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Herbal-Medical
Glossary
The herb and medical terms are listed alphabetically.
Use the links below to navigate.
BASAL METABOLISM - The basic rate of combustion by a person, usually measured after sleep and while resting.
BALSAMIC - Soft or hard plant or tree resins composed of aromatic acids and oils. These are typically used as stimulating dressings and aromatic expectorants and diuretics. This term is also applied loosely to many plants that may not exude resins but which have a soothing, pitchy scent. Examples: Balsam Poplar, Eriodicyon.
BASAL - At or near the base, and, if leaves, those that sprout directly from the root or crown.
BELLS PALSY - An inflammatory condition of the facial, nerve, with paralysis, distortion and diminished tears.
BENIGN PROSTATIC HYPERTROPHY, or HYPERPLASIA (BPH) - The benign buildup in the prostate of "warts" or epithelial neoplasias that can block or interrupt urination, and which are usually concurrent with moderate prostate enlargement. They cause a dull ache on urination, ejaculation, and/or defecation. The diagnosis is medical, since the same subjective conditions can result from cancer of the prostate. BPH is common in men over fifty and can be the result either of diminished production of complete testosterone or poor pelvic circulation. Alcohol, coffee, speed, and antihistamines can all aggravate the problem.
BETA BLOCKERS - Drugs used to slow the response to epinephrine only (as released hormonally by the adrenal medulla), usually to attempt controlling high blood pressure.
BILIARY COLIC - See CHOLECYSTITIS, CHOLECYSTALGIA, etc.
BILIOUSNESS - A symptom-picture resulting from a short-term disordered liver, with constipation, frontal headache, spots in front of the eyes, poor appetite, and nausea or vomiting. The usual causes are heavy alcohol consumption, poor ventilation when working with solvents, heavy bingeing with fatty foods, or moderate consumption of rancid fats. The term is genially archaic in medicine; people who are bilious are seldom genial, however.
BILIRUBIN - A waste product of hemoglobin recycling, it is primarily excreted in feces, oxidizing into that familiar brown color (except for beets).
BILIRUBINEMIA - The presence of abnormally high bilirubin in the blood, usually signifying hepatitis, with jaundice due next week.
BIODIVERSE - The state of life interdependency that is possible when large and small plants, soil organisms, insects, and fuzzy beasts exist in the ebb and flow created by the natural environment. Cut down the trees once and you lessen the biodiversity drastically. Wait fifty years and cut again and you have a small fraction of the life-form variety that you started with; the old diversity will never return...never.
BIOMASS - The actual amount of existing material within a species or genus.
BIOSPHERE - Literally, the part of the earth that supports life; more broadly, a large community of life-forms sharing a similar environment, such as a rain forest or prairie grassland.
BIPINNATE - A pinnate compound leaf whose leaflets, in turn, are stems that have pinnate leaflets.
BITERNATE - A compound leaf divided in threes, whose leaflets are in turn divided in pairs.
BITTER TONIC - A bitter-tasting substance or formula used to increase a deficient appetite, improve the acidity of stomach secretions and protein digestion, and slightly speed up the orderly emptying of the stomach. A good bitter tonic should possess little, if any, drug effect, only acting on oral and stomach functions and secretions. Dry mouth, bad gums, teeth problems with bad breath in the morning, and weak digestion, often with constipation, are the main deficiency symptoms. A bitter tonic has little effect in normal digestion. Example: Gentiana
BORBORYGMUS - The bubbling, gurgling passage of gas across the transverse colon...NOT a small North African rodent.
BPH - Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy, or Hyperplasia.
BRACTS - Reduced or modified leaflets that are usually parts of flowers or an inflorescence, generally subtending or beneath the floral parts.
BRADYCARDIA - A distinctly slow heartbeat, which may be a normal idiosyncrasy or with causes ranging from regular strenuous exercise to abnormally slow heart stimulus to the side-effects of medication. Bradycardia is usually defined as a pulse below sixty beats a minute, or seventy in children.
