health and illness

HEALTH

The absence of disease and infirmity as well as the presence of physical, mental, and social well-being.

DISEASE

A discrete natural entity that can be clinically ridentified and treated by y a health professional.

ILLNESS

The individual patient's experience of being unwell

SICKNESS

An individual's public expression of illness and disease, including social expectations about how one should behave and how others will respond.

ETHNOMEDICINE

Local systems of health and healing rooted in culturally specific norms and values.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGY

The documentation and description of the local use of natural substanes in healing remedies and practices.

BIOMEDICINE

A practice, often associated with Western medicine, that seeks to apply the principles of biology and the natural sciences to the practice of diagnosing disease and promoting healing.

MEDICAL PLURALISM

The intersection of multiple cultural approaches to healing

ILLNESS NARRATIVES

The personal stories that people tell to explain their illnesses.

HUMAN MICROBIOME

The complete collection of microorganisms in the human body's ecosystem.

HEALTH TRANSITION

The significant improvements in human health made over the course of the twentieth century; they were not, however, distributed evenly across the world's population.

CRITICAL MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

An approach to the study of health and illness that analyzes the impact of inequality and stratification within systems of power on individual and group health outcomes.

MEDICAL MIGRATION

The movement of diseases, medical treatments, and entire health-care systems, as well as those seeking medical care, across national borders.