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Herbal-Medical
Glossary
The herb and medical terms are listed alphabetically.
Use the links below to navigate.
IBS - Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
IgE - Immunoglobulin E is a type of antibody produced by IgE plasma cells. These are specialized B-cell lymphocytes that make free-floating antibodies for what is termed humoral resistance. IgE is peculiar for several reasons. It is not made to be specific against only one antigen like other gamma globulins, but instead can bind with a number of dangerous proteins. Further, IgE travels to mast cells, sticks to their surfaces, and when antigens get stuck to the IgE, the mast cells secrete inflammatory compounds like histamine. Since IgE is a generalist, coded for a number of potential toxins, not just a single substance, it can decide that Juniper pollen and cat dander are antigens...and you have an allergy. Elevated production of IgE is often inherited, which is why allergies run in a family-and why, once you have an allergy, the mast cells and IgE can decide that, for the duration, a whole bunch of other stuff causes hypersensitivity reactions, stuff that wouldn't normally bother you without an ongoing allergy.
ILEOCECAL - Pertaining to both the last section of the small intestine (the ileum) and the beginning of the large intestines, the ascending colon or cecum. EXAMPLE: Ileocecal valve
ILEUM - The lower two-thirds of the small intestine, ending in the ileocecal valve and emptying into the cecum of the colon. The last foot of the ileum is the only absorption site available for such important dietary substances as vitamin Bl2, folic acid, some essential fatty acids, fat soluble vitamins, and recycled bile acids.
IMMUNITY - The ability to resist infection and to heal. The process may involve acquired immunity, (the ability to learn and remember a specific infectious agent), or innate immunity (the genetically programmed system of responses that attack, digest, remove, and initiate inflammation and tissue healing).
IMMUNOSTIMULANT - An agent that stimulates either innate or acquired immunity. In the U.S., immunotherapy is relegated to experimental medicine, but a number of plant substances are used in Europe as immunostimulants. The presumption of immunostimulation is that you increase native resistance and let it run its course. American Standard Practice, with all good intentions, tends to aggressive procedures, and feels empowered only when intervening against, not with, physiologic responses. Medicine is the only approach to many problems, but in the U.S. we all tend to forget that our brand of standard practice is uniquely aggressive and invasive amongst the industrialized nations. There are other ways...which is presumably why you have this glossary in the first place.
IMMUNOSUPPRESSANT - An agent that acts to suppress the body's natural immune response. This is totally understandable in tissue and organ transplants, and in some dangerous inflammatory conditions, but nearly all anti-inflammatory medications are immunosuppressant, including cortisone, antihistamines, and even aspirin. Some medical radicals are convinced that the chronic viral and fungal disorders of our age are partially facilitated by such medications.
INCONTINENCE - The inability to retain urine in the bladder for a reasonable length of time. It is can be caused by urethral irritation, loss of tone to the basement muscle of the bladder (the trigone), scarification or growths on the urethral lining, nerve damage, or emotional stress.
INDOLENT - A sluggish and unresolving condition, often with ulcerations and necrosis.
INFLUENZA - A specific type of acute viral respiratory infection, with one virus (many strains) and a short, nasty stay. A few thousand people die from it every year, but humans alive at present have almost universal partial resistance. It was not so during WWI, when it first began to spread. It was variously called Spanish Influenza, La Grippe, and Influenza (Italian for Influence)...everyone blamed some other country for it. The Turks and Armenians took a break from mutual mutilation and blamed it on each other, since it killed as many people as the 1,000,000 fatalities THAT bit of genocide fostered. It ran across the world like some Bergmanesque horseman, and killed at least 20 million people before it petered out around 1925. The villages of Northern New Mexico, filled with grim and genetically toughened Spanish settlers, survivors of terrible weather, 300 years of isolation, the Inquisition, and Anglo carpetbaggers, suffered fatalities that reached 40% in some places. The flu is new.
