Polydipsia Polydipsia Polydipsia is excessive thirst or excess drinking. The word derives from the Greek () "very thirsty", which is derived from (, "much, many") + (, "thirst"). Polydipsia is a nonspecific symptom in various medical disorders. It also occurs as an abnormal behaviour in some non-human animals, such as in birds. This symptom is characteristically found in diabetics, often as one of the initial symptoms, and in those who fail to take their anti-diabetic medications or whose condition is poorly controlled. It can also be caused by a change in the osmolality of the extracellular fluids of the body, hypokalemia,
Traditional African medicine is one healer for every 200 people in the Southern Africa region which is a much greater doctor-to-patient ratio than is found in North America. Ratios of doctors (practicing modern medicine) and traditional medical practitioners to patients in east and southern Africa: "*TMP refers to Traditional Medical Practitioner "Note: References with an asterisk are in Cunningham, 1993. This table showing the ratio of traditional medical practitioner to patient and Western practitioner to patient shows that in many parts of Africa, practitioners trained in modern medicine are few and far between. Because of this, healers prove to be a large and