There are moments in medicine that stay with you.

I think of the patient who finally comes in after months of telling herself she was “just tired,” only to discover there was something much bigger beneath the surface. Or the woman who noticed a lump but kept hoping it would go away before scheduling her mammogram. Or the person who has quietly adapted to years of brain fog, digestive issues, chronic pain, or weight changes because they assumed it was simply part of getting older.

I’ve seen those moments in my patients. I’ve lived one myself.

Before I was diagnosed with breast cancer in my early 30s, there were signs that something in my body wasn’t quite right. I remember feeling profoundly fatigued, but I explained it away the same way so many of us do. Surely, this will just go away, right?

“I was busy. I was working. Life was full. Fatigue felt like something to push through, not something to investigate.”

I was busy. I was working. Life was full. Fatigue felt like something to push through, not something to investigate.

Looking back, I don’t think I ignored my body because I didn’t care about my health. I ignored it because I believed I had good reasons to. And over the years, I’ve realized that’s true for many women.

We don’t usually wake up one morning and decide to disregard our health. We slowly learn to normalize feeling unwell. We convince ourselves we’ll deal with it after the next deadline, after the kids are older, after work slows down, after vacation. Little by little, we adapt to symptoms that were never meant to become normal.

The body is remarkably patient. It often spends months — or even years — asking for our attention before demanding it.

This isn’t an article about guilt or fear. Many people face very real barriers to healthcare, whether that’s access, cost, or previous experiences that have made seeking care difficult. But for those of us who can listen, I think it’s worth asking a simple question:

What if the symptoms we’ve learned to live with are actually trying to tell us something?

Symptoms Are Information

As a board-certified family medicine physician practicing functional medicine, one of the biggest shifts I hope people make is to see symptoms differently.

In our culture, it’s easy to think of symptoms as inconveniences — things to quiet, suppress, or simply push through. Fatigue gets answered with another cup of coffee. Headaches become something we “just deal with.” Brain fog gets blamed on getting older. Joint pain becomes the cost of staying active. We become so focused on making symptoms disappear that we sometimes forget to ask why they showed up in the first place.

“We become so focused on making symptoms disappear that we sometimes forget to ask why they showed up in the first place.”

Of course, not every symptom is a sign of something serious. Many have straightforward explanations, and many resolve on their own. But every symptom is information.

Our bodies are constantly monitoring what’s happening both internally and externally. They respond to changes in hormones, immune function, sleep, nutrition, stress, infection, inflammation, and our environment. Symptoms are often the visible result of those responses. They’re less about the body working against us and more about the body communicating that something has changed.

I often remind patients that the body is incredibly intelligent. More often than not, it’s working to protect us, compensate for us, and restore balance — not create problems. The question isn’t whether every symptom is dangerous. It’s whether we’re listening before our body has to speak even louder.

When We Learn To Live Around Our Symptoms

One of the remarkable things about the human body is its ability to adapt. Unfortunately, we don’t always realize what we’re adapting to.

We don’t always notice the gradual changes because they happen slowly. Like the moment you realize your favorite pair of jeans no longer fits, even though you never noticed the weight changing day by day.

We start relying on caffeine just to make it through the afternoon. We stop exercising because we’re always exhausted. We begin forgetting words more often and chalk it up to being busy or “it’s just that dang perimenopause again.” We accept digestive discomfort after every meal because “that’s just how my stomach is.”

Little by little, our world becomes smaller as we quietly accommodate symptoms instead of investigating them.

“Little by little, our world becomes smaller as we quietly accommodate symptoms instead of investigating them.”

Sometimes these changes happen so gradually that we forget what feeling well actually felt like.

In my medical practice, I’ve had patients tell me they didn’t realize how poorly they’d been feeling until they finally started feeling better. Their energy returned. Their thinking became clearer. Their joints hurt less. Their digestion improved. They hadn’t recognized how much they had adapted because the decline had been so gradual.

This is one of the reasons I encourage people to pay attention when something changes, even if it seems small. You know your body better than anyone else. If something feels different, persistent, or progressively worse, it’s worth asking why.

The Signs I Hope We Stop Explaining Away

Your body doesn’t always communicate dramatically. More often, it starts with subtle changes that are easy to explain away until they become impossible to ignore. Here are a few I hope we learn to take more seriously.

Persistent Fatigue

Fatigue isn’t a diagnosis — it’s a signal.

Every cell in your body requires energy to function, so when energy production is compromised, it’s often one of the first symptoms you’ll notice. Sometimes the explanation is simple: poor sleep, stress, a demanding season of life. But persistent fatigue can also be associated with thyroid dysfunction, anemia, nutrient deficiencies, autoimmune disease, hormonal changes, sleep disorders, depression, chronic infections, and even certain cancers.

“Every cell in your body requires energy to function, so when energy production is compromised, it’s often one of the first symptoms you’ll notice.”

If you’re consistently sleeping enough yet never feeling restored, or your energy has changed significantly without a clear explanation, it’s worth discussing with your healthcare practitioner.

Fatigue can have countless contributing causes, from nutritional deficiencies and thyroid disorders to autoimmune conditions, sleep disorders, mental health concerns, infections, hormonal changes, chronic stress, or, in some cases, more serious illnesses.

Feeling tired after a busy week can be normal. Feeling exhausted despite adequate rest deserves a conversation.

Unexplained Changes in Weight

Our weight naturally fluctuates throughout life, but significant changes without an obvious explanation deserve attention. And remember that the number on the scale represents far more than body fat. It’s influenced by changes in muscle, water, bone, inflammation, hormones, and overall body composition — which is why health can’t be reduced to a simple calories-in, calories-out equation.

