Human health and medicine

Therapeutic Irrigation

Therapeutic irrigation, also called lavage, is the washing of a body cavity or wound with flowing fluid for therapy or diagnosis, used across nearly every branch of medicine.

Therapeutic lifestyle change (TLC) is a lifestyle-based mental health approach that treats psychological symptoms by prescribing changes in daily habits such as exercise, diet, sleep, and social connection.

Therapeutic Occlusion

Therapeutic occlusion is the deliberate blocking of body fluid flow through vessels or ducts as a treatment, by techniques such as embolization or surgical ligation.

Therapeutic touch

Therapeutic touch, or Healing Touch, is a complementary therapy in which practitioners move their hands over a patient without touching, claiming to sense an energy field.

Therapeutic ultrasound

Therapeutic ultrasound, also called ultrasound therapy, is the use of focused or unfocused acoustic energy to treat tissue rather than image it, spanning low-intensity physiotherapy and fracture repair and high-intensity ablation of tumors and neural targets.

Therapie

Therapie, now published as Therapies, is a bimonthly French medical journal devoted to clinical pharmacology and therapeutics; founded in 1946, it is the official organ of the Société Française de Pharmacologie et de Thérapeutique.

Therapy

Therapy is the treatment of a health problem, spanning physical modalities and psychotherapy (talk therapy), including CBT, DBT, IPT, and psychodynamic therapy; about 75% of psychotherapy participants benefit, with mean meta-analytic effect size 0.50.

Therapy dosimetry

Therapy dosimetry is the measurement and calculation of the absorbed dose delivered to a patient during radiotherapy, using calibrated detectors and phantoms, with a benchmark 5% accuracy requirement.

Theresa Kotanchek

Theresa Kotanchek is an American materials scientist and National Academy of Engineering member who led Dow Chemical China, then co-founded the data science firm Evolved Analytics.

Theresa Tam

Theresa Tam (Theresa Wing Sze Tam) is a Canadian physician and paediatric infectious disease specialist who served as Canada's Chief Public Health Officer from June 26, 2017 to June 2025, the first woman in the role, leading the COVID-19 response and vaccination campaign.

Thermal ablation therapy

Thermal ablation therapy is a minimally invasive cancer treatment that destroys tumors in place with heat or extreme cold, using radiofrequency, microwave, laser, focused ultrasound, or cryoablation.

Thermodilution

Thermodilution is a hemodynamic monitoring technique that measures cardiac output by injecting cold fluid into the bloodstream and recording the temperature change downstream, used in intensive care.

Thermotherapy

Thermotherapy is the clinical application of external heat to body tissue to relieve pain, reduce inflammation, and promote healing, using superficial or deep heating methods.

Theta wave

Theta wave (theta rhythm): a 4–8 Hz brain oscillation, first seen in rabbit hippocampus (Jung and Kornmüller, 1938), prominent during rodent movement, REM sleep, human drowsiness, and frontal-midline cognitive processing, linked to navigation, memory, and phase precession.

Theta-burst stimulation

Theta-burst stimulation (TBS) is a patterned form of transcranial magnetic stimulation delivering bursts of pulses that alter cortical excitability, with intermittent TBS FDA-cleared for depression.

Thiamine

Thiamine (thiamin, vitamin B1) is a water-soluble B vitamin and TDP cofactor in energy metabolism; deficiency causes beriberi and Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. Isolated 1926, synthesized 1936; RDA 1.1–1.2 mg/day.

Thiamine deficiency

Thiamine deficiency (vitamin B1 deficiency) causes beriberi and Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome; historically linked to polished-rice diets, it remains a public health problem in low-income countries and among people with alcoholism.

Thiamine-responsive megaloblastic anemia syndrome

Thiamine-responsive megaloblastic anemia syndrome (TRMA, Rogers syndrome): rare autosomal recessive SLC19A2 disorder causing megaloblastic anemia, diabetes, and sensorineural deafness, treatable with high-dose thiamine.

Thiazide

Thiazide diuretics (hydrochlorothiazide, chlorthalidone, indapamide) block the sodium-chloride cotransporter in the distal convoluted tubule; first-line hypertension drugs since chlorothiazide's 1958 launch, also used for kidney stones and edema.

Thiazolidinedione

Thiazolidines (TZDs), also known as glitazones, are a class of oral drugs for type 2 diabetes that lower blood glucose by increasing insulin sensitivity via PPARγ and PPARα.

Thiel-Behnke corneal dystrophy

Thiel-Behnke corneal dystrophy (TBCD, honeycomb corneal dystrophy, CDB2) is a rare autosomal dominant TGFBI (5q31, Arg555Gln) corneal dystrophy causing recurrent erosions, honeycomb subepithelial opacities, and progressive vision loss, treated with PTK.

Thieme drug report (medizinische zeitschrift)

Thieme drug report (Deutsche Ausg.), a German serial title related to Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift (DMW) in the NLM catalog; DMW, published by Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart, since 1946, continues in part Medizinische Zeitschrift, ISSN 0012-0472.

Thiethylperazine

Thiethylperazine (Torecan, GS-95, Norzine) is a piperazine phenothiazine dopamine-antagonist antiemetic for nausea, vomiting, and vertigo; FDA approved 1961, discontinued in the US, broad receptor profile, investigated for Alzheimer's amyloid clearance.

Thigh

Thigh: the lower-limb segment between hip and knee, built around the femur. Its anterior, medial, and posterior muscle compartments (quadriceps, adductors, hamstrings) extend and flex the hip and knee, adduct the leg, and are prone to strains in athletes.

Thigh gap

Thigh gap: visible space between the inner thighs when standing feet together; social media beauty ideal from December 2012 (Victoria's Secret show), anatomically determined by pelvis and femur, linked to eating disorder risk, succeeded by mermaid thighs and legging legs.

Oct 20, 2026

Thinking epilepsy

Thinking epilepsy is a rare form of reflex epilepsy in which seizures are induced by cognitive tasks such as arithmetic, Rubik's cube, chess, cards, decision-making, and abstract reasoning.

Thinspiration

Thinspiration (thinspo) is pro-eating-disorder imagery and text idealizing thinness to inspire weight loss, originating in pro-ana spaces and spreading to Tumblr, Instagram, and Twitter; platforms banned its hashtags in 2012, and research links exposure to body dissatisfaction and disordered eating.

Thiocolchicoside

Thiocolchicoside, a semi-synthetic colchicoside derivative from Gloriosa superba seeds, is a GABA-A/glycine receptor muscle relaxant for musculoskeletal pain; EMA restricted oral/IM use in 2013 over genotoxic metabolite M2, and meta-analysis shows marginal efficacy.