Each week, Verywell explains a term from health, medicine, science, or technology.
Systemic
How to say it:Systemic(siss-TEM-ick)
What it means: Throughout the entire body.
Where it comes from: Greek,systema, “to bring together” or “to combine”
Yevhen Lahunov/Getty
Where you might see or hear it: Some diseases only affect one part or system of your body. Others involve more than one part and can even be felt throughout your whole body.
For example, if you haverheumatoid arthritis(RA) you might think the condition only affects your joints. However, your provider might explain that RA is actually considereda systemic diseasebecause it affects your whole body.
When you might want to use it: Sometimes, aninfectionthat starts in one part of the body can move to other parts or even become a whole-body problem. If this happens, it can make you very sick and can even be life-threatening.
You could explain to your loved ones that you had an infection that is “on the move” from where it started and is now affecting your whole body—and your health—in a much more serious way.
What Is a Systemic Infection?
SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Merriam-Webster.Definition of system.[with etymology]Merriam-Webster.Definition of systemic.
Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Merriam-Webster.Definition of system.[with etymology]Merriam-Webster.Definition of systemic.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Merriam-Webster.Definition of system.[with etymology]Merriam-Webster.Definition of systemic.
Merriam-Webster.Definition of system.[with etymology]
Merriam-Webster.Definition of systemic.
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