In medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

, a deficiency is a lack or shortage of a functional entity, by less than normal or necessary supply or function.

Nutrients

Malnutrition

Malnutrition

Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....

 can cause various effects by deficiency of one or more nutrients. For example, vitamin A deficiency

Vitamin A deficiency

Vitamin A deficiency is a lack of vitamin A in humans. It is common in developing countries but rarely seen in developed countries. Night blindness is one of the first signs of vitamin A deficiency. Xerophthalmia and complete blindness can also occur since Vitamin A has a major role in...

 causes symptoms such as xerophthalmia

Xerophthalmia

Xerophthalmia is a medical condition in which the eye fails to produce tears. It may be caused by a deficiency in vitamin A and is sometimes used to describe that lack, although there may be other causes....

 (dry eyes) and night blindness.

Endogenously produced proteins

Deficiencies of endogenously produced proteins such as enzyme

Enzyme

Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process, called substrates, are converted into different molecules, called products. Almost all chemical reactions in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates...

s are the underlying mechanisms of almost all genetic disorder

Genetic disorder

A genetic disorder is an illness caused by abnormalities in genes or chromosomes, especially a condition that is present from before birth. Most genetic disorders are quite rare and affect one person in every several thousands or millions....

s, for example the inborn errors of metabolism.