Stroke from the Perspective of Persian Medicine

Stroke is the chief cause of death following cancer and myocardial infarction across the globe. The purpose of the present study is to describe and explain stroke in the context of Persian Medicine. In this descriptive study, reliable sources of traditional medicine including Almae by Abdolah Ibn Mohammad al-Azodi, Bahr al-Javaher by Mohammad Ibn Yousof Heravi, Ferdows al- Hekmat by Ali Ibn Rebn Tabari, the Complete Art of Medicine (Kitab Kamil as-Sina’aat-Tibbiyya) by Ali Ibn Abbas Majousi Ahvazi, Hedayat al-Mota’aalemin by Ali Ibn Ahmad Arzani, the Canon of Medicine by Avicenna, Zakhire Kharazmshahi by Syyed Ismaeel Jorjani, Tebe Akbari by Ali Akbar Arzani, Mo’aalejat-e Aghili and Kholasat al-Hekmat by Aghili Khorasani and Exir-e Aezam by Mohammad Aezam Kham Cheshti, along with some modern resources, namely Harrison’s principles of internal medicine, Guyton and Hall textbook of medical physiology, Aminoff’s Clinical Neurology and scientific articles on the topics of stroke, torpidness, hemiplegy, facial palsy and epilepsy were investigated. Moreover, databases such as SID, Google scholar, PubMed and Scopus were used to explore keywords such as stroke, Iranian medicine, traditional medicine, thrombosis and herbal medicine during 1900 and 2018. The collected data was qualitatively analyzed by using inductive content analysis. From the perspective of Persian Medicine, stroke occurs following a blockage of sensory and motor pathways and channels in the brain. Contraction as well as accumulation induce stroke. The cause of stroke involves a complete blockage of sensual soul in Persian Medicine while it is caused by hypo perfusion in conventional medicine. A blockage is the cause of stroke from the view of
Persian Medicine, which does not mean physical obstruction, but may imply slow or static movement.