مجله طب سنتی اسلام و ایران
سال دوم شماره 3 (پیاپی 7، پاییز 1390)

Diagnosis and treatment of diseases relies on the understanding of abnormality in temperaments and the equable human and drug temperaments. Temperament is a quality produced by interaction of opposite qualities present in very tiny elements. In rational classification, temperaments are divided into true equable and inequable ones. In the true equable temperament, the amounts of opposite qualities are the same. However, such temperament does not exist. Contrary to the true equable temperament, the inequable temperament is inclined towards one or two qualities of hotness, coldness, dryness, or wetness. In medicine, human equatability is compared with the inequable temperaments from eight aspects and with respect to genus, species, individual, and organ. Human inequable temperaments are also categorized into eight types, all of which are opposite to the equable temperaments. Other types of human temperaments include with and without matter temperaments, temperaments of organs, temperaments of different ages, obesity and thinness temperaments, temperament according to sex, and habit temperament.Temperaments of drugs are also grouped into two main categories of equable and inequable. Other drug temperaments are combined temperament, primary temperament, secondary temperament, robust or stable secondary temperament, and weak or unstable secondary temperament. In this paper, we have described the human and drug temperaments to provide a novel scientific approach to the disease and treatment entities. We hope that carrying out research in this field result in providing appropriate therapeutic approaches with respect to the patient and drug temperaments; and subsequently achieving more desirable effects of various drugs in different people.

Considering the modern lifestyle (including the diets, lack of physical activity, overweight, so on), joint diseases are among the common disorders. In classical medicine, treatment of joint disease mainly includes "maintenance therapy." The current study addresses joint disorders from the viewpoint of Traditional Iranian Medicine to provide different approaches for prevention and treatment of these disorders.In the study, diagnostic and therapeutic methods of joint disorders in different centuries were collected. In Traditional Iranian Medicine, joint disorders are called "Oja-e Mafasel", and classified into two main categories of simple and material ones, each of which have several subcategories. Depending on the type of the disorder, specific prevention and treatment strategies are presented.

Evidence-based medicine has achieved increasing importance in scientific societies. In this regard, Traditional Iranian medicine (TIM), which has recently attracted the Iranian academic society, should employ valid scientific evidence to confirm its efficacy and effectiveness. Therefore, the current study clarifies the concept of knowledge-based practice in TIM from the experts’ viewpoint. This qualitative study was conducted by individual face-to-face deep interviews to obtain the opinions of experts of TIM about the concept of evidence-based practice. Sampling was goal-oriented, and information gathering was performed by semi-organized interviews with some open questions asked by the researcher. In the study, the four main themes of 1- necessity of carrying out research in this field and documentation of TIM; 2- the concept of evidence-based practice in TIM; 3- limitations of evidence-based practice in Iranian traditional medicine; and 4- the differences between carrying out research in modern and Iranian traditional medicine were addressed. According to the research findings, evidence-based practice and using valid references is necessary in TIM to confirm its efficacy and effectiveness.

In Iranian medicine, maturation (nozj) is a process, through which the morbid matters (morbid humors) are prepared for evacuation and their evacuation from the body is facilitated. In other words, physician should mature the morbid matters before evacuating them from the body, except in certain condition, in which there not enough time for the process. Maturation before evacuation have been considered to be necessary and confirmed by hakims. It is considered that vomiting and excretion of morbid matters before their maturation may aggravate the disease.For maturation, each humor should be in a balanced concentration, which is different for each humor. Therefore, there are several maturative drugs, and each humor has its own maturative drug. However, to achieve the desired result, considering the time and spatial conditions is necessary. Moreover, the type and severity of disease for each individual patient should be taken into account.Identifying maturation and its application are necessary for studying and evaluation of treatment protocols in Iranian medicine. If maturation, which is a treatment step in Iranian medicine, is not considered, studies on therapeutic methods of Iranian medicine would be misinterpreted. Moreover, paying attention to maturation process beside the current treatments may promote current treatment approaches.

Learning is an important mental process, affected by several internal and external factors. Nutrition is one of the factors affecting learning. Therefore, the effect of food with cold and hot nature on students’ learning in general English language course was evaluated. This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 26 normal male students. The participants attended the summer semester, and were divided into two groups, receiving food with hot and cold natures. The students were taught in the same class and by the same English teacher, who was blinded to the research groups. The students passed the 3-unit course of general English language under the same condition. The students’ final scores were analyzed by SPSS software, version11.5. The two groups were not significantly different with regard to their university, semester, education degree, and high school location at the time of taking university entrance exam (p > 0.05). Moreover, the two groups were not significantly different in their entrance exam scores, scores of their primary English course, and the mean number of courses passed (p > 0.05). It was demonstrated that although the scores obtained by the students received food with hot nature was higher than those of the group with cold nature food; the difference was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). The findings showed that cold and hot nature of food did not affect the students’ learning in general English language course. However, it seems that further studies with larger sample sizes should be carried out to obtain more conclusive results.

It seems that in spite of huge investments made in history of Iranian medicine in recent years, the investments and the perspective of results obtained in studies of history of the Islamic era medicine is not what was expected. A reason for this phenomenon can be absence of perspective and theoretical studies in this field. In this study, after explaining the how’s and why’s of the theory development in history of medicine, we address the infrastructures required for theory development atmosphere. By introducing some of these infrastructures, we would evaluate some concerns about the essence of theory development in history of Islamic medicine.

In some cases, chronic ulcers of soft tissue cannot be treated with conventional treatment methods. In recent years, some alternative methods have been proposed for treatment of such ulcers on the basis of traditional medicine. The current paper is the report of a case of chronic ulcer treatment using Aloe vera gel. The ulcer was caused by car accident, and in spite of using conventional treatments, the injury remained for 60 days without appropriate response to treatment. After this period of time, the patient was treated by A. vera gel dressing, two to three times a day for 42 days. Because of stop in healing process after 42 days, the A. vera gel dressing was discontinued and treatment with potassium permanganate was used. Then, again A. vera gel was employed until achieving complete healing. The stop in healing process raise the question whether A. vera gel is solely effective in complete healing of chronic ulcers or it requires adjuvant therapies.

Sabr is a popular plant in Traditional Iranian Medicine, recognized with different names such as Sabara, Fiqara, and Alwa. The leaf dried latex has been identified as Sabr-e-Saqoutari, Sabr-e-Arabi, and Sabr-e-Semenjani. In Traditional Iranian Medicine, Sabr is used as the cathartic of humors of different organs; especially head, stomach, and joints. Considering the botanical description of the plant in traditional medicinal and pharmaceutical resources, Sabr can be complied with Aloe vera L., from the Liliaceae family.

During its development by different physician, Islamic medicine has experienced many changes and evolutions. The medicine history in Iran in the post-Islam era had continued its trend, and outstanding physicians were introduced in this school of medicine. One of these physicians is “Emadodin Mahmoud-Ibn Masoud Shirazi,” a great Iranian physician during the Safavid era, who served as the personal physician of Shah Tahmaseb. In the current paper, after proving a brief introduction on the Iranian history of medicine, the scientific character of Emadodin Mahmoud-Ibn Masoud Shirazi is introduced. Moreover, his works are addressed by dividing them into medicine and pharmacy works. The works remained indicate his valuable efforts in diagnosis of Atashak, Afyuneh, Padzahr, Bikh-e chini, and so on. However, a major portion of his works is related to pharmacy. His most important manuscript in medicine is description of Atashak disease, which was then prevalent in Iran. Another important manuscript of Shirazi is writing the first Persian treatise, which was completely about Padzahr.