Glossary
F
Feldenkrais:
Feldenkrais is a method of improving the body’s ability to function, learn, and change by increasing awareness of movement, posture, and breathing.
Build-up of fibrous tissue in an abnormal place in the body.
Fibrosis:
First-degree relatives:
First-degree relatives include a person’s mother, father, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters who are related by blood and not through adoption or marriage.
Flexion:
The act of bending (as opposed to extending) a joint.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA):
The FDA is a federal agency charged with ensuring that the food supply in the United States is safe and wholesome, that cosmetics are not harmful, and that medicines, medical devices, and radiation-emitting consumer products are safe and effective.
Free radicals:
Unstable molecular fragments that can damage cells. One hypothesis holds that free radical formation in the substantia nigra causes the loss of nigral cells (leading to Parkinson’s disease).
Frequency:
number of cycles or repetitions within a fixed unit of time such as the number of cycles per second (Hertz or Hz). For example, essential tremor is typically 4 to 12 Hz.
Friedreich’s ataxia:
: Friedreich’s ataxia is the most common autosomal recessively inherited type of ataxia. Like the autosomal dominant spinocerebellar ataxias, the main symptoms are loss of coordination and unsteadiness of gait. Other systems may also be affected and people with Friedreich’s ataxia should be monitored for heart disease and diabetes. The affected protein is called frataxin, and is thought to be involved in iron metabolism.
Froment’s sign:
Increased resistance to passive movements of a limb that may be detected upon voluntary activity of another body part.
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI):
A noninvasive, diagnostic scanning procedure that produces detailed, computerized images. The use of a “contrast agent” or dye enhances the detail of the images. Sequencing of these images may help physicians visualize the body’s functioning, thus aiding differential diagnosis.