Category: Sm-St

Sleepwalking. Purposeful moving, usually but not always including walking, while in a deep stage of sleep. Sleepwalking occurs most frequently in children, particularly boys. Sedatives tend to exacerbate rather than cure sleepwalking. The best measures are preventative: ensure that the sleepwalker is in a safe room for walking, and cannot accidentally fall through an open…

1. Relating to the body. a. As distinguished from the mind (the psyche). b. From the Greek word somatikos meaning body.

The major positive ion (cation) in the fluid surrounding cells in the body. The chemical notation for sodium is Na+. When sodium is combined with chloride, the resulting substance is a crystal called table salt. Excess dietary sodium is largely excreted in the urine, but too much salt in the diet tends to increase the…

Fear of social gatherings, fear of socializing, fear of embarrassment in social situations that is extremely intrusive and can have markedly debilitating effects on personal and professional relationships. Phobias are persistent, excessive, irrational fears of certain objects or situations. People plagued by phobias recognize that their fears may be outsized and unreasonable, but are unable…

Excessive fear of embarrassment in social situations that is extremely intrusive and can have debilitating effects on personal and professional relationships. Also called social phobia. Phobias are persistent, irrational fears of certain objects or situations. They recognize that their fear may be excessive or unreasonable, but are unable to overcome it. The symptoms and signs…

Tobacco in the form of a powder that is inhaled into the nose, not smoked. Snuff and chewing tobacco are the two main forms of smokeless tobacco in use in the United States. Cancers of the oral cavity (i.e., the mouth, lip, and tongue) have been associated with the use of chewing tobacco as well as…

A popular and pejorative, term for nasal mucus (mucus produced in the nose).

Take in a drug by nasal inhalation. For example, snorting cocaine is inhaling cocaine powder through the nose where it is absorbed through the nasal tissues into the bloodstream.

A rough rattling noise made on inspiration during sleep by vibration of the soft palate (the back of the roof of the mouth) and the uvula (the prominent structure dangling down at the back of the mouth). On inspiration, air on its way to the lungs travels by the tongue, the soft palate, the uvula, and the tonsils. When…

Along with skeletal and cardiac muscle, one of the types of muscle tissue in the body. Smooth muscle generally forms the supporting tissue of blood vessels and hollow internal organs, such as the stomach, intestine, and bladder. It is considered smooth because it does not have the microscopic lines (the striations) seen in the other two types of…