BRADYKININ - A plasma polypeptide that tends to lower blood pressure and increase capillary permeability.
BRAIN FEVER - Cerebral hyperemia. See POE, EDGAR ALLEN
BRICK DUST - The presence of reddish brown sediment in the urine, indicating uric acid, hippuric acid and creatinine excess in the blood...an anabolic greaseball who needs more liquids and alkali and who has over-acidic urine. It can be symptomatic of more serious problems as well.
BROMIDES - A binary salt of bromine, formerly used as a simple sedative. Given so freely and with no intent of affecting a healing, it became synonymous with a useless treatment only meant to shut up the patient. Excessive bromide use can cause some pronounced neurologic disturbances... they disappear with cessation of the drug.
BRONCHITIS - Inflammation of the mucus membranes on the bronchi, usually caused by an infection, sometimes by allergies or chemical irritations.
BRONCHORRHEA - Excess mucus secretions by the bronchi; a runny nose of the lungs.
BUFFERING SYSTEM - The several blood factors that enable the acid waste products of metabolism to be carried in the alkaline blood without disrupting its chemistry. These include carbolic acid, carbonates, phosphates, electrolytes, blood proteins, and erythrocyte membranes.
BURSITIS - Inflammation of a bursa, the lubricating sac that reduces friction between tendons and ligaments or tendons and bones. The more common localities for bursitis are the shoulders, the elbows, the knees, and the big toe (a bunion).
CALYX - The outer set of sterile, floral leaves; the green, clasping base of a flower.
CANDIDIASIS - Generally, a disorder caused by Candida (Monilia) albicans. This is a common yeast-like fungus found in the mouth, vagina, and rectum, as well as on the outside skin. It is a common cause of thrush in infants and vaginal yeast infections. In recent years much attention has been given to the increased numbers of people with candidiasis in the upper and lower intestinal tract. This condition is now known to occur as a result of extended antibiotic therapy and anti-inflammatory treatment. Most anti-inflammatory drugs are really immunosuppressants, and the normal, stable competition between fungus and bacteria is altered by the antibiotic use; this rather benign and common skin and mucosal fungus can then move deeply into the body. Although both therapies are of major importance in managing disease, they are often prescribed or requested trivially, and both are centerpieces to the increased reliance on procedural medicine (surgery). The drug industry is paralyzed by the cost of marketing new drugs, whereas surgical procedures need far easier peer and FDA acceptance. Procedural medicine normally needs antibiotic AND anti-inflammatory therapy.
CAPlLLARY - The smallest blood or lymph vessel, formed of single layers of interconnected endothelial cells, sometimes with loosely attached connective tissue basement cells for added support. Capillaries allow the transport across their membranes and between their crevices of diffusible nutrients and waste products. Blood capillaries expand and contract, depending upon how much blood is needed in a given tissue and how much is piped into them by the small feeder arteries upstream. They further maintain a strong repelling charge that keeps blood proteins and red blood cells pushed into the center of the flow. Lymph capillaries have many open crypts, allowing free absorption of interstitial fluid that has been forced out of the blood; these capillaries further tend to maintain a charge that attracts bits of cellular garbage too large to return through the membranes of exiting venous capillaries.
CARBOS - Carbohydrates, like starch or sugar.
CARDIOGLYCOSIDES - Sugar-containing plant substances that, in proper doses. act as heart stimulants. Examples; digitoxin, strophanthin.
CARDIOTONIC - A substance that strengthens or regulates heart metabolism without overt stimulation or depression. It may increase coronary blood supply, normalize coronary enervation, relax peripheral arteries (thereby decreasing back-pressure on the valves), or decrease adrenergic stimulation. Examples: magnesium, Crataegus, Selenicereus.
CARDIOPATHIES - Heart diseases, usually needing medical intervention.
CARPEL - A simple pistil or one of the modified leaflets forming a compound pistil.
CATABOLIC - The part of metabolism that deals with destruction or simplification of more complex compounds. Catabolism mostly results in the release of energy. Examples: the release of glucose by the liver, the combustion of glucose by cells.
