Health Library
Conditions & Symptoms A–Z
Plain-language explanations of 60 conditions we treat at SIMS — written the way a consultant would explain them across the desk. Each entry sets out the symptoms, the point at which you should stop waiting, the tests usually advised and how the condition is treated here.
Browse the A–Z
Every condition, grouped by body system
Choose a system below to narrow the list to that body system.
Showing 60 of 60 conditions
Heart & Circulation (5)
Heart Attack
A heart attack happens when blood flow through a coronary artery is blocked and part of the heart muscle begins to die. Every minute of delay costs muscle that does not grow back, which is why it is treated as a time emergency rather than a consultation.
Angina
Angina is chest discomfort that appears when the heart works harder — walking uphill, climbing stairs, hurrying — and settles with rest. It is the warning signal of narrowed coronary arteries, and it is far better to act on it than on the heart attack that may follow.
High Blood Pressure
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is raised pressure inside the arteries that usually causes no symptoms at all until it has damaged the heart, brain, kidneys or eyes. It is the single most common reason for stroke and heart failure in this district, and it is entirely treatable.
Heart Failure
Heart failure means the heart is not pumping strongly enough to meet the body's needs, so fluid backs up into the lungs and legs. The name frightens families more than it should — with the right medication and fluid discipline, many patients remain active for years.
Arrhythmia
An arrhythmia is an abnormal heart rhythm — too fast, too slow or irregular. Some are harmless and need only reassurance; others, such as atrial fibrillation, raise the risk of stroke and need long-term treatment.
Brain & Nerves (6)
Stroke
A stroke is a sudden interruption of blood supply to part of the brain, either from a clot or from bleeding. Treatment that can reverse the damage works only within a narrow window from the moment symptoms begin, so a stroke is an emergency in exactly the way a heart attack is.
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a tendency to have repeated seizures caused by abnormal electrical activity in the brain. It is a medical condition, not a curse or a possession, and the majority of patients become seizure-free on regular treatment.
Migraine
Migraine is a recurring headache disorder, typically one-sided and throbbing, often with nausea and an intolerance of light and sound. It is not a sign of a brain tumour, but it is disabling enough that many people lose working days to it every month.
Parkinson's Disease
Parkinson's disease is a slowly progressive condition in which the brain loses cells that control smooth movement, producing tremor, stiffness and slowness. Treatment does not cure it, but it can restore a great deal of independence for many years.
Peripheral Neuropathy
Peripheral neuropathy is damage to the nerves supplying the hands and feet, producing numbness, burning and tingling. In this region diabetes is by far the commonest cause, followed by vitamin B12 deficiency, alcohol and long-standing kidney disease.
Dementia
Dementia is a progressive loss of memory, reasoning and everyday function that goes beyond normal ageing. Some causes are reversible, which is why an elderly person becoming forgetful deserves assessment rather than acceptance.
Bones & Joints (7)
Slipped Disc and Sciatica
A slipped or prolapsed disc occurs when the soft cushion between two spinal bones bulges and presses on a nerve. When the nerve to the leg is affected, the pain runs from the lower back into the buttock and down the leg — this is sciatica.
Knee Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis of the knee is wear and thinning of the smooth cartilage inside the joint, so that bone rubs against bone. It is the commonest reason older adults in this district stop walking to the market, the fields or the temple.
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease in which the body's own immune system attacks the lining of joints, causing pain, swelling and, if untreated, permanent deformity. Early treatment changes the long-term outcome dramatically.
Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is thinning of the bone that makes it fragile enough to break after a minor fall or even a cough. It is silent until the first fracture, and it is particularly common in women after menopause and in older adults with poor sun exposure and low calcium intake.
Fracture
A fracture is a break in a bone, most often after a road traffic accident, a fall or a farm or workplace injury. Correct early handling — immobilise, do not massage, come straight in — has a large effect on how well the bone and the limb recover.
Frozen Shoulder
Frozen shoulder is progressive pain and stiffness of the shoulder joint caused by thickening and tightening of the capsule around it. It is markedly more common in people with diabetes, and it improves with patience and physiotherapy rather than with rest.
Gout
Gout is a form of arthritis caused by uric acid crystals settling in a joint, producing sudden intense pain most often in the big toe. Attacks settle within days but return, and repeated attacks damage the joint permanently.
Hormones & Metabolism (6)
Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is a long-term condition in which the body cannot use insulin effectively, so blood sugar stays high. It damages the eyes, kidneys, nerves, heart and blood vessels quietly over years, which is why control matters even when a person feels perfectly well.
Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes occurs when the pancreas stops producing insulin altogether, usually appearing in childhood or adolescence. It is not caused by diet or sweets, and it requires insulin from the day of diagnosis for life.
Hypothyroidism
Hypothyroidism means the thyroid gland is producing too little hormone, slowing down the body's metabolism. It is common, easily diagnosed with a single blood test, and straightforward to treat.
Hyperthyroidism
Hyperthyroidism is an overactive thyroid gland producing too much hormone, which speeds up the heart and metabolism. It is frequently mistaken for anxiety or a heart problem before the thyroid is tested.
Obesity
Obesity is an excess of body fat significant enough to affect health, and it drives diabetes, high blood pressure, fatty liver, joint disease and sleep apnoea. Central weight around the abdomen matters more than the number on the scale.
Dyslipidaemia
Dyslipidaemia is an abnormal level of cholesterol or triglycerides in the blood. It produces no symptoms, but it silently narrows the arteries supplying the heart and brain, and it is one of the few heart-attack risks that can be measured with a single blood test.
Digestive (10)
Gastritis, Acid Reflux and Peptic Ulcer
Acid-related disease covers inflammation of the stomach lining, reflux of acid into the food pipe, and ulcers in the stomach or duodenum. It is the commonest reason adults in Anantapur buy antacids without ever finding out what is actually wrong.
Gallstones
Gallstones are hardened deposits that form in the gallbladder and can block the flow of bile. Many stones cause no trouble at all, but once they cause pain, infection or jaundice they need treatment rather than observation.
Appendicitis
Appendicitis is inflammation of the appendix, a small pouch attached to the large intestine. Left untreated it can burst and spread infection through the abdomen, so it is one of the true surgical emergencies.
Hernia
A hernia is a bulge that appears when part of the intestine or fat pushes through a weak spot in the abdominal wall. Hernias never heal on their own and generally enlarge; the danger is that the contents become trapped.
Piles
Piles, or haemorrhoids, are swollen veins in the lower rectum and anal canal that bleed and prolapse. They are extremely common and very treatable, but bleeding from the back passage should never simply be assumed to be piles.
Fatty Liver
Fatty liver is the accumulation of fat within liver cells, usually found by chance on an ultrasound done for something else. It is a warning of insulin resistance, and in a proportion of people it progresses to inflammation, scarring and cirrhosis.
Hepatitis B
Hepatitis B is a viral infection of the liver spread through blood, unsafe injections, unprotected sex and from mother to baby at birth. Many people carry it for years without symptoms, and it is preventable by a safe and widely available vaccine.
Cirrhosis
Cirrhosis is permanent scarring of the liver after years of injury from alcohol, viral hepatitis or fatty liver disease. The scarring cannot be reversed, but stopping the cause and treating complications can keep a patient stable for a long time.
Pancreatitis
Pancreatitis is inflammation of the pancreas, most often caused by gallstones or by alcohol. Acute attacks can range from mild to life-threatening, and repeated attacks cause permanent damage to digestion and blood sugar control.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Irritable bowel syndrome is a disorder of gut function producing abdominal pain with altered bowel habit, without any structural damage to the intestine. It is genuinely distressing and genuinely not dangerous, and both halves of that sentence matter.
Kidney & Urinary (4)
Kidney Stones
Kidney stones are hard deposits that form in the urinary tract and cause severe pain when they obstruct the flow of urine. In Anantapur's heat, inadequate water intake through the working day makes stones a predictable summer problem.
Urinary Tract Infection
A urinary tract infection is a bacterial infection of the bladder, urethra or kidneys. Most are simple bladder infections that settle quickly, but an infection reaching the kidney can make a patient seriously unwell within hours.
Chronic Kidney Disease
Chronic kidney disease is a gradual, permanent loss of kidney function, most often caused here by diabetes and long-standing high blood pressure. It is silent until a large share of function is already gone, which is why screening the at-risk matters more than waiting for symptoms.
Benign Prostatic Enlargement
Benign prostatic enlargement is the non-cancerous growth of the prostate gland that occurs with age and obstructs the flow of urine. Many men tolerate the symptoms for years, sometimes until the bladder or kidneys are damaged.
Lungs & Breathing (5)
Asthma
Asthma is a condition in which the airways become inflamed and narrow, causing episodes of wheezing, cough and breathlessness. It is controllable in almost every patient, and the reason it so often is not controlled is that preventer inhalers are stopped as soon as the patient feels better.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
COPD is long-term, largely irreversible narrowing of the airways, caused mainly by smoking and by years of exposure to biomass smoke from indoor cooking fires. Treatment cannot restore lost lung, but it reduces breathlessness, flare-ups and hospital admissions.