INGUINAL NODES - The lymph nodes on both sides of the groin and next to the genitalia
INSULIN-DEPENDENT DIABETES - Also called Juvenile-onset Diabetes, IDDM (Insulin-Dependent Diabetes) and Type I, it is a deficiency condition wherein the pancreas does not manufacture enough insulin or what it makes is formed improperly. It is usually inherited, although it may not surface until pregnancy, recovering from a life-threatening illness, boot camp or some other profound metabolic stress. It can have a not-hereditary source, since it may enigmatically follow after a viral disorder, or can occur spontaneously as an auto-immune condition. The percentage of folks with non-hereditary Type I diabetes is constantly increasing (or the other group is stable, but total numbers are increasing). Radical environmentalists and tree-hugging Gaiaists Pagans (I'm using the dialectic current to the pro-business backlash of the 1990s, when Green is out, and White-With-Green is in) claim this is another aspect of massive though subtle pollution from organochemical soup, which even some Real Doctors admit can cause increased auto-immune disease. (SOMETHING is causing it, at any rate, not simply cola drinks.)
INSULIN-RESISTANT DIABETES - Also called NIDDM (Non-Insulin-Dependent Diabetes) and Type II (Type II), it generally means you make your own insulin, you eat too many calories, your storage cells are filled and are taking no more fuel, your liver is stuck in a rut and keeps making more glucose out of everything you eat, your brain has no control over its consumption of glucose, but you have run out of places to put it so you pee it out, sweat it out, etc. etc. Also called Adult-onset Diabetes. An Internist may cry out in dismay at this simplification, and there are many subtle distinctions between the various types, as well as a number of distinct hereditary considerations. This, however, is the glossary of an herb program, and this is the common picture of the Type II person that herbs will help.
INTERSTITIAL FLUID - The hydrogel that surrounds cells in soft tissues. It is a mucopolysaccaride starch gel, and the serum that leaves the blood capillaries flows through this gel, some to return to the exiting venous blood, some to enter the lymph system. There is an old medical axiom: the blood feeds the lymph, and the lymph feeds the cells. Interstitial fluid that flows through the starch colloid is this lymph.
INTRINSIC - Arising from the nature of a thing...native or inherent. Intrinsic asthma, as an example, arises from congestive inflammation, neurohormonal and auto-allergic conditions of the lung and bronchial membranes themselves, not from EXTRINSIC causes, like Juniper pollen or a bee sting.
INTRINSIC FACTOR - One of two proteins secreted from the lining of the stomach whose sole purpose is (it seems) to cradle B12 in a pre-fitted styrofoam mold and (A) carry it through the Seven Levels of Digestive Hell until it reaches those few absorption sites in the last foot of small intestine that understand its "Special Needs" (sounds either sexually kinky or the airplane dinner label on kosher food for flying Hassidim jewelers) and finally (B) slip it from one protein to the other, and thence into the cell membranes where its handed over to (C) the specialized blood protein that can carry it safely to the final target tissues (3 times out of 4, the bone marrow). Apparently cyanocobalamin (B12) has parts that fall off, radicals that twirl around in five directions on three charge potentials, and is as durable as a 49 cent water pistol. And, if we have an ulcer, chronic enteritis or long-standing steatorrhea, we either get B12 shots (and hope the liver still makes that blood carrier) or walk vaguely around with pernicious anemia and a hematocrit of 16.
IRITIS, RHEUMATOID - An autoimmune (rheumatoid factor) inflammation of the iris. This is a face of rheumatoid arthritis seldom diagnosed, along with rheumatoid otitis. Although anti-inflammatory drugs may be necessary, I would recommend starting off with simple things like Arctium , Rumex crispus and Taraxacum, along with alkalizing teas such as Nettles, Red Clover and Alfalfa (oops...I mean Urtica, Trifolium and Medicago). If they don't help enough you can STILL take the drugs.
IRITIS, VIRAL - A viral infection of the iris. It appears red, swollen, and pupil contraction and relaxation is erratic and pulled. The usual cause is a herpes infection, often resident in the trigeminal nerve, and reoccurring during times of stress or sympathetic to a larger viral condition.
IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME (IBS) - This is a common and generally benign condition of the colon, taking different forms but usually characterized by alternating constipation and diarrhea. There is often some pain accompanying the diarrhea phase. The bowel equivalent of asthma, its main cause is stress, often accompanied by a history of GI infections. Adrenalin stress slows the colon and causes constipation, followed by a cholinergic rebound overstimulation of the colon. It is also called spastic colon, colon syndrome, mucous colitis, even chronic colitis. True colitis is a potentially or actually serious pathology.
ISOTONIC - Having the same salinity as body fluids. You can make a quart of water isotonic by adding a slightly rounded measuring teaspoon of table salt to a quart of water.
