Mental Health and wellness in Unani Medicine
(A brief description of Unani literature on mental ailments)
The literature of Unani medicine has descriptions of issues related to mental health in detail.Writings of the founder of Medicine, the Hippocrates, discuss the mental issues in detail. The physicians of middle east, after the Hippocrates, like Avicenna, Zakaria Razi aka Rhazes, Jalinoos aka Galen etc formulated a vast number of prescriptions for ailments like malekhoolia(melancholia), Ikhtilaj(ghabrahat, be-chaini, palpitation), etc. As we know these ailments further got place in the descriptions of depression and anxiety in later in 18th or 19th century.
Even Zakaria Razi was using psycho-therapy at that time. An incident is reported in the books where a patient of Malekhoolia was seen by him and he counselled him to take diet properly which lead the patient to better health.
The Holistic Approach
Unani System of Medicine is based on Humoral and Mizaj theory. Some writers translate Mizaj to temperament but we are unable to find any suitable word in English language which can describe the concept of Mizaj so we use and will use it as it is in all our discussion. In Unani literature Mizaj is the final product of your body's basic constituents from gene to the complicated tissues. It may be hot, cold. Further, it will accompany a dry or wet component. So the final component will be hot dry or hot wet, and cold dry or cold wet.
Then comes the Humoral theory. Unani system of medicine says that your body is made up of four humors named Safra(bile), Sauda(black bile), Balgham(phlegm), and Khoon(blood).
Mental ailments are described mainly under the Sauda humor and dry mizaj in Unani medicine. Whenever there is imbalance in Sauda humor and/or there is excess of dryness in your brain, Unani literature says, mental ailments may occur.
Management of mental ailments in Unani Medicine
So, we know that the cause of every ailment may be described under the humoral and mizaj theory. So is their management. When we manage mental ailments, focus will be on to correct the humoral imbalance and most important, change the mizaj to wet by different oils and drugs. In Unani medicine there are three stages of management. First Ilaj bil Ghiza is tried. In this stage modulation in patients diet made to achieve the goal. If treated, well and good, if not, then we advance to second stage which is ilaj bid tadbeer, means Ilaj with methods. In this stage all the methods applied to treat the patient. The methods may include exercises, therapies, massages, meditation etc. As you can see these methods are very helpful in managing mental issues. CBT, Panchakarma, meditation are used to manage the mental ailments. Then comes the stage of medicines. Here medicines are used to balance the humor and mizaj.
One Important aspect of Unani medicine is ASBAB E SITTA E ZARURIYA means six essential causes, causes of what? Causes of good and healthy life. These are
Hawa (air)
Maakul aur mashroob (Diet and Drinks)
Naum o Yaqza ( Sleep and awaken state)
Istafraagh o ehtabas (Escretions and body fluids)
Harkat o sukun e badani (Physical activity and rest)
Harkat o sukun e nafsani (mental activity and repose)
When we apply these asbaab in our protocol for mental wellness the approach becomes HOLISTIC.
As you can see that most of these asbaabs (or we can say causes), directly impact on our mental health like sleep and awaken state, diet, mental activity and repose.
Our team
Our strength lies in our individuality. Here at psychmicherbs, we examine your symptoms, and reports and confirm the diagnosis based on Unanai Medicine theory and prescribe the medicines which are beneficial for better mental health.
Dr. Majid Ali (BUMS, MD.)
Founder / psychmicherbs
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