Portal:Medicine

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Medicine is the art, science, and practice of caring for a patient and managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment or palliation of their injury or disease. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness. Contemporary medicine applies biomedical sciences, biomedical research, genetics, and medical technology to diagnose, treat, and prevent injury and disease, typically through pharmaceuticals or surgery, but also through therapies as diverse as psychotherapy, external splints and traction, medical devices, biologics, and ionizing radiation, amongst others.

Medicine has been practiced since prehistoric times, during most of which it was an art (an area of skill and knowledge) frequently having connections to the religious and philosophical beliefs of local culture. For example, a medicine man would apply herbs and say prayers for healing, or an ancient philosopher and physician would apply bloodletting according to the theories of humorism. In recent centuries, since the advent of modern science, most medicine has become a combination of art and science (both basic and applied, under the umbrella of medical science). While stitching technique for sutures is an art learned through practice, the knowledge of what happens at the cellular and molecular level in the tissues being stitched arises through science.

Prescientific forms of medicine are now known as traditional medicine or folk medicine, which remains commonly used in the absence of scientific medicine, and are thus called alternative medicine. Alternative treatments outside of scientific medicine having safety and efficacy concerns are termed quackery. (Full article...)

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Tourette syndrome is an inherited neurological disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by the presence of multiple physical (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic; these tics usually wax and wane. Tourette's is defined as part of a spectrum of tic disorders, which includes transient and chronic tics. Tourette's was once considered a rare and bizarre syndrome, most often associated with the exclamation of obscene words or socially inappropriate and derogatory remarks (coprolalia). However, this symptom is present in fewer than 15% of people with Tourette's. It is no longer considered a rare condition, but it may not always be correctly identified because of the wide range of severity, with most cases classified as mild. Genetic and environmental factors each play a role in the etiology of Tourette's, but the exact causes are unknown. (More...)

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Spinal disc herniation

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Get involved by joining WikiProject Medicine. We discuss collaborations and all manner of issues on our talk page.

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... that lagophthalmos is the inability to close the eyelids?

... that Beck's triad of arterial hypotension, raised jugular venous pressure and muffled heart sounds is pathognomonic of cardiac tamponade?
... that dark chocolate contains the highest antioxidant content of any food? It contains phosphorus, magnesium, iron and potassium. In addition, dark chocolate can lower blood pressure.

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The following are images from various Medicine-related articles on Wikipedia.

The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, written in the 17th century BC, contains the earliest recorded reference to the brain. New York Academy of Medicine.
The oldest Polish Collegium Medicum at Jagiellonian University founded in 1364
Botánicas such as this one in Jamaica Plain, Boston, cater to the Latino community and sell folk medicine alongside statues of saints, candles decorated with prayers, lucky bamboo, and other items.
The plinthios brochos as described by Greek physician Heraklas, a sling for binding a fractured jaw. These writings were preserved in one of Oribasius' collections.
Assorted dried plant and animal parts used in traditional Chinese medicines, clockwise from top left corner: dried Lingzhi (lit. "spirit mushrooms"), ginseng, Luo Han Guo, turtle shell underbelly (plastron), and dried curled snakes
Guy's Hospital in 1820
Mandrake (written 'ΜΑΝΔΡΑΓΟΡΑ' in Greek capitals). Naples Dioscurides, 7th century
Replica of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek's microscope of the 1670s
Traditional medicine in a market in Antananarivo, Madagascar
Patient, Surrey County Lunatic Asylum, c. 1850–58. The asylum population in England and Wales rose from 1,027 in 1827 to 74,004 in 1900.
Smallpox vaccination in Niger, 1969. A decade later, this was the first infectious disease to be eradicated.
18th-century medical remedies collected by a British Gentry family
Medical recipe concerning poisoning. Terracotta tablet, from Nippur, Iraq, 18th century BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul
Mexico City epidemic of 1737, with elites calling on the Virgin of Guadalupe
"Diagram of the causes of mortality in the army in the East" by Florence Nightingale.
Monumental stone relief of a fish-garbed figure from the Temple of Ninurta in the Assyrian city of Kalhu, believed by some experts to be a representation of an āšipu, or exorcist-priest, who functioned as a kind of healer and primitive doctor
Ayurvedic herbal medicines
A cochlear implant is a common kind of neural prosthesis, a device replacing part of the human nervous system.
The Hippocratic Corpus
A collection of early medical works may be associated with Hippocrates
American combat surgery during the Pacific War, 1943. Major wars showed the need for effective hygiene and medical treatment.
The Quaker-run York Retreat, founded in 1796, gained international prominence as a centre for moral treatment and a model of asylum reform following the publication of Samuel Tuke's Description of the Retreat (1813).
Andreas Vesalius's 1543 De humani corporis fabrica contained intricately detailed drawings of human dissections, often in allegorical poses.
Florence Nightingale triggered the professionalization of nursing. Photograph c. 1860
Most countries have seen a tremendous increase in life expectancy since 1945. However, in southern Africa, the HIV epidemic beginning around 1990 has eroded national health.
Curandera performing a limpieza in Cuenca, Ecuador
Sometimes traditional medicines include parts of endangered species, such as the slow loris in Southeast Asia.
Louis Pasteur experimenting on bacteria, c. 1870
Depiction of smallpox in Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún's history of the conquest of Mexico, Book XII of the Florentine Codex, from the defeated Aztecs' point of view
American Civil War hospital at Gettysburg, 1863

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