Archives for May 2020

Ovarian cysts are small blister like growths filled with fluid which develop in or on the ovaries and are usually harmless. These usually regress on their own but sometimes can persist causing minor problems which include altered hormonal levels, bleeding and pain. It is difficult to understand the symptoms as pain is rarely experiences and as the conditions worsens, the signs also start developing. These can turn malignant if left unchecked and untreated which is dangerous for the body. In any case, it is advisable to use herbal remedies for these cysts as it is a more natural option.

In contrast to western medicine, it is believed in traditional Chinese medicine that cysts are formed due to stagnation of blood and vital energy and also by the accumulation of phlegm. Hence, remedies for ovarian cysts should be aimed at invigorating blood supply and vital energy to the specific areas. Some of these treatment methods include massage, hydrotherapy, acupuncture and use of oils to promote blood circulation. These are of great significance when compared to the other medications which people usually seek through. It has been seen that there are very few of them who go in for these choices and majority of them look out for faster and quicker ways of healing which can lead to serious issues later on.

Castor oil can also be used to remove these cysts and is an excellent local immune stimulant. There are also various medicinal herbs which make great natural remedies for cysts and these include Black Cohosh, Calamus and Castor. Black Cohosh is frequently used in all female ailments and is a great hormone regulator. It can be taken as a tablet or applied as a tincture. You could also take Black Cohosh tea twice daily to obtain good results.

Calamus or Sweet flag is known as blood mover in Chinese medicine and is used as a tincture or oil. It can give extreme relief from pelvic pain due to cysts when applied externally. Castor oil features high in the list of remedies for ovarian cysts and is an amazing immune stimulant. It is always used as an oil pack and applied externally to get relief from ovarian cysts.

Other herbal remedies for ovarian cysts include burdock, red raspberry, Siberian ginseng, dandelion, ginger, cinnamon and rehmannia root. These are tested safe and pure to treat the illness in the best possible manner and you can blindly go for it.

Source by Rizvana Abdul

While on a ketogenic diet, it is very important to ensure that one eat within the restrictions of the diet. This is vital so as for the individual to be able to remain in a state of ketosis.

Going out of ketosis can be as simple as eating one or two meals that are not recommended on the diet. However, coming back into ketosis is another different story entirely. This can often takes days or weeks depending on how strict you become when you get back on the diet.

Meals in a ketogenic diet comprise of three basic food types. These are the:

1. fruit or vegetable
2. protein-rich food
3. fat source

Fats

Ketogenic diets by nature involve the consumption of increased amounts of fats in the diet. They can come in as part of the cooking process or as sauces and dressings.

The best types of fats are those medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs). These include both MCT oil and coconut oil. Medium-chain triglycerides are easily metabolized to produce ketones. Some other equally good fats for ketosis include:

Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids

Salmon, Shellfish, Trout, Tuna

Monounsaturated and Saturated fats

Olive oil, Avocado, Butter, Cheese, Red palm oil, Egg yolks

Non-hydrogenated oils (when cooking)

Coconut oil, Beef tallow, Non-hydrogenated lards

High oleic

Safflower oils, Sunflower oils

Other fat sources:

Chicken skin, Coconut butter, Peanut butter, Fat on meats

Proteins

When buying your protein foods, always try to choose grass-fed, organic and humanely raised meat and wild-caught seafood. Apart from offering more nutrients, they have not been exposed to added hormones, antibiotics, and other potential toxins.

Meat

The ketogenic diet accepts basically any type of meat. There is no discrimination about the type of cut or preparation.

Beef, Goat, Lamb, Pork, Veal, Venison

Poultry

Any type of poultry is also allowed by the diet. You can improve the content of the meal by leaving the skin on. However, breading and batter should not be used in the preparation of poultry as they are usually high in carbohydrates. Other than that, you can prepare your poultry to your liking.

Chicken, Duck, Game hen, Goose, Ostrich, Partridge, Pheasant, Quail, Squab, Turkey

Seafood

Another great source of protein is seafood. Seafood is a great source of omega-3 fatty acids. They also have high amounts of minerals and vitamins to help keep you well-nourished and healthy.

Clams, Crab, Lobster, Mussels, Oysters, Prawns, Scallops, Shrimp, Snails

Fish

Fish have good amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. You should go for fish that are caught in the wild and also in mercury-free areas.

Ahi, Catfish, Cod, Flounder, Halibut, Herring, Lobster, Mackerel, Mahi mahi, Mussel, Salmon, Sardines, Scallops, Snapper, Squid, Swordfish, Trout, Tuna, Walleye

Carbohydrates

Vegetables

Vegetables are the primary source of carbohydrate on a ketogenic diet. When you are buying vegetables always opt for the organically grown vegetables. Also, the dark leafy vegetables contain the least amount of carbohydrates with good nutritional value.

Arugula, Asparagus, Bok choy, Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Celery,Collard greens, Endive, Garlic, Kale, Kelp, Lettuce, Mushrooms, Onions, Peppers, Radishes, Seaweed, Spinach, Swiss chard, Watercress

Milk and Dairy Products

These are very essential in a ketogenic diet. Grass-fed and organic source are more preferable. The full fat variety is better suited for the ketogenic diet than the fat-free and low-fat verities.

Butter, Cheddar, Crème fraîche, Heavy cream, Mozzarella, Sour cream, Cream cheese, Mascarpone cheese, Cheeses, Hard cheeses

Nuts

Moderate amounts of nuts and seed are allowed on the ketogenic diet. Nuts and seed are rich in protein, fats, and carbohydrates. The total fat, protein and carbohydrate content of the nut varieties should be checked and added to the total daily calorie calculation.

Roasted nuts and seeds are the best. Anything that may cause harm or interfere with ketosis in the body has been removed from them through the roasting process.

Nuts should be used mostly as a snack

Almonds, Macadamia, and Walnuts are some of the best

Some nuts have high content of omega-6 fatty acid which can cause inflammation in the body

However, they can hold some people back from their goals. If your weight loss is purely your purpose of using the ketogenic diet, then it would be advisable to remove nuts and seeds to improve your results.

Almonds, Brazil nuts, Hazelnuts, Pine nuts, Macadamia nuts, Pecans, Pili nuts, Pumpkin seeds, Sesame seeds, Sunflower seeds, Walnuts

Herbs and Spices

After some time on the ketogenic diet, the foods may start to become boring. Adding spices to your meals can however help to spice things up. You can add fresh and dry spices to your meals and even beverages so that they become more enticing and exciting to the palate.

Spices and fresh herbs are some of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet you can eat. Adding spices to your meal doesn’t only add more flavors to the meals but also offer a lot of various health benefits to your body.

Spices contain carbohydrates thus you should ensure to add them to your daily carbohydrate count. Also, endeavor to check the labels of pre-made spice mixes for their accurate carbohydrate content as they usually contain added sugars.

Salt also enhances flavors. It is best you chose high quality sea salt instead of traditional table salt. Unprocessed salts such as Celtic or Himalayan sea salt provide you with more than eight trace minerals that your body need to perform optimally.

Anise, Annatto, Basil, Bay leaf, Black pepper, Caraway Cardamom, Cayenne pepper, Celery seed, Chervil, Chili pepper, Chives, Cilantro, Cinnamon, Cloves, Coriander, Cumin, Curry, Dill, Fenugreek, Galangal, Garlic, Ginger, Lemongrass, Licorice, Mace, Marjoram, Mint, Mustard seeds, Oregano, Paprika, Parsley, Peppermint, Rosemary, Saffron, Sage, Spearmint, Star anise, Tarragon, Thyme, Turmeric, Vanilla beans

Sweeteners

Adding artificial sweeteners to your meals can help in curbing cravings for carbohydrates and sweets. Sweeteners help a lot of people to be able to adhere to the ketogenic diet.

However, natural sweeteners such as honey, maple syrup, and agave raise blood sugar levels which does not only cause inflammation but can also kick you out of ketosis.

Always go for the liquid form of sweeteners as they do not have binders like dextrose and maltodextrin. Dextrose is an anti-caking agent and is a form of sugar. Maltodextrin on the other hand is a bulking agent which has higher glycemic index (110) than table sugar (52).

The following is a list of recommended sweeteners which have little effect on blood sugar.