JAUNDICE - The presence of bilirubin deposits in the skin, whites of the eyes and mucosa. Bilirubin, the unrecyclable waste products of hemoglobin, are normally excreted in the bile, get carried down the intestinal tract and color our feces its usual comfortable brown. If the bile ducts are blocked, or blood breaks down too quickly, or the liver itself is diseased (it performs much of the recycling), then the yellow/orange/brown bilirubin has nowhere to go but out the urine (making it the standard hepatitis color) and into the skin. Jaundice ain't bad...its the causes that one should worry about.
KLEBSIELLA - A bacteria genus of the Enterobacteriaceae. K. pneumoniae is implicated in much pneumonia, particularly when it is a secondary infection following a simple chest cold.
LACHRYMITIS -(also Lacrimitis) Inflamed lacrimal or tear ducts.
LACTEALS - Specialized lymph formations found in the small intestine mucosa. Together with enzymatic activities in the submucosa, they collect digested fats into stable transport bubbles called chylomicrons, and draw them up into the lymph system. There they are gradually leeched into the blood as the lymph passes upwards through the body, the remainder discharged into the venous blood with the lymph...12-24 hours later. Time-Released fat capsules. Fats lower the blood charge and make it sticky, which can interfere with vascular capabilities; the sideways bypassing of the blood in this manner spreads the fats out over long periods. The rest of the digested constituents can happily flow up to the liver through the portal system, unsludged, and the liver itself has little lipid stress to face. If fats are poorly digested in the upper intestinal tract, the floating bubbles are larger, broken down too slowly to be well absorbed into the lymph system, and the portal blood...and liver...get sludged. Ever wonder why a bunch of lousy pizza can give you hemorrhoids the next day? Sludgy portal blood and backed-up venous drainage from the legs is why.
LACTOBACILLUS - A genus of gram-positive, acid-resistant bacteria in the Lactobacillaceae family. We know of lactobacillus because of its use in making yogurt and the conventional wisdom of taking it in one form or another after antibiotic therapy, but it is an integral part of the colon and mouth flora, and is the critical acidifying agent in vaginal flora. There is a growing body of rather ignored data showing the value of regular consumption of a lactobacillus-containing food in immunosuppression, slow virus, and candidiasis conditions.
LANCEOLATE - A leaf that is lance-shaped.
LARYNGITIS - Inflammation of the larynx, usually implying hoarseness or aphonia.
LATERAL - At or on the side, usually from a stem.
LDL - Low Density Lipids. The levels are usually indicative of liver function and metabolic tendencies, and the relative proportions of LDL, VLDL and HDL show relationships between caloric intake, anabolic energy, skeletal muscle metabolism and adipose tissue health. They are not innately wrong, anymore than is cholesterol; all are ABSOLUTELY necessary for health. It's all a matter of proportion, and the relationship between consumption and tissue needs.
LEAFLET - A small leaf that is part of a compound leaf.
LEUKOCYTES - White blood cells, of whatever race or creed.
LEUKOCYTOSIS - Having abnormally high numbers of white blood cells, usually the result of a non-viral infection.
LEUKOPENIA - Having abnormally low numbers of white blood cells.
LIMBIC SYSTEM A functional, not physical, system in the brain, generally considered to mediate emotions with metabolism.
LIMBIC/HYPOTHALAMUS - Broadly the accumulative process of emotional and metabolic evaluation, as carried on by the various parts of the brain that are part of the ad hoc "evaluations" committee (the limbic system) and those changes in metabolism that, based on the evaluations, are acted out in the whole body by the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus, the main part of the system with tools, acts through a blood translator, the pituitary gland.
LINIMENT - A liquid containing therapeutic agents for topical application. It may be an alcohol, oil, or water preparation.
LIPID - A descriptive term, rather than chemical one, for fats. Broadly, it means true fats (like triglycerides), lipoids (like phospholipids) and sterols (like cholesterol).
LIPOTROPIC FACTORS - Various compounds and processes that enable the liver to metabolize fats properly or prevent the formation of cholesterolic stones in the gall bladder by supporting the continued emulsification of gall bladder bile. EXAMPLES: Lecithin, choline, Aristolochia
LITHIASIS - Having stones, usually in reference to the kidneys and urinary tract, sometimes to the gall bladder apparatus. Technically this can also refer to salivary gland calculi and impacted precipitants in the seminal vesicles or prostate.
