Role of Anthropometric Dimensions of Human Body in Identifying Temperament in Traditional Persian Medicine

From the viewpoint of Traditional Persian Medicine (TPM), temperament of each person influences his physical and physiological properties such as body dimensions. The aim of this study is to review the reasons behind the diversity of human anthropometric measurements and their status in identifying temperament of people.
In this descriptive study, we searched online databases such as Sid.ir, PubMed, Scopus, Magiran.com and Google Scholar for Persian key words such as "Anthropometry", "ergonomics" and "temperament" and their English equivalent. Authentic TPM books such as "The Canon of Medicine" by Avicenna, "Complete Book of the Medical Art" by al-Majusi, "al-Mansouri fi al-Tibb" (The book on medicine dedicated to al-Mansur) by Zakariya al-Razi, " Kholasat ol Hikma" (summary of wisdom) by Aghili Khorasani, “Zakhireh kharazmshahi”(The treasure of Kharazm Shah) by Ismail Jurjani and "Bahr al-jawahir" (sea jewels) were also studied.
FINDINGS: Results of the study demonstrated that there is a direct relationship between weight gain, BMI and dimensions of soft tissue which are primarily signs of obesity and fat gain and cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Since increase in the aforementioned indices can be a sign of coldness and wetness of temperament, one can argue that people with cold and wet temperament are more susceptible to such diseases. In references of TPM, temperament is mentioned as an agent that changes body dimensions and among the indices that identify temperament, "shape of organs" and "physique" is related to anatomic dimensions of body and obesity and thinness condition, receptively. Magnitude of chest and other organs is a sign of hotness; thinness is a sign of dryness; dominance of muscle tissue is a sign of hotness and wetness and dominance of adipose tissue is a sign of coldness and wetness of temperament.
According to the results of the present study, variety of anthropometric dimensions is related to genetic loci. Proving the hypothesis of relationship between anthropometric dimensions and temperament and relationship between temperament and genetic polymorphism in TPM requires more research. If the mentioned relationship is confirmed, the process of accessing standard tools for identifying temperament will be facilitated.