| Medical Dictionary |
A Medical Dictionary of Medical Terminology
|
Your liver makes a digestive juice called bile. Your gallbladder stores it between meals. When you eat, your gallbladder pushes the bile into tubes called bile ducts. They carry the bile to your small intestine. The bile helps break down fat. It also helps the liver get rid of toxins and wastes.
Different diseases can block the bile ducts and cause a problem with the flow of bile:
NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Cirrhosis is scarring of the liver. Scar tissue forms because of injury or long-term disease. Scar tissue cannot do what healthy liver tissue does - make protein, help fight infections, clean the blood, help digest food and store energy. Cirrhosis can lead to :
A small number of people with cirrhosis get liver cancer.
Your doctor will diagnose cirrhosis with blood tests, imaging tests, or a biopsy.
Cirrhosis has many causes. In the United States, the most common causes are chronic alcoholism and hepatitis. Nothing will make the scar tissue disappear, but treating the cause can keep it from getting worse. If too much scar tissue forms, you may need to consider a liver transplant.
NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Your liver is the largest organ inside your body. It helps your body digest food, store energy, and remove poisons.
There are many kinds of liver diseases:
Symptoms of liver disease can vary, but they often include swelling of the abdomen and legs, bruising easily, changes in the color of your stool and urine, and jaundice, or yellowing of the skin and eyes. Sometimes there are no symptoms. Tests such as imaging tests and liver function tests can check for liver damage and help to diagnose liver diseases.
Lupus is a chronic (long-lasting) type of autoimmune disease.Autoimmune diseases happen when your immune system attacks healthy cells and tissues by mistake. This attack causes inflammation. It can also damage many parts of the body, including the joints, skin, kidneys, heart, lungs, and brain.
There are several types of lupus:
The cause of lupus is unknown. Researchers are studying what might cause or trigger the disease, such as:
Anyone can get lupus, but women get it much more often than men.
Lupus is more common in African Americans than in White people. It is also more common in people of American Indian and Asian descent. African American and Hispanic women are more likely to have severe forms of lupus.
What are the symptoms of lupus?Lupus can have many symptoms, and they differ from person to person. Some of the more common ones are:
Symptoms may come and go. When you are having symptoms, it is called a flare. Flares can range from mild to severe. New symptoms may appear at any time.
What other problems can lupus cause?Lupus causes inflammation throughout your body. This can cause problems in your organs, including:
Some people with lupus may be more likely to develop other conditions, such as coronary artery disease (CAD) and atherosclerosis.
How is lupus diagnosed?There is no specific test for lupus, and it's often mistaken for other diseases that cause similar symptoms. So it may take a while to get a diagnosis. To find out if you have lupus, your health care provider:
There is no cure for lupus, but medicines and lifestyle changes can help control it.
People with lupus often need to see different providers. You will most likely have a primary care provider and a rheumatologist (a doctor who specializes in diseases of the joints and muscles). Which other specialists you will depend on how lupus affects your body. For example, if lupus is damaging your heart or blood vessels, you would see a cardiologist (a doctor who specializes in heart diseases).
Your primary care provider should coordinate care between all of your other providers and treat other problems as they come up. You and your primary care provider will develop a treatment plan to fit your needs. You will both review the plan often to make sure that it is working. You should report new symptoms to your provider right away so that your treatment plan can be changed, if needed.
The goals of a treatment plan are to:
Treatments may include drugs to:
Besides taking medicines for lupus, you may need to take medicines for problems that are related to lupus such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or infection.
Alternative and complementary therapies are therapies that are not part of standard treatments. Some people try alternative and complementary therapies to improve their lupus symptoms. But research has not clearly shown whether these treatments may help or treat lupus. Talk to your provider before trying any new treatments.
How can I cope with lupus?It is important to take an active role in your treatment. It helps to learn more about lupus - being able to spot the warning signs of a flare can help you prevent the flare or make the symptoms less severe.
It is also important to find ways to cope with the stress of having lupus. Exercising and finding ways to relax may make it easier for you to cope. A good support system can also help.
NIH: National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases
Metabolism is the process your body uses to make energy from the food you eat. Food is made up of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Chemicals in your digestive system (enzymes) break the food parts down into sugars and acids, your body's fuel. Your body can use this fuel right away, or it can store the energy in your body tissues. If you have a metabolic disorder, something goes wrong with this process.
Mitochondrial diseases are a group of metabolic disorders. Mitochondria are small structures that produce energy in almost all of your cells. They make it by combining oxygen with the fuel molecules (sugars and fats) that come from your food. When the mitochondria are defective, the cells do not have enough energy. The unused oxygen and fuel molecules build up in the cells and cause damage.
The symptoms of mitochondrial disease can vary. It depends on how many mitochondria are defective, and where they are in the body. Sometimes only one organ, tissue, or cell type is affected. But often the problem affects many of them. Muscle and nerve cells have especially high energy needs, so muscular and neurological problems are common. The diseases range from mild to severe. Some types can be fatal.
Genetic mutations cause these diseases. They usually happen before age 20, and some are more common in infants. There are no cures for these diseases, but treatments may help with symptoms and slow down the disease. They may include physical therapy, vitamins and supplements, special diets, and medicines.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a form of arthritis that causes pain, swelling, stiffness and loss of function in your joints. It can affect any joint but is common in the wrist and fingers.
More women than men get rheumatoid arthritis. It often starts in middle age and is most common in older people. You might have the disease for only a short time, or symptoms might come and go. The severe form can last a lifetime.
Rheumatoid arthritis is different from osteoarthritis, the common arthritis that often comes with older age. RA can affect body parts besides joints, such as your eyes, mouth and lungs. RA is an autoimmune disease, which means the arthritis results from your immune system attacking your body's own tissues.
No one knows what causes rheumatoid arthritis. Genes, environment, and hormones might contribute. Treatments include medicine, lifestyle changes, and surgery. These can slow or stop joint damage and reduce pain and swelling.
NIH: National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases