Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Insecticide-treated bednet. “Provision of insecticide-treated bednets (ITNs) is universally accepted as an efficacious and essential public health service in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa endemic for malaria.” (H Guyatt and S Ochola, Lancet 2003;362:1549) 

Suffix meaning inflammation. For example, colitis is literally colon inflammation or figuratively inflammation of the colon. The ending -itis is one of the building blocks derived from Greek (in this case) or Latin used to construct medical terms.

Itching of the ears. Can be the first sign of an ear infection, but if the problem is chronic, it is more likely caused by a chronic dermatitis of the ear canal. Seborrheic dermatitis and eczema can both affect the ear canal. There is really no cure for this problem, but it can be made tolerable with the use of steroid drops and…

An uncomfortable sensation in the skin that feels as if something is crawling on the skin and makes the person want to scratch the affected area. Itching is medically known as pruritis; something that is itchy is pruritic.

In-the-canal (that is, the ear canal). 

A solution that has the same salt concentration as cells and blood. Isotonic solutions are commonly used as intravenously infused fluids in hospitalized patients.

Exercise when a contracting muscle shortens against a constant load, as when lifting a weight. Isotonic exercise is one method of muscular exercise. In contrast, isometric exercise is when muscular contractions occur without movement of the involved parts of the body. Isotonic comes from the Greek “iso-“, equal + “tonos”, tone = maintaining equal (muscle) tone. The muscle maintains…

The condition in which both eyes have equal refractive power. If, for example, one eye is myopic (nearsighted), so is the other. Or if one eye is hyperopic (farsighted), so is the other, or neither eye may have a significant refractive error. The term “isometropia” is made up of three parts from the Greek: iso-…

To separate from others as during an infectious disease.

Equal, like, or similar. Iso- is much used in medicine and science as, for example, in isotonic solution (a solution that has the same salt concentration as cells and blood), isotope (a form of a chemical element with the same atomic number as another element but having a different atomic mass), isocellular (composed of cells of the…