Guillain-Barré Syndrome

Guillain-Barré syndrome (say: ghee-yan bah-ray sin-drome) is a rare medical condition that affects a person's immune system and nerves. The immune system, which usually keeps a person from getting sick, starts damaging the nerves that are outside of the brain and spinal cord. Healthy nerves are able to transmit messages from the brain to different parts of the body. For instance, when you decide to throw a ball, your brain instructs your arm an

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Blood Transfusions

What Is a Transfusion?ay: trans-few-zyun) is a way of giving one person's blood to another person who needs it. When you need blood, you really need it because your body won't work right without enough healthy blood. Your heart pumps blood through blood vessels that reach every organ and tissue in the body. One of the blood's most important jobs is to deliver oxygen to each cell in the body. And without oxygen, the body can't stay alive. Blo

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Fungal Infections

What do you think of when you hear the word fungus? Do you think of mushrooms? A mushroom is one type of fungus, but fungus also refers to a type of germ that lives on all of us. This germ is harmless most of the time, but sometimes it can cause a problem called a fungal infection (say: fung-gul in-fek-shun). It sounds gross, but don't worry or feel embarrassed. A lot of people get fungal infections, but they're usually easy to treat becuase a

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Atrial Septal Defect

What Is an Atrial Septal Defect? Atrial septal defect (say: ay-tree-ul sep-tul dee-fekt), or ASD for short, is a heart condition that can affect kids. To understand an ASD, it helps to know how the heart works. The heart has four chambers. The lower chambers of the heart are called the ventricles. There are two ventricles: a left ventricle and a right ventricle. The upper chambers are the atria and there are two of them — a left atrium and a ri

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Epilepsy

What Is Epilepsy? It's a strange word, isn't it? Epilepsy comes from a Greek word meaning "to hold or seize," and people who have epilepsy have seizures. You might also hear a seizure called a convulsion, fit, or spell. Seizures happen when there is unusual electrical activity in the brain. Your brain cells are constantly sending out electrical signals that travel along nerves to the rest of the body.These signals tell the muscles to move. Dur

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Chronic Kidney Disease

When you're hungry, your stomach lets out a growl or two. When you run around, your heart lets you know it's really working by boom, boom, booming! But some important body parts are quiet as a whisper. Psst - we're talking about your kidneys. What Are the Kidneys? Your kidneys are tucked under your lower ribs on either side of your spine. Each one is about the size of your fist and shaped like a bean. Most people have two kidneys, but they wor

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Inhaler

Inhalers (say: in-hay-lurz) work to get medicine right into your lungs, where it can help stop breathing problems related to asthma. Inhalers are small and easily fit into your pocket or backpack. Research shows that even young kids can use inhalers, especially when they're used with a spacer. There are two types of inhalers: Metered dose (say: mee-turd dohs) inhalers are the most common. They spray out a mist of liquid medicine that you breat

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Snooze

There's nothing worse than the sound of someone snoring if you're trying to fall asleep. Or maybe it's you who snores, and people tease you about the noise you make in your sleep. Snoring isn't just noisy. Sometimes it's a sign of a serious medical problem that should be treated by a doctor. Read on to find out more about the snore! Snoozing or Snoring? Snoring is a fairly common problem that can happen to anyone - young or old. Snoring happen

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Anthrax

What is AnthraxYou may have heard about anthrax and wondered what it is. Some people are worried that the germ that causes anthrax could be spread by people who want to use the disease as a weapon. Although this is a frightening thought, the government and police are working on ways to protect us. In the meantime, it's important not to panic over anthrax - the chance that you or someone in your family could ever get it is very small. One of the

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Celiac

Have you ever eaten gluten? No, not glue - gluten! If you've ever eaten a piece of bread, a slice of pizza, or a bowl of cereal, chances are you have. Gluten (say: gloo-tin) is a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley - grains that are in many everyday foods. Most people can eat food containing gluten with no trouble. But for some people, eating gluten can cause a reaction in their bodies. Someone who has this problem has celiac (say: see-lee-

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Mosquito Bite

a Mosquito A mosquito (say: mus-kee-toe) is an insect that is found all over the world. There are thousands of different kinds of mosquitoes in many different sizes and colors. The female mosquito needs blood from vertebrates (animals that have a spine) to lay eggs and produce more mosquitoes. She has a special part of her mouth that she uses to suck blood, and her saliva (spit) thins the blood so she can drink it. In fact, it's the mosquito's

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Avian (Bird) Flu

You might have heard about avian flu in the news, but what is it? "Avian" (say: ay-vee-yan) means related to birds. Avian flu is an influenza virus that affects mostly birds and sometimes pigs. This isn't the same flu that people normally get.The main difference between the regular flu and avian flu is the way it has spread. Regular flu spreads from person to person by coughing, sneezing, or picking up the germs other people have left behind. Th

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Rabies

Rabies is a serious infection of the nervous system, which controls everything you do - from breathing to walking. A person can get rabies if he or she is bitten or scratched by an animal that carries the rabies virus. Fortunately, very few people get rabies and most cases today are found in wild animals. If someone gets bitten by an animal that has rabies, quick treatment can prevent the illness.Animal BitesRabies is very serious and can make a

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Flu

Influenza (say: in-floo-en-zah) is also called the flu. It's an infection that causes fever, chills, cough, body aches, headaches, and sometimes earaches or sinus problems. The flu is caused by the influenza virus (say: vy-rus). A virus is a microorganism (say: my-croh-or-gah-nih-zum), which means it's so small that you can't see it without a strong microscope. For most people, the flu is a drag, but it goes away in a week or two. But for some

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Hair Loss

Every day, you lose about 50 to 100 hairs. You've seen them. They swirl down the drain in the tub or get stuck on the back of your sweater. Or, worst of all, one might get in your mouth. Gross. Normally, when hair falls out, new hairs start forming in the same place as the old ones. But when someone has hair loss, the hairs don't grow back. Or they do grow, but there aren't enough of them to take the place of what's already fallen out. This oft

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