Human body diseases vary in both severity and diversity.

Any body part or function can

contract a disease or have a disorder. We are more capable today than ever before of
combating these diseases and medicine is advancing every day.
Below are articles on diseases and disorders:
Skin Disorders
The skin is susceptible to physical injury and to infection by bacteria, virus, fungi,
and exposure to sunlight. Rashes can be caused by allergic reactions and some skin
disorders are hereditary.
Nervous System Disorders
Damage to the nervous system through physical injury or disease can impair both physical
and mental function. The nervous system can be affected by infections, injury, tumors, and
degenerative conditions.
Cardiovascular Disorders
Common heart diseases include structural defects, damage due to restricted blood supply,
heart muscle disorders and viral infections. What we eat and the amount of exercise we get
can affect our cardiovascular system.
Infections and Immune Disorders
Our bodies can be infected by bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa. Our immune systems
work to combat these viruses. Our immune systems can also develop disorders and there
are two types of immune system disorder; allergies and autoimmune diseases where the
immune system over reacts and immunodefficiency diseases where it underacts and is too
weak to cope with a threat.
Digestive Disorders
Problems with our digestive systems occur frequently mainly due to the food we consume.
Viral infections and cancer can also affect our digestive systems.






Your body and disease
Human beings are robust and adaptable, able to survive in a wide range of
environments and to endure physical and psychological stress.

The body's design incorporates systems that renew and repair it continuously and
others that protect it from harm. Many trivial injuries or potential illnesses heal
themselves or are controlled before we are even aware of them. However, throughout a
lifetime, we are exposed to a relentless stream of minor and more serious diseases and
injuries with a wide variety of effects on the body.

You become ill when something disrupts the normal healthy working of your body. Why
you become ill is a question with multiple answers, many of which focus on your genes.
Some rare diseases are caused by an inherited faulty gene, but genes are a
contributing factor in many other illnesses. In particular, they predict to some extent your
chance of developing major diseases of adult life, such as cancer and stroke. Genes
also help to determine your susceptibility to many mental health problems. As well as
genes, your age, environment, and lifestyle are all factors affecting your risk of illness.

New drugs, immunizations, and advances in hygiene and public sanitation have
reduced mortality from infectious diseases in the developed world, although such
diseases remain a major threat in the developing world. Today, the major causes of
death in the UK are heart disease, cancer, stroke, and accidents. These are strongly
associated with lifestyle, and the risk of each can be reduced by changes in behaviour.
As a result, the emphasis in medicine has changed: doctors now recognize that
prevention is as important as treatment.

Understanding the body
Understanding disease is easier if you already have some appreciation of the normal
structure and function of your body and the way in which its various components are
organized.

The body can be divided into a number of major systems that carry out vital functions.
For example, the respiratory system enables you to breathe, and the immune system
protects you from infection. The bones, muscles, nerves, skin, blood, and other tissues
that make up body systems are made of billions of connected cells. Each cell is a
specialized, fully functioning unit, and all of its activities are controlled by the genetic
code contained in the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) in its nucleus.

In this section, diseases and disorders are mainly grouped in sections under the body
system that they affect. When you have a problem, you may be referred to a doctor who
specializes in disorders of that body system or organ. For example, you may see a
gastroenterologist for digestive system disorders. However, diseases can also be
categorized according to the mechanisms by which they damage the body.

How disease affects the body
The different ways in which diseases damage the body are called disease processes.
Several body systems may be damaged by the same process. For example, the major
cause of disability and death in the UK, coronary artery disease, comes under the
heading of ischaemic disease. This term applies to all diseases in which there are
changes in blood vessels, such as a build-up of fatty deposits, that restrict blood flow
and starve organs and tissues of oxygen-carrying blood.

Similarly, cancerous tumours, a leading cause of death in the UK, can affect different
organs and tissues, but all consist of cells that reproduce uncontrollably, invade healthy
tissue, and may spread to other sites.

Infections occur when microscopic organisms invade the body, and range from minor
complaints, such as boils, to major infectious diseases, such as meningitis.

