Diseases

Anemia
A condition in which the number of red blood cells, the amount of hemoglobin, and/or the volume of packed red blood cells is much less than normal. This is sometimes called a low red blood cell count.

Atherosclerosis
The progressive narrowing and hardening of the arteries over time.

Arthritis
An inflammatory condition that affects joints. Can be infective, autoimmune, traumatic i n origin.

Asthma
A disease process that is characterized by paradoxical narrowing of the bronchi (lung passageways) making breathing difficult.

Autism
Autism is a complex developmental disorder that appears in the first 3 years of life, though it is some times diagnosed much later. It affects the brain's normal development of social and communication skills.

Autism is a spectrum that encompasses a wide continuum of behavior. Core features include impaired social interactions, impaired verbal and nonverbal communication and restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior.

Symptoms may vary from quite mild to quite severe. Mild autism is known as Asberger's syndrome.

Bronchitis
Inflammation of one or more bronchi, usually secondary to infection.

Cancer
The uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells which have mutated from normal tissues. Cancer can kill when these cells prevent normal function of affected vital organs or spread throughout the body to damage other key systems. There are at least 200 different kinds of cancers, which can develop in almost any organ.

Candidiasis
Oral thrush is a disorder caused by infection of the mouth with the fungus (yeast) Candida albicans.

Cataract
A cloudy or opaque area in the lens of the eye.

Cholera
An infection of the small intestine caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, resulting in profuse watery diarrhea.

Cirrhosis
Cirrhosis is the result of chronic liver disease that causes scarring of the liver (fibrosis - nodular regeneration) and liver dysfunction. This often has many complications, including accumulation of fluid in the abdomen (ascites), bleeding disorders (coagulopathy), increased pressure in the blood vessels (portal hypertension), and confusion or a change in the level of consciousness (hepatic encephalopathy).

Attention Deficit Disorder
A neurobiological condition characterized by developmentally inappropriate level of attention, concentration, activity, distractability, and impulsivity.

Dengue Fever
A mild viral illness transmitted by mosquitoes and characterized by fever, rash, and muscle and joint pains. See also Dengue hemorrhagic fever.

Diabetes
Diabetes is a life-long disease marked by elevated levels of sugar in the blood. It can be caused by too little insulin (a chemical produced by the pancreas to regulate blood sugar), resistance to insulin, or both.

Diarrhea
Abnormally frequent intestinal evacuations with more or less fluid stools.

Drug Addiction
Drug dependence (addiction) is compulsive use of a substance despite negative consequences which can be severe; drug abuse is simply excessive use of a drug or use of a drug for purposes for which it was not medically intended. Physical dependence on a substance (needing a drug to function) is not necessary or sufficient to define addiction. There are some substances which don't cause addiction but do cause physical dependence (for example, some blood pressure medications) and substances which cause addiction but not classic physical dependence (cocaine withdrawal, for example, doesn't have symptoms like vomiting and chills; it is mainly characterized by depression).

Ectopic Pregnancy
Ectopic pregnancy occurs when the fertilized egg implants in tissue outside of the uterus and the placenta and fetus begin to develop there. The most common site is within a Fallopian tube. However, ectopic pregnancies can rarely occur in the ovary, the abdomen, and in the lower portion of the uterus (the cervix).

Endometriosis
The presence and growth of functioning endometrial tissue in places other than the uterus that often results in severe pain and infertility.

Epilepsy
Any of various disorders marked by disturbed electrical rhythms of the central nervous system and typically manifested by convulsive attacks usually with clouding of consciousness.

Giardiasis
An infection of the small intestine caused by a protozoa, Giardia lamblia.

Glaucoma
A condition of increased fluid pressure inside the eye (intraocular pressure). This increased pressure damages the optic nerve causing partial vision loss, with blindness as a possible, eventual outcome.

Hypertension
Characterized by high blood pressure; generally this includes systolic blood pressure (the "top" number of your blood pressure measurement, which represents the pressure generated when the heart beats) consistently higher than 140, or diastolic blood pressure (the "bottom" number of your blood pressure measurement, which represents the pressure in the vessels when the heart is at rest) consistently over 90.

Impotence
An abnormal physical or psychological state of a male characterized by inability to copulate because of failure to have or maintain an erection -- called also erectile dysfunction.

Myocardial Infarction
A heart attack (myocardial infarction) occurs when an area of heart muscle dies or is permanently damaged because of an inadequate supply of oxygen to that area.

Congestive Heart Failure
Heart failure in which the heart is unable to maintain adequate circulation of blood in the tissues of the body or to pump out the venous blood returned to it by the venous circulation.

Lupus
A chronic, inflammatory autoimmune disorder that may affect many organ systems including the skin, joints, and internal organs.

Common Migraine
Common migraine is a disorder involving recurrent headaches, which may be accompanied by symptoms other than headache but which rarely include a preliminary warning (called an aura).

Migraine with aura
A classic migraine is a disorder involving repeated or recurrent headache, associated with temporary changes in the diameter of the blood vessels in the head. "Classic" migraine headaches refer to those migraine headaches that are preceded by a visual disturbance called an aura. This type of migraine is to be differentiated from "common" migraines (no warning or aura) or "complicated" migraines (associated with non-visual neurological symptoms such as disturbances in speech, movement, or sensory perception).

Mononuclesosis
An acute viral infection causing high temperature, sore throat, and

swollen lymph glands, especially in the neck. It is typically caused by the Epstein-Barr virus, but can also be caused by the cytomegalovirus (CMV).

Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is a condition characterized by the progressive loss of bone density and thinning of bone tissue.

Parasitosis
Infestation with or disease caused by parasites.

Placenta Previa
Placenta previa is a condition that may occur during pregnancy when the placenta implants in the lower part of the uterus and obstructs the cervical opening to the vagina (birth canal).

Preeclampsia and eclampsia
Preeclampsia is the development of swelling, elevated blood pressure, and protein in the urine during pregnancy.

AIDS
AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is the final and most serious stage of HIV disease, which causes severe damage to the immune system. The Centers for Disease Control has defined AIDS as beginning when a person with HIV infection has a CD4 cell (also called "t-cell", a type of immune cell) count below 200. It is also defined by numerous opportunistic infections and cancers that occur in the presence of HIV infection.

Polyquistic ovary syndrome
Stein-Leventhal syndrome is an accumulation of many incompletely developed follicles in the ovaries. This condition is characterized by irregular menstrual cycles, scanty or absent menses, multiple small cysts on the ovaries (polycystic ovaries), mild hirsutism, and infertility. Many women who have this condition also have diabetes with insulin resistance.

Thrombosis
The formation or presence of a blood clot within a blood vessel during life.

Tuberculosis
A contagious bacterial infection caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which has spread to other organs of the body by the blood or lymph system.

Vitiligo
Vitiligo is a skin condition in which there is loss of pigment from areas of skin resulting in irregular white patches with normal skin texture.

Peptic Ulcer
An erosion in the lining of the duodenum (first part of the small intestine, connecting to the stomach).