CATARRH - Inflamed mucous membranes, an older term that usually implied excess secretions, particularly with congestion.
CAULINE - Belonging to the stem, as in cauline leaves emerging from the stem.
CELIAC - Pertaining to the abdomen.
CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM - A collective term for the brain, spinal cord, their nerves, and the sensory end organs. More broadly, this can even include the neurotransmitting hormones instigated by the CNS that control the chemical nervous system, the endocrine glands.
CERUMINOSIS - Too much beeswax. See: BEESWAX, NONE OF YOUR
CERVICAL VENOSITIES - Enlarged varicose veins on the cervix of the uterus, often accompanying ulcerations or long-term pelvic congestion. A symptom only of congestion or impaired circulation, they can occur in both semi-trivial and serious conditions.
CERVICO-OCCIPITAL HEADACHE - A headache of the neck and side of the head...a tension headache.
CHOLANGITIS - Inflammation of only bile ducts. This word and the next three describe conditions that may be, subjectively, all the same.
CHOLECYSTALGIA - Cramps or tenesmus of the gall bladder or bile ducts.
CHOLECYSTITIS -Inflammation of the gall bladder and ducts, sometimes from the presence of passing stones, sometimes following fasting or anorexia, sometimes because of a spreading intestinal tract infection....sometimes just because you eat three avocado sandwiches before going to bed.
CHOLELITHIASIS - Having gall stones.
CHOLESTEROL - A fatty substance produced predominantly by the liver, and necessary for building cell membranes, insulating the CNS, covering fats for blood transport, forming bile acids, oiling the skin and making steroid hormones. Blood cholesterols are not derived from food (digestion breaks them down) but are intentionally synthesized by the liver, in response to seeming need. Elevated cholesterols are the result of certain types of stress or metabolic imbalances, and the liver makes more than the tissues need. Although not a direct cause, high consumption of fats and proteins will convince the liver to kick into a fat/protein or anabolic stance...THEN it may oversecrete cholesterols, perhaps thinking you are putting food away for the winter.
CHOLINERGIC - Pertaining to functions primarily controlled by the parasympathetic nervous system. See PARASYMPATHETIC.
CHOREA - A neuromuscular condition, with twitching and spastic muscle control.
CHOREA, SYDENHAM'S - A disease or syndrome of children, usually following or companion to rheumatic fever, and having involuntary movements, anxiety and impaired memory. It usually clears up in two or three months.
CHRONIC - A disease or imbalance of long, slow duration, showing little overall change and characterized by periods of remission interspersed with acute episodes. The opposite of acute.
CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME (CFS )- is a recently designated semi-disease, often attributed to EBV (the Epstein-Barr virus) or CMV (Cytomegalovirus) infections, characterized by FUOs (Fevers of Unknown Origin) and resulting in the patient> suffering FLS (Feels Like Shit). In most of us, the microorganisms involved in CFS usually provoke nothing more than a head cold; in some individuals, however, they induce a long, grinding, and debilitating disorder, characterized by exhaustion, depression, periodic fevers...a crazy-quilt of symptoms that frustrates both the sufferer and the sometimes skeptical physician. MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivities) are another syndrome that is often lumped with CFS, and they may often be two faces of the same condition. I am not using all these acronyms to mock the conditions, but in irony. There is too much ASS(Acronym Safety Syndrome) in medicine, reducing complex and frustrating conditions to insider's techno-babble, somehow therein trivializing otherwise complex, painful and crazy-making problems. The widest use of acronyms (AIDS, HIV, CFS, MCS, MS etc.) seems to be for diseases hardest to treat, least responsive to procedural medicine, and most depressing to discuss with patients or survivors.
