Body systems

A vitamin from animal foods that the body needs to make red blood cells and keep nerves healthy; also called cobalamin.

A water-soluble vitamin in fruits and vegetables that the body needs to make collagen, heal wounds and absorb iron; also called ascorbic acid.

A fat-soluble vitamin that the skin makes in sunlight and that helps the body absorb calcium for strong bones.

A fat-soluble vitamin the liver needs to make clotting factors II, VII, IX and X; given as the drug phytonadione to reverse warfarin.

A long-term skin condition in which patches of skin lose their color.

The clear jelly that fills the back of the eyeball, behind the lens, and holds the eye in shape.

The two folds of tissue inside the larynx that vibrate to make the voice; the true vocal cords, or vocal folds.

Passing urine; emptying the bladder.

Muscle that a person can move by choice, such as the muscles of the arms and legs.

Forcefully bringing up the contents of the stomach through the mouth.

The female external genitalia: the mons pubis, labia majora and minora, clitoris and the vestibule with its openings.

A small, rough, harmless growth on the skin caused by a human papillomavirus (HPV) infection.

A raised, red or pale, often itchy area on the skin; also called a wheal.

The name of a German neurologist, used in Wernicke encephalopathy (from low thiamine) and Wernicke aphasia (trouble understanding language).

A sudden, serious brain disorder that results from a severe lack of thiamine (vitamin B1).

A raised, red or pale, itchy bump on the skin that comes and goes; a single hive.

A high-pitched, whistling sound made as air moves through narrowed airways.

A blood cell that is part of the immune system and helps the body fight infection and other foreign material.

Tissue of the brain and spinal cord made mostly of nerve fibers (axons), white from their fatty myelin.

Donated blood with nothing taken out: red cells, plasma, platelets and clotting factors together, in a bag with an anticoagulant.

A grain that still has all three parts of the kernel, the bran, germ and endosperm.

A cancer of the kidney that develops in young children.

The physical and mental symptoms that occur when a person stops or cuts down a substance the body has come to depend on.

A break or injury in the skin or the tissue under it.

The body's process of repairing damaged skin and tissue.

A crease or fold, either in the skin or in fabric such as bed sheets.

The small, pointed tip at the lower end of the breastbone.

An infection with Candida, a yeast that normally lives on the body in small numbers.

A rare condition in which tumors that release the hormone gastrin make the stomach produce far too much acid.

One of the fine fibers that hold the lens to the ciliary body; together they form the lens's suspensory ligament.

The cheekbone, which forms the point of the cheek and part of the floor and outer wall of each eye socket.

The single cell formed when a sperm joins an egg at fertilization.