In this type of study, researchers compare the effect of a therapy or drug in with either a placebo , no treatment, or another therapy or drug. Physical therapy can help improve strength and flexibility in people who have a condition that affects their musculoskeletal system. Occupational therapy can teach people new and better ways to do things physically. A person who has had a stroke , for example, may benefit from learning again how to walk, using techniques that perhaps they did not use before.
Other fields of medicine include pharmacology and pharmacy, nursing, speech therapy, medical practice management, and many more. Biochemistry : A biochemist studies chemical components and how they affect the body. Biomechanics : This focuses on the structure of biological systems in the body and how they work, using a mechanical approach.
Biostatistics : Researchers apply statistics to biological fields. This is crucial for successful medical research and many areas of medical practice.
Biophysics : This uses physics, mathematics, chemistry, and biology to model and understand the workings of biological systems. Cytology : This is a branch of pathology that involves the medical and scientific microscopic study of cells. Embryology : This branch of biology studies the formation, early growth, and development of organisms. Epidemiology : Researchers track the causes, distribution, and control of diseases in populations.
Histology : This involves looking at the form of structures under the microscope. It is also known as microscopic anatomy. Microbiology : This is the study of organisms that are too small to see with the naked eye, known as microorganisms.
Aspects of microbiology include bacteriology, virology, mycology the study of fungi , and parasitology. Neuroscience : Neuroscientists study the nervous system and the brain and investigate diseases of the nervous system. Aspects of neuroscience include computational modeling and psychophysics. Some types of neuroscience are cognitive neuroscience, cellular neuroscience, and molecular neuroscience.
Nutrition : Nutritionists study how food and drink influence health, and how they can help treat, cure, and prevent different diseases and conditions. Pathology : This is the study of disease.
A pathologist often works in a laboratory, where they do tests — usually on a sample of blood, urine, or body tissue — to help diagnose diseases and conditions.
Pharmacology : This involves the study of pharmaceutical medications, or drugs, where they come from, how they work, how the body responds to them, and what they consist of. Radiology : Radiologists use X-rays and scanning equipment during the diagnostic procedure, and sometimes as part of treatment, too. Toxicology : A toxicologist studies poisons, what they are, what effects they have on the body, and how to detect them. These are not all the aspects and fields of medicine.
Many people work in patient transportation, dentistry, not to mention the many different specialties that physicians can choose to follow, such as emergency medicine.
Someone with insulin-dependent diabetes, for instance, has a pancreas that can't produce enough insulin a hormone that regulates glucose in the body. Some people have a low production of thyroid hormone, which helps control how the body uses energy. In each case, doctors can prescribe medicines to replace the missing hormone. Some medicines treat symptoms but can't cure the illness that causes the symptoms.
A symptom is anything you feel while you're sick, such as a cough or nausea. So taking a lozenge may soothe a sore throat, but it won't kill that nasty strep bacteria. Some medicines relieve pain. If you pull a muscle, your doctor might tell you to take ibuprofen or acetaminophen.
These pain relievers , or analgesics, don't get rid of the source of the pain — your muscle will still be pulled. What they do is block the pathways that transmit pain signals from the injured or irritated body part to the brain in other words, they affect the way the brain reads the pain signal so that you don't hurt as much while your body recovers.
As people get older, they sometimes develop chronic or long-term conditions. Medicines can help control things like high blood pressure hypertension or high cholesterol. These drugs don't cure the underlying problem, but they can help prevent some of its body-damaging effects over time.
Among the most important medicines are immunizations or vaccines. These keep people from getting sick in the first place by immunizing, or protecting, the body against some infectious diseases. Vaccines usually contain a small amount of an agent that resembles a specific germ or germs that have been modified or killed.
When someone is vaccinated, it primes the body's immune system to "remember" the germ so it will be able to fight off infection by that germ in the future.
Most immunizations that prevent you from catching diseases like measles, whooping cough, and chickenpox are given by injection. No one thinks shots are fun. But the diseases they prevent can be very serious and cause symptoms that last much longer than the temporary discomfort of the shot. To make life easier, now you can get immunizations at many pharmacies. Although some medicines require a prescription , some are available in stores.
You can buy many medicines for pain, fever, cough, or allergies without a prescription. But just because a medicine is available over-the-counter OTC , that doesn't mean it's free of side effects. Take OTC medicines with the same caution as those prescribed by a doctor. No matter what type of medicine your doctor prescribes, it's always important to be safe and follow some basic rules:.
Taking medicines may feel like a hassle sometimes. But medicines are the most effective treatments available for many illnesses. If you ever have any questions about what a medicine does or how you should take it, talk with your doctor or a pharmacist.
Understanding Medicines and What They Do. Larger text size Large text size Regular text size. What Are Medicines? But medicines can be delivered in many ways, such as: liquids that are swallowed drops that are put into ears or eyes creams, gels, or ointments that are rubbed onto the skin inhalers like nasal sprays or asthma inhalers patches that are stuck to skin called transdermal patches tablets that are placed under the tongue called sublingual medicines; the medicine is absorbed into blood vessels and enters the bloodstream injections shots or intravenous inserted into a vein medicines No medicine can be sold unless it has first been approved by the U.
What the experts say Your doctor may be an expert in their field. Or your doctor may decide how to treat you based on what other experts say. Much of what doctors learn at medical school is based on what experts think. Doctors like to ask their colleagues for advice. But experts don't always get it right. It is safer to rely on the results of good research studies than on one person's opinion.
What the media say Every day there are stories in newspapers or on television about the latest discoveries in health care. One day you may hear that drinking alcohol can lower your chance of heart disease. The next day you may hear that it can increase your risk of breast cancer. What should you do?
The media often report on the results of just one study. There may have been other studies that had different results, and the reporter may not know about these. Usually, any one study just adds a brick into a growing wall of evidence. The results of one study cannot tell you the whole story. It is only after other groups of researchers repeat the study and find the same results that answers become reliable. The media also tend to be optimistic about advances in medicine. For example, a study that looked at how the media reported on drug treatments for osteoporosis and high cholesterol found that the benefits of the drugs were stressed but the possible harms were barely mentioned.
There are also a lot of websites that provide health information. But it can be hard to know which ones to trust. What tradition says Just because something has been used for years doesn't mean it works or can't hurt you. Many complementary and alternative medicines such as herbal products and vitamins have been used for years. But there isn't always good evidence that they do more good than harm. One study looked at seven reference books.
But there was no good evidence that they worked. Traditional remedies may have been used for centuries, but they may not be safe when taken with modern medicines. John's wort, for example, is a herbal remedy for depression. Unfortunately, it stops some drugs, such as the contraceptive pill and blood-thinning tablets, from working properly. Questions to ask your doctor Here are some questions that might help you weigh up the information you find in the media or on the Internet about treatments.
You could show these questions to your doctor. Subscribe Contact us. Why do we need evidence-based medicine? Some evidence is better than other evidence. When doctors look at the research before recommending a treatment, they are using evidence-based medicine. Evidence-based medicine looks at all the research that there is about a disease or treatment. When researchers look at whether a treatment works, they look at many more patients than a single doctor will ever treat.
Sometimes the evidence can't tell you which treatment is best for you, so it's important that you weigh up the benefits and harms of treatments carefully.
Why evidence from research is so important All evidence is not alike. Here are some examples: Fifty years ago, women were often given an enema while they were in labour.
This is uncomfortable and unpleasant.
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