I. Health and Illness

PROFESSIONAL ENGLISH IN USE

MEDICINE

I. Health and Illness

A.                 Asking about health

Health is the state of the body. When doctors want to know about a patient’s usual health, they ask questions such as:

What’s your general health like?

How’s your health generally?

If you are in good health, you are well and have no illness (disease). If you are healthy you are normally well and resist illness. If you are fit, you are well and strong.

B.                  Sickness

Sickness has a similar meaning to illness. It is also used in the names of a few specific diseases, for example sleeping sickness and travel sickness. Patients also talk about sickness when they mean nausea and vomiting.

Patient says	Possible meanings
I was sick this morning	I was ill this morning I felt unwell this morning I vomited this morning
I feel sick	I feel ill I feel unwell I am nauseous I feel the need to vomit

The combination sickness and diarrhoea means vomiting and diarrhoea.

C.                 Recovery

When people return to normal health after illness, they have recovered we can also say:

The patient

made a

good full complete

recovery

If a patient’s health is in the process of returning to normal, the patient is improving. The opposite is deteriorating. We can also say that the patient’s condition improved or deteriorated. In speech, we often use verb get to talk about change:  

get	over	= to recover
	better	= to improve
	worse	= to deteriorate

If a patient is better, but then gets worse again, then patient has relapsed. Another word for improvement, especially in recurring conditions such as cancer, is remission.

He got over the illness very quickly.

Two years later she remains in complete remission.

EXERCISE

1.          Complete the table with words from A and B opposite. The first one has done for you.

Noun	Adjective
fitness	fit
health
illness
sickness

2.         Make word combinations using a word from each box. Look at B and C opposite to help you.

complete feel get poor travel

sickness health remission sick over

3.         Complete the conversation. Look at B opposite to help you.

Doctor:	How are you feeling today?
Patient:	Not very (1) ________.
Doctor:	How long have you been feeling (2) ________?
Patient:	About a week
Doctor:	What is your (3) ________ like normally?
Patient:	Very good. I’m usually quite (4) ________ and (5) ________.
Doctor:	What’s the problem now?
Patient:	It’s my stomach.
Doctor:	Do you feel (6) ________?
Patient:	Yes.
Doctor:	Have you actually been (7) ________?
Patient:	No.
Doctor:	Have you had any serious (8) ________ in the past?
Patient:	No, none at all.

4.        Choose the correct word o complete each sentence. Look at B and C opposite to help you

1	Her condition _________ (deteriorated/improved) and she died.
2	He _________ (relapsed/recovered) and was allowed to go home from hospital.
3	The cause of the sleeping _________ (sickness/illness) was discovered in 1901.
4	The patient made a full _________ (remission/recovery).
5	I have been in _________ (poor/good) health for months and feel very fit.
6	It was a month before I _________ (got over/got better) the illness.
7	He seems to be rather _________ (unhealthy/unwell) – his diet is bad and he never exercises.

ANSWER KEY.