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Ripple Creek, your online vitamin shoppe, provides for your information this glossary of important and useful healthy body terms along with the U.S. Recommended Daily Allowances. Anti-Oxidant: A chemical compound or substance that inhibits oxidation, i.e., anti-oxidants fight free radicals. An antioxidant is a substance, such as vitamin E, vitamin C, or beta carotene, that protects body cells from the damaging effects of oxidation. Ayurvedic Health System: A system of healing that originated in ancient India. In Sanskrit, ayur means life or living, and veda means knowledge, so Ayurveda has been defined as the "knowledge of living" or the "science of longevity." Ayurvedic heath systems utilize diet, detoxification and purification techniques, herbal and mineral remedies, yoga, breathing exercises, meditation, and massage therapy as holistic healing methods. Ayurvedic medicine is widely practiced in modern India and has been steadily gaining followers in the West. Chelation: The process of using chelating agents, i.e., special chemical compounds, to bind or inactivate molecules, such as poisonous heavy metals, and "chelate", or remove, them from the body. Chelation is an important aspect of natural detoxification of the body. Oral chelators like EDTA, Niacin, B-Vitamins, Folic Acid, Cilantro Extract, Ginkgo Biloba Extract, Rhodiola Rosea Extract, Alpha Lipoic Acid, Malic Acid, Vitamin C, Chlorella, Garlic and other herbs can improve your health and are good for prevention of disease. Detoxification: Detoxification is one of the more widely used treatments and concepts in alternative medicine. It is based on the principle that illnesses can be caused by the accumulation of harmful toxic substances (toxins) in the body. Eliminating existing toxins and avoiding new toxins are essential parts of the body’s healing process. Detoxification treatment has become one of the cornerstones of alternative medicine. Conventional medicine notes that environmental factors can play a significant role in many illnesses. Conditions such as Autism, ADHD, Alzheimer’s Disease, asthma, cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple chemical sensitivity, and many others are strongly influenced by exposure to toxic or allergenic substances in the environment. The United States Centers for Disease Control estimate that over 80% of all illnesses have environmental and lifestyle causes. Detoxification has also become a prominent treatment as people have become more aware of environmental pollution. It is estimated that one in every four Americans suffers from some level of heavy metal poisoning. Heavy metals, such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and arsenic, are by-products of industry. Synthetic agriculture chemicals, many of which are known to cause health problems, are also found in food, air, and water. These toxins have become nearly unavoidable. Pesticides such as DDT, a cancer-causing insecticide that has been banned for decades, is still regularly found in the fatty tissue of animals, birds and fish, even in extremely remote regions of the world, such as the North Pole. Detoxification treatments become necessary when the body's natural detoxification systems become overwhelmed. This can be caused by long-term effects of improper diet, stress, overeating, sedentary lifestyles, illness, and poor health habits in general. Many believe that the use of mercury (ethylmercury) as a preservative in vaccines is a significant source of harmful toxins, which can build up to harmful levels very quickly after injection. When a build up of toxic substances in the body creates illness, it's called toxemia. Detoxification utilizes a variety of techniques to eliminate toxemia. Detoxification therapies try to activate and assist the body's own detoxification processes. They also try to eliminate additional exposure to toxins and strengthen the body and immune system so that toxic imbalances won't occur in the future. Nutritional supplements such as our unique PURACLEAR® Body Cleansing Formula, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, amino acids, chelating agents, and essential fatty acids prove highly beneficial. Lipotropic agents are certain vitamins and nutrients that promote the flow of bile and fat from the liver. Many herbal supplements are used in detoxification therapies as well. Milk thistle extract, called silymarin, is one of the more potent herbs for detoxifying the liver. Naturopathy, Ayurvedic medicine and traditional Chinese medicine all recommend numerous herbal formulas for detoxification and immune system strengthening. Ethylmercury: Ethylmercury (sometimes ethyl mercury) is a cation composed of an ethyl group and a mercury atom; its chemical formula is C2H5Hg+. The term “ethylmercury?is sometimes used as a generic term to describe organomercury compounds which include ethylmercury such as ethylmercury chloride and ethylmercury urea. Ethylmercury is one of the metabolites of Thimerosal (see below), which is used as a preservative in vaccines. For this application, the ethylmercury salt sodium ethylmercuric thiosalicylate is used. Thimerosal (C9H9HgNaO2S) is made from the combination of ethyl mercuric chloride, thiosalicylic acid, sodium hydroxide and ethanol. Free Radicals: Free radicals are oxygen atoms that are unstable and highly reactive because they contain at least one unpaired electron. Free radicals can seriously damage our cells and impair our body’s ability to fight against illness. The three known free radicals are hydroxyl, superoxide and peroxide. If they are not neutralized into "good oxygen," free radicals can speed up the aging process and play a major part in the development of degenerative and/or chronic diseases, e.g., the progression of cancer, cardiovascular disease and age-related diseases. Heavy Metals: Heavy metals are metals with a specific gravity greater than about 5.0, especially metals that are poisonous, such as mercury and lead. Other heavy metals include cadmium, chromium, arsenic and manganese. Because they cannot be degraded or destroyed, heavy metals are persistent in all parts of the environment. Heavy metals are by-products of industry. Human activity affects the natural geological and biological redistribution of heavy metals through pollution of the air, water, and soil. Heavy metal's toxicity allows it to bioaccumulate in plants and animals, bioconcentrate in the food chain, and attack specific organs of the body if not safely removed. Heavy metals are associated with myriad adverse health effects and diseases, including allergic reactions(e.g., beryllium, chromium), neurotoxicity (e.g., lead), nephrotoxicity (e.g., mercuric chloride, cadmium chloride), cancer (e.g., arsenic, hexavalent chromium), and many believe autism (i.e., mercury in vaccines). Humans are often exposed to heavy metals in various ways—mainly through the inhalation of metals in the workplace or polluted neighborhoods, through the ingestion of food (particularly seafood) that contains high levels of heavy metals or paint chips that contain lead, and from taking vaccines that contain ethylmercury as a preservative. I.U.'s: International Units is a term for measuremnt of vitamins that are fat soluble (do not mix with water and need fat for proper absorption). Vitamins A, E, D and K are usually measured in I.U.'s. MCG: A microgram is a metric measurement that is 1/1000 part of on milligram. MG: A milligram is a metric measurement that is 1/1000 part of a gram. Naturopathy: A system of healthy lifestyle that relies on using natural methods, such as sunlight supplemented with diet and dietary supplements, to improve body health. Naturopathy is founded on the premise that people are naturally healthy, and that healing can occur through removing obstacles to improved health and by stimulating the body's natural healing abilities. R.D.A.: The Recommended Daily Dietary Allowance was started in the 1940's to safeguard the public's health. The R.D.A.'s set at the time were estimates of the nutritional needs of adults and children. These estiited States were developed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be used as the legal standards for labeling foods in regards to nutritional content.
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