Medical terms, explained plainly
The clinical words doctors and test results use, decoded - each one links to its full plain-English definition.
Something acute starts suddenly, hurts a lot, and doesn't last long.
A condition where your blood can't carry enough oxygen, making you feel tired and look pale.
Having a sickness but not feeling sick from it.
Something benign won't hurt you or get worse over time, like a harmless bump or growth.
Taking a small piece of living tissue or fluid from the body to check for disease.
Something that keeps happening over and over for a long time, like a health problem that won't go away.
Having more than one health problem at the same time, where one is the main issue and the others are extra.
A time when a medicine or treatment should not be used because it could cause harm.
Figuring out what's wrong with your body by looking at the signs of the problem.
Swelling in your body caused by extra fluid trapped in your tissues, like a puffy ankle after a sprain.
A health problem where your blood pushes too hard against your blood vessels over time.
A health problem that happens for no clear reason, with no one knowing what caused it.
When a part of your body gets red, hot, swollen, or sore because it's fighting off harm.
A mark or sore on your skin or inside your body that's not normal, like a cut or spot that shouldn't be there.
Very harmful and getting worse, like a sickness that spreads and won't stop.
When cancer moves from where it started to another part of the body.
Something that makes pain or problems less bad for a while, but doesn't fix the real cause.
A guess about how a sickness will likely get better or worse over time.
When a sickness gets much better or goes away for a while.
Affecting the whole body, not just a small part of it.