Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

In medicine, the branch that deals specifically with the treatment of disease and the art and science of healing. In pharmacology, therapeutics accordingly refers to the use of drugs and the method of their administration in the treatment of disease. The word comes from the Greek “therapeia” meaning “a service, an attendance” the related verb being “therapeuo” meaning…

Cloning designed as therapy for a disease. In therapeutic cloning, the nucleus of a cell, typically a skin cell, is inserted into a fertilized egg whose nucleus has been removed. The nucleated egg begins to divide repeatedly to form a blastocyst. Scientists then extract stem cells from the blastocyst and use them to grow cells that are a perfect…

Relating to therapeutics, the branch of medicine that is concerned specifically with the treatment of disease. The therapeutic dose of a drug is the amount needed to treat a disease.

A family of broad-spectrum antibiotics effective against a remarkably wide variety of organisms. Bacteria susceptible to tetracycline include H. flu (Haemophilus influenzae), strep (Streptococcus pneumoniae), Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Chlamydia psittaci, Chlamydia trachomatis, and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (the cause of gonorrhea). Tetracycline is also used to treat nongonococcal urethritis (due to Ureaplasma), Rocky mountain spotted fever, typhus, chancroid, cholera, brucellosis, anthrax, and syphilis. It is used in combination with…

A condition that is due usually to low blood calcium (hypocalcemia) and is characterized by spasms of the hands and feet, cramps, spasm of the voice box (larynx), and overactive neurological reflexes. Tetany is generally considered to result from very low calcium levels in the blood. However, tetany can also result from reduction in the ionized fraction of plasma calcium without…

An often fatal infectious disease that is caused by the bacterium Clostridium tetani, which usually enters the body through a puncture, a cut, or an open wound. Tetanus leads to profound painful spasms of muscles, including ‘locking’ of the jaw so that the mouth cannot open, and death. The C. tetani bacteria releases a toxin that affects the motor nerves, which…

A “male hormone” — a sex hormone produced by the testes that encourages the development of male sexual characteristics, stimulates the activity of the male secondary sex characteristics, and prevents changes in them following castration. Chemically, testosterone is 17-beta-hydroxy-4-androstene-3-one. Testosterone is the most potent of the naturally occurring androgens. The androgens cause the development of male sex…

Now more appropriately called the complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, this is a genetic disorder that makes XY fetuses insensitive (unresponsive) to androgens (male hormones). Instead, they are born looking externally like normal girls. Internally, there is a short blind-pouch vagina and no uterus, fallopian tubes or ovaries. There are testes in the abdomen or the inguinal canal. The complete androgen insensitivity syndrome is usually…

The testicles (also called testes or gonads) are the male sex glands. They are located behind the penis in a pouch of skin called the scrotum. The testicles produce and store sperm, and they are also the body’s main source of male hormones (testosterone). These hormones control the development of the reproductive organs and other male characteristics, such as body and…

Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory disease of the intestine involving only the end of the small intestine (the terminal ileum). Crohn’s disease affects primarily the small and large intestines but which can occur anywhere in the digestive system between the mouth and the anus. Named after Burrill Crohn who described the disease in 1932. The disease often strikes persons in their…