A Review of Heart Mizaj Indices in Persian Medicine along with a Look at Chinese Medicine

Mostafa Alizadeh; Narjes Gorji; Vahid Ghasemi; Li Wei Hong; Morteza Mojahedi

doi:10.18502/tim.v10i2.19063

Mostafa Alizadeh Student Research Committee, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran
Narjes Gorji Traditional Medicine and History of Medical Sciences Research Center, Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran
Vahid Ghasemi Undersea Medical Research Center, Aja Medical University, Tehran, Iran
Li Wei Hong Changhai Hospital TCM & Moxibustion Group, Shanghai Naval Medical University, Shanghai, China
Morteza Mojahedi Department of History of Medicine, School of Traditional Medicine, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/tim.v10i2.19063

Keywords: : Persian medicine; Traditional Chinese medicine; Temperament; Personalized medicine; Mizaj; Integrative medicine

Abstract

Mizaj is a fundamental concept in Persian Medicine (PM), based on which individualized prevention and treatment of diseases is achieved. In addition to the general Mizaj of the body, each organ has a specific Mizaj, the determination of which requires extraction and standardization of diagnostic indices. The purpose of this study is to extract indices of heart Mizaj from PM written sources as a prerequisite to design a standard tool for heart Mizaj. The study was conducted by extracting concepts related to heart Mizaj from reliable PM textbooks. Subsequently, the keywords Mizaj, heart Mizaj, and their equivalents including heart, and syndrome differentiation in complementary medical systems including Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) were searched in reputable scientific databases such as PubMed, Scopus, and Magiran. Our findings indicated that out of the 196 obtained articles on the subject of Mizaj, 19 were related to indices of body and organ Mizaj. None of the two articles related to heart Mizaj specifically categorized the criteria for determining the Mizaj of this organ. In PM references, heart Mizaj indices are discussed in anthropometric, physiological and psychological categories. Pulse indices, chest width, and emotional states are the most frequently mentioned indices of heart Mizaj. Indices of heart status in TCM have substantial similarities with heart Mizaj indices in PM. The results of this study can be used to achieve a standard method of determining the Mizaj of the heart that helps provide recommendations in PM-based prevention and treatment of diseases.