nobody hurries about. And usually there is no need to: redness from a sleepless night, from wind, from hours at a screen…

The skin of the lips is thinner than elsewhere and has no oil glands, so it is the first to react to cold, wind, dry air and dehydration.

The foot has more sweat glands per square centimetre than any other part of the body, and it spends most of the day enclosed in a shoe.

Someone suddenly loses consciousness and falls, the body stiffens, then the arms and legs start jerking rhythmically, the breathing sounds harsh, saliva comes…

Shortness of breath is the feeling that there is not enough air: breathing turns fast and shallow, you find yourself gulping for it, stopping in the middle of…

The shoulder is the most mobile joint in the body, and the price of that mobility is stability: it is held together not by bone but by muscles, tendons and…

A strong smell from your urine is usually noticed by accident, and then it stays on your mind.

Roughly one adult man in two and one woman in three snores, and most of the time it really is a noise rather than a disease.

A child has been using the toilet for a long time, and yet stool keeps turning up in their pants — sometimes as smears, sometimes runny, sometimes as hard…

The tongue is the one place people inspect themselves, and they are almost always alarmed by what they find.

Everyone gets a sore throat, and almost always for a harmless reason: a virus, too many hours in dry air, an evening of shouting, smoke around you.

Bruxism is clenching the teeth and rubbing them against each other without meaning to. It happens most often during sleep, which is why the person does not…

A lump in the testicle is nearly always found by accident: in the shower, while drying off, while getting dressed.

If pain in a testicle has come on suddenly and is severe, call an ambulance now — do not wait for morning and do not try a painkiller first.

Feeling tired after exertion or a short night is normal and resolves with rest. This is about something else: having no energy all the time, finding that…

Toothache nearly always means the same thing: in the tooth or around it there is a process that will not stop on its own.

Everyone has a small tremor: hold your hands out in front of you and look closely at the fingers, because perfectly still they are not.

A twitch is a brief involuntary contraction of a small bundle of muscle fibres. It feels like a flutter or a wave running under the skin, but the joint does…

Weight loss counts as unexplained when weight falls by itself — with no diet, no change in eating and no increase in activity.

Blood turns up on days when there should not be any: in the middle of the cycle, a week before a period is due, straight after sex or the following morning.

Discharge is not an illness and not a sign of poor hygiene. The vagina cleans itself, and the fluid made by its walls and by the neck of the womb carries…

The walls of the vagina are kept moist continuously, and that moisture depends on oestrogen.

Blood in vomit means that somewhere in the upper digestive tract — the oesophagus, the stomach or the start of the duodenum — there is a bleeding source.

Tears pool along the lower lid and spill over, vision clouds and clears again, there is always a tissue in your pocket, and by evening the skin under the eye…

Everyone has gas in their bowel, all the time. It is not a fault in the system but an ordinary by-product of digestion.

It is an awkward subject, and that is exactly why so much nonsense has grown around it: pumpkin seeds, garlic, "cleanses" and a course of tablets for the…