BackgroundIn Iranian Traditional Medicine, mizaj (temperament) plays a key role in preventive, therapeutic and lifestyle recommendations. A reliable self-reported scale for mizaj identification is critically needed to introduce ITM into the official medical and health care system especially in the case of designing national preventive protocols.ObjectivesThe present study aimed to design a preliminary self-administered mizaj questionnaire and assessed its reliability and validity in Iran.Patients and MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, a questionnaire with 52 items was designed based on mizaj-related indices. Subsequent to content and face validity assessment, using qualitative and quantitative method, 47 items remained. Based on the non-randomly sampling, the test-retest reliability of each question and internal consistency of the questionnaire was examined by the participation of 35 volunteers. The reliable version questionnaire was filled up by 52 volunteers wherein they were divided into warm/cold and wet/dry groups based on their mizaj which was predetermined by a team of expert practitioners. Logistic regression analysis was performed for validity process between the experts’ assessment of mizaj and each of the items in the questionnaire that resulted to the final ten-item questionnaire divided into two subscales. By using ANOVA and post Hoc with Dunnet statistics, the optimum cut-off points were defined and their sensitivity and specificity was assessed.ResultsThe weighted kappa coefficients of the 39 items were between 0.40 and 0.82 showing their acceptable reliability and the Cronbach’s α coefficient was 0.71 showing the internal consistency. The sensitivity and specificity of the final questionnaire cut-off points were 65% and 93% for the warm group, 52% and 97% cold group, 53% and 67% dry group and finally 53% and 76% wet group.ConclusionsOur results suggested that many of the designed questions according to the literature’s mizaj identification indices had satisfactory reliability and the final ten-item questionnaire could discriminate the different groups of mizaj, therefore, this can be used as the first version of a brief self-report mizaj estimating scale.
Background:Nowadays, hypertension is considered as a global public health issue and in recent decades, it has shown a growing trend due to changes in lifestyle.Objectives:The purpose of this investigation was to compare symptoms of hypertension with known diseases in ancient medical texts and to find a disease that had the maximum overlap of symptoms with hypertension.Materials and Methods:In this qualitative study, reliable sources of traditional medicine such as The Canon of Medicine by Avicenna, The Complete Art of Medicine (Kitab Kamil as-Sina’aat-Tibbiyya) by Haly Abbas, Facilitating Treatment and a letter for Health preservation (Tahsil Al-Elaj and Resale Hafez Al-Sehha) by Mohammad Taghi Shirazi, and some reliable resources of conventional medicine such as Harrison’s principles of internal medicine and databases such as Pubmed, Scopus, SID, and Magiran were probed base on keywords to find a disease that had the most overlapping symptoms with hypertension. By taking notes from the relevant materials, the extracted texts were compared and analyzed.Results:Findings showed that hypertension has the most overlap with Imila (accumulation of normal or abnormal fluid in the body) symptoms in Iranian traditional medicine. Although this is not a quietly perfect overlap and there are other causes and reasons including dry dystemperament of vessel wall (atherosclerosis), hot dystemperament of heart or damages to other organs like liver, kidney and nervous system that could also lead to hypertension according to Iranian traditional medicine.Conclusions:Finding the equivalent disease to HTN based on Iranian traditional medicine, could suggest a better strategy for preventing, treating and reducing debilitating its complications in the future. In conclusion, we can approach to hypertension with recommendations for reducing Imtila when we are dealing with a kind of hypertension that corresponds to Imtila. Therefore, if patient is suffering from another type of hypertension like dry dystemperament of vessel wall, it surely requires another treatment approach for reducing vessel wall dryness.
ContextThe feeling of abdominal fullness, bloating, and movement of gas in the abdomen is a very uncomfortable sensation termed flatulence. Since flatulence is one of the most common gastrointestinal symptoms that is bothersome to patients, it is important to identify effective methods to resolve this issue. In modern medicine, management of flatulence is often not satisfactory. On the other hand, traditional systems of medicine can be considered good potential sources to find new approaches for preventing and treating flatulence. The aim of this study is to review flatulence treatments from a traditional Persian medicine (TPM) viewpoint.Evidence AcquisitionIn this study, the reasons for flatulence and methods for its prevention and treatment are reviewed in traditional Persian medicine (TPM) texts and then related with evidence from modern medicine by searching in databases, including PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, and IranMedex.ResultsFrom a traditional Persian scholar viewpoint, one of the most important causes of flatulence is an incorrect manner of eating; valuable advice to correct bad eating habits will be illustrated. In addition, traditional practitioners describe some herbs and vegetables as well as herbal compounds that are effective food additives to relieve flatulence. The anti-flatulent effect of most of these herbs has been experimentally verified using modern medicine.ConclusionsAttention to TPM can lead to the identification of new preventive and curative approaches to avoid and treat flatulence. In addition, Persian viewpoints from the medieval era regarding flatulence are historically important.
Cardiovascular diseases are major health complications currently in various societies. Management of heart diseases as a prevention step or as treatment with low-cost procedures like lifestyle modifications including nutrition are important current trends. Although the term nutrition dates back to 2 past centuries, Persian physicians contributed to this term at least from 1000 years ago. Rhazes (865-925 AD) was one of the pioneers in this field. He preferred using foods in treating illnesses. "Foods and drinks" were 1 subject from 6 principles (Setteh Zarorieh) that Persian physicians believed can affect human health. In this review, we described some medieval Persian views on the role of nutrition in heart diseases and compare their prescriptions with current findings. Interestingly, current investigations mostly support Persian medicine principles. Historically, this work shows that the concept of nutrition in heart diseases has had a successful background at least from 1000 years ago in Persia.
Dizziness and vertigo are the most common complaints of patients that has a high economic burden on the health system. In modern medicine, treatment for dizziness and vertigo consists of chemical pharmacological therapy. Although these drugs are useful in controlling the disease, their side effects and inefficiency in full control of the disease require the use of complementary medicine in this field. Persian medicine consists of valuable experiences of Persian medicine scholars based on the theory of humors and temperaments. In Persian medicine, 2 types of disease are presented: dizziness (sadar) and vertigo (dovar). Persian medicine physicians expressed a different mechanism of action than modern medicine for these diseases. They believed that accumulation of abnormal humors, reeh (normal bloating) or causative pathologic substances, is the basic cause of sadar and dovar and that the most important treatment is cleansing the body, particularly the head from accumulated substances by bloodletting methods.
Background:Nutritional deficiency, bleeding, and inflammation are three main causes of anemia. On the other hand, erythropoietin (EPO) production, iron availability, and a healthy bone marrow are essential for erythropoiesis. Recently, recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) has been used to treat the patients already taking iron supplements. In Iranian traditional medicine literature, much has been written about anemia and its treatment.Objectives:This study aimed to review Iranian traditional medicine theories in the treatment of anemia.Materials and Methods:In the present study, authors have attempted to find the etiology and pathogenesis of anemia in Iranian traditional Medicine Literature and the views of ancient physicians in this field.Results:Our findings proved that Iranian traditional medicine defined anemia as blood humor production dysfunction, which is caused by several reasons mainly hepatic dysfunction. Thus, liver is supposed to be the most important organ in this regard. This will make considering hepatoprotective medicines in anemia even in patients with non-hepatic problems.Conclusions:The article presents the relation between anemia and liver dysfunction viewed by Iranian traditional medicine as an important finding in designing a treatment plan. Despite the new findings on the evaluation of liver function (i.e. laboratory tests), it seems that further studies for earlier evaluation of liver function in anemia are highly required.
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