Allulose, Blended sweeteners (Swerve, Lakanto, Sukrin), Erythritol, Monk fruit, Stevia, Stevia glycerite (a thick liquid form of stevia), Sucralose, Xylitol

Beverages

Using a low carbohydrate diet like the ketogenic diet has a diuretic effect on the body. Carbohydrates draw water to them which cause water retention in the body. However, the reduced carbohydrate intake in a ketogenic diet leads to a lot water loss as less water is retained in the body and more is excreted.

This diuretic effect can easily lead to dehydration. Therefore you need to drink a lot of water – well above the recommended intake of 8 glasses – when you are on a ketogenic diet. This will help you to reduce the risk of bladder pain and urinary tract infections.

Besides water, you can add other types of beverages like coffee and teas to help keep your hydrated throughout the day. Both of these do not significantly affect the ketosis state.

However, the added substances like sugar and milk might affect the ketosis state. As a result, it would be best to avoid the sugar completely and use either full cream or artificial sweeteners together with your coffee or tea.

Another way to increase your beverage intake is to make vegetable juice by combining varieties of the approved vegetable types. You can also use a power smoothies or protein shakes instead of a fruit smoothies as the fruits contain sugars (fructose) that can kick you out of ketosis.

Below are some additional beverages you can consume to help keep you hydrated:

Unsweetened almond milk, Unsweetened cashew milk, Unsweetened coconut milk, Unsweetened hemp milk, Green tea, Herbal tea, Organic caffè Americano (espresso with water), Mineral water.

Source by Marcus J Michael

The Emperor Wears No Clothes is a timeless non-fictional book about the versatile plant Cannabis sativa that every marijuana proponent should be informed about. The author, Jack Herer, presents a historical, social, and economic view of hemp based on twelve years of research. Sixty consistent years of government deception and suppression of the truth, topics ignored by most media, are revealed in this enraging book about marijuana prohibition.

This book, whose title makes an analogy to the classic children’s tale The Emperor’s New Clothes, surprises, enlightens, shocks, angers, and initiates activism as it informs about one of nature’s most utilitarian plants. It covers general facts about Cannabis sativa, history of it’s use, the effects of smoking the plants flower buds, the many other uses for the plants other parts, the corruption of the U.S. government and of the wealthy and powerful corporations to whom Cannabis sativa is business competition, the “War on Drugs”, the ignorance of our constitutional rights, and suggestions on how we can protect them.

Hemp is a dioecious, woody, herbaceous annual. Each short growing season it reaches heights of twelve to twenty feet, and grows well in any climate or soil condition. Its roots penetrate deep (one foot per month), breaking up compacted and overworked soil, and combating soil erosion. Since it grows so quickly, it could be a year round crop, harvested twice a year, or it could be planted as a second crop, after harvest of a different one. Hemp is also resistant to UV radiation damage, a current threat to 30-50% of soya production. In fact, hemp actually flourishes in the presence of high UV radiation since it protects itself by creating more cannabiniods. This willing plant is able to provide many basic needs of humans anywhere on the planet: food, medicine, treeless shelter and paper, clothing and other textiles, and a renewable fuel alternative to those presently creating acid rain, global warming, and deforestation.

One acre of hemp provides the same amount of cellulose and fiber pulp, used to make paper products and pressed or particleboard, as four acres of trees, while producing four to seven times less pollution. More than anything else, the U.S. imports textiles. Hemp is softer, warmer, stronger and more absorbent than cotton, and it doesn’t require the agricultural chemicals that cotton does. Loggers and truck drivers would still have jobs, reforestation could occur; and rivers could recover from wood and paper chemicals.

Nutrition wise, hemp seed is the highest in essential fatty acids and the lowest in saturated fats. It can be made into a tofu-like curd at a cheaper cost than can soya, sprouted to make milk and ice cream or for use in salad, ground and used like flour, or pressed into an oil, whose by-product is a high protein animal feed.

Hemp as fuel for industrial use, electricity, and transportation -each acre is capable of yielding 1,000 gallons of methanol; that’s ten tons per acre every four months. It’s an annually renewable fuel source, that can be grown for this purpose at the cost of only thirty dollars a ton, Hemp for biomass could be a trillion dollar a year industry, while also improving air quality, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and bringing millions of jobs in energy production, distributing wealth to rural areas and away from the monopolies.

