Health dictionary - N

Health dictionary

Nasogastric tube

A tube that is passed up your nose, and down your throat to your stomach. It’s used for draining off what’s in your stomach, or for feeding if you can’t swallow.


Feeling sick, or wanting to puke, isn't very nice. Nausea is the word that doctors sometimes use to say this.


A nebulizer is a bit like an inhaler, but you wear a facemask. The machine blows some medicine into the facemask so you can breathe it in.


The medical way of referring to a baby who is under one month old.


The study of kidneys and diseases that affect them. The doctor who specialises in nephrology is called a nephrologist.

Nervous system

This is just another way of describing your brain and spinal cord and the nerves connected to it.. It works like a modem, sending signals around your body. It tells your brain when you touch something. If something's hot or cold, a signal zooms from your fingers up to your brain.


This is a special type of doctor who will help you if you're having problems with your nervous system.


The study of the brain and nervous system.


Any operation on the brain or nervous system. The doctor who does the operation is called a neurosurgeon.

Nuclear medicine

This is a type of scan that uses radioactive dye that will show up on images. The amount of radioactivity in the dye is tiny – much less than you’d get from a normal x-ray.


This is an eye condition where your eyes move about, usually from side to side. You can’t control this movement, it’s just something that happens.