Do Sign and Symptom Mean Same Thing or different?

Question of today, is, do sign and symptom mean same thing or different? But, before discussing that, do you know that sign and symptom are language of diseased state of human body through which disease express it? That is, sign and symptom are language of diseased state of body through which disease express itself.

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Now, coming back to question, do sign and symptom mean same thing or something different? What is difference between term “sign and symptom”? 

Now, what do term “sign” mean? Sign is any observational fact of altered condition of human body from normal health through which disease express itself, which can be observed, means, can be seen, felt, heard or can be measured and noticed by doctor, through various laboratory tests and attendants of patient or sometimes by patient himself. 

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One example of sign is, change in blood pressure in hypertension which can be measured with the help of BP monitor. 

• Second example of sign is any swelling.
• Third example is damage done to body. These are few of the examples of those observational facts which can be seen and noticed by doctor, attendants and by patient himself.

Now, what does term symptom mean?

Term symptom means any change from normal state of body to diseased state of body, through which disease express itself, but this change can be felt and noticed by patient himself or herself only. It is only patient who can recognize, feel and notice these changes. They cannot be recognized, felt, seen or noticed by neither the doctor, nor the attendants of patient and not even discoverable on any laboratory tests. It can only be felt by patient himself.

One example of symptom is, ache in any part of body like, ache in eyes, abdominal ache which can be felt by patient only, which no other person can measure with help of any instrument, no instrument can recognize or measure how much ache a suffering patient is feeling in any part of body. Only patient can feel it and only he accurately told it to doctor, his or her attendants and scale it in terms of mild, average or severe level of ache. 

• One more example of symptom is various emotions which patient feels in different situations.

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So, now you get that, sign and symptom does not mean same thing, they both mean different thing. 

• Signs are observational fact or changes in normal state of body to diseased state which can be observed by anyone. 
• But symptoms are not observational fact or changes, they cannot be observed by anyone and cannot be detected by even any laboratory tests, they can only be felt by patient himself. It is only patient who can recognize them, describe them and feel them.

Further Know- On Basis of Which Symptoms Homoeopathic Medicines should be prescribed?