Content tagged with “health” under “Stuff I Looked Up”

“Calculus is the hard substance that plaque turns into if it’s not removed – otherwise known as ‘tartar.’ This is the stuff that the dental hygenist is scraping off your teeth during your visit. It can also refer to a hard mass of some kind, often one in the kidney or the bladder. The name comes…”

“This is and outdated term for a stroke. It was used to refer to someone dying spontaneously, usually due to some internal bleeding, often cerebral. As an adjective, to be ‘apoplectic,’ is to be angry to the (figurative) verge of having a stroke. I don’t think anyone was every literally apoplectic….”

“This is any number of different conditions where the human body’s immune system attacks healthy systems – the body essentially fights itself. The descriptor ‘autoimmune’ is a category, not a specific condition. Common autoimmune diseases include: Arthritis (the body attacks joint tissue) Crohn’s…”

“There are five conditions which are very common among people who are generally unhealthy. They are: High blood sugar Low levels of HDL (‘good’ cholesterol) High levels of triglycerides Large amount of abdominal fat High blood pressure If you have three of these conditions, that is considered to be…”

“This is from the Greek ‘kataraktes,’ which means ‘downrush.’ Clearly, most people know ‘cataract’ from the disorder of the mammalian eye. So, how did that get named for a waterfall? Wikipedia has some theories : As rapidly running water turns white, so the term may have been used metaphorically to…”

“I am a vaccine skeptic skeptic , meaning I absolutely believe in vaccines and have little time for people who imagine negative health outcomes from them. I think there’s ample evidence that vaccines are the single greatest health advancement that Mankind has ever known, and most beliefs that…”

“This is an old name for what would be called a ‘pharmacist’ today. I’m not saying it was a pharmacist, because usage of the name stretches back thousands of years, and we wouldn’t call what they did back then ‘pharmacy.’ However, it filled the same basic role. Apothecaries prepared medicines, old…”

“This is a supposed treatment for hyperventilation. Hyperventilation is when someone starts breathing rapidly due to stress. It’s become a common trope to represent a character reacting unfavorably to something. For most people, this is rare. When someone breathes too rapidly, this lowers the carbon…”