Hey guys, I'm Siobhan, a first-year medical resident.
Today I'm going to let you in on the secret language of doctors and know what the medical words for actually normal English words are.
Medicine is actually like a different language at times
and you have all these fancy words
that mean the same thing as something that we already know in English and
as a medical student I felt like I was constantly trying to learn words and look them up on Google and Translate my normal vocabulary
into fancy medical terms so that I sounded smart or sound like a doctor. The weird part was today in clinic
I actually had the opposite experience.
I was thinking in these medical terms
and I felt like I had to translate them back
into regular English to explain it to patients. As a medical student if you told me that I couldn't imagine that so soon I would
be thinking in this medical language. So that can be overwhelming for medical students,
but it can also be overwhelming for patients when they don't really know what doctors are saying, so it's our job to
be able to express ourselves properly and not actually use all this medical jargon.
So here are some common ones and see if you already know some of the translations back and forth.
That noise joints make when they crack: crepitus. I always think that sounds like creaking like crepitus.
Runny nose:
rhinorrhea
Actually the first time I heard that I kind of thought it sounded like diarrhea through your nose.
And that's how I remembered it as med student.
Listening with a stethoscope:
auscultation
Growling stomach:
Borborygmi. It kinda sounds like more of a stomach like bore bore bore borborygmi.
Goose bumps:
horripilation.
That doesn't sound so good.
When something bursts:
perforation.
If something breaks:
fracture.
Rapid alternating movements:
diadochokinesia. You actually do this. We get patients to do this fast alternating movement
and it's to test part of the back of their brain, right back here in the cerebellum.
Loss of appetite, you just don't want to eat:
anorexia, which is different than anorexia nervosa
which is an eating disorder, but just anorexia means that you don't have any hunger.
So if you're feeling really really sick, and you don't want to eat, that's anorexia.
Walking:
ambulating. I thought this was a weird one because it sounds like ambulance and when you're in an ambulance, you're not walking.
Anyway, ambulating is walking.
Dry-mouth:
xerostomia.
Dry skin:
xerosis.
Fainting:
syncope. And that feeling when you think you're about to pass out and everything sort of graying out you want to sit down,
that's called pre-syncope.
When the whole room is spinning:
vertigo.
When someone's super super super super skinny:
cachectic. When you see that it's just never a good sign.
When you don't really know what caused it:
idiopathic. Most frustrating one because we don't know what causes it. We know it happens, but we don't know why.
Brain freeze:
Sphenopalatina Ganglioneuralgia. To be honest I just looked that one up. I didn't even know that one.
Thanks for watching, don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already and let me know in the comments below if you've had any
experiences where doctors have said strange weird words or if you heard things on TV shows. I'm always curious to hear them.
I'll chat with you guys later.