English I Introduction to MD Terminology

Name_______________________________ class___________
Alma Gabriela Jacobo Burgueño Medicine date________
27 august 2021
A Word with the Doctor by Dr John Winsor
March 18, 2015 (The Sunday Times of Malta)

CRAMPS

Night Cramp is something from which a great many people occasionally suffer - and they
don´t easily forget it.

Even the healthiest people may get a short, sharp pain in the legs after a strenuous day.

Many older people can bring it on by making powerful stretching movements while lying
down in bed. If this sort of night cramp becomes a real nuisance, avoiding over-
stretching and tablets containing quinine sulphate at bed-time may be all that is needed.

A very small number of patients, however, cannot take quinine without becoming dizzy or
getting buzzing in the ears. They may have to decide whether they would rather have
cramp and no dizziness, or the reverse.

But cramp in the lower limbs in the daytime and in younger, active patients can be
very distressing and is more serious. It is not uncommon and has the rather clumsy name
of intermittent claudications.

The patient first complains of aching legs after exercise. It may be slight, but gradually
becomes more pronounced. Then the pain is not merely an ache, but a definite, crippling
cramp, which can become so severe that the patient finds he or she cannot stand after much
walking.

Intermittent claudication is caused by the narrowing of the arteries and often starts in the
30s. It generally means that the arteries everywhere in the body have become narrowed
and blood cannot reach the muscles fast enough when they are in use. The heart muscles
may be equally affected.
This condition may be a good enough excuse for not doing jobs you don´t like doing, but
that is poor consolation. It is a disease which affects men far more than women and attacks
are more common in cold weather, or even after sitting in a chair at the office in a draught.
It is also a slightly hereditary complaint.

This is by no means the same as the night-time cramp already mentioned, and there is
no absolute cure. The patient learns to regulate the amount of exercise he or she can
comfortably take.

No drugs offer a complete relief but there is one habit which the sufferer must give up --
smoking. Whatever may or may not be one´s views about the habit, it undoubtedly makes
intermittent claudication far more troublesome.

A number of patients will secretly admit that so long as they keep off tobacco they do not
get this fearsome cramp.

1
English I Introduction to MD Terminology
Alma Gabriela Jacobo Burgueño
Name_______________________________ class___________ Medicine 27 august 2021
date________
Directions: For each definition supply the term provided in the text.
happening infrequently Occasionally
____________________
not to remember ____________________
Forget
something which causes problems nuisance
____________________
tending to cause vertigo buzzing
____________________
opposite effect reverse
____________________
lower
opposite of *higher* ____________________
daytime
opposite of *night-time ____________________
younger
opposite of *older* ____________________
subject to stress distressing
____________________
unusual uncommon
_____________________
coming at intervals intermittent
_____________________
a person receiving medical treatment patient
_____________________
of little significance slight
_____________________
strongly marked pronounced
____________________
a prolonged dull pain crippling
____________________
making narrow Narrowing
____________________
produce an effect on affected
____________________
a current of air in a confined space draught
____________________
passed down from one generation to another hereditary
____________________
which happens at night Night-time
___________________
affected
adjust regulate
____________________
the alleviation of pain relief
____________________
with no doubt By no means
____________________
causing trouble trublesome
____________________
fearsome
appalling; frightening ____________________