A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune diseases. In humans, "disease" is often used more broadly to refer to any condition that causes pain, dysfunction, distress, social problems, or death to the person afflicted, or similar problems for those in contact with the person. In this broader sense, it sometimes includes injuries, disabilities, disorders, syndromes, infections, isolated symptoms, deviant behaviors, and atypical variations of structure and function, while in other contexts and for other purposes these may be considered distinguishable categories. Diseases usually affect people not only physically, but also emotionally, as contracting and living with many diseases can alter one's perspective on life, and their personality.
Death due to disease is called death by natural causes. There are four main types of disease: pathogenic disease, deficiency disease, hereditary disease, and physiological disease.
Diseases can also be classified as communicable and non-communicable disease.
Read more about Disease: Causes and Transmissibility, Burdens of Disease, Prevention, Treatments, Epidemiology, Social and Cultural Responses
Other articles related to "disease":
... People use metaphors to make sense of their experiences with disease ... The metaphors move disease from an objective thing that exists to an affective experience ... The most popular metaphors draw on military concepts Disease is an enemy that must be feared, fought, battled, and routed ...
... Coeliac disease ( /ˈsiːli.æk/ spelled celiac disease in North America and often celiac sprue) is an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine that occurs in genetically predisposed people of all ages from ... Coeliac disease is caused by a reaction to gliadin, a prolamin (gluten protein) found in wheat, and similar proteins found in the crops of the tribe Triticeae (which includes other common grains such as ... While the disease is caused by a reaction to wheat proteins, it is not the same as wheat allergy ...
... A tiny minority of patients suffer from refractory disease, which means they do not improve on a gluten-free diet ... This may be because the disease has been present for so long that the intestines are no longer able to heal on diet alone, or because the patient is not adhering to the diet, or ...
... Coeliac disease has been linked with a number of conditions ... In many cases, it is unclear whether the gluten-induced bowel disease is a causative factor or whether these conditions share a common predisposition ... IgA deficiency is present in 2.3% of patients with coeliac disease, and in turn, this condition features a tenfold increased risk of coeliac disease ...
9500 BCE) in the Fertile Crescent in Western Asia, and it is likely that coeliac disease did not occur before this time ... white, malodorous and flatulent, and the disease was intractable and liable to periodic return ... cause, according to Aretaeus, was sometimes either another chronic disease or even consuming "a copious draught of cold water." The paediatrician Samuel Gee gave the first modern-day description of the ...
Famous quotes containing the word disease:
“The artistic temperament is a disease that affects amateurs.... Artists of a large and wholesome vitality get rid of their art easily, as they breathe easily or perspire easily. But in artists of less force, the thing becomes a pressure, and produces a definite pain, which is called the artistic temperament.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the twentieth century, and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press.”
—Alexander Solzhenitsyn (b. 1918)
“Perfect Scepticisme ... is a disease incurable, and a thing rather to be pitied or laughed at, then seriously opposed. For when a man is so fugitive and unsettled that he will not stand to the verdict of his own Faculties, one can no more fasten any thing upon him, than he can write in the water, or tye knots in the wind.”
—Henry More (1614–1687)