COVID-19: traditional Persian Medicine opinion for pathophysiology

Abstract

Introduction: Since December 2019, COVID-19 has caused a pandemic. The use of effective and safe complementary therapies can be helpful in COVID-19 treatment. Traditional Persian medicine (TPM) is a kind of traditional medicine based on more than a thousand years of Persian medical practice. The purpose of this research is to introduce TPM opinion for the study of COVID-19 pathophysiology.

Materials and Methods: TPM literature was searched during centuries 4th to 13th AH, using these keywords: “Havaye vabaii” and “Homayat”; Databases (PubMed, PMC, Google Scholar, and Scopus) were also searched by: “fever”, “cough” “dyspnea”, etiology, pathophysiology of COVID-19. This research has been done in seven phases.

Results: According to TPM resources, the human body is comprised of four primary elements: earth, water, fire, and air, and their combination makes humors (Khelt) and temperaments (qualities). The ingested food undergoes four stages of digestion to produce four humors in body including blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. The balance of four humors is effective in health maintenance. Persian Medicine physicians believe, that all diseases can be prevented and cured by modification and avoidance of etiologic factors. We tried to explain, that humors change in exposure to Coronavirus due to hepatic dysfunction and based on TPM texts.

Conclusion: According to the results of the present research, some methods for effective prevention and treatment suggestions for COVID-19 can be proposed in the context of Persian medicine and based on the opinion of Persian medical scholars.