What is a disease, all students of medical institutes should clearly understand. It will be useful for any person to understand this concept, since our organisms are not made of iron. Sooner or later, failures occur in them, which can lead to quite serious consequences. In this article, we will analyze this term, consider its main types and forms.
Term
Understanding what a disease is, let's give a precise definition of this concept. This is a pathological condition of the body, in which all kinds of violations occur in its normal operation. All this leads to the inability to maintain their own homeostasis, reducing life expectancy. Disease is a consequence of the functional and energetic capabilities of a living system that is trying to resist negative factors, such as viruses, fungi or bacteria.
Speaking of what a human disease is, it should also be noted that it disrupts a stablevital activity, reduces efficiency, the ability to effectively adapt to the conditions of a changing environment.
History of the development of the concept
Representations of diseases appeared in ancient times. It was then that they first tried to formulate what a disease is. True, before our era, ideas about this concept were different. For example, Hippocrates considered it to be the cause of mixing in the wrong proportions of the main fluids contained in the body, that is, mucus, blood, venous blood and yellow bile.
Interestingly, a lot of research has been done since then, but the concept of what a disease is is still not clearly defined. Some researchers believe that the disease does not create anything fundamentally new in the body, others include only biological patterns in this term.
Shapes
Specialists identify three main forms of the disease. They can be:
- chronic (in this case, last for months, years, in some cases remain for life);
- acute (from one day to two weeks);
- subacute (15 to 45 days).
Result
The result in any case is the outcome of the disease. What is hidden behind this concept is already clear from the name of this term. A person either gets on his feet, or his condition worsens due to the occurrence of all kinds of complications.
Doctors identify five outcomes:
- full recovery;
- partialrecovery;
- relapse;
- transition to chronic form;
- death.
Immune system disorders
Diseases are also divided into types. It is possible to attribute an ailment in a particular group as a result of an accurate diagnosis. One of the most potentially dangerous is an autoimmune disease. What this concept means, you need to be aware of everyone who has encountered this problem himself or with his loved ones.
This is a disorder of the immune system that causes the body to consider he althy cells as potentially dangerous and attacks them. It is believed that this is one of the most intractable diseases. It is not uncommon for an autoimmune disorder to be misdiagnosed or go undiagnosed for many years because its symptoms are similar to many other ailments.
Among the reasons, experts call a violation of the integrity of tissue barriers, infections. Often these problems are transmitted at the genetic level, predominantly affecting young or middle-aged patients. Hispanics, Native Americans and African Americans are considered more prone to autoimmune disorders.
Symptoms can be different, depending on what specific ailment struck the body. For example, with gluten intolerance (celiac disease), there is pain and inflammation in the abdomen, fatigue, burning in the chest, diarrhea, vomiting, weight loss.
In Addison's disease, the adrenal glands do not produce enough hormones in the body. In this case, arterial blood pressure drops sharply.blood pressure, dizziness, low blood glucose levels, loss of appetite.
Autoimmune diseases are determined by the presence of specific antibodies in the body.
Infections
What are infectious diseases, perhaps everyone knows. This is an extensive group that includes ailments provoked by specific pathogenic pathogens. They can be transmitted from an infected patient to a he althy one.
Contagiousness is considered their main feature. Also, such ailments are characterized by cyclicity, a predisposition to mass epidemic spread, and the formation of post-infectious immunity.
These diseases develop due to complex biological processes that occur when pathogenic microorganisms interact with susceptible macroorganisms under certain conditions. In the general structure of human diseases, their level is from 20 to 40 percent.
Currently, more than one thousand infectious diseases are known to science. Treatment of patients with such diagnoses is carried out in specialized departments or hospitals, at home they remain only in mild cases. A prerequisite for this is compliance with the anti-epidemic regime.
Infection prevention based on specific immunization and strict adherence to sanitary and hygienic rules is effective.
Such diseases are divided into zoonotic and anthroponotic. The former include animal diseases, which in some cases also infect humans. These are plague, rabies, anthrax, foot and mouth disease, brucellosis. Anthroponotic diseases are peculiar exclusively to people, transmitted from one person to another. Examples include diphtheria, smallpox, measles, typhoid fever, dysentery, cholera, and more.
Chronic illness
Faced with what a chronic disease is, a person can at any age. Some of them lead to minor restrictions, others lead to serious problems. Some may even pose a threat to human life, as well as its functional features. Chronic illnesses are called ailments that can be controlled, but they are not amenable to complete healing. As a rule, this term is used if it is not possible to cope with the disease for more than three months.
Among examples of classic chronic ailments are bronchial asthma, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, diabetes mellitus, cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, heart disease.
The life of a person with a chronic disease is changing dramatically. It becomes associated with serious he alth limitations caused by a particular disease. Often people begin to experience alienation, loneliness, fear, embarrassment, anxiety.
Many diseases with untimely or ineffective treatment can become chronic.
