GP answers people's six most common questions about their health

Let’s be honest, most of us are guilty of typing something like at least one of the following into our search bar: “Symptoms of…”, “Why do I feel like this after…” and “Is it normal to feel…”

And then we often go and one up that and convince ourselves we need to go straight to the doctors (or the hospital if we’re really freaked out).

But then once we finally get through the phone queues and manage to see our GP, we have even more questions. This might range from interrogating them over our latest symptoms and if the latest TikTok trends work to if we can get Ozempic on prescription or what we should be doing in the gym.

So, as questions spiral around your head, a GP has answered the six most common ones people have about their health to save you an unnecessary trip.

I swear my back is 50 years older than the rest of my body (Getty Stock)

What can I do about my back pain?

Often feeling like it’s came on randomly, back pain can be an absolute nightmare when it hits.

And Dr Oscar Duke wrote for The Telegraph that it’s one of the things people ask him about it the most as it is also a pain ‘for society as a whole’.

“Estimates vary, but the cost of treating back pain and the indirect costs associated with work absence, run into many billions of pounds of UK GDP each year,” he explained.

Our ‘modern lifestyles’ don’t help with it as we’re often sat at either our desks or on a sofa. So, if the pain gets worse when sitting or lying down, ‘walking, moving and back pain exercises will settle things for most’ but can take time.

And if you have any of the following red flags from your back pain, you should get an urgent medical review: “Weakness, numbness, unintentional weight loss and problems controlling your bladder or bowels.”

Is it chickenpox?

He says rashes can appear for a number of reasons (Getty Stock)

Dr Duke says childhood rashes ‘bring fear’ thanks to the publicity around severe infections like ‘bacterial meningitis’.

“Have you pressed a glass onto it to see if it disappears? A rash that remains – or doesn’t blanch – needs urgent attention,” he wrote.

But he added that the ‘most important’ question with this is: “How is the child?”

The GP explained that many simple viral illnesses bring out rashes in kids and can be safely managed at home with medical advice.

“But is it chickenpox? Characteristic fluid-filled itchy blisters? Surely it should be easy,” he added. “Can I finally answer with certainty and be the doctor that the world around me appears to need? Sometimes.”

What do blood pressure readings even mean?

I mean, surely most of us have wondered this one. Yeah, cool, the doctor says those numbers are great but we have no idea what they actually mean.

Dr Duke says ‘knowing your blood pressure is one of the single best things you can do to monitor your health’.

So, when we’re standing up, it takes considerable pressure to pump blood up to the likes of our brain. He broke it down: “As the heart muscle squeezes, the highest pressure is created – known as the systolic blood pressure – and when the heart relaxes, a lower pressure – diastolic – is recorded.”

Having a total drop in pressure can be pretty bad but so can extremely high pressures.

“Modestly elevated pressures, left unattended over time, wear away at the walls of our blood vessels, roughening the inner surface lining of the pipes and allowing fats such as cholesterol to deposit, fur up, and increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke,” he added.

Why is my cough still hanging around?

Pesky coughs can often last for weeks. (Getty Stock)

A pesky cough that just won’t shake off can be irritating as f**k. And the more you look into it on the internet, the more freaked out you can get.

But Dr Duke says those rare causes are ‘never far from your doctor’s mind either’.

“The skill, the chase, and the ultimate satisfaction lies in balancing the patient’s clinical history on the scales of medically trained probability,” he wrote.

The GP says that a ‘viral illness that will eventually self-resolve’ outruns most causers of a lingering cough, adding that many coughs will drag out for ‘three or four weeks of misery’ due to a virus as he encouraged ‘self-care while it burns out’.

If trying out honey or over-the-counter cough remedies as well as allowing time to tick by doesn’t do anything to shake the cough off, then ‘further investigation is required’.

Surely I can’t need a statin?

The GP says suggesting these cholesterol-lowering drugs often seems to p**s his patients off. Dr Duke added that this seems to be because of potential side effects like ‘muscle pain and weakness’.

However, he pointed out that a study showed that over 90 percent of muscle pain ‘blamed on statins had nothing to do with the statin at all’.

He said there are great benefits of statins in ‘reducing the rate of cardiovascular diseases’.

“Not only do these drugs reduce the artery-clogging bad cholesterol, known as LDL, but they are also thought to have a separate anti-inflammatory effect on the blood vessels themselves,” Dr Duke explained as he encouraged patients to ‘rethink the grimace’ they make over the thought of a statin.

Do I need to go for screening?

People will often put screenings off out of fear. (Getty Stock)

Dr Duke expressed concern for the amount of women who are not up to date with their cervical cancer screening while it’s found that they offer ‘high yield – cost effective – early detection’.

“For many, the intention is there,” he added. “So often though, its added to the to-do list, well below arranging MOTs and switching electricity suppliers.”

But the GP points out that early cancer detection ‘really can save lives’.

And while people may be fearful of going for a screening, Dr Duke said: “My greatest fear is you forgetting.”