Deficiency (medicine)

Deficiency in medicine means your body doesn’t have enough of something it needs to work properly. It's like the way you don't have enough candy left in your bag to share with your friends. Your body needs many important things like vitamins, minerals, and other things from the food you eat or from vitamins you take.

When you don’t get enough of these things, your body can have problems. For example, if you don't get enough vitamin C, you might get a disease called scurvy, which can cause bleeding gums and make it hard to move around. If you don’t get enough iron, you might get anemia, which means your body doesn’t have enough red blood cells to carry oxygen around.

Doctors can sometimes diagnose deficiencies by doing tests, like taking a blood sample, and then they might prescribe medicine, like vitamins or other supplements, to help you get more of what your body needs. It's like a friend giving you a few candies to help you feel better, just like when a doctor prescribes a medication to treat a deficiency.

It's important to eat a healthy diet and take the medicine prescribed by your doctor to avoid deficiencies and stay healthy.