CHYLOMICRONS - These are organized blobs of fats, synthesized in the submucosa of the small intestine out of dietary fats, phospholipids, specialized proteins and cholesterol, carried out of the intestinal tract by the lymph, and slowly released into the bloodstream. In the capillaries, the triglycerides inside the chylomicrons, recognized by their protein markers, are absorbed into the tissues for fuel or storage, and the outside cholesterol and phospholipid transport-cover continues through the blood to be absorbed by the liver for its use. This sideways approach takes (ideally) a large part of dietary fats into the lymph back alleys, spreading their release into the bloodstream out over many hours, thereby avoiding short-term blood fat and liver fat overload. To synthesize the maximum amount of dietary fats into chylomicrons, you need well-organized emulsification and digestion of lipids by the gallbladder and pancreas.
CIRRHOSIS, LAENNECS - The most common type of cirrhosis, caused by chronic alcoholism and a lousy diet (or malabsorption).
CIRCUMBOREAL - Plants that are found worldwide, encircling the lands around the north pole.
CISTERNA CHYLI - A sac in the back of the pelvic region that drains the lymph from the intestinal tract, pelvis and legs, and acts as the beginning of the thoracic duct. See LACTEALS, THORACIC DUCT.
CLONIC - Smooth muscle spasms or colic that alternate rhythmically with a rest state...like birthing contraction or waves of nausea.
CMV - (Cytomegalovirus) This subtle, worldwide microorganism is a member of the herpes virus group. It is large for a virus, contains DNA, and has a complex protein capsid. It forms latent, lifelong infections, and, except for occasional serious infections in infants and malnourished youngsters, seldom produced a disease state. With increased use of immunosuppression therapies for conditions ranging from arthritis to cancer to organ transplants, the incidence of adults with major infections of CMV increases yearly.
CNS - Central nervous system.
COLIC - Cramping or spasms of a smooth muscle tube, such as the uterus (menstrual cramps) the ureters (passing kidney stones) or the stomach (stomachache). Also called tenesmus.
COLIFORM BACTERIA - Intestinal bacilli that are gram-negative, sugar-digesting,> and both aerobic and anaerobic. They are usually from the family Enterobacteriaceae; Escherichia coli is the best known of the group.
COLITIS - Colon inflammation, usually involving the mucus membranes. Mucus colitis is a type with cramps, periods of constipation, and copious discharge of mucus with feces. Ulcerative colitis has pain, inflammation, ulceration, fever, and bleeding, all interspersed at various times - a long and serious illness.
COLLAGEN - The fibrous insoluble structural protein that forms almost a third of our total body protein and holds everything together. Too much collagen is what makes a steak tough.
COLLOID - Gooey substances, usually proteins and starches, whose molecules can hold large amounts of a solvent (usually water) without dissolving. In lifeforms, virtually all fluids are held suspended in protein or starch colloids (hydrogels). Examples: cell protoplasm, lime Jell-O.
COLOSTRUM - The first breast milk after birth, containing minerals and white blood cells. This is followed gradually by true milk.
COMPLEMENT - A large body of blood proteins (over 20), initiated in the liver, and intimately involved in nearly all aspects of immunity and nonspecific resistance. They form two types of self-mediated cascade reactions to antigens, antibody-antigen complexes, dead tissue and the like, and are almost solely able to initiate the rupture and killing of bacteria. The protein strings they form around foreign substances are the main "hooks" used for absorption by macrophages as they digest and clean up.
CONGESTION - Thick and boggy tissues, usually resulting from excess inflammation, or irritation that is unremitting. It is characterized by the accumulation of an excess volume of fluid, with impairment of venous and lymphatic drainage, and the buildup of unremoved cellular waste products.
COMPOUND - Leaves that are made up of leaflets, such as pinnate and palmate leaves.
CONJUNCTIVA - The mucus membrane which covers the underside of the eyelids and the front surfaces of the eyeball.
CONJUCTIVITIS - An inflammation of the conjunctiva, either from environmental irritation, allergies, viral or bacterial infections.
CONSTITUTIONAL - Deriving from basic hereditary strengths and weaknesses, and including early environmental factors.