The hurds (pulp left over after fiber is removed) are 77% cellulose (that’s 50-100 times the cellulose found in sugarcane or corn stalks) that could be used to produce chemicals, biodegradable plastics, paint, dynamite, and fibers.

Around the same time as pottery making, people began weaving hemp; it’s the earliest known woven fabric (8,000-7,000 B.C.). Based on evidence using the Bushmen of Africa, Scientist-Philosopher Carl Sagan suggested that hemp may have been the first cultivated plant dating back to hunter-gatherer time. By 1,000 years B.C. hemp was believed to be our planets largest agricultural crop. Between the years of 1763 and 1767, during a cannabis shortage in America, you could be jailed for not growing it. Our forefathers George Washington and Benjamin Franklin grew it. It’s even been speculated by historians that the ‘War of 1812’ was about hemp! According to the 1850 U.S. Census they counted 8,327 hemp plantations, each over 2,000 acres large – this doesn’t count family patches or small farms. Until 1883 75-90% of all paper in the world was made of hemp fibers, and until 1937, 70-90% of all rope was hemp. For thousands of years almost all paints and varnishes were made of hempseed and linseed oils (in 1935 alone, in the U.S., 58,000 tons of hempseed were used for this purpose). In the early 1900’s the U.S. Department of Agriculture foresaw the huge potential that marijuana had to be the planets largest industry, claiming that once a machine was invented that could harvest, strip, and separate the fiber from the pulp that hemp would be the U.S.’s number one crop. In 1916, the U.S. government was advising and offering American farmers incentives to grow marijuana for plastic, paper, fiber, and energy needs. In 1917, GW Schlicten realized this mechanic vision the USDA had been waiting for; he called it a ‘decorticator’. Both Popular Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering magazines wrote articles foreseeing hemp as being the ”new billion dollar crop” (It’s estimated that today, in the U.S., the hemp industry could be raking in five hundred billion to one trillion dollars annually). In 1942 the U.S. Department of Agriculture even put out a war movie titled “Hemp For Victory”, urging farmers to grow it.

So what happened, you ask? Soon after the ‘decorticator’ was invented, DuPont invented petrochemical fibers and all too easily ‘convinced’ the U.S. Congress and Treasury that with his technology, they could replace hempseed oil with these synthetic petrochemicals. The U.S. Treasury dutifully drafted the Marijuana Tax Act. Stick with me as I attempt to untangle this tangled web of interconnected corruption they’ve woven-DuPont’s financial lending institution was Mellon Bank. President Hoover’s Secretary of Treasury was Mellon. Mellon then appointed a member of his extended family, Harry Anslinger, as head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (currently known as the DEA-Drug Enforcement Agency). DuPont, who had just patented a method of making plastic from oil and coal (enter the interests of oil companies), along with Hearst Paper Company, also feeling threatened by the invention of the ‘decorticator’, paid politicians to outlaw marijuana as a ‘narcotic’, and suppress hemp knowledge from schools, researchers, and scientists.

In the U.S., from the 1840’s through the 1890’s, Cannabis sativa was being used medicinally. In fact, during this time marijuana tinctures and extracts were the second and third most used medicines in America. At this point in history, for over 3,500 years, Cannabis sativa had been the most widely used plant medicinally all over the world. By 1883 every major city in the U.S. had legal hashish smoking bars. In 1930 the U.S. government did a study on the effects of smoking the herb on off-duty American servicemen in Panama. They came to the conclusion that marijuana smoking wasn’t a problem and recommended that no criminal penalties apply to its use. Seven years later the Assistant U.S. Attorney General announced that marijuana could be used long term without “social or emotional outbreaks” and that it was only habit forming on the same level as coffee or sugar. Based on the next seven years of study, in the La Guardia Marijuana Report, the mayor of New York City, Fiorello LaGuardia, the New York Academy of Medicine, and the doctors’ researching the report also concluded that marijuana did not cause any kind of violence, and that it also had positive effects on it’s smokers.

