Ignore that pain in the neck at your own risk!

Did you know that lower back problem could lead to kidney problems?

Or that leg pain and swelling feet could lead to heart problem?

Or that hand pain and neck distress is related to your spine?

Shameem Akthar, yogacharya trained with the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre, finds out more about such tell-tale symptoms.

Learning more about good health should mean going beyond the obvious articles on weight loss and routine fitness.

We need more information to broaden our understanding of our own bodies. We should understand, for example, how pain that occurs in one part of the body could be symptomatic of a critical condition in some other part.

Breathlessness could mean low Vitamin D levels in your body and bones. And a migraine can be caused by hyper-flexibility of joints and osteoarthritis.

For more than a decade we have known that shoulder pain could be indicative of a heart problem, particularly for women. Leg pain, migraine, lower back pain, dizziness can be attributed to causes we don't normally associate with these conditions.

Lower back problem

For many of us, lower back problem is what it says it is -- pain in the muscles or spine at that place.

But not so well-known, though even more common, is the lower back pain associated with kidney troubles and serious issues with the urogenital system.

Even experts often miss the signals and link back problems to the musculoskeletal system.

In fact, most problems of the urogenital system leave a track of pain at the back, anywhere from mid back to the lower back.

In men, all urinary tract problems and prostate related problems include acute back problem.

In women, endometriosis, urinary tract infection and cysts can cause acute lower back problem.

Inflammation of the tract, swelling due to inefficiency of the systems, and infections can all cause this pain.

If you suffer from chronic back pain, check for symptoms in your urogenital system too. If the pain is accompanied by fever or swelling in the feet it is even more indicative of such disturbances.

Leg pain and swelling feet

This is implicated in several heart problems and urogenital problems.

In fact, lower back problem may manifest with pain in the legs initially. If it is accompanied by tingling toes, it means your spine is in trouble, and the bones have closed in there and pinch a nerve which is signalling a red alert in an area far from the place of origin.

Feet-swelling is also related to heart problems and sluggish blood circulation and must be taken seriously and tackled on an emergency footing.

Many women also experience feet swelling when their urogenital system is in trouble.

This can be caused by sluggish lymphatic drainage and water retention.

To some extent you need to connect these symptoms to your family medical history because some of them may be linked.

Hand pain and neck distress

Hand pain and even headaches may be related to a neck in distress. If your job stresses or challenges your posture, then your hand/arm pain is possibly related to trouble at the neck where the bones have closed into a nerve that is suffering pain.

In certain cases it could be inflammation of the spine caused by certain games you play which stresses the spine.

Doing weights in the gym without proper supervision or gradual build up of supporting muscles at the neck could also lead to such symptoms.

Localised treatment, including physiotherapy and heat treatment could help relieve the symptoms.

Organising your workspace ergonomically so that your neck is well aligned would help prevent future episodes. Correcting posture through organised exercise is also a preventive.

Dizziness

This is often a symptom brushed aside as something to do with the mind and ignored as an emotional reaction to stress.

But dizziness is often a symptom of problems elsewhere. One emotional connection is to clinical depression, which could mean serious multi-pronged treatment that could include psychotherapy and counselling.

In many cases, dizziness indicates blood pressure problems -- either of high or low BP. In the latter case, it could be connected to equally disturbing blood sugar dip, and must not be taken lightly because it can lead to strokes.

Intriguingly, dizziness is also related to urogenital problems, and many women may experience it as part of the cluster of pre-menstrual symptoms.

It can also be caused by inner ear problems that can lead to vertigo, which in extreme cases cause nausea and limits movement and mobility.

Dizziness can also be tracked to neck problems, and this aspect is often ignored even by experts.

Photograph: Kit/Creative Commons