“Our weight naturally fluctuates throughout life, but significant changes without an obvious explanation deserve attention.”

Hormones, thyroid function, inflammation, medications, gut health, stress, and metabolic health all influence those changes. When your body begins changing in ways that don’t make sense, it’s worth asking what it may be trying to tell you.

Pain That Becomes Your Personality

We talked about our ability to adapt, but one of the things humans do remarkably well is adapt to pain.

We sit differently. We stop carrying groceries with one arm. We avoid stairs. We skip workouts. We build our lives around pain instead of asking why it’s there.

“We build our lives around pain instead of asking why it’s there.”

Pain is your nervous system’s way of getting your attention. While not every ache requires extensive testing, persistent or worsening pain shouldn’t simply become something you accept because you’ve reached a certain birthday.

I often encourage patients to think about their future selves. Is the pain you’re living with today allowing you to do the things you hope to do in five, ten, or twenty years? Or is it quietly shaping a future that’s smaller than the one you envisioned?

Changes You Shouldn’t Ignore

I could write an entire article on every symptom that deserves attention, but this one would quickly become a textbook. Instead, here are several changes I hope we stop brushing aside.

A new breast lump. Blood in your stool. Unusual bleeding. A mole that’s changing shape or color. Persistent brain fog. Ongoing digestive changes. Mood changes that feel unlike you. Signs of inflammation that don’t seem to resolve. And yes, even symptoms that seem to fit the classic picture of menopause.

“A mole that’s changing shape or color. Persistent brain fog. Ongoing digestive changes. Mood changes that feel unlike you.”

None of these automatically mean something serious is happening. But they all deserve curiosity before dismissal.

Prevention Matters, Too

One of the biggest misconceptions I encounter is that paying attention only begins once symptoms appear.

The truth is, many conditions have far better outcomes when they’re detected before they cause any symptoms at all.

“Many conditions have far better outcomes when they’re detected before they cause any symptoms at all.”

That’s why I encourage patients to stay up to date with preventive screenings and imaging studies recommended by their healthcare practitioner. Functional medicine teaches us to look upstream and understand why disease develops. I deeply believe in that approach. 

At the same time, preventive care and early detection remain important parts of the conversation. They aren’t competing philosophies — they’re complementary ones.

Listening Without Living In Fear

Paying attention to your body doesn’t mean becoming anxious about every sensation.

In today’s world, it’s easy to swing from one extreme to another. Some people dismiss every symptom. Others find themselves spiraling down internet rabbit holes, convinced that every headache or stomachache signals the worst-case scenario. And now, with AI readily available, it’s easier than ever to either explain away a symptom or convince yourself you have a life-threatening illness before ever speaking with a healthcare professional.

“In today’s world, it’s easy to swing from one extreme to another. Some people dismiss every symptom. Others find themselves spiraling.”

Neither approach is particularly helpful.

I remind my patients that even though I’m the medical professional, they’re the true expert on their own body. No lab test or imaging study can replace the awareness that comes from living in your body every day. When something changes, they’re usually the first to know. The challenge is giving ourselves permission to listen.

Listening to your body isn’t about assuming something is wrong. It’s about staying present and connected enough to notice when something changes. Curiosity is different from catastrophizing.

“Curiosity is different from catastrophizing.”

Curiosity asks, Has this been going on for a while? Is this new for me? Is it affecting my daily life? Does it deserve a conversation with my doctor? Could this be worth asking about at my next appointment?

You don’t have to know the answer before you ask a question about your health. That’s what your healthcare team is there to help you figure out.

Those thoughtful questions are often the beginning of taking better care of your health.

A Better Relationship With Our Bodies

If there’s one thing my own health journey has taught me, it’s that our bodies are not obstacles to overcome and they’re not out to get us. They’re partners in our lives. They’re constantly adapting, protecting, compensating, repairing, and communicating with us. Most of the time, they don’t ask for our attention all at once. They whisper first.

“Our bodies are not obstacles to overcome and they’re not out to get us. They’re partners in our lives.”

As physicians, we don’t expect people to diagnose themselves. That’s not your job.

But I do hope we stop believing that feeling unwell is simply something we’re supposed to tolerate.

Whether it’s persistent fatigue, unexplained pain, changes in mood, a breast lump, brain fog, digestive symptoms, or simply the feeling that something isn’t quite right, your body deserves your curiosity.

Listening doesn’t guarantee that every symptom will have a serious explanation. More often than not, it won’t.

But when we begin seeing symptoms as information instead of inconveniences, we create the opportunity to better understand ourselves, seek help when we need it, and care for our health before our bodies have no choice but to demand our attention.

“When we begin seeing symptoms as information instead of inconveniences, we create the opportunity to better understand ourselves.”

And when we do, we often get to experience something worth celebrating: more energy, less pain, clearer thinking, better sleep, improved digestion, and the quiet realization that feeling well wasn’t something we had lost forever. It was something we could rediscover.

Our bodies spend so much of life trying to care for us. Sometimes the most powerful thing we can do is return the favor.

Dr. Jaclyn Tolentino is a board-certified family medicine physician specializing in functional medicine, women’s health, hormone optimization, metabolic health, and longevity. She has been featured in Vogue, The Wall Street Journal, and Women’s Health. As both a physician and a breast cancer survivor, she is passionate about delivering thoughtful, personalized care that empowers patients to better understand their health. Follow her on Instagram for updates and insights.