Skip to main content

Unani Medicine

I have previously written about the ancient medical science of India called Ayurveda. Tracing its roots back to 6000 BCE (unofficially), Ayurveda is older than the Classical civilizations and thus predates Greek medicine. Ayurveda is still in practice in many parts of India as alternative medicine. But I recently discovered there is another form of alternative medicine in India called Unani medicine. I first heard about it from a Harvard professor and I was embarrassed to admit I hadn't heard of it, so I decided to dig deeper and what I found is quite interesting. Turns out it is still used in practice today as one of the 5 traditional medical sciences recognized by the Indian government as AYUSH ( Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddhi, Homeopathy).  

Interestingly, Unani medicine is none other than ancient Greek medicine practiced by Hippocrates and Galen. In fact, Unani means "Greek" in Arabic. Unani medicine was introduced in India around the tenth century by Arab and Persian scholars who traveled from Greece. It is based on Hippocratic medicine combined with contributions from Arab scholars like Avicenna (I wrote about him in an old post). 

The basic principle of Unani medicine is the same as Hippocratic medicine: that a balance of the four bodily fluids known as humors (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile) is essential to health. It uses herbal remedies to achieve this balance and consequently, good health.

Unani medical agents

Around 650 CE, during the Muslim Caliphate, all Greek knowledge was transferred to Arabic, including medical knowledge. This was further refined through systematic experiments by Avicenna and other Arabs. As a result, Unani medicine, although originating in Greece, is also known as  Arabian or Islamic medicine.

Again, it is an experience-based medical science that doesn't have much scientific evidence. But apparently, some of the therapies have shown positive results in animal tests, like for rheumatoid arthritis and brain health. I found it interesting that Greek medicine which is similar to Indian Ayurvedic medicine went around the world and arrived in India with a new name. 

Range of Unani medicines available in India

Sources

https://www.verywellhealth.com/the-lowdown-on-unani-medicine-90032
https://www.britannica.com/science/Unani-medicine
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rx Symbol

Have you ever wondered why medicines are denoted with an ℞ or Rx symbol? There are actually many theories about its origin but the most common one is that the symbol for prescriptions originated from the "Eye of Horus", which was an ancient Egyptian symbol associated with healing powers. According to Egyptian mythology, Horus lost his eye in battle but his mom used her powers to restore his eye, hence it became a symbol of healing.  Eye of Horus In the 2 nd century, Greek physician Galen adapted this symbol to impress his patients. Galen’s influence on medicine was so strong that even the symbol was borrowed through the centuries and it eventually evolved into the modern symbol Rx (the eye of Horus kinda looks like an Rx). Other theories place its origin in Latin and Roman times. One theory is that Rx was used as an abbreviation of the Latin word recipere , meaning “to prepare,” which physicians wrote on medical prescriptions. Yet another theory points to the similarity of...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hippocrates: Father of Medicine

Another important person in Greek medicine is Hippocrates. Hippocrates is considered the father of modern medicine who continues to influence medicine more than 2000 years later. Although he is as revered as Asclepius, they have very different origins. While Asclepius is a mythological character, considered to be descended from God, Hippocrates is very much a historical figure, whose origin and life is recorded in history. Hippocrates lived from 460 to 375 BCE during the Classical Greece period and practiced medicine in Greece. His contribution to western medicine is rivaled by none other, and his collection of works covers almost every aspect of disease and medicine including infection, hygiene, epidemiology and the human immune system. Bust of Hippocrates Also, unlike Asclepius, Hippocrates practiced medicine as a science, not as divine magic. He was one of the first to separate religion from medicine, and sought to match treatment with symptoms.  His observations in the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Doctors in Ancient Rome

In my previous post, I wrote about the appreciation shown towards healthcare workers during the current pandemic. Not just during this crisis, but people, in general, have a lot of respect for the medical profession. Unfortunately, it seems it wasn’t so in the Ancient Roman civilization. Medicine wasn’t a very highly regarded profession in Ancient Rome. One of the main reasons for this was because many doctors were actually freed Greek slaves, so they were not respected very much. Also, becoming a doctor required no formal training -- it was mostly from apprenticeship. As a result, there was a lot of trial and error in treating patients, which resulted in a low success rate and therefore, skepticism and even scorn towards doctors.  The first Greek doctor who came to Rome was Archagathus of Sparta in 219 BC. He specialized in healing battle wounds, but Romans were skeptical of his methods of cutting and burning the flesh, which earned him the nickname, carnifex or 'butcher'....
Post a Comment
Read more