Marijuana has never acted as a ‘gateway drug’; in fact it’s been used in alcohol addiction treatment. In Costa Rica, where smoking is socially accepted, as opposed to on neighboring ‘cannabis-free’ islands, they don’t experience the alcoholic social problems of their island neighbors; and in Holland, where marijuana is available in coffee shops and bars, and smokers aren’t persecuted, the number of heroin addicts has declined by 33% since legalization. 1968-1975 Jamaican studies of people who had smoked high level THC marijuana for 6-30 years, in heavy quantities, showed no social consequences, like relation to crime and no psychological consequences, like impairment of motor skills or mental problems. What it did reveal was the plants positive effects as a work motivator, as a tool for concentration and meditation (by the way, marijuana has a historical use in many major religions worldwide), creating an all around sense of well-being, self-assertiveness, and a merry, conscious, and responsible attitude.

Since 1964, at least 60 of over 400 separate compounds that have been isolated from over 1,000 suspected compounds have been found to be therapeutic. In America today there are over 26 million daily marijuana smokers, and 40 million ‘occasional’ smokers. Some therapeutic uses of smoking: stops asthma attacks, reduces ocular pressure of those with Glaucoma, relieves nausea, stimulates appetites of chemotherapy patients and anorexics, lung expectorant, antispasmodic, reduces intensity of epileptic seizures, relieves symptoms of Muscular Dystrophy, relieves migraine headaches, lowers blood pressure, relaxes muscles, relieves stress, promotes a restful sleep, relieves dementia and depression, and invokes positive ‘vibrations’-all without the negative, and sometimes deadly side effects of pharmaceuticals. The plants antibiotic cannabidiolic acids can be applied in a topical form to treat gonorrhea, herpes, arthritis, rheumatism, and cystic fibrosis. Two universities in Madrid, Spain, involving studies on mice and rats stated that, Cannabis sativa’s active ingredient, THC, killed tumor cells in a type of cancer previously thought to be 100% fatal. Cannabiniods, the plants active compounds, when injected directly into cancerous brain tumors, were found to completely destroy the tumors, while leaving normal cells untouched. More recent studies show that THC even has its own unique receptor sites in the brain, to which, so far, no other compounds have been found to bind.

These were some reasons the pharmaceutical companies got worried. If marijuana were to be legalized, right away it would replace 10-20% of pharmaceutical drugs, taking billions of dollars a year away from the pharmaceutical companies, who have so far been unsuccessful at synthetically replicating the positive effects of marijuana. Roughly ½ of the funds contributed to government sponsored ‘against marijuana’ groups come from American pharmaceutical drug companies. The other ½, surprise, surprise, come from the legal tobacco and liquor companies (oil and paper companies are also contributors). In its 10,000-year-old history, zero deaths have been linked to marijuana, but each year alcohol is linked to 100,000 deaths and 70% of child rape, wife beating and murders. An even worse offender is tobacco, as addictive as heroin, which kills more people each year than AIDS, heroin, crack, cocaine, alcohol, car accidents, fire, and murder combined. Meanwhile, Tobacco receives more government subsidies than any other agricultural product in the U.S.. In 1976 Aslinger, head of the DEA, went on a warpath. He denounced the previously mentioned studies, the American Medical Association, and The New York Academy of Medicine and it’s doctors, and forbade all federal research on the therapeutic effects of marijuana, even to universities. However, a special exception was made for the pharmaceutical companies, who are not only the only ones allowed to research it, but they even are trusted to regulate themselves.

The American Medical Association spoke out against this law, testifying that what the government was saying about marijuana was “outright tabloid sensationalism” and that the prohibitive marijuana laws would deny the world medicine that had been being safely used for a plethora of symptoms for thousands of years. In 1988, even a DEA judge, after considering fifteen days of testimony and DEA reports, concluded that, “Marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man”. Still, a year later the director of the DEA ordered Cannabis to remain listed as a schedule one narcotic-one having no known medicinal use!

Prison building is currently the largest growth industry. Every state in America is expanding its prisons. Since the 1998 birth of the DEA’s “War on Drugs” 75% of those imprisoned (600,000 a year) are there for mere possession of marijuana for personal consumption (not dealing), and since this “war” began, this is what our drug enforcement tax money has been paying for.

