...medicine and health care news

Mammals, most other animals, and higher plants as well, have ways to minimize inbreeding.

Sickle cell disease is a general term for a group of genetic disorders caused by sickle hemoglobin (Hgb S).

In genetics, heritability is the proportion of phenotypic variation in a population that is due to genetic variation.

The appetite is the desire to eat food, felt as hunger. Appetite is regulated by a close interplay between the digestive tract, adipose tissue and the brain.

Gas exchange or respiration takes place at a respiratory surface; a boundary between the external environment and the interior of the body.

Yoga is a healing system of theory and practice, its a combination of breathing exercises, physical postures, and meditation, practiced for over 5,000 years.

Proven baldness treatments continue to be an area of research that receives a large amount of funding. More than half of men are affected by male pattern baldness by age 50.

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by voluntary starvation and exercise stress.

Ocular dominance, sometimes called eye dominance or eyedness, is the tendency to prefer visual input from one eye to the other.

The Atkins Nutritional Approach, popularly known as the Atkins Diet or just Atkins, is the most marketed and well-known of the low-carbohydrate diets.

Sleep deprivation is an overall lack of the necessary amount of sleep. A person can be deprived of sleep by their own body and mind, insomnia, or actively deprived by another individual.

Dehydration is the removal of water from an object.

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a poorly understood and often misdiagnosed neurological disorder.

Asthma is a disease of the human respiratory system in which the airways narrow, often in response to a "trigger" such as exposure to an allergen, cold air, exercise, or emotional stress.

Fast food is food which is prepared and served quickly at outlets called fast-food restaurants. It is a multi-billion dollar industry which continues to grow rapidly in many countries.

An unsaturated fat is a fat or fatty acid in which there is one or more double bond in the fatty acid chain.

Toddler is a common term for a child between the ages of one and three years old, although some may consider a toddler to be between two and five.

Adipose tissue, or fat, is an anatomical term for loose connective tissue composed of adipocytes.

Hatha yoga is also known as Hatha vidya. It is a particular system of Yoga propagated by Swami Swatmarama, a yogic sage of the 15th century in India.

Urticaria or hives is a relatively common form of allergic reaction that causes raised red skin welts.

Nutrition and pregnancy refers to the nutrient intake, and dietary planning that is undertook before, during and after pregnancy.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common sleep apnea caused by obstruction of the airway. It is characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep.

A tendon (or sinew) is a tough band of fibrous connective tissue that connects muscle to bone, or muscle to muscle and is designed to withstand tension.

Addiction is a chronic disorder proposed to be precipitated by a combination of genetic, biological/pharmacological and social factors.

A burn is a type of injury to the skin caused by heat, electricity, chemicals, or radiation (an example of the latter is sunburn).

Sleep apnea, sleep apnoea or sleep apnœa is a sleep disorder characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep.

Cystic fibrosis (CF), also called mucoviscidosis, is an autosomal, recessive, hereditary disease of the exocrine glands.

Drug addiction, or substance dependence is the compulsive use of psychoactive drugs, to the point where the user has no effective choice but to continue use.

Olfaction, the sense of odor (smell), is the detection of chemicals dissolved in air (or in water, by animals that live under water).

Lice (singular: louse) (order Phthiraptera) are an order of over 3,000 species of wingless parasitic insects.

In botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary, together with seeds, of a flowering plant. In many species, the fruit incorporates the ripened ovary and surrounding tissues.

The jack o'lantern mushroom is an orange to red gill mushroom that is similar in appearance to the chanterelle, and most notable for its bioluminescent properties.

Mites, together with ticks, belong to the subclass Acarina (also known as Acari) and the class Arachnida. Mites are among the most diverse and successful of all the invertebrate groups.

A joint (articulation) is the location at which two bones make contact (articulate). Joints are constructed to both allow movement and provide mechanical support.

Hermit crabs are distinct from the true crabs in the infra-order Brachyura. Most hermit crabs salvage empty seashells to shelter and protect their soft abdomens.

Blood pressure is the pressure exerted by the blood on the walls of the blood vessels.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, inflammatory autoimmune disorder that causes the immune system to attack the joints.

Digestion is the process whereby a biological entity processes a substance, in order to chemically convert the substance into nutrients.

Pulmonary embolism is a blockage of an artery in the lungs by a blood clot, fat, air or clumped tumor cells.

Parkinson's disease (paralysis agitans or PD) is a neurodegenerative disease of the substantia nigra, an area in the basal ganglia of the brain.

Meditation is the practice of focusing attention, often formalized into a specific routine.

Surgery is the medical specialty that treats diseases or injuries by operative manual and instrumental treatment.

Blood alcohol content (or blood alcohol concentration), often abbreviated BAC, is the concentration of alcohol in blood, measured, by volume, as a percentage.

Growth hormone (GH) is a protein hormone secreted by the pituitary gland which stimulates growth and cell reproduction.

Giardiasis (also known as beaver fever) is a disease caused by the flagellate protozoan Giardia lamblia (also Giardia intestinalis).

Personality disorders form a class of mental disorders that are characterized by long-lasting rigid patterns of thought and behaviour.

Seizures are temporary abnormal electro-physiologic phenomena of the brain, resulting in abnormal synchronization of electrical neuronal activity.

Music is an art, entertainment, or other human activity which involves organized and audible sound. Musical composition is a term that describes the makeup of a piece of music.

Malnutrition is a general term for the medical condition caused by an improper or insufficient diet.

Whole grains are cereal grains which retain the bran and germ as well as the endosperm, in contrast to refined grains which retain only the endosperm.