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The main principle of the oriental medicine - the issues of health preservation in the works of Avicenna
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Khamraev Muhamadi, Academy of national medicine of Uzbekistan E-mail: academ_avicenna@yahoo.com
The main principle of the oriental medicine - the issues of health preservation in the works of Avicenna
Abstract: About preservation of health and hygiene in «the Canon of Medicine» and other poetic and prose tractates of Avicenna.
Keywords: preservation of health, hygiene, physical exercise, activity, food, age, massage.
«I state: medicine is a science studying a human body in respect of its health or loss of health in order to preserve health and regain health if it was lost...» [1, 5]. It is notable that, grounding his understanding of medicine, Ibn Sina brings the preservation of health to the forefront. His views largely correspond to the tasks of modern medical science and practice.
On the assumption of such understanding of tasks of medicine, Ibn Sina formulated the rules of health preservation and created a code of hygienic requirements based on his reasonable findings.
Ibn Sina wrote: «... The main thing in the art of health preservation is the balance of required (general) factors. Primary attention should be paid to the balance of seven factors. They are the essence:
1) balance of character;
2) choice of food;
3) cleaning (of the body) from excess things;
4) preservation of (right) bodily structure;
5) improvement of what is inhaled through one’s nose;
6) adjustment of clothes and
7) balance of physical and spiritual activity. The latter includes, to some extent, sleep and awakening» [1, 296-298]. In such short form, Ibn Sina set forth the laws of health, listed internal and external forces and reasons that influence the preservation of health.
The wideness and diversity of the approach of Ibn Sina to factors ensuring the health of healthy people should be noted. He considers them depending on the age, state of health, inclination to diseases, peculiarities of the seasons of a year etc.
The names of separate sections of the third part of the first book of «the Canon», which is called «About preservation of health», certify the originality and deep medical views of Ibn Sina. Ibn Sina was the first to give a medical ground ofthe impact ofphysical exercises on the strengthening of a human organism. He believed that they were the main condition of health preservation. He wrote: «... A physical exercise is a voluntarily exercise that leads to deep uninterrupted breathing» [1, 312]. A person who systematically does physical exercises and adheres to a routine does not need medicine. «Physical exercises together with right adherence to other routines are the strongest factors
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Section 6. Medical science
preventing the over-fullness and increasing the natural warmth and making the body light, because they generate slight warmth and eliminate the excess things that accumulate daily» [1, 314].
Ibn Sina divided physical exercises into «small or big, very strong or weak, slow or fast... There are also anergic exercises» [1, 314]. According to him, physical exercises included the tug-of-war, fist-fighting, arrow shooting, brisk walking, javelin throwing, fencing, horse-riding, swinging both arms, swinging on a marry-go-round, rowing, chovgan (a game similar to modern polo), stone lifting etc.
Understanding a close relation between separate systems of the organism, Ibn Sina noted specific distinctive features typical for every organ. Chest muscles and respiratory organs can be developed by pronouncing sounds in low, high or medium voice. All organs of the human body are exercised during inhaling and exhaling.
According to Ibn Sina, starting physical exercises, one should follow two conditions: firstly, the body should be clean; secondly, the consumed food should be digested. It is not recommended to do physical exercises on empty stomach, especially strong physical exercises, because they «exhaust strengths».
Herewith, Ibn Sina strongly recommends taking into consideration the age of both healthy and ill person. An attempt of the scientist to establish age periodization is interesting.
He wrote: «There are four age groups: period of growth (also) called adolescence that ends at around thirty; prime of life that is period of beauty that ends at around thirty-five or forty; period of decline., i. e. age of elderly people that ends at around sixty and decrepit age when strengths weaken, i. e. senility that continues till the end of life. But adolescence is divided into infancy, when organs of a newborn are not ready yet for movements and standing up and young age, the period after standing up and before strengthening (of organs), when the teeth haven’t fallen completely and haven’t grown. Then, there is a period of growth, i. e. the period after strengthening and appearance of (adult) teeth, (but) before sexual maturity; then, there is preadolescence and sexual maturity, (continuing until), the face (of a young man) is covered with body hair coat; then, there is adolescence (continuing) until the growth stops» [1, 19].
Physical and hygienic recommendations for children, young people and «matured» adults are very reasonable and consistent.
Describing physical development of a child from birth to adolescence and the period of manhood, Ibn Sina gives detailed rules of taking care of an infant, their feeding, bathing, sleep, effect of the sun, air and water on a human organism, convincing of the usefulness of physical exercises for the development of sense organs (eyesight, hearing, sense of touch).
