The Promise and
Nature of Preventive Medicine 50 does a cough that developed during a
respiratory infection but then persists long afterward.
Urinary changes: We
have already noted that blood in the urine re- quires investigation. Frequent
urination may be the result of infection or, in some cases, nervous
irritability of the bladder. Frequent and voluminous urination may be an
indication of a relatively rare type of diabetes, diabetes insipidus. In older
men, the need to get up several times a night for urination may indicate an
enlarging prostate.
Difficulty in starting urination may indicate sufficient
prostate enlargement to require treatment to prevent backup of urine and
impairment of kidney function. Actually, any marked change in the urine-in its
volume, color, or number of times it must be passed-calls for medical study.
Nausea may stem, of course, from a gastrointestinal disturbance, but it may
also arise from an infection almost anywhere in the body or from disturbance of
the balance mechanism in the ear. If the nausea is mild, you can delay a little
before consulting a physician, for it may disappear in a short time and not
return. But severe and persistent nausea, or nausea that keeps recurring, calls
for medical attention.
Jaundice, or yellowing of the skin, may be due to a viralinfection and is especially likely to be seen in younger people. It may signal
gallstones, and this is especially likely to be the case for middle-aged women.
In older people, it sometimes is due to cancer of the pancreas or to cancer
that has spread into the liver from elsewhere. The safe rule is always to
regard jaundice as a signal calling for immediate medical attention. In some
people with sallow complexion, jaundice may not be readily discernible on the
basis of the appearance of the skin; in such cases, look at the whites of the
eyes-if they are distinctly yellow, jaundice is present.
