h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Or vise-versa

Ah, Zen sneezing? Zen and the art of skiving off work?
sorry!

Re: STDs...

They've undergone yet another namechange - STIs (Sexually Transmitted Infections), rather than STDs, due to disease sounding, well, not so nice to patients.

Therefore: 'our tests seem to show you have an infection...' rather than 'our tests seem to show you have a disease...'

Still, a huge grey area...

Still, a huge grey area...

...means you should go see the doctor?

I thought it was a reference to my brain

*looks*

ARGH! Unclean! Unclean!

*scrubs grey area vigourously*

When I was a nurse there was the possible overlap of STDs and UTIs (urinary tract infections). Depending on how down-to-earth the doctor was decided how blatant or sensitive he'd be

Is this thread the product of a diseased mind?

Hmm, mental illness and mentally ill...never mentally diseased...(checks for relevance...hmm, 30%...quite high really )

<>

Hmmm . . . did you mean a diseased mind or sick in the head?



az

I dun't mean nuffin' by it, az, just a way of crowbarring my question in to the conversation

Interesting question az!


A medical professional would probably speak of pathologies and symptomologies. Perhaps someone will explain the distinction between those two as it seems relevant to the qestion, which is likely an example of how layman's terms are often imprecise, the result of not being expert in things.


~jwf~

hi jwf,

<>

I think you are partially right there, at least in terms of how a doctor might distiguish between the two. Had a look at Dictionary.com and found these entries, slightly different from those in my dictionary:

Disease:

1. A pathological condition of a part, organ, or system of an organism resulting from various causes, such as infection, genetic defect, or environmental stress, and characterized by an identifiable group of signs or symptoms.
2. A condition or tendency, as of society, regarded as abnormal and harmful.
3. Obsolete. Lack of ease; trouble.

Illness:

1. Poor health resulting from disease of body or mind; sickness.
2. A disease.

So it does seem that illness refers more to symptoms stemming from having a disease. Though as someone else here pointed out, one can have a disease yet not feel ill. And I have never heard anyone refer to a cold or flu as a disease though they are definitely the cause of a lot of nasty symptoms. hmmmmm. . .

az

'hasnt read all the backlog'

Perhaps it is ,as you just put in one of the points from dictionary.com
that a disease has a set group of symptoms and signs while an illness is more vague?

Well, I just got back from my class with Carmen. I showed her this conversation on her computer at work and she was quite impressed, although perhaps not much clearer on the distinction between disease and illness.

I have a class this afternoon with the head of the nuclear medicine dept at the general hospital so I will ask him if he can see or explain the difference (though in Spanish they use the same word for both - enfermedad). But I do think it just boils down to 'use of language' and there is no clear explanation or rule as to why we call some things a disease and others an illness.

az

I was told by Ricardo yesterday that the correct medical term (for everything - even flu) is 'disease'. Apparently the word 'illness' does not appear in medical texts. He said when doctors refer to illness they are speaking about the symptoms the patient is experiencing.

So there! Now I know.

However, this does not make it any easier to explain the normal use of those two words to someone learning English.

az

Just to throw another element into this discussion, where does the word Condition fit into this spectrum of terms?

I have epilepsy which I don't consider a disease, I didn't get it from another source such as genetic or infection. I also don't consider it an illness because it doesn't affect my quality of life that much (epilepsy does however cover a wide spectrum of symptoms and effects, so can vary from case to case). In all my dealings with the medical profession they've always referred to it as a condition.

Az, p'raps your mate can shed some light on this variant on a theme.

hi Yvonne,

Well, from what Ricardo said yesterday, I'm quite sure that epilepsy would be called a disease, as a stricly medical term. I came across this, which explains some other synomyms for disease? Perhaps 'condition' would be the same as 'disorder'?

<<Syn: Distemper; ailing; ailment; malady; disorder; sickness; illness; complaint; indisposition; affection.

<<Disease, Disorder, Distemper, Malady, Affection. Disease is the leading medical term. Disorder means much the same, with perhaps some slight reference to an irregularity of the system. Distemper is now used by physicians only of the diseases of animals. Malady is not a medical term, and is less used than formerly in literature. Affection has special reference to the part, organ, or function disturbed; as, his disease is an affection of the lungs. A disease is usually deep-seated and permanent, or at least prolonged; a disorder is often slight, partial, and temporary; malady has less of a technical sense than the other terms, and refers more especially to the suffering endured. In a figurative sense we speak of a diseased mind, of disordered faculties, and of mental maladies.

az

>> ...Distemper, Malady, Affection. Disease is the leading...<<

"Affection"?
Surely that should read 'affliction'.

Did you copy and paste that directly?

If the original really has that typo it would have scared me away from trusting anything they had to say. It may sound petty to be criticising spelling mistakes, we all make them, but if somebody is setting up a website with important information, they really should make sure it makes sense. I have never considered 'affection' a malady in any other sense than that old song about how 'The Melody Lingers On' (which would make it a chronic condition ).

~jwf~

No, nothing wrong with the use of "affection" in that context. It's slightly archaic, but still valid.

hi jwf,

I did copy and paste that from Dictionary.com and in fact had to correct a couple of other typos, but missed that one completely. However, Reddyfreddy says it's an archaic use of the word. Also, if it was a typo, they made the same one twice.

az