Traditional Medicine in Asia

Traditional Medicine in Asia
There are four stages of digestion (i)
hazm e medi – gastric digestion followed
by and including hazm e mevi – intestinal
digestion when food is turned into chyme
and chyle and carried to the liver by
mesentric veins, (ii) hazm e kabid – hepatic
digestion. In the course of this process chyle
is converted into four humours in varying
quantities, that of blood being the largest,
(iii) hazm e urooqui – vessel digestion, and
(iv) hazm e uzuvi – tissue digestion.
While the humours are flowing in the
blood vessels, every tissue absorbs its
nutrition by its quvat e jaziba, (attractive
power), and retains it by its quvat e masika
(retentive power). Then the quvat e hazima
(digestive power), in conjunction with quvat
e mushbah (assimilative power), converts
it into tissues. The waste material at this
stage is excreted by quvat e dafia (expulsive
power).
Aaza (Organs)
These are the various organs of the human
body. The health or disease of each
individual organ affects the state of health
of the whole body.
There are four organs of primary
importance in Unani medicine. These are
the brain, the heart, the liver, and the
testicles or the ovaries. Other organs are
servers to the main organs. This shows that
the brain is served by the nerves, the heart
by the arteries, the liver by the veins, the
testicles by spermatic vessels and the
ovaries by fallopian tubes. The heart is the
source or starting point of the vital power
or innate heat of the body. The brain is the
seat of the mental faculties, sensation and
movement. The liver is the seat of the
nutritive or the vegetative faculties. The
generative organs (testes, ovaries) give the
masculine and feminine form and
temperament, and form the generative
elements for propagation of the race.
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Arwah (Spirits)
These are considered to be the life force
and are therefore given importance in the
diagnosis and treatment of diseases. They
are defined as carriers of different powers.
Quwa (Faculties)
The faculties are of three kinds,
(a) Quvat e tabaiya: Natural power,
the power of metabolism and reproduction.
The seat of this power is the
liver but the process is carried on in
every tissue of the body. The process
of metabolism is completed by two
factors, namely,
� Nutritive power, which is served by
four powers. These are (i) Attractive
power, (ii) Retentive power, (iii)
Digestive power, and (iv) Expulsive
power.
� Growing power is responsible for
the construction and growth of the
human organism and is served by
three powers. These are (i)
Receptive power, (ii) Power to retain
nutrition, and (iii) Assimilative
power.
As far as reproduction is
concerned, the function is
accompanied by two powers which
are (i) Generative power, and
(ii) Forming power.
(b) Psychic power: Nervous and psychic
power. Its seat is the brain and it is
constituted by two powers,
� Perceptive power, which conveys
impression or sensations;
� Motive power, which brings about
movement as a response to
sensation.
Perceptive power works in two
directions: External perceptive, when it
recognizes objects outside, and is served
by the five senses and internal perceptive,