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 to treat disease.
Medicine comprises various specialized sub-branches, such as cardiology, pulmonology, neurology, or other fields such as sports medicine, research or public health.
"Medicine" is also often 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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Osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONj) is a severe bone disease that affects the jaws, including the maxilla and the mandible. Jaw bone (osteo-) damage and death (-necrosis) occurs as a result of reduced local blood supply (ischaemia). The condition is thus included in the general category of ischaemic or avascular osteonecrosis (literally "dead bone from poor blood flow.").
Various forms of ONj have been described over the last 160 years, and a number of causes have been suggested in the literature. In recent years, an increased incidence of ONj has been associated with the use of high dosages of bisphosphonates, required by some cancer treatment regimens, especially when the patient undergoes subsequent dental procedures. The possible risk from lower oral doses of bisphosphonates, taken by patients to prevent or treat osteoporosis, remains uncertain. (More...)
- ...erythema infectiosum is the fifth disease of childhood, also known as slapped cheek syndrome, slap face or slapped face? It's caused by parvovirus B19, and usually follows a mild course.
- ...Reye's syndrome is a potentially fatal disease that causes detrimental effects mainly to the brain and liver? The cause of Reye's syndrome remains unknown; however, a link was found with the use of aspirin or other salicylates in children and adolescents who have a viral infection such as influenza, chicken pox or the common cold. The potentially increased risk of contracting Reye's syndrome is one of the main reasons that aspirin is not recommended for use in people under the age of 16.
- "Our diseases are so old fashioned, they can't keep up with the new medicines." Leonid S. Sukhorukov
- "Cured yesterday of my disease, I died last night of my physician." Matthew Prior
- "I firmly believe that if the whole material medica, as now used, could be sunk to the bottom of the sea, it would be better for mankind -and all the worse for the fishes.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
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