The Medicine Portal

Medicine is the branch of health science and the sector of public life concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis and treatment of disease and injury. It is both an area of knowledge — a science of body systems, their diseases and treatment — and the applied practice — an art or craft — of that knowledge. However, medicine often refers more specifically to matters dealt with by physicians and surgeons.

Medicine is both an area of knowledge (a science), and the application of that knowledge (by the medical profession and other health professionals such as nurses). The various specialized branches of the science of medicine correspond to the equally specialized medical professions dealing with particular organs or diseases. The science of medicine is the knowledge of body systems and diseases, while the profession of medicine refers to the social structure of the group of people formally trained to apply that knowledge.

Medicine comprises used amongst medical professionals as shorthand for internal medicine. Veterinary medicine is the practice of health care in animal species other than human beings.

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Selected Article

Coeliac disease or celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder of the small bowel that occurs in genetically predisposed individuals in all age groups after early infancy. Symptoms may include diarrhoea, failure to thrive (in children) and fatigue, but these may be absent and associated symptoms in all other organ systems have been described. It affects approximately 1% of Caucasian populations, though it is significantly underdiagnosed. A growing portion of diagnoses are being made in asymptomatic persons as a result of increasing screening.

Coeliac disease is caused by a reaction to gliadin, a gluten protein found in wheat (and similar proteins of the tribe Triticeae which includes other cultivars such as barley and rye). Upon exposure to gliadin, the enzyme tissue transglutaminase modifies the protein, and the immune system cross-reacts with the bowel tissue, causing an inflammatory reaction. That leads to flattening of the lining of the small intestine, which interferes with the absorption of nutrients. The only effective treatment is a lifelong gluten-free diet. (More...)

Selected Picture

SPECT nuclear imaging of the heart, short axis views.

Photo credit: Patrick J. Lynch, medical illustrator

Medicine WikiNews

• • November 25: School closed after five-year-old boy dies from suspected swine flu in Buckinghamshire, England
  • November 24: Benet Academy, Illinois students support classmate with leukemia
  • November 24: Man misdiagnosed as being in coma for 23 years
  • November 22: Saudi Arabia fears Hajj swine flu outbreak as four pilgrims die

More articles about Health on WikiNews • Archive

Did you know...

• ...that Erdheim-Chester disease or polyostotic sclerosing histiocytosis is a rare form of non-Langerhans-cell histiocytosis that may present with, among other things, bone pain, retroperitoneal fibrosis, diabetes insipidus and exophthalmos?
• ...that over time, essentially every vasectomized man experiences an epididymal blowout, which is the formation of a sperm granuloma in the epididymis, to relieve the high intra-luminal pressures in the delicate epididymal tubules?
• ...that the Rinne test and Weber test are quick screening tests which allow differentiation between conductive hearing loss and sensorineural hearing loss?
  Did you know archive

Quotes

• "… the best thing for being sad… is to learn something.” - Merlin to Arthur; The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White
• "Health is like money, we never have a true idea of its value until we lose it.” - Josh Billings
• "Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.” - Mark Twain
  Quotes archive

Medicine topics

Anatomy List of anatomical topics Anatomists Animal anatomy History of anatomy Human anatomy Embryology Organs Tissues	Physicians Medical education Dentists Dermatologists Endocrinologists Pathologists Pediatricians Surgeons	Medical treatments Cancer treatments Psychiatric treatments Radiobiology Surgery Therapy	Pharmacology ATC codes Medicinal chemistry Medicinal plants Pharmacodynamics Pharmacologists
History of medicine List of epidemics Heroic medicine Prehistoric medicine History of traditional Chinese medicine History of cancer chemotherapy Islamic medicine Medical museums Medicine in ancient Greece Timeline of antibiotics Timeline of medicine and medical technology Timeline of vaccines	Diseases and disorders Autoimmune Blood disorders Cardiovascular Congenital Cutaneous Genetic Infectious Neurological Organ disorders	Medical equipment or Medical Technology Anesthetic equipment Dental equipment Drug delivery devices Implants Medical imaging Medical testing equipment Medical pumps Thermometers List of surgical instruments	First aid Cardiopulmonary resuscitation Emergency action principles Emergency medical technician First aid kit Recovery position Tourniquet Wound

WikiProjects

• Abortion
• Aids
• Alternative medicine
• Anatomy
• Deaf
• Dentistry
• Genetics
• Health and fitness
• First aid
• Medicine: our main project!
  • Cardiology
  • Dermatology
  • Emergency medicine and EMS
  • Gastroenterology
  • Hematology-oncology
  • Medical Genetics
  • Nephrology
  • Neurology
  • Ophthalmology
  • Pathology
  • Psychiatry
  • Pulmonology
  • Radiology
  • Reproductive medicine
• Microbiology
  • Viruses
• Molecular and Cellular Biology
  • Cell Signaling
• National Health Service
• Neuroscience
• Nursing
• Pharmacology
  • Psychedelics, Dissociatives and Deliriants
• Psychology
  • Psychopathology
• Sexology and sexuality
• Veterinary Medicine

Things you can do

Here are some things you can do:

• Wikify: British Pharmacopoeia, Doctor-patient relationship, Freeman-Sheldon syndrome, Healthy diet, Osteoblastoma, Paramedicine, Podiatry
• Expand: Ancient Roman Medicine, Bioethics, Chimera (genetics), Forensic pathology, Gynaecology, Health care system, Insanity, Medical education in the United Kingdom, Medical ethics, Medical microbiology, Medical school, Meningitis, Monounsaturated fat, Osmotherapy, Peptic ulcer, Pulmonary artery catheter, Sertoli cell, Tachycardia, Terminal illness, X chromosome
• Requests: Latin terminology in anatomy, Vascular recruitment, other Anatomy, Genetics related requested articles
• Stubs: Antidiuretic, Asymptomatic, Alkalosis, Bone density, Cervical rib, Cheek, Chyme Cushing reflex, Diuresis, Glycosuria, Merkel cell, Microalbuminuria, Nephropathy, Period prevalence, Pia mater, Renal plexus, Right bundle branch block, SOFA Score, All medical stubs...
• Participate in the Medicine Collaboration of the Week: Abdominal aortic aneurysm
• Requested photographs of medical subjects

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Medline Plus

MedlinePlus is a free Web site that provides consumer health information for patients, families, and health care providers. MedlinePlus brings together quality information from the United States National Library of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), other U.S. government agencies, and health-related organizations. The U.S. National Library of Medicine produces and maintains MedlinePlus.

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