Nutrition and Complementary Health Terms
Food, nutrients, supplements, herbs, and complementary health practices. Browse definitions and meanings below.
What separates complementary from alternative?
The two words are used interchangeably in conversation and do not mean the same thing. A complementary approach is used alongside conventional medical treatment. An alternative approach is used instead of it. The distinction matters because the risks involved are not comparable.
Nutrition vocabulary has its own traps. Macronutrients supply energy and micronutrients do not, though both are essential. A dietary supplement is regulated differently from a medicine in most countries, which is why the evidence behind a supplement claim is often thinner than its packaging suggests.
Terms in this topic
Alphabetical order-
A form of carnitine that reaches the brain, sold as a supplement and studied mostly for nerve damage and memory.
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The acupuncture map without the needles, applied by thumb or elastic wristband, and studied most seriously as a way of settling sickness.
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The traditional explanation and the modern one differ sharply, yet both describe the same act of placing needles at fixed points.
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A specific spot on the body where an acupuncture needle may be inserted to control pain and other symptoms.
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A supplement form of carnitine tested against chemotherapy nerve damage, where the largest trial found the nerve injury worse rather than better.
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A nutrient that that body needs in small amounts to function and stay healthy.
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A nutrient in the vitamin B complex that the body needs in small amounts to function and stay healthy.
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The root of any of a group of herbs called Angelica.
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Two things happening at once, a hands-on massage and diluted plant oils, which makes it unusually hard to say which part does anything.
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Biotin is a B vitamin that supports enzymes involved in energy metabolism, and high supplemental doses are recognized to interfere with certain laboratory blood tests.
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A plant whose leaves, stems, and flowers have been used in some cultures to treat certain medical problems.
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Plant origin says nothing about strength or safety, since many potent drugs began as plant extracts and some plants are outright poisonous.
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A roadside weed eaten as a vegetable in East Asia, sold as a blood cleanser, and the plant that inspired hook-and-loop fastening.
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On nutrition labels, the Calorie is actually a kilocalorie, one thousand times the small calorie used as the strict scientific unit of energy.
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The label groups acupuncture with herbal remedies and meditation, practices sharing nothing except their position outside conventional care.
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A plant whose leaves, stems, and flowers have been used in some cultures to treat certain medical problems.
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A fragrant oil sold for aromatherapy and for repelling insects, distilled from several unrelated trees, most of which are not cedars.
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The root of this plant has been used in some cultures to treat certain medical problems.
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Choline is an essential nutrient the body uses to build cell membranes and the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, and to move fat out of the liver.
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The only vitamin that contains a metal, and the only one the liver can stockpile for years at a time.