LOCHIA -The uterine discharge following birth, changing from reddish the first few days, to yellowish or clear after a couple of weeks. Many traditional skills of a midwife or partera center around evaluating the qualities and progress of lochia.
LUMBAR REGION - The lower back, five segments of the spinal chord and column, between the sacrum and thoracic regions.
LUTEINIZING HORMONE (LH) - This is a sugar-bearing protein manufactured by the anterior pituitary. Like a lot of the pituitary hormones, it surges on and off, since constant secretion would overload and deaden receptors. In women, it builds up after menses, stimulating the release of estrogen from the ovaries. Estrogen in turn stimulates the hypothalamus to increase its stimulation of LH from the pituitary, until, a day or two before ovulation, they produce a guitar-amp feedback, and the cells that produce LH start to surge follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). The egg pops, being replaced by the corpus luteum, which produces progesterone for the next eleven to twelve days. Progesterone inhibits and lowers LH levels, as well as inhibiting levels of estrogen already being produced by the young follicles that will produce next month's egg. In men, LH is responsible for stimulation of testosterone, although FSH and the testes hormone inhibin are responsible for both the production of sperm and controlling testosterone.
LUTEINIZING-HORMONE RELEASING HORMONE (LH-RH) - The same substance as Follicle-Stimulating-Hormone Releasing Hormone (FSH-RH), both of which are actually Gonadotrophin-Releasing Hormone (GnRH or GRH). Confused? Imagine being an endocrinologist 20 years ago. These (This) are (is) a peptide secreted into the little portal system that drains from the hypothalamus to the pituitary. If it is surged hourly and not too strongly, the pituitary secretes LH and the ovaries secrete estrogen. If it is surged hourly and strongly, the estrogens rise drastically, the pituitary secretes FSH, you pop an egg, start the corpus luteum and begin progesterone secretion. The surge is now slowed to every four or five hours, not too strongly, and the pituitary secretes LH every four or five hours...and the ovaries make progesterone. The same hypothalamic hormone triggers different pituitary responses based on AMPLITUDE and FREQUENCY.
LYMPH - Pertaining to the lymph system or lymph tissue, the "back alley" of blood circulation. Lymph is the alkaline, clear intercellular fluid that drains from the blood capillaries, where the arterial blood separates into thick, gooey venous blood and lymph. It bathes the cells, drains up into the lymph capillaries, through the lymph nodes for cleaning and checking against antibody templates, up through the body, and back to recombine with the venous blood in the upper chest. Blood in the veins is thick, mainly because part of its fluid is missing, traveling through the tissues as lymph. Lymph nodes in the small intestine absorb most of the dietary fats as well-organized chylomicrons. Lymph nodes and tissue in the spleen, thymus, and tonsils also organize lymphocytes and maintain the software memory of previously encountered antigens and their antibody defense response. Blood feeds the lymph, lymph feeds the cells, lymph cleanses the cells and returns to the blood.
LYMPH NODES - The central drainage and metabolic organs strung along the lymph vessels. The mesenchymal structure is native, being present at birth. The functional cells have all migrated there, some recently from the marrow, spleen, thymus or blood, others have resided since a few months after birth. Much of the antibody memory is stored in these nodes, and having only venous blood supply, lymph nodes are constantly shunting metabolized substances back into the blood, so the final lymph drainage from the thoracic duct into the left subclavian vein (or the right subclavian) contains fluid already screened and cleansed by many nodes.
LYMPHADENITIS - Inflammation or swelling of one or more lymph nodes. It may be an acute response or chronic, but signals the drainage into those nodes of microbes, their waste products, or the immuno-complexes produced upstream, whether from infection or allergy. A few infections can target or inhabit lymph nodes such as typhoid and EBV. Some people, with a past history of infection in a specific tissue (such as chronic sore throat as a kid) will have developed a LARGER sized node, hard and permanently palpable. These are hypertrophic or "shotty" nodes, and of no more importance than pumped-up muscles or old scar tissue.
LYMPHANGITIS - Inflammation of one or more lymph nodes and/or lymph vessels, usually part of an acute infectious condition.
LYMPHATIC - Pertaining to the lymph system...sometimes more broadly to include immunity.
LYMPHOMA - A neoplasia of the lymph tissue, such as Hodgkin's Disease. Although it is frequently useful to stimulate immunity when a person is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, since the resultant immunosuppression is a major side effect of the treatment, in lymphatic cancer this the POINT of the therapy...let it be.
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