CONTUSIONS - A bruise, characterized by a trauma in which the skin is not broken but underlying blood vessels are busted, causing a deep or lateral hematoma, with disorganized blood and interstitial fluid buildup. See EXUDATE.
CORDILLERA - The mountain ridge that spans North America, from Mexico through the Rocky Mountains into Alaska.
CORM - The fleshy, bulblike, solid base of a stem, often rising out of a tuber or bulb.
CORPUS LUTEUM - A temporary endocrine gland formed at ovulation from part of the former egg follicle, and the source of progesterone. See PROGESTERONE, ESTROGEN, MENOPAUSE.
CORTICOSTEROIDS - Natural steroid hormones or synthetic analogues, usually taken for suppressing inflammation (and immunity) and therefore having cortisone-like functions, or taken as analogues to adrenocortical androgen...or even testosterone, in order to impress the other gym members, make varsity by your junior year or to join the WWF and get newbie-mangled for two years by The Hangman or even the Hulkster Himself. Then, if your gonads don't fall off and your back holds up you get promoted to Good Guy, have your chance to Take A Name and finally wear your chosen costume...a spandex violet nurse's uniform.
COUGH, HECTIC - The dry and unproductive coughing in early bronchitis, when the mucosa is irritated but still too infected to secrete mucus.
COUGH, PAROXYSMAL - Attacks of uncontrollable coughing or "whooping", often relating to whooping cough or bronchiectasis, but they can also be caused by the smoke from burning plastics and (memories of yesteryear) hash oil.
COUGH, REFLEX - A cough induced by intestinal, gastric or uterine irritation, and not from respiratory causes.
COUNTERIRRITANT - A substance applied to the skin to produce an irritating, heating, or vasodilating effect, in order to speed local healing by increasing circulation of blood, radiating the heat inward to inflamed tissues deep below the skin. It can also be used to induce reflex stimulation to seemingly unrelated internal organs. (see DERMATOMES)
CREATININE - It is the waste product of creatine, an enzyme found in large amounts throughout the tissues, and mainly excreted in the urine. The parent compound creatine enables the body to use the "blue flame" of anaerobic combustion (as opposed to the yellow flame of oxidation). Elevated creatinine in the blood may be an early symptom of kidney disease.
CRENELATED - (or CRENATE) Leaves having rounded, scalloped teeth along the edges.
CROHN'S DISEASE - Also called regional enteritis or regional ileitis, this is a nonspecific inflammatory disease of the upper and lower intestine that forms granulated lesions. It is usually a chronic condition, with acute episodes of diarrhea, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, and loss of weight. It may affect the stomach or colon, but the most common sites are the duodenum and the lowest part of the small intestine, the lower ileum. The standard treatment is, initially, anti-inflammatory drugs, with surgical resectioning often necessary. The disease is autoimmune, and sufferers share the same tissue type (HLA-B27) as those who acquire ankylosing spondylitis.
CRUDE DRUG - A dried, unprocessed plant, and referring to one that was or is an official drug plant or the source of a refined drug substance. A CRUDE BOTANICAL, on the other hand, is one of our herbs that has no official standing. Examples: Digitalis leaves (crude drug), White Sage (crude botanical).
CYSTITIS - An inflammation, often infectious, of the urinary bladder. It usually arises from a distal infection of the urethra or prostate.
CYSTORRHEA - Mucus in the urine, usually following infection or from chronic congestion of the bladder mucosa.
CYTOKINE - Also lymphokine, a broad term for a variety of proteins and neuropeptides that lymphocytes and macrophages use to communicate between themselves, often from long distances. They stimulate organization and antibody responses, seem to induce the bone marrow to proliferate the type of white blood cells needed for immediate resistance, and generate sophistication and fine tuning for an overall strategy of resistance. A lymphocyte FAX.
CYTOPROTECTANT - A substance or reaction that acts against chemical or biological damage to cell membranes. The most common cytoprotectant actions are on the skin and the liver (hepatoprotectant), although there has been recent research involving lymphocyte T-cell cytoprotectants.
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