Explaining hypercholesterolemia from the perspective of Persian Medicine

The risk of heart attack is increased three folds in hypercholesterolemia compared with normal blood lipids. On the one hand, decreasing cholesterol by 1%, declines the risks associated with coronary arteries by 2.3%. On the other hand, Anti-hyperlipidemic compounds alone cannot be used as an efficient therapy. However, numerous studies have shown that concurrent use of a healthy diet plan, physical activity (lifestyle), and herbal medicines to control hyperlipidemia can have positive effects in controlling hyperlipidemia. Thus, the first and most essential step to control and improve hypercholesterolemia is to modify lifestyle and observe the principles of health maintenance. Therefore, we decided to explain hypercholesterolemia through the Persian medicine standpoint in order to help prevent and treat hyperlipidemia and its complications.To obtain relevant information, the words hypercholesterolemia, Dohn Ad-dam, hepatic indigestion, visceral fat, fat, phlegm, and Dosoumat were searched in Persian medical sources and databases with several Persian and English keywords. Subsequently, data was categorized into definition, causes, symptoms and prognosis topics. Finally, the concepts of the study were extracted and reported. The results showed that hyperlipidemia and hypercholesterolemia are caused by an imbalance in humors and  accumulation of the humors in the spleen (Emtela) with consequent dysfunction of the spleen and liver. In most cases, the imbalance of humors is directly related to the lack of lifestyle management. Therefore, adhering to principles of health maintenance, can prevent many diseases, such as heart disease as one of the complications of hypercholesterolemia, and also help the process of treatment.