What Are Intestinal Worms (Helminths)? Human intestinal worms are parasites that live in the human intestine, eat bowel content or suck blood from the intestinal wall. Intestinal worms may cause severe infection,s predominantly in children in tropical and subtropical areas. It is more common in developing nations >> Read More ...
What Does “Immune” and “Immunity” Mean? Immune in medicine means “protected against infection”. Immunity means resistance against certain infections. What Is Infection and Who Develops Infectious Disease? Infection is an invasion of harmful microbes in the body. It depends on >> Read More ...
How Many Days Can You Go Without Water and Food? In a situation, where you do not have an access to water (and food), it is important to know, how long can you survive. Most people would likely die within 3 -4 days without drinking or eating anything, and rarely one would survive over a week. But: A 97 year old woman >> Read More ...
What Is a Bowel or Fecal Urgency? Bowel or fecal urgency is a sudden, irresistible need to have a bowel movement. Urge fecal incontinence is inability to hold stool during bowel urgency. Bowel incontinence is complete inability to control bowel movements. Tenesmus (Greek tens = strain) is a repeating painful urge to >> Read More ...
What Is Peritoneum? The peritoneum (Greek peritonaion = stretched across) is an abdominal membrane consisting of two sheets: the parietal peritoneum (Latin parietalis = belonging to walls) that covers the inner side of the abdominal wall and the visceral peritoneum (Latin viscera = internal organs) that covers certain >> Read More ...
What Are Adhesions? This article describes abdominal adhesions, bowel (intestinal) adhesions and pelvic adhesions. Adhesions (Latin adhere= to stick, to hold tight) are abnormal bands of scar tissue that form between internal organs and glue them together. Normally, scar tissue is formed only within an injured area, as >> Read More ...
Definition of Disease Disease (Latin dis- = lack of, opposite of + ease = convenience, comfort) literally means lack of strength or satisfaction. It also means a person is no longer at ease. In medicine, disease means an impairment in structure or function of a certain body part or mind with identifiable symptoms >> Read More ...
What Are Microorganisms? Microorganisms (Latin micro = small) are living beings so small (< 40 µm or 0.04 mm) that they are not visible by the naked eye. Microorganisms related to human health include certain bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites. Synonyms: microbes, germs, bugs. Types of Microorganisms >> Read More ...
What Are Fungi? Fungi are a group of living organisms, consisting from unicellular yeasts, and multicellular molds and mushrooms. A word fungus, plural fungi, is adopted from Latin fungus (mushroom), from Greek sphongos (sponge), and refers to a physical appearance of fungi. Mycology (from Greek mykes = fungus) is a branch >> Read More ...
What Is Infection? An infection is an invasion and multiplying of pathogenic microbes in the body tissues in which they are not usually present (1). Pathogenic means capable of causing disease. Infection does not always cause a disease. Definitions of Infection-Related Terms A colonization is the usual presence of >> Read More ...
