19 Common Terms of Health You Should Know Dealing with Your Health Status or Report

Knowing some common terms in health is crucial. The terms may help you to understand what to do, your health condition, health issues, and many more. As a result, you can reach your maximum health goal. Check the terms of health below and improve your health knowledge.

Basal Body Temperature

Do you know that you can figure out when you are ovulating? All you have to do is check your temperature at rest when you wake up in the morning. The result is known as Basal Body Temperature.

You may be ready to ovulate when your temperature while resting rises. For a more accurate result, take your temperature before you get out of bed every morning. You are ready for ovulation when the body temperature rises even only about 1/2 degree Fahrenheit or 1/3 degree Celsius. Because you want to check your basal body temperature, ensure that you use a basal body thermometer.

Blood Alcohol Content

Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) is the amount of alcohol in a specific amount of blood. For example, the standard of Blood Alcohol Content measurement is in a 1000-milliliter sample of blood. The measurement is expressed in grams of alcohol.

Blood Pressure

Blood pressure is one of the common terms of health, especially related to specific diseases. It means the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries anytime your heart pumps blood. Blood pressure contains two measurements, which are systolic and diastolic.

Systolic is the blood pressure when the heart beats while pumping blood. Diastolic is the blood pressure when the heart is at rest between beats. You will get these two measurements when measuring your blood pressure, such as 120/80. It means that your systolic is 120, whereas your diastolic is 80.

Blood Type

You may know the blood type, such as A, B, O, and AB. How can experts decide whether some people have A blood type whereas others have B, O, or AB blood types? The experts will see it on the substance on the surface of the blood cells.

Body Mass Index

Body Mass Index or BMI is a common term on weight loss topic. BMI is crucial because it estimates your body fat, and takes from the height and weight. The result explains whether you are underweight, normal, overweight, or even obese. Then, you can start to determine the most effective treatment to maintain your weight.

Complications of Pregnancy

You will also hear about the word complications of pregnancy while discussing pregnancy. It is a condition when a pregnant mother requires medical care to prevent serious harm whether to the health of herself or her fetus.

Hospitalization

There is a condition where someone has to stay overnight in the hospital. It means that the person needs to be hospitalized or in a hospitalization. How long a person has to be hospitalized depends on their disease and health conditions.

Hospital Outpatient Care

Hospital outpatient care is the opposite of hospitalization. It is a time when you need specific medical treatment in a hospital. The difference is that you don't have to be hospitalized when your status is hospital outpatient care.

Heart Rate

Doctors will check your heart rate as a regular medical check-up. The result determines whether your condition is healthy or not. Heart rate is the number of heartbeats per minute. For example, an adult has a normal heart rate when their heartbeat is 60 to 100 beats per minute. The doctors often check your heart rate after you are resting for at least 10 minutes.

Height

Height is one of the most common terms in health. Nevertheless, some people don't know yet how to measure their height. Height is the distance from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head. Ensure that you are standing up straight before measuring your height.

Weight

Besides measuring your height, you should also monitor your weight. Weight means the mass or quantity of your heaviness. Some countries express weight by the unit of kilograms and others express it in pounds.

Specialist

You may hear a doctor and a specialist. So, what is the difference between a doctor and a specialist? A specialist focuses on a specific area of medicine or patients to diagnose, manage, or treat because of certain types of symptoms and conditions. On the other hand, a non-physician specialist or regular doctor is someone who has more training in a specific area of health care.

Primary Care Provider

The primary care provider includes a physician, nurse practitioner, clinical nurse specialist, and physician assistant. It is also including they are with M.D or Medical Doctor or D.O or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine. Their job is to provide health care services, coordinate, and help patients.

Prescription Drugs

In some cases, you can't buy specific drugs without a prescription from your doctor or specialist. It means you can only get the drugs when you have a legal prescription from your specialist. Prescription drugs and medications are protected by law.

Generic Drugs

Generic drugs are part of prescription drugs. The products also have the same active-ingredient formula as brand-name drugs. It is an alternative because the cost of generic drugs is cheaper than brand-name drugs. The most important thing is that generic drugs are also safe and effective due to the certification of the Food and Drug Administration or FDA.

Urgent Care

Some patients are included in the urgent care status. It means that they are suffered from a serious enough illness, injury, or condition. They have to get medical treatment immediately, but they don't have to get emergency room care.

UV Exposure

You may hear about UV exposure while learning about skincare. UV is the abbreviation of Ultraviolet. It comes from the sunlight in the form of invisible radiation. UV rays are good for your health, especially to form vitamin D naturally.

On the other hand, too much UV exposure to the skin can be dangerous because it passes through your skin and damages your skin cells. As a result, you are suffering from sunburn. At the next level, UV exposure can also cause eye problems, wrinkles, skin spots, and even skin cancer.

Health Status

After following a medical check-up procedure, your doctor will show your health status. It shows your medical conditions, both your physical and mental health. You will also check your claims experience, receipt of health care, medical history, genetic information, evidence of insurability, and disability. As a result, you know whether you are healthy or not. If it is not, you also know the medical treatments you should take based on your status.

Home Health Care

It is the opposite of being hospitalized. If your doctor says that you are allowed to get home health care, it means that you don't need to be hospitalized. Indeed, you should follow the health care from the doctor. Some people even call a nurse to take care of them at home until they get their health back.

The point is that there are so many terms of health you should know. At least, you should know the common terms or the terms that are related to your health condition. It helps you a lot when you have to read a medical report or anything dealing with your medical treatments.