Vascular surgeon warns of subtle ‘body whispers’ as early health indicators
Houston vascular surgeon says subtle signs can precede vascular disease, urging vigilance for persistent leg pain, ankle swelling and walking cramps, especially after age 40.
In Houston, vascular surgeon Dr. Rema Malik says that many health problems begin with whispers rather than screams. In a recent Instagram post, she outlined how listening to the body’s subtle signals may help identify vascular disease early and prevent years of chronic pain or a medical emergency.
Malik described these whispers as the minor signs people often brush aside, from a new, persistent ache in the legs at the end of the day to swelling in the ankles that leaves marks from socks, and a predictable cramp that hits after walking a certain distance. She urged people to treat these signs as signals that warrant discussion with a clinician rather than quick fixes.
She cautioned that many ignore whispers because they are quiet and inconvenient, waiting for a dramatic event—the scream. The idea is to catch vascular issues early before they escalate to non-healing wounds, major pain, blood clots, heart attacks or strokes.
For those over 40, Malik said the goal is to train oneself to notice and investigate persistent symptoms rather than dismiss them. Learning to listen to these whispers is a critical life skill, especially after age 40, when the body's warning signals for vascular disease become more common and urgent. The greatest act of self-care is to take one's own body's messages seriously, she emphasized.
Her message sits within a broader health conversation abroad, where Australian cardiologist Dr. Ross Walker has challenged common heart health assumptions. Walker, who runs the Sydney Heart Health Clinic, argues that heart disease is not driven solely by high total cholesterol and that lowering that metric alone does not prove risk reduction. He points to the size and behavior of LDL and HDL particles, triglyceride levels, and overall cholesterol as more informative markers. He notes that low triglycerides and higher HDL are favorable and stresses that blood pressure remains a crucial risk factor, particularly for people over 60, with targets around 120/80.