5 pains no one should ignore

You may have experienced a sharp shooting sensation that you can't explain, or a dull ache that never quite goes away. While each and every pain should not keep you worrying, it pays not to ignore a few mysterious pains. Here are a few pains that could indicate something is seriously wrong with your body.These types of pains can be clues to your overall well-being. To help you prevent potentially life-threatening situations, here we reveal five body pains you should never ignore. 1. Transient Chest PainNot a type of pain that strikes only homeless people, but a heavy ache that comes on suddenly and then goes away just as quickly. Otherwise, you feel fine.The condition: It could be indigestion. Or it could be a heart attack. "Even if it's very short in duration, it can be a sign of something serious," says John Stamatos, M.D., medical director of North Shore Pain Services in Long Island and author of Painbuster.Here's how serious: A blood clot may have lodged in a narrowed section of a coronary artery, completely cutting off the flow of blood to one section of your heart.How much wait-and-see time do you have? Really, none. Fifty percent of deaths from heart attacks occur within 3 to 4 hours of the first symptoms. You're literally living on borrowed time.The diagnostics: A blood test checks for markers of damaged heart tissue. Treatment: angioplasty or bypass.2.Sharp Pain in the AbdomenAll the metaphors apply—knife in the gut, bullet in the belly, skewer in the stomach—except this attack is from within.The condition: Take your pick. Since the area between your ribs and your hips is jam-packed with organs, the pain can be a symptom of either appendicitis, pancreatitis, or an inflamed gallbladder. In all three cases, the cause is the same: Something has blocked up the organ in question, resulting in a potentially fatal infection. Exploding organs can kill a guy. See a doctor before this happens.The diagnostics: If the pain is in your lower-right abdomen and your white-blood-cell count is up, says Dr. Kra, it's probably appendicitis (out comes the appendix).Pain in your upper abdomen with high white blood cells usually spells an inflamed gallbladder.And if it hurts below your breastbone and certain enzymes in the blood are elevated, then pancreatitis is probably the culprit. (The pancreas stays, but a gallstone may be blocking things up. If so, the stone and the gallbladder may have to come out.)3.Persistent Foot or Shin PainA nagging pain in the top of your foot or the front of your shin that's worse when you exercise, but present even at rest. It's impervious to ibuprofen and acetaminophen.The condition: It's probably a stress fracture. Bones, like all the other tissues in your body, are continually regenerating themselves. "But if you're training so hard that the bone doesn't get a chance to heal itself, a stress fracture can develop," explains Andrew Feldman, M.D., the team physician for the New York Rangers. Eventually, the bone can be permanently weakened.The diagnostics: Radioactive dye reveals the fracture in the x-ray, and you'll be told to stop all running until the crack heals. Worst case, you'll be in a cast for a few weeks.4.Severe Back PainSimilar to the kind of agony you'd expect if you'd just tried to clean-and-jerk an armoire. The usual remedies—heat, rest, OTC painkillers—offer no relief.The condition: "If it's not related to exercise, sudden severe back pain can be the sign of an aneurysm," says Sigfried Kra, M.D., an associate professor at the Yale school of medicine. Particularly troubling is the abdominal aneurysm, a dangerous weakening of the aorta just above the kidneys. But don't worry; eventually, the pain subsides—right after your body's main artery bursts.A less threatening possibility: You have a kidney stone. More pain, but you'll only wish you were dead.The diagnostics: A CT scan using intravenous radiopaque dye does the best job of revealing the size and shape of an aneurysm. Once its dimensions are determined, it'll be treated with blood-pressure medication or surgery to implant a synthetic graft.5.Sudden Groin PainNot as severe as a shot to the crotch, but pretty close. Sometimes accompanied by swelling.The condition: Odds are it's something called testicular torsion. Normally, a man's testicles are attached to his body in two ways: by the spermatic cords, which run into the abdomen, and by fleshy anchors near the scrotum.But sometimes, in a relatively common congenital defect, these anchors are missing. This allows one of the spermatic cords to get twisted, which cuts off the flow of blood to the testicle. "If you catch it in 4 to 6 hours, you can usually save the testicle," says Jon Pryor, M.D., a urologist with the University of Minnesota. "But after 12 to 24 hours, you'll probably lose it."Another possible cause of the pain in your pants: an infection of the epididymis, your sperm-storage facility.The diagnostics: A physical examination, possibly followed by an ultrasound. Antibiotics can stifle an infection. And if your testicles are doing the twist? A surgeon will straighten the cord, then construct artificial anchors with a few stitches near the scrotum.