In the authors analogy of his book to the well-known children’s book The Emperor’s New Clothes, Jack Herer likens the Emperor’s lies and manipulation to that of our U.S. government, compares the Emperor’s powerful guards to our FBI, CIA, DEA, etc. Like the Emperor, our government uses its power to buy the allegiance of other countries through bribery or intimidation (foreign aid, arms sales). And like in the children’s story, anyone daring to speak out is slandered, threatened by loss of job, property, or family. Herer likens the Government, using fear and a virtual police state, paid for by our own taxes, to tyrants and prohibitionists of the past who relied on brute force and intimidation. The Emperor Wears No Clothes (because exposed by the truth) author, Jack Herer, alerts us that “it’s a crime against our citizens Bill of Rights (written on hemp paper) to imprison innocents to wage a campaign of lies and omission of the facts with our taxes” such as that which has been carried out by our last four presidents (Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan), and that “they’re taking away more of our guaranteed constitutional rights than have been taken away for political actions, insurgencies, strikes, uprisings, and wars in the last 200 years combined. In 1999, Herer warned that a top priority of the government, the DEA, and the Republican Party is to pass a bill that automatically takes away 100% of your rights to privacy and freedom from an unwarranted search (A prophecy of the Patriot Act?).

What can we do to preserve our basic rights? Herer suggests working to get the issues on the ballots, so we can vote like we’re supposed to be able to do, educating others about hemp, and demanding the release of the POW’s of the “War on Drugs”.

Source by Elle Housman

Find out which fruits have a low glycemic index!

Glycemic index (GI) of a food demonstrates an ability for foods to attack our blood sugar and help the pancreas in producing larger quantities of insulin. Foods with high glycemic index cause a sudden increase in blood glucose which, in turn, produces disorders of insulin levels, appetite and fat storage capacity. Appearance-related diseases are related — because the body can not eliminate glucose from the blood, it remains in the bloodstream too long and at too high levels. Foods with high glycemic index (70-110) that we must guard against are: potatoes, many types of cereals and refined flour.

What diseases are common? Specialists in issues of nutrition indicated the most common diseases associated with glucose metabolism are:

* Type 1 diabetes;

* Type 2 diabetes;

* Hypoglycemia;

* Glucose intolerance;

* Depletion of insulin;

* Metabolic syndrome.

Therefore, it is essential to keep track of the index because it helps you to:

* Eat healthy;

* Lose weight;

* Keep your normal body weight;

* Keep blood sugar levels under control — essential in people with diabetes;

* Reduce the risk of serious illnesses: heart, diabetes, hypertension, cancer;

* Make healthy choices for your children, thus preventing the risk of becoming obese in adulthood.

What are some of the best fruits? Apples, grapefruit and peaches all have low GI. They contain a large amount of fiber and vitamins and can safely consume.

One of the best things about fruits is that they’re readily available from most grocery stores, and there is enough variety that you shouldn’t get bored with eating the same fruit over and over again. They taste great, and since they’re good for your health, you can’t go wrong!

Here’s the glycemic index (100 grams) for some common fruits:

* Fresh apricot – 57 (medium)

* Stewed apricots – 64 (medium)

* Dried apricots – 31 (low)

* Pineapple – 66 (medium)

* Green Banana – 45 (low)

* Ripe banana – 66 (medium)

* Cherry – 22 (low)

* Dates – 103 (high)

* Fresh figs – 35 (low)

* Dried figs – 40 (low)

* Strawberry – 25 (low)

* Raspberry – 25 (low)

* Dick – 25 (low)

* Melon – 65 (medium)

* Orange – 44 (low)

* Grapefruit-25 (low)

* Papaya – 58 (medium)

* Watermelon – 72 (high)

* Peach – 42 (low)

* Plum – 39 (low)

* Fresh grapes – 46 (low)

* Dried grapes (raisins) – 64 (medium)

* Kiwi – 52 (low)

* Mango – 50 (low)

* Mandarin – 45 (low)

* Blackberries – 25 (low)

* Raspberry – 40 (low)

* Cranberry – 40 (low)

Source by Dedi Walker

Meaning and Origin

Unani means medicines which are a symbol of life. The name is derived from the word ‘Ionian’ which originated in Greece. ‘Tibb’ means the knowledge of the states of the human body in health and decline of health, or in other words, medicine. ‘Tibb-E-Unani’, is hence an age old, time tested system of medicine dating back 5000 years to Greece.

