Location = Home > Medical and Healthy Living Glossary - B

Medical and Healthy Living Glossary - B

This page of our online glossary of medical and healthy living is for medical and healthy living terms beginning with the letter 'B'.

• Bacteremia - A blood disease caused when bacteria enters the bloodstream.

• Bacteria - Simple micro-organisms, varying in shape, consisting of a single cell and measuring only a few thousandths of a millimetre across. They flourish everywhere, in air, food, water, soil and inside other living things, including humans. They are not necessarily harmful - the 'friendly' bacteria naturally present in the human gut can help to fight off infections. However, other types cause a wide range of diseases, from cholera and various types of pneumonia to some forms of food-poisoning and tuberculosis. A few bacteria produce toxins or poisons.
• Beta Carotene - The yellow-orange pigment that gives foods such as carrots, cantaloupe melons, apricots and mangoes their bright colour. It is one of the antioxidants that can contribute to long-term good health and provide protection against some of the effects of ageing and disease. Beta carotene may also be turned into vitamin A by the body as and when it is required.
• Bioaccumulation - The process by which a pesticide or other contaminant concentrates in higher amounts as it makes its way up the food chain.
• Bioavailable - If the body can easily extract the nutrients from a food, they are said to he bioavailable. For example, iron is more bioavailable from meat than from vegetables.
• Bioflavonoids - Chemicals found in fruits such as lemons, plums, grapefruit, cherries, blackberries and blackcurrants, as well as in buckwheat. Bioflavonoids usually have strong antioxidant properties and are thought to help prevent certain forms of cancer. In the body they work with vitamin C to strengthen the capillaries or small blood vessels.
• Blastocyst - A ball of cells containing a fluid-filled cavity formed from a fertilized egg.
• Bolus - A lump of swallowed food.
• Bronchiole - A small airway in the lung.
• BSE - Bovine spongiform encephalopathy. A fatal neurological disease of cows. Also known as "mad cow disease".
• B Vitamins - The vitamins that make up what is called the B-complex are not chemically related to each other, although they occur in many of the same foods, such as milk, cereals and offal. They are often presented together in vitamin supplements. Most perform closely connected tasks within the body, particularly in helping to release energy from food. B vitamins can be known by either numbers or names, or sometimes both. They include B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), pantothenic acid, B6 (pyridoxine), niacin, biotin, folate (or folic acid) and B12 (cyanocobalamin).