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is infection of the lung tissue, causing fever, cough and breathlessness. It is usually treatable at home in healthy adults, but it can be dangerous in infants, the elderly, and people with diabetes, COPD or kidney disease.
Pulmonary Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that most often affects the lungs and spreads through the air when an untreated patient coughs. It is completely curable with a full course of treatment, and dangerous mainly when treatment is stopped halfway.
Obstructive Sleep Apnoea
Obstructive sleep apnoea is repeated collapse of the upper airway during sleep, interrupting breathing many times a night. It leaves people exhausted despite a full night in bed, and it worsens blood pressure, diabetes and heart rhythm problems.
Infections & Fever (3)
Dengue
Dengue is a viral fever spread by the day-biting Aedes mosquito, which breeds in clean stored water around the house. Most cases recover with rest and fluids, but a small proportion deteriorate suddenly around the time the fever settles.
Typhoid
Typhoid is a bacterial infection spread through contaminated food and water, producing a fever that climbs steadily over days. It responds well to the correct antibiotic, but incomplete treatment leads to relapse and to complications in the intestine.
Malaria
Malaria is a parasitic infection spread by the night-biting Anopheles mosquito, causing fever with chills and rigors. Falciparum malaria can become severe quickly, so any fever with chills deserves a blood test rather than a guess.
Cancer (4)
Breast Cancer
Breast cancer is the commonest cancer among women in India, and it is highly treatable when found early. It still presents late in this region, largely because a painless lump does not frighten people the way a painful one does.
Oral Cancer
Cancer of the mouth and tongue is strongly linked to tobacco chewing, gutka, betel quid and smoking, and it is one of the most common cancers seen in this part of Andhra Pradesh. It is visible and reachable, which means it can be caught early by simply looking.
Cervical Cancer
Cervical cancer develops in the neck of the womb, usually years after persistent infection with human papillomavirus. It is one of the few cancers that can be prevented outright, by vaccination before exposure and by screening that finds changes before they become cancer.
Colorectal Cancer
Colorectal cancer arises in the large intestine or rectum, often growing from a polyp over several years. Its early symptoms are easy to dismiss as piles or indigestion, which is why any persistent change in bowel habit deserves a proper look.
Eye, ENT & Skin (6)
Cataract
A cataract is clouding of the natural lens of the eye, causing gradual, painless dimming of vision. It is the commonest cause of reversible blindness in India, and a day-care operation restores sight in the great majority of patients.
Glaucoma
Glaucoma is damage to the optic nerve, usually associated with raised pressure inside the eye, which destroys side vision silently before it affects central vision. Sight already lost cannot be recovered, so early detection is the whole battle.
Chronic Otitis Media
Chronic otitis media is long-standing infection of the middle ear with a perforated eardrum and recurrent discharge. Families often treat it as an ordinary running ear for years, by which time hearing has been affected and, in some forms, the surrounding bone is at risk.
Allergic Rhinitis and Sinusitis
Allergic rhinitis is inflammation of the nasal lining triggered by dust, pollen, smoke or animal dander, and it frequently leads on to sinus infection. The dry, dusty air of Rayalaseema and the wind-blown soil of the summer months make it a year-round complaint here.
Fungal Skin Infection
Tinea, commonly called ringworm, is a fungal infection of the skin that spreads in heat, sweat and shared clothing. It has become markedly harder to treat in India because of the widespread use of over-the-counter steroid-antifungal combination creams.
Acne
Acne is inflammation of the skin's oil glands, producing blackheads, pimples and, in some, deep painful nodules. It is not caused by uncleanliness, and treating it early is the most reliable way to avoid permanent scarring.
Mental Health (2)
Depression
Depression is a medical illness affecting mood, sleep, appetite, energy and thinking, not a weakness of character or a lack of willpower. It is common, it is treatable, and in this region it frequently presents as body aches and tiredness rather than as sadness.
Anxiety Disorder
Anxiety disorder is persistent, excessive worry and fear that is out of proportion to the situation and interferes with daily life. Its physical symptoms — palpitations, breathlessness, chest tightness — send many patients to the cardiology clinic first.
These pages describe conditions in general terms. They cannot tell you what is wrong with you, and self-diagnosis delays treatment far more often than it speeds it up. For chest pain, stroke symptoms, breathing difficulty, serious injury, seizures or heavy bleeding, call 108 or come straight to the emergency department.
Found the condition but not the answer?
Every entry links to the department that treats it. Book a consultation and a specialist will tell you which parts of it apply to your case.