Unani medicine, like any other form of medical science strives to find the best possible ways by which a person can lead a healthy life with the least or zero sickness. It prescribes drugs, diet, drinks and other regiments including codes of conduct which are conducive to the maintenance and promotion of positive health, as well as the prevention and cure of disease. The ultimate aim of these scientific prescriptions and prohibitions is the creation of a healthy society.

Traditional systems of medicine are no doubt prevalent in various countries of the world. But most of these are empirical. On the other hand, Unani and its allied branches have rational and scientific basic principles. It is distinct from other branches of medicine, as the drugs it uses are natural in their sources and forms. It emphasizes on retaining natural compounds which belong to the human body, and hence prescribes only natural remedies. Unani medicine believes that diseases can be kept at bay by the use of clean and fresh water, breathing clean air and consuming fresh food. Likewise, a balance should be maintained between the mind and the body so that the metabolic process can take place easily and the body waste evacuated. Unani medicine also believes that all life forms have originated from the sea.

Branches

There are eight specialized branches of Unani medicine –

• Internal medicine (Moalijat)

• Gynecology including Obstetrics and Pediatrics

• Diseases of the head and neck

• Toxicology

• Psychiatry

• Rejuvenation Therapy including Geriatrics

• Sexology

• Regimental Therapy

• Dietotherapy

• Hydrotherapy

Description

According to the Unani discipline as it stands today, the human body is composed of 7 natural and basic components called ‘Umoor e Tabaiyah’ which is responsible for maintenance of health.

These are: –

• Arkan (Elements)

• Mizaj (Temperament)

• Akhlaat (Humours)

• Aaza (Organs)

• Arwah (Vital forces or Neuro)

• Quwa (Faculties)

• Afaal (Functions)

The loss of any one of these basic components or alteration in their physical state could lead to disease, or even death. It is highly essential to consider all these factors so as to reach the correct diagnosis and consequently the correct line of treatment.

The Unani physicians describe that there is a special ability hidden in every individual called the defensive mechanism of the body or in the language of Unani – ‘Tabiyat-e-Muddabare Badan’. The ‘Tabiyat’ may be defined as the sum total structural function and psychological character of the human being. The ‘Tabiyat’ or nature is the best physician, and maintains the equilibrium of the four humours or ‘Akhlat’.

Their quantity and quality should be as per the natural chemical composition of the body.

The UNANI System of addressing whole health considers illness as an event serving to clean, purify, and balance us on the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual planes.

Allah (The one God of All) says in the Quran “There may be a thing decreed for you that you do not like that are good for you; and things that you like that are not good for you.” Imam al-Ghazzali (r.a.) expressed this idea as follows: “Illness is one of the forms of experience by which humans arrive at a knowledge of God; as He says, ‘Illnesses are my servants which I attached to My chosen friends.'” Just because something feels “good” does not necessarily mean it is of ultimate benefit to us. And conversely, if we have a moment of pain, we cannot dismiss this experience as “bad” without understanding how and what the result of these sensations will be. A “Healing Crisis” is the natural function of the body eliminating toxins: Vomiting, Nosebleeds, Diarrhea, Fevers, Sweating, and Frequent Urination these are avenues to full health.

While admitting the existence of microbes, the UNANI Tibb system maintains that it is the original imbalance of temperament that provides an altered biotic environment in which the viruses and bacteria can thrive. Treatments of killing off microbes can provide a temporary “cure”, but without restoring the humor to its proper balance, the disease will recur. So, the UNANI Tibb System is one of seeking balance between the Humors of the body and the temperament, mainly through proper metabolism of the bodies’ nourishment.

Obstacles in Unani medicine

Although a complete system of treatment, the Unani system, similar to other systems of medicine, has drawbacks in terms of application and effectiveness. The vast materia medica, from herbal and animal to mineral sources, as described in ancient Unani textbooks, is sometimes so vague that authenticity must be established by modern pharmacognostic assessments (by means of a basic, descriptive pharmacology) before medicines can be put to use. In addition, the use in Unani medicine of precious stones and minerals, the chief ingredients of many polyformulations (medicines containing multiple ingredients), is expensive. These items often are unavailable as well, thereby hindering effective treatment.

Source by Awnish Todi