Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Mar;14(3):133-8.
Epub 2012 Mar 1.

Relation between Body Humors and Hypercholesterolemia: An Iranian Traditional Medicine Perspective Based on the Teaching of Avicenna

M Emtiazy  1 , M Keshavarz, M Khodadoost, M Kamalinejad, S A Gooshahgir, H Shahrad Bajestani, F Hashem Dabbaghian, M Alizad
Affiliations

Relation between Body Humors and Hypercholesterolemia: An Iranian Traditional Medicine Perspective Based on the Teaching of Avicenna

M Emtiazy et al. Iran Red Crescent Med J. 2012 Mar.

Abstract

Background: Cardiovascular diseases are among the most important causes of morbidity and mortality in the world. One of the important risk factors of cardiovascular disease is hyperlipidemia especially high levels of serum cholesterol. Due to the importance of hypercholesterolemia, being a serious condition, various treatments are used to control it, regardless of the cause, most of treatments, focused on reducing the level of serum lipids. This study aims to determine various view points for hypercholesterolemia in Iranian traditional medicine.

Methods: We used several Iranian traditional medicine resources and literatures; then based on these texts; a pilot study was designed to assess their effects in 10 patients with high plasma cholesterol. The sign and symptoms in main digestive organs (Stomach and liver) were also evaluated.

Results: Some patients showed hepatic temperament but all patients had gastric temperament.

Conclusion: With reference to Iranian traditional medical texts and literatures, the organs involved in the process of digestion, particularly the stomach and the liver play the most important role. Yet the proper function of stomach as the first step involved in the digestion chain should be emphasized.

Keywords: Digestion; Hypercholesterolemia; Iranian Traditional medicine; Liver; Stomach.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Four stages of digestion
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Different pathways of causing abnormal blood composition (including hypercholesterolemia).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Murray RK, Bender DA, Botham KM, Kennelly PJ, Rodwell VW, Weil PA. Biochemistry. Harper’s Illustrated Biochemistry 28 ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Medical; 2010. p. 124.
    1. Kamal R, Aleem Sh. Clinical evaluation of the efficacy of a combination of zanjabeel (Zingiber officinale) and amla (Emblica officinalis) in hyperlipidaemia. Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge. 2009;8:413–6.
    1. Goldman L AD, editor. Internal Medicine. Cecil Medicine. 23 ed. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders Elsevier; 2008. pp. 1546–1555.
    1. Derinoz O, Tumer L, Hasanoglu A, Pasaoglu H, Aksakal FN, Ceyhan MN. Cholesterol screening in school children: is family history reliable to choose the ones to screen? Acta Paediatr. 2007;96:1794–8. doi: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2007.00554.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Pasqui AL, Bova G, Puccetti L, Bruni F, Pompella G, Auteri A. Complement activation in hypercholesterolemia. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2000;10:137–42. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources