Medical Dictionary Definitions A-Z List
Medical Dictionary Definitions A - Z - «F»:
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Folliculitis
Folliculitis: An infection of the hair
follicles of the skin. Infection of
the hair follicles can occur when the skin is disrupted or inflamed due to a
number of conditions, including acne, skin wounds or injuries, friction from
clothing, excessive sweating, or exposure to toxins. The symptoms v...
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Fomentation
Fomentation: A quaint old term for the application of hot packs or the substance so applied. From the Latin "fovimentum" which meant, no surprise, to "a warm application."
To "foment" means, literally, to warm or heat up. It is, figuratively, to incite. For example, to forment fear....
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Fondation Jean Dausset-CEPH
Fondation Jean Dausset-CEPH: The Centre d'Etudes
du Polymorphisme Humain (CEPH), an internationally renowned research laboratory created
in Paris in 1984 by Professor Jean Dausset (Nobel Prize, Medicine and Physiology, 1980) to
provide the scientific community with resources for human genome mapping...
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Fong disease
Fong disease: See Nail-patella syndrome....
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Fontanel (fontanelle)
Fontanel (fontanelle):
The word fontanel comes from the French fontaine for fountain. The medical term fontanel is a "soft spot" of the skull. The "soft spot" is soft precisely because the cartilage there has not yet hardened into bone between the skull bones. There are normally...
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Food
Food: Any substance eaten to provide nutritional
support for the body....
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Food and Drug Administration
Food and Drug Administration: The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Public Health Service, which is a part of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Background: The FDA regulates over $1 trillion worth of products, which account for 25 cents of every dollar spent annually by American consumers ...
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Food insecure
Food insecurity: When people must live with hunger and fear starvation....
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Food irradiation
Food irradiation: A food safety technology designed to eliminate disease-causing germs from foods. Treating food with ionizing radiation can kill bacteria and parasites that would otherwise cause foodborne disease. Similar technology is used to sterilize medical devices so they can be used in surger...
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Food poisoning
Food poisoning: A common flu-like illness typically characterized by
nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, due to something the
victim ate or drank that contained noxious bacteria, viruses, parasites, metals
or toxins.
The most prominent causes of food poisoning are Norwalk virus
and Norwalk-like viru...
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Food poisoning, Campylobacter
Food poisoning, Campylobacter: Now the leading cause of bacterial food poisoning, caused by an Campylobacter jejuni, most often spread by contact with raw or undercooked poultry. A single drop of juice from a contaminated chicken is enough to make someone sick with Campylobacteriosis (disease due to...
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Food security
Food security: When people do not need to live with hunger or fear starvation....
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Food, functional
Food, functional: Functional foods are "those foods that
encompass potentially healthful products including any modified food
or ingredient that may provide a health benefit beyond the
traditional nutrients it contains," as defined by the Institute of
Medicine. Functional foods can include food...
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Food, super
Food, "super": Foods with alleged healing or
health-promoting capabilities. The healing power of foods
is a popular concept. Medicinal or nutritionally high-
powered foods have been part and parcel of the natural
products industry for a long time and, through emerging
scientific research and par...
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Food-secure
Food-secure: Referring to the situation when people do not need to live with hunger or fear starvation....