Ibn Sina gave big importance to conditioning of the organism and the usage of natural forces — air, water and the sun in combination with physical exercises. «The Canon» describes in detail a good effect of «good» air on a child: «Good air is an air, which is not mixed with steams or smokes
of a foreign body, and which is open air not limited with walls or roof. Healthy air is clean, without a mixture of steams coming from lakes, swamps or marshy lands as well as places where vegetables grow, particularly, cabbage and trees of bad nature such as nut and fig trees» [1, 161].
In the opinion of Ibn Sina, conditioning of the human organism is performed during a long stay in the open air. He advised to gradually increase the time of staying in the open air combining air bathes with movement, walking, games and physical exercises.
Ibn Sina reckoned that conditioning of the organism of young and elderly people can be performed in the form of wiping the body with water and washing themselves in a steam house. Speaking about the usefulness of a steam house, he advised not to overuse it. «... One shouldn’t stay in the steam house for long. One should only take a bath and continue while the skin continues reddening and swelling; one should leave the steam house when reddening starts disappearing» [1, 130]. If a person spends a lot of time in the steam house, «it facilitates the outpour of the excess things to the weakened organ, makes the body slack, affects the nerves and eliminates natural warmth; it spoils appetite» [1, 197].
In the hygienic recommendations of Ibn Sina, one can see a few statements about the fact that water renders infectious diseases, thus, he justly recommended to drink boiled or filtered water. Ibn Sina repeatedly emphasized that an important condition of health preservation is the maintenance of clean body and «cleanliness of everything that the body touches» [1, 208].
One of the means of conditioning of the organism is sunbathing. If one does it correctly, the metabolism improves, as a result of which the organism grows and develops better; it becomes alert and strong. «Sunbathing eliminates the excess things, causes perspiration, destroys chronic coldness, headache and strengthens brain» [1, 198-199].
Massage is an important remedy for exhaustion. Ibn Sina distinguished between strong and weak massage. Strong massage strengthens the organism and weak massage softens the body. The purpose of the massage is to tighten «quaggy organs», harden «soft organs» and soften «hard organs». Ibn Sina divided massage into preparatory and reparative. Preparatory massage is used before physical exercises and reparative massage is used after them. It is a «calming» massage; it contributes to elimination of the excess things that stayed in muscles in order to prevent fatigue.
Apart from his main work «the Canon of Medicine», Avicenna pays a lot of attention to the issues of health preservation in several poetic and prose tractates about the preservation of health and hygiene. They include:
1. «Urjuza fi ‘l-tibb fi hifz as-siza» («Medical text about health preservation»).
2. «Urjuza fi ‘l-tibb fi-l fusul al-arba» («Medical text about four seasons of the year»). It talks about what should be done during each season, which medicine, food and drinks it is allowed to consume.
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The main principle of the oriental medicine - the issues of health preservation in the works of Avicenna
3. «Risala fi’t-tadbir al-musafirin» («Tractate about a routine of travelers»). It explains the routine during sailing, treatment of eyes in case of snow blindness, removal of pain in the extremities caused by cold in winter etc.
4. «Tadbir manzil al-’askar» («Arrangement of camping for troops»). The tractate particularly explains that «in summer, troops should camp on the hills or elevated areas..., soldiers have multiple diseases.».
5 «Risala fi-hifz as-siha» («Tractate about preservation of health»). It is dedicated to different measures of personal hygiene and prevention of a disease. The tractate consists of13 chapters that speak about four qualities; balanced character; human body and what is required to preserve health; daily routine; toothpick and its usefulness; physical exercises and their usefulness; structure of a steam house and ways of its usage; food consumption; wine, its usefulness and harm; sleep; blood-letting; laxatives and other measures of defecation; choice of a day suitable for this or that measure.
6. «Daf’ al-Madarr al-Kulliya ‘an l-Abdan al-insaniya» («Elimination of all damages to a human body by way of correcting different mistakes in the routine»). This is the biggest tractate of Ibn Sina dedicated to different issues of hygiene and ways and means of elimination of harmful consequences as well as mistakes in the routine. The work consists of seven articles: list of mistakes; air; steam house; food; water and drinks; activities (apart from physical exercises, they include psychical activities and sexual intercourse); defecation (blood-letting, ejaculation; laxatives, diuretics, sudorifics). Over 20 lists of the tractate certify about its wide distribution. One of the copies of the tractate (written on the marginal of the book of ar-Razi «About the usefulness of food») was found by us in the collection of the fundamental library of Tashkent Medical Institute (inv. № 4). The Arabic original published in Cairo in 1887 was later translated into Persian and Latin, then in Uzbek in 1978 and Russian in 1980.
References:
1. Abu Ali Ibn Sina (Avicenna). The Canon of Medicine. Vol. I. - Tashkent, Published by «Fan», - 1982.
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