(See also : UNANI: Food and Temperaments)
Written by Mrs. Amel Bouvyer
Quelle Santé Magazine
The principles of Unani medicine were developed in the 7th century by the best Arab and Persian scholars. Based on the observation of imbalances between the heat and moisture of organs, this medicine draws all its remedies from medicinal plants. The doors to this therapeutic treasure are opening today.
This medicine comes from afar. It is millennia old. The Sumerians of Mesopotamia and the ancient Egyptians transmitted this medical knowledge from generation to generation to priests and only to initiates. Hippocrates and Pythagoras laid its foundations and recorded its principles. In the 7th century, Arab and Persian scholars like El Razi and Ibn Sina (Avicenna) improved and developed it. They named it Unani medicine (from "ionique," which means Greek in Arabic). Their works, recorded in complete works such as "The Canon of Medicine," led to great advances in the fields of mental illness, surgery, and obstetrics. The Arabs successively introduced their medicine into Spain (several medical schools were created), from where it spread to France (Montpellier Medical School) and then to Asia. Particularly in India, where Unani medicine had a predominant influence on Ayurveda. Today, numerous institutes, hospitals, and clinics dedicated to the practice of this medicine are emerging in the Far East, Central Asia, as well as in Australia and New Zealand.
According to Unani medicine, disease is the body's response to an imbalance between the heat and moisture of certain organs. The prescribed therapy must restore this harmony. Thus, if the disease is caused by a temperature lower than normal for the proper functioning of an organ or group of organs, the prescribed foods and medicines must provide enough heat to restore the ideal temperature for the patient. Medicines must be exclusively of natural origin to eliminate side effects and prioritize herbal remedies over mineral or animal-based remedies. Once balance is restored, the cause of the ailment disappears, and the process of the patient's recovery is initiated and progresses to achieve, in most cases, complete healing. In accordance with these principles, the Unani therapist formulates remedies that precisely target the causes of the targeted discomforts to eliminate their effects. These are by no means generic remedies, but rather targeted products whose dosage alone allows the transition from a curative approach to a preventive one. And whose purpose is to "seek the balance of the major systems to solve specific problems".
Gastrointestinal Sphere
Inflammation, food intolerance, pain, fatigue, gas, bloating, disrupted transit...
To overcome all these dysfunctions, the Unani therapist selects plants according to their properties: stomachic, antispasmodic, anti-diarrheal/laxative, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal, anti-ulcer...
Plants that facilitate gas expulsion, reduce stomachaches, promote stomach digestion, and accelerate food assimilation by increasing gastric juice secretion (especially bile), relieve abdominal pain.
For each preparation, the Unani therapist adds specific natural substances that contribute to facilitating and controlling the assimilation of the preparation and to stagger its action over time. It is the implementation that gives the preparation its effectiveness by significantly enhancing the beneficial action of the plants.
Cardiovascular System
For good cardiovascular health, according to Unani medicine, it is necessary to nourish the cardiac muscle to strengthen it, improve the resilience of the arteries, cervical-cerebral circulation, and reduce cholesterol levels. To achieve this, the Unani therapist uses a synergy of plants with antispasmodic, diuretic, tonic, and stimulating properties.
Plants that promote blood circulation but also bile evacuation, allowing the hepatic system to function better and thus play its role as a blood filter correctly.
Vital Organs and Emunctories
By cleaning the vital organs and emunctories (liver, spleen, pancreas, gall bladder, kidneys), we optimize their functioning and allow them to work in good temperature and humidity conditions, thus avoiding the "overdrive" of an organ to compensate for the dysfunction of another organ.
To revitalize the filtering organs, increase diuresis, dissolve and eliminate calculi, Unani medicine recommends the use of astringent, diuretic, stomachic, antispasmodic, cholagogue, depurative, and astringent plants.
Prostate
To reduce inflammation and hypertrophy of the prostate as well as the resulting discomfort, Unani medicine recommends restoring the ideal operating temperature of the urinary system and kidneys. The remedy must have anti-inflammatory properties doubled with decongestant, depurative, antiseptic virtues. And be endowed with an anti-androgenic hormonal effect to inhibit the enzyme and hormones responsible for hypertrophy to significantly and progressively reduce the volume of the prostate.
