If You're OVER 65 — 3 SILENT SYMPTOMS You Must Never Ignore

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Three absolute red flag warning signs in anybody over the age of 65 that we want you to know about. Obviously, the basis of our channel is about promoting health and well-being. The last thing that we want is for you to even need to see a doctor, but nevertheless, it's important to know some red flag signs. So, we're going to go over three that you should always keep in mind. I will go first.

[00:00:25]Weight loss. Dr. Ben, I know you have seen this as well, but this often can indicate a catastrophe underneath. If for no reason somebody starts to lose weight, and it's a bit ironic because we spend a lot of time talking about the need to lose weight in many people, but I would say over the age of 65 when I've seen that, usually it's a sign that something is more serious. And the amount of times as a hospital doctor I had seen somebody 70, 75 come into the emergency room and they'd reported symptoms often for several months saying I haven't been feeling good, started to lose weight, what we call unintentional weight loss. And we've done a scan and we found something absolutely horrific has been going on for a long time. So, that would be something to always remember, and a lot of these things can be nipped in the bud if the if the red flag is raised early enough, then help can be sought and a diagnosis made. But, if anybody starts to lose weight despite the fact that they're still eating, that's something we really need to be careful of. That's absolutely true, and it's a very non-specific symptom. That's what's so scary about it. There's it doesn't tell you what's happening. It just means something's wrong. So, your body's not getting the nutrients it needs, it's breaking down the protein, it's kind of aggressively trying to burn everything, and you got to find out why.

[00:01:53]You know, and the big scary thing is cancer, diabetes can certainly do that, autoimmune disorders can do it, but if all of a sudden you're losing weight and you can't figure out why, you you got to figure that out, you got to get checked out. Usually it'll come with other symptoms. Usually there's some pain or changes in your bowel habits or urination or something's changed to give you at least some kind of clue that something's going on, but you're absolutely right, you can't sleep on that, you got to get it checked out.

[00:02:19]>> Exactly. And we should also mention I find, I'm sure you do as well, Dr. Ben, that often it's a family member that raises the red flag. It will be the spouse or the child who will say, "What's going on? You're losing weight."

[00:02:30]And that's the point where urgent help should be sought as soon as you're a few pounds down for for no reason at all, you're not even trying to lose weight.

[00:02:39]You want to be very, very careful, and typically that will indicate the need for some baseline lab tests. You will want to have a complete blood count, complete metabolic panel, check the kidney function, the liver function.

[00:02:51]Often tumor marker tests would be involved as well. And often a scan, a CT scan of the chest, abdomen, pelvis.

[00:02:58]What's causing the weight loss? But, please nip this in the bud if it happens. Don't wait, don't let the the weight loss continue. Find out why it happened. Okay, Dr. Ben, what's going next? Well, this one kind of dovetails in a little bit. It's difficulty swallowing. So, you've been doing okay, you're eating your meals well, and all of a sudden you really start to have this trouble getting the food down.

[00:03:19]Sometimes it's just food and liquids are going down okay. Sometimes it's both, food and liquids. And that can certainly cause you to lose weight, but you'll know why. It's cuz you're having trouble swallowing. Sometimes it's other issues that are causing difficulty swallowing, but it can be an enormous problem because it can apply it can imply that either sometimes you have a mass, which is dangerous, that's not letting the food go down. Sometimes you have an innervation problem, the nerves aren't working right, and you can't swallow, and sometimes it's an it's a different kind of problem that can involve your brain and other other organs. Yeah, I've seen that present as well, and that's another one where people tend to wait a little bit thinking, "Oh, it might get better." But, yeah, difficulty swallowing, food getting stuck out of the blue, and a reason could range from something more benign, like maybe there's a little stricture there that can be fixed, a blockage, or something very serious, like some sort of compression from a mass. Definite red flag sign there. Nip it in the bud urgently. And again, to come back to that point again, I mean, the last thing we want is for anybody to get sucked into medical industrial complex, but we are very blessed right now living in a time where things can be done which couldn't be done 10 years ago. You can go in early, fix something. If there's something there that can be removed or or or fixed in another way, then it can be done now. So, please have your radar up for these symptoms, especially after age 65. Okay, I will go next. This one is a little bit different. Number three, becoming more withdrawn. So, over the age, I would say usually it's over the age of 70, 75, I've seen this as a marker of a significant problem. It could indicate something systemic, and again, often family members will notice it and say, "Well, why are you withdrawn? Why are you not interacting as much? What's wrong? Are we talking about a mental health issue? Could it even be an early sign of dementia? Just not interacting." And again, treatment options may be limited, but it's often a red flag sign when somebody who's very active, talkative, just starts to withdraw a little bit.

