Health

Health problems:

• addiction (addictions)

NOUN - Addiction is the condition of taking harmful drugs and being unable to stop taking them.

■ long-term addiction to nicotine

• allergy (allergies)

NOUN - If you have a particular allergy, you become ill or get a rash when you eat, smell, or touch something that does not normally make people ill.

■ Food allergies can result in an enormous variety of different symptoms.

• cancer (cancers)

NOUN - Cancer is a serious disease in which cells in a person’s body increase rapidly in an uncontrolled way, producing abnormal growths.

■ a cancer research charity

• dehydration

UNCOUNTABLE NOUN - You are suffering from dehydration if you lose too much water from your body.

■ Cholera causes severe dehydration.

• disease (diseases)

NOUN - A disease is an illness that affects people, animals or plants, for example one which is caused by bacteria or infection.

■ the rapid spread of disease in the area

• infection (infections)

NOUN - An infection is a disease caused by germs or bacteria.

■ Ear infections are common in pre-school children.

• obesity

UNCOUNTABLE NOUN - Someone suffering from obesity is extremely fat.

■ The excessive consumption of sugar leads to obesity

• stroke (strokes)

NOUN - If someone has a stroke, a blood vessel in their brain bursts or becomes blocked, which may k ill them or make them unable to move one side of their body.

■ He had a minor stroke in 1987, which left him partly paralyzed.

Verbs associated with treatment:

• administer (administers, administering, administered)

VERB - If a doctor or nurse administers a drug, they give it to a patient.

■ Paramedics are trained to administer certain drugs.

• admit (admits, admitting, admitted)

VERB - If someone is admitted to hospital they are taken into hospital for treatment and kept there until they are well enough to go home.

■ She was admitted to hospital with a soaring temperature.

• diagnose (diagnoses, diagnosing, diagnosed)

VERB - If someone or something is diagnosed as having a particular illness or problem, their illness or problem is identified.

■ Almost a million people are diagnosed with colon cancer each year.

• discharge (discharges, discharging, discharged)

VERB - When someone is discharged from hospital, they are officially allowed to leave, or told they must leave.

■ He has a broken nose but may be discharged today.

• examine (examines, examining, examined)

VERB - If a doctor examines you, he or she looks at your body, feels it, or does simple tests in order to check how healthy you are.

■ Another doctor examined her and could still find nothing wrong.

  

• screen (screens, screening, screened)

VERB - To screen for a disease means to examine people to make sure that they do not have it.

■ Men over 50 are routinely screened for prostate abnormalities.

• vaccinate (vaccinates, vaccinating, vaccinated)

VERB - A vaccine is a harmless form of the germs that cause a particular disease. If a person or animal is vaccinated, they are given a vaccine, usually by injection, to prevent them getting that disease.

■ Dogs must be vaccinated against distemper.