Health Flashcards
Hippocrates coined the word “carcinoma” after seeing a tumor that looked like what animal?
Crab He thought it was shaped like a crab, which is “karkinoma” in Greece. This relationship also explains the linguistic link between the astrological sign and the disease that share the name “cancer.”
There are two major kinds of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, or IBD; one is ulcerative colitis, where the immune system attacks the large intestine, leading to pain, bloody stools, and eventually colon cancer. What is the other kind, which occasionally has manifestations outside of the bowel, and counts among its sufferers Dwight Eisenhower, Ogden Nash, and the lead guitarist of Pearl Jam?
Crohn’s Disease
Photokeratitis is a painful eye condition resulting from overexposure to what?
Ultraviolet rays
What is the medical name of the periodontal disease that is inflammation of the gums, indicated by redness, swelling, and bleeding, and which can lead to the more serious periodontitis?
Gingivitis
An enlargement of this gland is called a goiter.
Thyroid
Antitussive medications prevent “tussis,” which is the onomatopoetic Latin word for what?
The Romans apparently thought coughing made a “tuss tuss” sound. Huh. Okay, whatever, Romans.
Pruritus is a medical term for the reflex-inducing sensation—typically a symptom as opposed to a condition in itself—that is best known as what?
Itch
What is the scientific word for the condition in which your blood sugar level is lower than normal, which fittingly is derived from Greek words meaning “low sugar in the blood”?
Hypoglycemia
What’s the more common name for the medical condition periorbital hematoma?
More colloquially, it’s a black eye.
What has a person just done if they’ve experienced the medical episode called syncope?
Syncope is the clinical term for fainting, or passing out.
The medical condition urticaria, generally caused by the body’s release of histamine, is better known by what word, which is descriptive of the condition’s appearance?
Hives
