Anglický jazyk
9.3 Medical English - Diseases
Until this chapter we have talked about the anatomical functions of the human body. But people are not always healthy and sometimes they suffer from various disorders, be it functional illnesses or infectious diseases. Let's look at some common disorders.
We can divide the long list of disorders according to which body system they attack. There are blood diseases, heart function disorders, oncological diseases, digestive system disorders, reproduction system disorders, mental illnesses, congenital disorders and many others. We shall discuss infectious diseases first.
Infection is an invasion and multiplication of microorganisms in body tissues which then causes inflammation. Inflammation is the body's immune reaction. The quality of immunity of the individual influences the probability of contracting the given disease. Infectious diseases are those that are transmitted from person to person or from animal to person, often by droplet infection. By definition it is a transmission of respiratory patogens on droplets from an infected individual to a healthy one. The droplets are produced by coughing, sneezing and even talking, landing on oral, nasal or other tissues. Droplet illnesses are for example cold, influenza (flu), mumps, measles, rubella (these three being common children diseases), tuberculosis etc. Flu is a virus infection so it is not cured by antibiotics. Infectious diseases are often accompanied by high temperature or even fever.
Other diseases might be transmitted through another vector such as hands (typically hepatitis A) or blood (hepatitis B and C, HIV virus), or food (salmonella, botulism). A specific group are sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhoea, syphilis and AIDS (HIV). Diseases transmitted by animals are for example lyme borelliosis/lyme disease, tick-borne encephalitis, or lyssa/rabies. Some diseases might be transmitted from mother to foetus = unborn baby such as hepatitis or AIDS.
Mumps are highly infectious.
Source: http://finkorswim.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/mumps.jpg
Some medical and common terms
Source: Glendinning, Howard, 2007
Congenital disorders include anomalies and malformations such as cleft palate, and genetic disorders such as the Down's syndrome or lactose intolerance. An interesting phenomenon are Siamese twins. They might be connected in heads, hips or another part of their bodies.
A huge part of human disorders are oncological illnesses and cardiovascular diseases. These two are responsible for the majority of deaths in adults. Children are more prone to death by accidents. Cardiovascular diseases are those that affect the heart and the vessels. They are for example ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease (stroke), bacterial endocarditis, heart failure etc. Risk factors include older age, smoking and air pollution, high blood pressure and fatty diet.
Oncological illnesses are cancers or so called malignant neoplasms. They are a broad group of various diseases which involve unregulated cell growth. Cells divide uncontrollably and form tumors. Not all of them have to be malignant, some might be benign. It is difficult to say why cancers appear in a person, but the best known variables connected with cancer are smoking, radiation, obesity, environmental pollution, hereditary causes etc. The most common cancers are colorectal cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, melanoma (skin cancer) caused by sun radiation, and blood cells disorders such as lymphoma and leukemia (the latter being the most frequent cancer in children). Often a person might live long without any symptoms. That is the reason why cancers are such an enemy to people.
Signs of melanoma.
Many disorders are caused by people's unhealthy lifestyle. Lung cancer is common in tobacco smokers, cirrhosis is caused by excessive consumption of alcohol, bones and joints suffer from lack or excess of physical activity. Another frequent disease is diabetes. It basically means that the patient has high blood sugar which is not absorbed into cells to be used as fuel or storage. There are two main types of diabetes mellitus – the first one results from the inability of the body to produce insulin (formed in pancreas) and is often hereditary, the second type is based on insulin resistance and is triggered by the person's lifestyle – obesity, high blood pressure and smoking. Typical symptoms of diabetes are frequent urination and increased thirst and hunger.
Mental diseases might be connected to incorrect brain chemistry or an unbalanced lifestyle. Depressions, mood and anxiety disorders, and schizophrenia are common along with post-traumatic stress disorder and drug addiction. Stomach ulcers and heart attacks are believed to result from a stressful lifestyle too.
The 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) is a list of more than 14 000 health disorders.
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disorder
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porucha
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disease, illness
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onemocnění, nemoc
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inflammation
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zánět
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transmit, transmission
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přenášet, přenos
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droplet
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kapénka
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sneeze
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kýchat
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mumps
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příušnice
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measles
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spalničky
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rubella, German measles
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zarděnky
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gonorrhoea
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kapavka
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tick-borne
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přenášený klíštětem
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lyssa, rabies
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vzteklina
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congenital
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vrozený
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cleft palate
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rozštěp patra
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prone to
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náchylný k
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stroke
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mrtvice
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heart failure
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srdeční kolaps
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fatty diet
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tučná strava
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broad
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široký
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variable
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proměnná
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hereditary
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dědičný
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the latter
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ten druhý
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excessive
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nadměrný
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fuel
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palivo
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storage
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zásoba
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triggered by
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podpořen čím
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