-osis, -sis, -sia, -sy, -se

A infectious disease caused by an agent originally found in other vertebrates, or animals, than from humans which has become adapted to man alone and is not found in other animal hosts, although it may continue to have a life cycle involving invertebrate intermediate hosts.

An animal disease (zoonosis) maintained in nature by animals and transmissible to humans, e.g. rabies: One example of anthropozoonosis is brucellosis, an infectious disorder caused by brucella (non-motile-parasitic bacteria), characterized by fever, sweating, weakness, aches, and pains, and communicated to man by direct contact with sick animals or through ingestion of infected meat, milk, or cheese, and is particularly hazardous to veterinarians, farmers, and slaughterhouse workers.

1. A condition of antagonism between organisms, especially micro-organisms (antonym of symbiosis).
2. The antagonistic association between two organisms in which one species adversely affects the other, often by production of a toxin.
3. An association of two organisms which is detrimental to one of them, in contrast to probiosis.
4. Production of an antibiotic by bacteria or other organisms inhibitory to other living things, especially among soil microbes.

Any treatment that treats the problem of excessively dry skin.

Dry skin, also called xerosis, is a common problem. The skin needs moisture to stay smooth and supple, and to retain moisture is especially difficult in winter. Central heating of home and other buildings is very drying to the skin.

Simple daily routines, such as bathing and towel drying, may actually remove moisture from the skin. Modifying the bathing routine will help preserve the skin's moisture. Bathing provides the skin with moisturize temporarily, but it removes the skin's oily lipid layer and in the long run causes more moisture loss than gain.

The use of special skin lotions is considered an antixerosis treatment.

1. Various disorders of arteries, particularly hardening due to fibrosis or calcium deposition, often used as a synonym for atherosclerosis.
2. The progressive narrowing and hardening of the arteries over time.
3. A common arterial disease in which raised areas of degeneration and cholesterol plaques form on the inner surfaces of the arteries obstructing blood flow.

The inability to eat; not eating.

A deficiency of an essential dietary element in animal diets which results in a lack of a major component of bones and other parts of the body: Aphosphorosis has a negative affect on one of the primary energy sources of the body because of an inadequate amount of phosphorus in the blood, muscles, nerves, and teeth.

Dr. George's diagnosis of the farmer's ill cattle was that they were suffering from aphosphoroses and required dietary supplements.

Death, especially the local death of a part of an organism.

1. Disintegration of cells into membrane-bound particles that are then eliminated by phagocytosis or by shedding.
2. A form of cell death necessary to make way for new cells and to remove cells whose DNA has been damaged to the point at which cancerous change is liable to occur.
3. The process by which cells naturally self-destruct in the body, also known as "programmed cell death".
4. Etymology: formed from the Greek prefix apo-, “off, from, away; at an extreme”; and is linked to the Greek ptosis, “a falling in" or "falling upon (something)”; which appears as a word by itself in medical language for a prolapse and in a few other rather rare compounds, including Samuel Becket’s panpygoptosis for "Duck’s disease".

More about apoptosis

Apoptosis is a form of cell death in which a programmed sequence of events leads to the elimination of cells without releasing harmful substances into the surrounding area.

It plays a crucial role in developing and maintaining health by eliminating old cells, unnecessary cells, and unhealthy cells. The human body replaces perhaps a million cells a second. Too little or too much apoptosis plays a role in a great many diseases.

When programmed cell death does not work properly, cells that should be eliminated may hang around and become immortal; for example, in cancer and leukemia. When apoptosis works overly well, it kills too many cells and inflicts grave tissue damage. This is the case in strokes and neurodegenerative disorders; such as, Alzheimer, Huntington, and Parkinson diseases.

Apoptosis is also called "programmed cell death" or "cell suicide". Strictly speaking, the term apoptosis refers only to the structural changes cells go through, and programmed cell death refers to the complete underlying process, but the terms are often used interchangeably.

Absence of mental functioning and particularly of thinking, as when in a stupor: When someone has apsychosis, even psychosis (a severe mental disorder in which the patient withdraws into an inner world of disorganized thinking and feeling) is not evident because that person is not completely conscious.

The commencement of living matter from non-living matter; abiogenesis: In Peggy's biology class, she learned about archebiosis as being the very beginning of living matter and substances.

1. Lack of the perception of cold.
2. Inability to perceive cold.
3. Absence of the cold sense.

Necrosis, or destruction, of arterioles; or the smallest divisions of the arteries located between the muscular arteries and the capillaries (smallest vessels which contain oxygenated blood).

Sclerosis, or hardening, and thickening of the walls of the smaller arteries (arterioles, the smallest divisions of the arteries located between the muscular arteries and the capillaries).

The narrowing or constriction of the caliber of an artery.