lake What is the difference between a alteration and a disorder?

An alteration is a change in the order of things that can be normal but just different. Case in point is Dextrocardia (heart turned to the right instead of the left) and an appendix on the right instead of the left. Both are abnormal but everything still works the same. A disorder is a malfunction in how something works. It can be a disease, a bad valve in the heart or a kidney that doesn't work like it should. Hope this helps. This is about as simple as I can make it. 7 years of med school left me one long drawn out answer but I have found that non-medical people get more out of simple answers. Good luck and Great question.there