Facts on File Encyclopedia of Health and Medicine

medicinal herbs and botanicals 85 THERAPEUTIC BOTANICALS, HERBS, AND SUPPLEMENTS Name Common Uses/Benefits Risks/Side Effects BI ...

86 Alternative and Complementary Approaches Name Common Uses/Benefits Risks/Side Effects GINGER(Zingiber officinale) relieve gen ...

medicinal herbs and botanicals 87 Name Common Uses/Benefits Risks/Side Effects MILK THISTLE(Silybum marianum) protect the LIVERf ...

meditation A method of focusing the mind for HEALING VISUALIZATION, relaxation, stress relief, and contemplation. Though meditat ...

Raising the level of melatonin in the blood- stream increases drowsiness, which has led to the use of melatonin supplement as a ...

health experts recommend BREASTFEEDINGmothers do notuse milk thistle or silymarin extract. Milk thistle is available in dried pl ...

N–O Native American healing A spirituality-based approach, also called traditional North American medicine, that incorporates ce ...

how to better manage their health to prevent illness. Naturopathic Practitioners Naturopathy traces its origins to ancient HEALI ...

result in health improvements. However, the scien- tific connections between nutrition and health or disease are not entirely cl ...

P–R phytoestrogens Plant-based ESTROGENS, many of which are similar in chemical structure to the estro- gens the human body prod ...

Other health experts worry that by only par- tially blocking estrogen effect in the body, phyto- estrogens allow other chemical ...

works similar to those of ACUPUNCTURE (though acupuncture and reflexology are not related in philosophy or practice). However, t ...

S SAMe A chemical that occurs naturally in the BRAIN. SAMe, which is short for S-adenosylme- thionine, participates in the brain ...

stood, though theories abound. Most doctors feel that low doses of SAMe do no harm and thus are worth trying if they might bring ...

The primary active ingredients in soybeans are PHYTOESTROGENS, chemicals that function in the human body like weak ESTROGENS. Re ...

Alexander Sun, a biochemist and former researcher at Yale and Mount Sinai schools of medicine, selected ingredients that appear ...

T tai chi A gentle form of martial art that features slow, fluid movements (called forms) combined with MEDITATION. Tai chi form ...

energy balances are yin and yang, reflecting dual qualities of hot and cold, dark and light, male and female, and so on. TCM als ...

medications, so the person always should tell the TCM physician of any medications he or she is taking. Similarly, a person taki ...

V valerian A medicinal herb (Valeriana officinalis) that causes drowsiness and relaxation, commonly taken as a sleep aid. Until ...