Risk of bias across studies
|
15 |
Due to the lack of papers and review articles on TIM viewpoints, searching was difficult and we focused on Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine, which could cause a bias |
11 |
Additional analyses
|
16 |
We do not have any additional analysis |
11 |
Results
|
Study selection
|
17 |
For the first part of the study, we found that Avicenna classifies nutrition intervention into four categories: food reduction, food prohibition, food increase, and a specific dietary intervention (taadil e ghaza). In this paper, we discuss his views on the role of food reduction in the treatment of diseases.Given the importance of food reduction to treating diseases and maintaining health, this study was performed by the library method using Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine, and related content was then extracted and examined from the resources of modern medicine.For the second part we searched for “food reduction” between 2000 and 2015 in Google scholar and found 1220 articles. We then selected articles in English, of which there were 87. Some of these articles were not related to our study and we selected only those in which the principles of food reduction were described, of which there were 17. Finally, articles without a PMID or DOI number were eliminated, leaving 15 articles. |
4 |
Study characteristics
|
18 |
Refer to item 17 |
4 |
Risk of bias within studies
|
19 |
Due to the lack of papers and review articles on TIM viewpoints, searching was difficult and we focused on Avicenna’s Canon, which could cause a bias. |
4 |
Results of individual studies
|
20 |
Refer to item 17 |
4 |
Synthesis of results
|
21 |
Refer to item 17 |
4 |
Risk of bias across studies
|
22 |
Due to the lack of papers and review articles on TIM viewpoints, searching was difficult and we focused on Avicenna’s Canon, which could cause a bias. |
4 |
Additional analysis
|
23 |
We do not have any additional analysis. |
4 |
Discussion
|
Summary of evidence
|
24 |
Although in the majority of studies we reviewed, the first mentions of food reduction are attributed to McCay in 1935, it has been well noted in traditional Iranian medicine sources, and numerous methods have been explained for intervention in the nutrition of an individual. These include prohibition, reduction, and increase in the amount of food in a variety of diseases and conditions. According to Avicenna, many diseases can be treated by stylizing food and especially reducing it. Avicenna also mentions the benefits of fasting as a reduction in food intake in many cases. For example, fasting was noted in the treatment of fevers and some types of headache.Fasting and food reduction are useful not only for treatment of diseases but have also been presented as one of the best ways to stay healthy. The emphasis is not only on calorie reduction to be effective. The old methods of using various properties of foods to maintain balance of a healthy person and compensate for deviations from standards of patient safety and satisfaction provide valuable tips that today’s medicine is heavily in need of for its success.Unfortunately, despite numerous studies that have been done in the literature on food reduction, it is not today described in books and current clinical methods as it should be. Practical principles explained by traditional Iranian medicine, in particular Avicenna, could open an important and quite uncomplicated strategies in the prevention and treatment of diseases.This study describes for the first time that Avicenna recognized the benefits of food reduction many centuries before 1935, when modern medicine believes it was introduced. However, because of the lack of papers and review articles on TIM viewpoints, searching was difficult and we focused on the Canon of Medicine. Defending the rich sources of traditional Iranian medicine also requires numerous clinical studies in various fields, carried out in a documented and scientific way. These studies may then be used as guidance for the treatment of many diseases for which currently there are no effective treatments or which have complicated therapies.In our future works, we will review food reduction in TIM based on the obtained classification. We need to mention some limitations that we faced during this study. TIM is the combination of different medical traditions from Greece, Egypt, India, and China from more than 4000 years ago. It is a temperamental medicine with specific structure different from other schools, and therefore is not completely comparable to other traditional medicine schools. Consequently, reviews and articles on other traditional medicines were not very helpful.In addition, due to the lack of papers and review articles on TIM viewpoints, we studied food reduction based on the Canon of Avicenna. Because accessing the original books was not as easy as accessing modern articles, it was not possible to review all the traditional manuscripts on this topic. Furthermore, humoral medicine is a very complex issue and we limited the scope of this study to a brief summary of the main issues involved. However, we hope that this study will stimulate some readers to look at this issue from a different perspective. |
10 |
Limitations
|
25 |
Refer to item 24 |
10 |
Conclusions
|
26 |
Refer to item 24 |
10 |
Funding
|
Funding
|
27 |
We do not have any funding. |
14 |