Plants that improve the condition in cases of benign prostatic hypertrophy, plants that stimulate prostatic secretion and improve the elasticity of bladder tissues.
Articular System
In Unani medicine, to restore the temperature of the digestive system, reduce inflammation of the joint tissues, and dissolve and evacuate uric acid or calcium crystals localized in the joints, a temperature too low in the pelvis, stomach, and digestive system will lead to significant gas production, some of which will lodge under the skin and in cavities and exert pressure on blood vessels, preventing the irrigation of cartilage and causing drying out. True to these precepts, the Unani therapist will choose plants with remineralizing, anti-inflammatory properties.
Plants to reduce inflammation and crystallizations, rheumatic pains, improve blood irrigation of joint tissues as well as the viscosity of synovial fluid, calm joint pains.
A Hermit from Mount Lebanon at the Bedside of Westerners
Born in 1932 in Syria, Fayez Aladdin Al-Kabir was raised by an uncle versed in ancient sciences and possessing a library rich in ancient books and manuscripts. At the age of 12, he divided his time between school and this library. During his readings, two disciplines fascinated him: Unani medicine and Alchemy. He studied them based on the writings of Galen, Hippocrates, Dioscorides, Al Antaki, and Avicenna as well as unique manuscripts dating from ancient Egypt and Greece translated by Arabs from the 9th to the 15th centuries. At the same time, he began to roam the nearest meadows and woods to observe and study plants and herbs and compare his observations with his theoretical knowledge. To deepen his knowledge, he traveled from Yemen to Anatolia and met healers, shamans, and traditional doctors.
This quest lasted for several years. Back in his native country - he was thirty-seven years old - his reputation as a healer quickly established itself to the point that doctors and hospitals began to refer difficult cases to him, refractory to chemical treatments and allopathic medicine. His secret: drawing inspiration from ancestral recipes of Unani medicine to formulate plant-based formulas that act primarily on the causes of ailments and whose action occurs very upstream on the organs and tissues involved in the imbalance.
The 7 Pillars of Unani Medicine According to Avicenna
The Canon of Medicine (Al quaanoun fi-tibb), a treatise in five volumes by Avicenna (Ibn Sina) in the 7th century, describes the seven fundamental principles that govern the functioning of the human body.
1 - Matter. The human body is made up of four elements which symbolize the states of matter and therefore mass and energy. These are air (hot and humid), water (cold and humid), fire (hot and dry), and earth (cold and dry).
2 - Temperament. It is the interaction of air, water, fire and earth that will determine the temperament of the human being: sanguine, phlegmatic, cold bile or hot bile, mixed. The ideal state corresponds to a perfect balance between the four elements. But in reality, this ideal state does not exist, however in a healthy body, the principle of homeostasis allows the body to regulate the various vital systems optimally.
3 - Humors. The fluids contained in each body (blood, phlegm, lymph, yellow bile and black bile), are necessary to maintain the humidity of the different organs and provide nourishment to the body. These moods are achieved through food and drink. The diet must be composed of substances chosen according to their temperature and humidity.
The quality of Humors is conditioned by what we eat “Let food be your first medicine” Hippocrates already said. According to natural medicine and the UNANI Tradition, there is an ideal composition of organic fluids (humors) in which the cells bathe (blood, lymph, extra and intracellular serum), which allows optimal functioning of the organs and therefore from the body. Anything that causes a qualitative change in these fluids (moods) represents a threat to health.
4 - The Organs. The largest category of organs is made up of five elements: the brain, heart, liver, testicles or ovaries.
5 - The Spirit, vital energy, breath. It is the driving soul which carries within itself all the powers, in particular the maintenance of life.
6 - The Faculties. They are three in number. The faculty of metabolism which sits in the liver and determines the reproduction of cells. The psychic faculty that sits in the brain. The vital power that maintains life and pushes the organs to accept psychic power. It sits in the heart, the vital center of life, in the brain, the center of sensation, movement and motor skills, and in the liver, the center of nutrition and energy production.
7 - Functions. The functions of the different organs are dependent on temperatures and the movements of fluids and energies. Thus the “faculties” would be the conductor and the “functions” the musicians interpreting a score under his direction.