Pathology
The word ‘Pathology’ is derived from two Greek words-pathos (meaning suffering) and logos (meaning study). Pathology is, thus, the scientific study of changes in the structure and function of the body in disease. In other words, pathology consists of the abnormalities in normal anatomy (including histology) and normal physiology owing to disease. Another commonly used term with reference to the study of diseases is ‘pathophysiology’
For the student of any stream of medical science, the discipline of pathology forms a vital bridge between the initial learning phase of preclinical sciences and the final phase of clinical subjects. The role and significance of learning pathology in clinical medicine are quite well summed up by Sir William Osler (1849-1919), acclaimed physician and teacher in medicine considered as ‘Father of Modern Medicine, by his famous quote “Your practice of medicine will be as good as is your understanding of pathology”.
HEALTH AND DISEASE
Since pathology is the study of disease, disease is opposite of health i.e. what is not healthy is disease. Health may be defined as a condition when the individual is in complete accord with the surroundings, while disease is loss of ease (or comfort) to the body (i.e. disease). However, it must be borne in mind that in health there is a wide range of ‘normality’ e.g. in height, weight, blood and tissue chemical composition etc. It also needs to be appreciated that at the cellular level, the cells display a wide range of activities within the broad area of health similar to what is seen in disease cells.
Thus, Health and disease are not absolute but are considered as relative states. A term commonly confused with disease is illness. While disease suggests an entity with a cause, illness is the reaction of the individual to disease in the form of symptoms (complaints of the patient) and physical signs (elicited by the clinician). Though disease and illness are not separable, the study of diseases is done in pathology while the learning and management of illness, there are syndromes (meaning running together) characterised by combination of symptoms caused by altered physiologic processes.