Medical Terminology Basics

When we or our loved ones encounter health problems, the situation can be further complicated by a lack of understanding medical terminology. This can cause anxiety for some as many medical terms look very foreign to non-medical folks.

My goal here is to give you a relatively quick "crash course" in understanding some basic medical terminology.

Examples of some common prefixes and suffixes:

hypo- = below / beneath / deficient (ex. Hypothyroidism means an under-active thyroid. Hypothermia means abnormally low body temperature.)

hyper- = above / excessive (ex. Hypertension is the medical term for high blood pressure. Hyperthyroidism means an over-active thyroid.)

dys- = difficulty (ex. Some tricky ones - Dysphagia means difficulty eating/swallowing but Dysphasia means difficulty speaking. Obviously, spelling and root origins of words are important here!)

-itis = inflammation (ex. Pancreatitis is inflammation of the pancreas. Gastritis is inflammation of the stomach. Arthritis is inflammation of the joints.)

You may have heard some of these terms at one point or another. Hopefully they are not as confusing now!

As you learn and memorize more terminology, you'll become more comfortable with the concepts and can have at least a very basic understanding of the word meanings. This way, when/if you see a term like EGD, short for esophogastroduodenoscopy, maybe you won't run and hide under the covers and chew off your fingernails.

Always remember to just break it down piece by piece.

The esophagus (eso- = inward, phago = eating/swallowing) is the tube that carries food from the back of your throat down to your stomach. Gastro, as we already covered, refers to the stomach. The duodenum (tricky one, named this way simply because of length) is the beginning of the small intestine. -Scopy refers to the act of "scoping out" or investigating this part of your intestinal tract in an effort to identify, and hopefully alleviate, whatever ailment you are suffering from.

There you have it - the procedure is the act of using a small camera and scoping out the upper portion of your intestinal tract, starting from the mouth > esophagus > stomach > duodenum. A long and difficult word broken down into manageable pieces.

Some other common conditions / layman's terms:

Ischemia means inadequate flow of blood to an area in the body. Chest pain can potentially be caused by ischemia. If left untreated, the ischemia could lead to infarction of the heart muscle (MI / heart attack).

Myocardial Infarction (MI) is the medical term for a heart attack. Myo- means muscle. Cardial means heart. Infarction is local tissue death due to lack of blood flow to the area.

Cerebrovascular Accident (CVA) is the medical term for a stroke. Cerebro- means brain. Vascular means vessels. Causes of a stroke can be either because of a blood vessel bursting in the brain (hemorrhagic stroke, hemo- meaning blood) or a blood vessel getting clogged up with plaque and causing tissue death due to lack of blood flow/oxygenation of the area (ischemic stroke).

Health problems can be extremely stressful. At least now, you have a small foundation of knowledge of some common medical prefixes, suffixes, and root meanings. Use this to go about breaking down complex words into their respective pieces for better understanding.

Further learning materials:
http://www.dummies.com/careers/medical-careers/medical-terminology/common-prefixes-and-suffixes-in-medical-terminology/
http://www.prefixes-suffixes.com/prefixes-used-in-medicine.html

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Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Medical Terminology Made Easy: A Crash Course

Medical Terminology Basics

Examples of some common prefixes and suffixes:

Some other common conditions / layman's terms:

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