Vitamin Glossary "O"

• occipital bone- a bone in the lower back part of the skull between the parietal and temporal bones.

   

• oxidants- substances that cause oxidation.

   

• oxidation- a type of chemical reaction in which an electron is attracted away from the oxidized entity. Oxygen is the most familiar oxidizer.

   

• oxidized cholesterol- see oxysterol.

   

• oxygenation- to supply or combine with oxygen.

   

• oxysterol- when cholesterol combines with oxygen and becomes oxidized, is then known as oxysterol.

   

• ozone-an excited, highly oxidized form of oxygen; its formula is O3. It attacks a wide variety of organic molecules, particularly lipids, often producing free radicals in the process.