Facts on File Encyclopedia of Health and Medicine

Vitamins and minerals are important nutrients the body needs to carry out its many functions. All such nutrients the body needs ...

Y–Z yoga A 5,000-year old practice originating in China that blends exercise and MEDITATION. Yoga incorporates specific configur ...

yohimbe’s active ingredient, works in somewhat similar fashion to sildenafil in that causes an increase in the body’s production ...

greater effect in combination rather than in isola- tion, which is how they occur in nature, despite their individual actions an ...

This section, “Genetics and Molecular Medicine,” presents an overview discussion of the structures and functions of human geneti ...

Each gene, like a word, contains patterns of nucleotides. Chromosomes, like sentences and paragraphs, present strings of genes t ...

DISORDERS, such as DOWN SYNDROME. Though as yet there are few treatments to alter the course of genetic and chromosomal disorder ...

1970s, representing a breakthrough in the ability to manipulate synthetic substances such as INSULINto create products biologica ...

A allele Any of the variations of a GENEthat may occupy the same position (locus) on a CHROMO- SOME. The gene controlling a part ...

tling, assimilation, and recycling. In some respects cells become endlessly renewable resources for the body. Specialized cells ...

C cell structure and function The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all living organ- isms. About 100 trillion ...

cytoskeleton, a dynamic construct of filaments and fibers that support the cell’s shape and inner components cytoplasm, a water ...

attached to each other at the CENTROMEREuntil cell division. When the mother cell divides, the sister chromatids separate at the ...

that alter its configuration. In TRANSLOCATION, frag- ments of a chromosome break away and reattach to other chromosomes or are ...

ment. The only cells in the body that do not have chromosomes are the erythrocytes, which do not have nuclei. Autosomes carry th ...

congenital anomaly A physical abnormality present at birth. Congenital anomalies, also called BIRTH DEFECTS, can affect nearly a ...

thick SPUTUM coughing and wheezing clubbing of the fingers and toes INTUSSUSCEPTION(a segment of the bowel “tele- scopes” into ...

D DNA The abbreviation for deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA is the molecule of heredity; its sequences form the body’s GENETIC CODE. E ...

Down syndrome have atrial or ventricular septal defects (openings or holes in the septum, or wall, between the chambers of the h ...

E–F Edwards syndrome An AUTOSOMAL TRISOMYdisor- der that results from a REPLICATION ERRORduring cell division in which a GAMETE( ...