[00:05:25]>> Yeah, you can absolutely see that, and that can have a lot of potential causes.

[00:05:30]Some of it can be the development of, you know, a nervous disorder like anxiety, or it could be depression, but sometimes you can see early Alzheimer's and dementia setting in, and that can be how you begin to notice that that is happening. Sometimes it's other things.

[00:05:46]Sometimes they're they have other illnesses that are causing them to kind of be able to not be able to focus or interact. But, that can be an enormous red flag that you have something going on that needs to be addressed. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so if you suspect a family member is becoming more withdrawn, then then go get checked out.

[00:06:04]And Dr. Ben, would you say, as in my experience working in a hospital, that things are often delayed? What do you think is a big barrier? Why do you so many people, especially over the age of 65, they wait longer than they should.

[00:06:18]Obviously, there are people on all parts of spectrum. There's some people have very low threshold for seeking help, which is obviously much better, especially at an age where risk of disease goes up. But, what do you think, Dr. Ben? I think it's for a few reasons.

[00:06:29]Some of them I I can't help but agree with. Sometimes they you just don't want to be involved with the medical system.

[00:06:35]And I see that a fair amount where people, you know, they're like, "I don't want to go see this doctor. They're going to put me through 500 tests. I don't think I need that at this point.

[00:06:44]It's a huge pain." I can fully understand that, and honestly, I've had certain symptoms that I held off on because I didn't want to go and go through the whole process. So, I think that's a natural thing that that sometimes people do, and I think the medical system has earned that in terms of making it a lot of the time so painful to seek care that people would prefer to wait than go through all the rigmarole it takes to get involved and and get your symptoms checked out. But, if you have a reasonable, rational doctor that you have a good relationship with, it's usually not such a bad experience. You call them and you say, "Hey, I I've started losing weight."

[00:07:21]They go, "Oh, really? Can you just get in here maybe next week and we'll see what's going on?" I mean, that's that's how it's supposed to work. And the other thing is, too, sometimes people attribute it to other things. They'll notice other changes in their life, and they say, "Oh, it must be this that's causing it." And instead of kind of this is concerning, even if it is that causing I should probably get it checked out. So, that's that's a mistake I've seen people make. That's right. And to be fair, I would say most doctors do have a fairly good radar when there's some alarm symptom. Like, if you tell most doctors and you're say you're 70, 75, and you say, "Look, I'm losing weight or I have Yeah, difficulty swallowing, becoming more withdrawn."

[00:07:56]Might be a the third symptom might take a little bit more work up, but definitely losing weight, difficulty swallowing, you will find that you will have tests ASAP. I know for many people in the United States, cost can also be an issue. Hopefully, you would think over the age 65, Medicare, but probably still have something to pay out of pocket. It's not like zero insurance as it would be for somebody younger who doesn't have insurance. So, you know your own bodies, you're all very smart, and the reason we want to make videos like this in this particular video is that we see all the time people who waited too long. And from my perspective as a hospital doctor, every single time I work as a hospital doctor, I will see somebody who's come in and it's just a catastrophic diagnosis. And you go back and they've been suffering for for months. So, yeah, know when to seek help. That's the bottom line here. You have any other last words, Dr. Ben?

[00:08:50]I completely agree. Know when to seek help. Know when something's changed in your body that wasn't there before. When your body starts doing something it wasn't doing before, it's talking to you. And when it starts talking to you, it's time to listen. That's correct.

[00:09:03]Yes, so right, everybody, do feel free to share your stories down below as well. We really enjoy hearing from you.

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