Metabolic disorders affect chemical processes in the body and are often caused by a
failure to produce a particular enzyme or by malfunction of a hormone-producing gland.
For example, in one type of diabetes mellitus, normal blood sugar levels cannot be
maintained because cells in the pancreas produce insufficient amounts of the hormone
insulin.

A number of neurological illnesses and mental health problems are caused by disorders
of brain chemistry. Diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and depression are
associated with imbalances in the levels of neurotransmitters, chemicals that transmit
nerve signals. However, no chemical or structural factor has been found for many other
mental health problems.

In autoimmune disorders, the immune system, which normally protects the body from
infections and cancer, attacks the body's own tissues, disrupting the function of an
organ or gland. For example, in rheumatoid arthritis, the immune system attacks and
damages the linings of joints, causing pain and sometimes disability.

Although inheritance is increasingly being found to play a part in many major diseases,
there is a group of several thousand rare genetic disorders caused solely by a faulty
gene inherited from one or both parents. An example is cystic fibrosis, in which a faulty
gene causes an abnormally thick mucus to be produced in the lungs and digestive tract,
resulting in the destruction of lung tissue and reduced absorption of food. In
degenerative disorders, the structure and function of tissues and organs are gradually
impaired by the loss of specialized cells or tissues, as in osteoarthritis, a wearing away
of the smooth cartilage covering joint surfaces. Though traditionally associated with
aging, a growing number of these diseases, such as cataract (loss of transparency in
the lens of the eye), are also caused by exposure to strong sunlight, toxins, and
prolonged use of certain drugs.

Injury covers all types of deliberate and accidental damage to the body. Every year in
the UK, there are about 15,000 fatal injuries; the major causes are traffic accidents,
falls, fires, homicides, and drowning.

Your susceptibility to disease
Some contributory factors for illness, such as genes, ethnicity, and age are largely
unalterable. However, you can reduce your risk of ill health by following the guidelines
for healthy living given in this guide (see Taking control of your health).

Many illnesses, such as psychological disorders, can occur at any age. However,
particular age groups are vulnerable to certain problems. Babies are susceptible to
infections because their immune system is not fully developed, and young children tend
to have frequent accidents while their physical skills are still developing.
People in their teens and in early adulthood are more likely to injure themselves. For
example, most disability and death in young men is associated with risk-taking
behaviour involving vehicles and weapons. Adolescents are prone to eating disorders,
depression, and substance abuse. Young people who eat unhealthily, take too little
exercise, smoke, and drink too much alcohol face a future risk of major diseases, such
as heart disease, cancer, and stroke, that are increasingly common from middle age
onwards. The incidence of long-term illness and disability increases with age and, for
some people, poor physical health leads to mental health problems.

Susceptibility to disease is closely linked to social factorssuch as poverty. For example,
in the UK, rates of heart disease are three times higher in poor families than in those
with a reasonable standard of living.

Changing patterns of disease
During the past 50 years, many major infectious diseases have been brought under
control in the developed world, and smallpox, one of the oldest diseases of humanity,
has been eradicated globally. However, AIDS, a deadly new disease caused by HIV
infection, is now a leading cause of death. In addition, tuberculosis (TB) has become
harder to control, because some strains have become resistant to antibiotics and due to
reduced immunity in HIV-infected people.

For most of the 20th century, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and stroke were major
causes of death in the developed world. They are now also becoming common in
developing societies due to factors associated with affluence, such as high-fat diet. The
high incidence of these diseases is also due in part to the increasing age of the
population. As the number of people over 65 is predicted to double by the year 2025,
these diseases are likely to continue to be major global threats to health.

How Doctissimo's health section is organised
Most of our health section is organized into major body systems. There are separate
sections on infections, which can affect any body system, serious multi-system injuries,
and the principles of cancer. Disorders related to sex and reproduction and pregnancy
and childbirth have their own sections, as do problems that exclusively affect children or
problems that have different effects in children.