Health & Medicine
The human body, disease, medicine and the public health advances that lengthened lives.
Featured in Health & Medicine
Start with these, then follow the links inside each article wherever they lead.
Immune system
The immune system is a network of biological systems that protects an organism from diseases. It detects and responds to a wide variety of pathogens, such as viruses, bacteria, and parasites, as well as cancer cells and foreign objects, such as wood splinters, distinguishing them from the organism's own healthy tissue.
Heart
The heart is a muscular organ found in humans and other animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels.
Human brain
The human brain is the central organ of the nervous system, and with the spinal cord, comprises the central nervous system. It consists of the cerebrum, the brainstem and the cerebellum.
Nutrition
Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food and water to support its life. The intake of these substances provides organisms with nutrients which can be metabolized to create energy and chemical structures; too much or too little of an essential nutrient can cause malnutrition.
Vitamin
Vitamins are organic molecules that are essential to an organism in small quantities for proper metabolic function. These essential nutrients cannot be synthesized in the organism in sufficient quantities for survival, and therefore must be obtained through consumption.
Penicillin
Penicillins are a group of β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from Penicillium moulds, principally P. chrysogenum and P. rubens. Eight species of Penicillium, in the section Chrysogena, produce penicillins.
Antimicrobial resistance
Antimicrobial resistance occurs when microbes evolve mechanisms that protect them from antimicrobials, which are drugs used to treat infections in humans, animals, and plants. Any microbe can develop resistance, including bacteria (antibiotic resistance), viruses (antiviral resistance), parasites (antiparasitic resistance), and fungi (antifungal resistance).
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by the variola virus, which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization certified the global eradication of the disease in 1980, making smallpox the only human disease to have been eradicated.
Public health
Public health is "the science of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the determinants of health of a population and the threats it faces is the basis for public health.
Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution, patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population, and application of this knowledge to prevent diseases. It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decisions and evidence-based practice by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive healthcare.
Pandemic
A pandemic is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial portion of the human population. Widespread endemic diseases with a stable number of infected individuals such as recurrences of seasonal influenza are generally excluded as they occur simultaneously in large regions of the globe rather than being spread worldwide.
Influenza
Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue.
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that is transmitted by the bite of Anopheles mosquitoes. The symptoms of human malaria typically include fever, fatigue, vomiting and headaches.
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis initially infects the lungs, but it can also spread to other parts of the body.
Diabetes
Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes tends to progress in severity, and is due to either a reduced production of the hormone insulin by the pancreas or unresponsiveness of bodily cells to insulin's effects.
Cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving uncontrolled cell growth typically resulting in tumors with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These malignant tumors contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread.
Blood
Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells of the body, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood is composed of blood cells suspended in plasma.
Lung
The lungs are the primary organs of the respiratory system in many animals, including humans. In mammals and most other tetrapods, two lungs are located near the backbone on either side of the heart.
Liver
The liver is a major metabolic organ exclusively found in vertebrates which performs many essential biological functions, such as detoxification of the organism and the synthesis of various proteins and other biochemicals necessary for digestion and growth. In humans, it is located in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen, below the diaphragm and mostly shielded by the lower right rib cage.
Skin
Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different developmental origin, structure and chemical composition.
Human skeleton
The human skeleton is the internal framework of the human body. It is composed of around 270 bones at birth, this total decreases to around 206 bones by adulthood after some bones fuse together, not counting accessory bones.
Anesthesia
Anesthesia or anaesthesia (British English) is a state of controlled, temporary loss of sensation or awareness that is induced for medical or veterinary purposes. It may include some or all of analgesia (relief from or prevention of pain), paralysis (muscle relaxation), amnesia (loss of memory), and unconsciousness.
Surgery
Surgery is a medical specialty that uses manual and instrumental techniques to diagnose or treat pathological conditions, to alter bodily functions (e.g., malabsorption created by bariatric surgery such as gastric bypass), to reconstruct or alter aesthetics and appearance (cosmetic surgery), or to remove unwanted tissues, neoplasms and foreign bodies. The act of performing surgery may be called a surgical procedure or surgical operation, or simply "surgery" or "operation".
Transplantation (medicine)
Transplantation is a medical procedure in which an organ, tissue, or cells are removed from one organism and placed in a recipient organism, often to replace a damaged or missing function. The donor and recipient may be at the same location, or organs may be transported from a donor site to another location.
X-ray
An X-ray is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 nanometers to 10 picometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range of 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and photon energies in the range of 100 eV to 100 keV, respectively.
Magnetic resonance imaging
Magnetic resonance imaging is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to generate pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes inside the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio waves to form images of the organs in the body.
Edward Jenner
Edward Jenner was an English physician and scientist who pioneered the concept of vaccines and created the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine. The terms vaccine and vaccination are derived from Variolae vaccinae ("pustules of the cow"), the term devised by Jenner to denote cowpox.
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur was a French chemist, pharmacist, and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization, the last of which was named after him. His research in chemistry led to remarkable breakthroughs in the understanding of the causes and prevention of diseases, which laid down the foundations of hygiene, public health and much of modern medicine.
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale was an English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War, in which she organised care for wounded soldiers at Constantinople.
John Snow
John Snow was an English physician and a leader in the development of anaesthesia and medical hygiene. He is considered one of the founders of modern epidemiology and early germ theory, in part because of his work in tracing the source of a cholera outbreak in London's Soho, which he identified as a particular public water pump.
Hippocrates
Hippocrates of Kos, also known as Hippocrates II, named after his grandfather Hippocrates I (also Hippocrates of Kos or Hippocrates I of Kos) was a Greek physician and philosopher of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is traditionally referred to as the "Father of Medicine" in recognition of his lasting contributions to the field, such as the use of prognosis and clinical observation, the systematic categorization of diseases, and the (later discredited) formulation of humoral theory.
Mental health
Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. Mental health plays a crucial role in an individual's daily life when managing stress, engaging with others, and contributing to life overall.
Exercise
Exercise or working out is physical activity that enhances or maintains fitness and overall health. It is performed for various reasons, including weight loss or maintenance, to aid growth and improve strength, develop muscles and the cardiovascular system, hone athletic skills, improve health, or simply for enjoyment.
Sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation, also known as sleep insufficiency or sleeplessness, is the health condition of not having adequate duration or quality of sleep to support proper alertness, performance, and health. It can be either chronic or acute and may vary widely in severity.
Hand washing
Hand washing, also called hand hygiene, is the process of cleaning the hands with soap or handwash and water to eliminate bacteria, viruses, dirt, microorganisms, and other potentially harmful substances. Drying of the washed hands is part of the process as wet and moist hands are more easily recontaminated.
Blood pressure
Blood pressure is the pressure of circulating blood against the walls of blood vessels. Most of this pressure results from the heart pumping blood through the circulatory system.
Guides in Health & Medicine
The immune system
How the body recognises invaders, fights them off and remembers them, from skin and fever to antibodies and T cells.
The heart and circulation
How a fist-sized muscle pumps blood through about 100,000 kilometres of vessels, and what keeps it healthy.
Nutrition basics
What carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals do, and what the evidence says about a healthy diet.
Antibiotics and antibiotic resistance
How penicillin changed medicine, how antibiotics kill bacteria, and why resistant infections are a growing global threat.
The brain
The structure of the brain, how neurons communicate, and what we know about how it changes over a lifetime.
Public health and epidemics
How clean water, vaccines and disease tracking added decades to human life expectancy, and how epidemics spread.