Dr Amir: The ‘Hidden’ Medical Symptoms You Should Never Ignore | Lorraine

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Dr. Amir is here with some well surprising symptoms Amir that you that could mean that you've got some other medical condition for example an itchy ear you think oh be something wrong my ear then >> yes >> not necessarily >> but not necessarily so when we talk about the menopause we often talk about hot flushes difficulty sleeping anxiety all important symptoms but the estrogen affects so many different things and ears is one of the things it could affect so women have estrogen receptors all over their body and their ears are no different. So when estrogen levels start to fluctuate and fall during the permenopause and menopause, it can affect the skin inside of the ear. The skin can can become thinner and drier similar to the vaginal skin when when the estrogen levels drop and that can cause irritation or itchiness in that ear. But also what we know about estrogen is that it affects the blood flow and the nerve signaling inside of the ears. So your hearing may become diminished particularly in crowded spaces. You might not be able to hear people over the noise of background noise, but really interestingly, the ear also affects your balance. You've got your inner ear, which has a fluid balance system in which adjusts every time we move around so quickly, we don't notice it. That's also got estrogen receptors. So, when estrogen levels fall, it affects that fluid balance system. So, people can get vertigo, dizziness when they stand up and they don't put it down to the menopause. They may not get HRT or estrogen as a result.

[00:01:20]But go and speak to your doctor if it's happening. you're permenopausal, menopausal, HRT could help you.

[00:01:25]>> Goodness me, who would have thought? No, but shoulder pain, you just think, oh, you know, I've wrenched something or maybe I've done what could it be?

[00:01:31]>> Yeah. So, shoulder pain is really interesting. So, it could be a sign of gallbladder disease. So, the gallbladder, little sack, it sits under your rib just by your ri your your liver there. It produces bile, which helps you digest fat. But if you've got gallstones or inflammation of that gallbladder, it starts to get inflamed and it can irritate a nerve under your rib cage called the frennic nerve. Now that nerve goes to the same part of your spine that your shoulder nerves go to. So if there's irritation of that nerve, your brain and spine can't decide is it coming from your gallbladder, is it coming from your shoulder. So you can get shoulder tip pain. So if you've got gallstones and you're eating fatty food and you think, "Oh, I'm getting pain in my shoulder." It might not be your shoulder. It could be your gallbladder.

[00:02:09]>> Gosh, who would have thought? And sometimes shoulder pain can be a sign of something really serious, especially in women.

[00:02:15]>> Yes, it can. It can be a sign of a heart attack in women. Now, it's important to say that women and men both get crushing chest pain and shortness of breath when it comes to to heart attacks, and those are important symptoms to call 999. But women are more likely to get atypical or unusual symptoms of a heart attack as well, shoulder pain being one. And the reason is with men with a heart attack, they're more likely to get a complete blockage of one of the main arteries of the heart. But with women, it usually happens as blockages as many small arteries of the heart. So, it can affect more of the heart and give you different symptoms. Again, it goes back to the nerves that the heart supplies, gives you different symptoms. Pain up into your jaw, down your arm, shoulder pain, sweatiness, nausea, even dizziness can be a symptom. So, it's really important that women don't put that down to something else. One in four men die of a heart attack. One in four women die of a heart attack. It's not a men's disease.

[00:03:06]>> We tend to think of it like that, though, don't we? We don't think of it as affecting women as much. And it's exactly the same.

[00:03:12]>> Exactly. So, think about all the different symptoms that could come as a heart attack in women. In fact, we've got a good list of them here. That shoulder pain, jaw pain, back pain, nausea, breathlessness, extreme fatigue, indigestion, more likely to happen in women and could be a heart attack. Get it checked, ladies.

[00:03:29]>> Now, what is all this? Because a lot of people have said this to me. Soon as they get in the front door, they literally are opening the door and they need to go for a wee. What's that all about?

[00:03:36]>> It's actually got a name. It's called latch key in incontinents. No, you could be absolutely yes, you could be absolutely fine coming home and then you put your key in the door and you think, "Oh, actually, I need to go for a Wii."

[00:03:47]That's actually more about your brain than the bladder. Now, the brain is really good at picking up patterns. And what it knows is that your home is a safe, comfortable place to have a Wii, whether you need it or not. So, when you get home, your brain goes to your bladder and says, "Right, you can empty yourself now if you feel like it." And your bladder then sends you a message going, you need to empty your bladder.

[00:04:06]The what I would say is if you don't you know if you don't if you don't have to don't go because you don't want to get your bladder used to emptying when it doesn't need to empty. And of course I always talk about my favorite things bladder exercises that pelvic floor exercise. I'm doing them now. Do them now. So remember your front ones. You're on the L having the wind. The Amazon driver rings the doorbell. You don't want to miss that parcel. So you stop halfway through. You're holding it in.

[00:04:29]Run downstairs. Your back pelvic floor exercises. You're in a lift. You want to pass wind but Rihanna walks in. You can't pass wind in front of Rihanna, so you're holding in that fart. And so those are your front and your back ones, right?

[00:04:41]>> Yes. That's how it's done.

[00:04:43]>> That's how it's done.

[00:04:44]>> I mean, I think this is the way this is the way for [laughter] me. It definitely is >> cuz [clears throat] it's true. I do I always think I'm going out. I better have an emergency one. Even though you need those in case we not good for your >> Not good for you. Not good for you.

[00:04:57]Waking up in the middle of the night.

[00:04:58]>> Yes. 3:00 a.m. waking really common.

[00:05:00]It's caused by your stress hormone cortisol. Now, now that that naturally rises as you're starting to wake up, it gets you ready for the day. But if you're stressed or worried and your cortisol levels are naturally high anyway, that slight increase at 3:00 a.m. is going to wake you up. Just relax.

[00:05:16]>> Relax. That's what we want to do.