Term
| What constitutes the majority of herbal research studies? |
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Definition
| The majority of herbal research occurs when an active ingredient is found in an herbal and then isolated to be used in the study exluding the entirety of the plant. They do this in hopes of standardizing the herbs medicinal qualities based on that active component. |
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Term
| Medicinal plants can have up to ... different elements. |
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Definition
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Term
| How do energetics and constitutions affect how herbs work. Explain each, and how these might affect a clinical trial? |
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Definition
| Each indvidual is born with a specific constitution, some people generally run a hot body temperature while others may run a colder body temperature. Likewise, herbs can be classified as hot through cold. In clinical trials they do not factor this into their studies but use both hot and cold people in their studies. For example, a hot herb like cinnamon may not work so well for a person with a heat condition in their body while it may work wonders with someone that has a cold constitution. |
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Term
| List three different types of solvents used when making herbal medicines. how might using one solvent over another affect a research study? |
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Definition
| Alcohol, glycerin, vinegar, water are some solvents. It is important to a study that a good solvent is used when making the herbal remedy as the type of solvent can affect its medicinal properties molecularly/& chemically. For example, vinegar pulls minerals, while alchol is a strong solvent to pull all alcohol soluble parts from the plant. |
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Term
| What does an abstract tell us about a study? |
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Definition
| An abstract explains the methodologies used, it summarizes the data, concludes the study's findings, and describes the intent of the study |
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Term
| How does the placebo effect differ from the nocebo response? how do these affect clinical trials? |
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Definition
| a placebo effect is when a subject has a positive attitude that a therapy will work and then the therapy works even though the therapy was an inert substance, while nocebo is when someone has a negative belief that something won't work and as a result it doesn't. |
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Term
| What is standardization? is this a beneficial process or no? Explain. |
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Definition
| Standardization is a process that determines a potency amount for an isolated compound active ingrdient found in an herb that will be necessary for health benefit, then that is extract from the plant and concentrated and then added back into a base of the original whole plant. The process of isolating anything and concentrating out of its whole form is potentially dangerous and not as beneficial because in isolation it may be lacking other properties that buffer or are also medicinal. While the idea of standardization sounds appealing because people want to know how potent and individual herb is it may cause more harm than good. |
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Term
| Why is it important to know who funded a study? |
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Definition
| It is important to know who funded a study in order to understand the possible biases that may be involved financially. |
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Term
| What are there types of bias found in research? Can you give a brief explaination of each example? |
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Definition
1. Detection bias - when a better technology for diagnosing a disease allows for earlier detection making it appear as if someone's health was exstended when in reality it was not, only diagnosed sooner.
2. compliance bias - when one set of instructions is more difficult to follow than the other causing it be more difficult for test subjects to comply.
3. recall bias -- when questions are asked for test subjects to recall information; these sort of methods are biased or inaccurate because not everyone has equal levels of memory recall abilities. |
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Term
| In evaluating a study involving an herb, why is it necessary to know which parts of the plant were used and in what form it was administered? |
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Definition
| When evaluating a study it is important to know which parts of the plant are sued because different parts may be poisonous or have different medicinal qualities than other parts. Also, the form it is administered in is important because that also effects the medicinal qualities and the extraction of these qualities is dependent on the correct types of solvents, some solvents may be toxic. |
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Term
| When choosing an herb for any given conditions, the most important consideration is... |
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Definition
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Term
| In vivo translates to ... and in vitro translates to ... |
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Definition
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Term
| T/F: Bias in research is common |
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Definition
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Term
| If a study is peer reviewed and published, it must be flawless. |
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Definition
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Term
| Herbs not studied in clinical trials are not effective. |
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Definition
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Term
| There are no conflicts of interest between industry and the FDA. |
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Definition
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Term
| Side effects of prescribed drugs should always be considered. |
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Definition
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Term
| Research results from in vivo animal studies translate well to humans. |
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Definition
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Term
| There is value in traditional knowledge of herb medicines. |
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Definition
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Term
| There are many scientific studies validating herbal remedies. |
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Definition
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Term
| Many different herbs can be beneficial for every known condition. |
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Definition
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Term
| An herb helpful for migraines is useful for all people who have migraines. |
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Definition
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Term
| According to Dr. Mercola, the entire framework for medical research is flawed. |
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Definition
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Term
| Some 85 percent of current conventional medical therapies have never been proven. |
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Definition
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Term
| List two common causes of anxiety: |
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Definition
- blood stuar imbalances
- hormone imbalances |
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Term
| List two herbs that might be helpful in alleviating anxiety. |
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Definition
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Term
| List two common causes of cysts or fibroids: |
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Definition
-hormone imbalances
-liver toxicity |
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Term
| List two herbs that might help with healing cysts or fibroids: |
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Definition
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Term
| What do we need to know first before beginning a cleasing protocol? |
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Definition
| whether a person is strong enough or if they need to do some nutrient building first |
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Term
| Two reason one might choose the master cleanser protocol: |
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Definition
cleanse the kidneys
rest the digestive system |
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Term
| Two ingrediens found in the 7 day bio energy cleansing diet: |
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Definition
- chlorophyll
- psyllium hulls |
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Term
| Do you think we need scientific research on botanicals? Why or why not? |
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Definition
| While, I think good studies that are fair in the way they are constructed, being low in biases are rare, especially in herbal research; I do think it is important to continue researching and studying herbs in a wholistic way with knowledgeable herbalists conducting the studies and not people who don't have good knowledge of the herbs and their energetics. |
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