Treatment Of Melancholy Through Persian Traditional Medicine

What Is Melancholia And What Are Its Symptoms?

Melancholy is a disease which is caused by burnt Soda (black bile). This burnt Soda can be produced by burning black bile (soda), yellow bile, phlegm, or blood. The accumulation place of this substance can be in the brain or other place of the body, and the vapors of burnt Soda, move towards the brain and cause melancholia and depression. This causes incomplete activity of the brain.

The early symptoms of melancholy are: bad thought, suspicion, fear without reason, apprehension, anxiety, restlessness, pessimism, irritability, isolation, and dizziness.

If the disease progresses and passes the first stages, symptoms are as follows: withdrawing from people, extreme pessimism, sadness, hatred, boredom, distress, aggression, predatory behavior, self-mutilation, self-harm, suicide, and homicide.

Melancholy shows more severe symptoms in melancholic temperament. In some cases, it appears with the feeling of seeing a horrifying object or seeing a ghost or feeling something in the throat, along with panic and extreme anxiety.

Different Types Of Melancholy

Doctors of traditional Iranian medicine, have divided melancholy to three types: cerebral, systemic (in the whole body) and Maraghi, which many of the symptoms of the cerebral type are similar to depression in common medicine:

1. If melancholia has involved the whole body, the patient has symptoms of thinness, stiffness of the pulse and dark color of the skin and a history of consuming black bile producing foods in the examination of a traditional medicine specialist.
2. If melancholy affects the brain, the patient may mention a history of insomnia, overthinking, and sitting under the sun with a history of consuming foods such as garlic, onions and leeks more than the balance and suffering from OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). Also, the head and face of a cerebral melancholia patient is thin, eyes are sunken and the pulse examination is slow, hard and minor in terms of Iranian medicine.
3. In Maraghi melancholia, patient with symptoms such as a lot of sour belching, feeling pain and burning in the stomach, shortness of breath, accumulation of saliva, flatulence, increased intestinal gas, hunger and a tendency to snacks, visits a traditional medicine doctor.

What Intensifies Melancholy? Crying, sadness, sorrow, anger Going to mourning ceremonies and cemeteries Hearing bad and sudden news Watching horror movies Eating dry foods which make constipation and dry mal-temperament, greasy foods and sweet foods Smoking Eating the following foods: beef, sausages, cabbage, cauliflower, tomatoes, mushrooms, garden pea, green beans, eggplant, sour fruits, sour lemon, lentils, beans, sour yogurt, curd, aged cheese, all hot spices, various sauces, tomato paste, sour grape juice, coffee, sour lemon juice, dark tea, ice, pickles, vinegar, pizza, chips.

General Treatments

The treatment of melancholia should be done according to the temperament. In general, these patients are treated with tonic foods and energetic medicines. Also, it is better to use heart and stomach medicines as well.

As long as melancholia is in the early stages, it is easy to treat, but if it becomes chronic, the treatment is difficult.

• Hair should be cut short.
• Use clean clothes, wear nice perfume.
• The living place should be calm and clean.
• The patient should always be happy and enjoy his/her life
• The weather where the patient is living, should be clean, moderate, and humid. There should be fragrant plants in his/her room and their living place should smells good.
• Before meals, take a shower and wash their head with lukewarm water and drink the water after coming out of the bathroom.
• Massage the body with sweet almond or sweet violet oil.
• Regular exercise.
• Regular bowel movement (no constipation).
• Do not sweat a lot.
• Sleeping at 10 pm and waking up at 6 am.

Use the following foods: lamb, celery, basil, fresh parsley, savory, tarragon, beetroot, turnip, carrot, wheat germ, Persian melon, grape, sweet plum, sugar cube, white mulberry, raisin, fig, date, pistachios, apples with skin, pears, honeydew melon, quince, coconut milk, sweet almonds, grains and beans, sesame, chickpeas, wheat, mung bean, organic cow butter, cow tallow, sesame oil, sweet almond oil, fresh local cheese, cream, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, saffron, honey, saffron syrup, almond porridge, sekanjebin, organic egg, cooked rice with dill, cooked rice with caraway, cooked rice with saffron, chickpea stew, sesame bread, date paste, grape paste, sesame seed paste, carrot jam, various halva, all kinds of porridge

Melancholy In Different Temperaments And Its Treatments 1- Melancholy in sanguine temperament Its symptoms include: mental disorder, excessive laughter, face and eyes redness, hyperemia of the blood vessels, heaviness of the head, rapid breathing, redness of the body’s skin. Those who have a lot of blood and have high blood pressure should first do the hijama under the supervision of a specialist or do the venesection on their left arm and should also avoid eating cabbage, goat meat, eggplant, lentils, beans, salty foods, and eggs.

In addition, you can mix 10 grams of lotus flowers, 20 grams of borage flowers, 30 grams of violet flowers, 40 grams of Assyrian plum, and 50 grams of jujube, grind, then divide it into 15 equal parts and soak each part in 1.5 glass of boiling water and boil it in the same water in the morning until it reaches half, then filter and sweeten the water and drink. for seven days.

If this disease is accompanied by insomnia, mix and grind the yellow Terminalia chebula fruit skin, black Terminalia chebula fruit skin and peeled emblic, each 30 grams, then mix them with 500 grams of beeswax-free honey and eat a syrup spoon every morning, noon and night.

2- Melancholy in melancholic temperament

Melancholy in melancholic temperament, shows the severe disease symptoms. Such as: hallucinations, intense crying and bad thoughts, loving someone intensely or being intensely interested in something, and body weakness.

For treatment, first do the venesection on the left arm, mix and boil chicory root, borage flower, and the skin of Terminalia chebula fruit, 5 grams each, then dissolve 10 grams of manna of hedysarum in the filtered water and drink every day.

Boil goat’s milk and pour some sekanjebin in it when removing it from the fire and drink, do 3 times a day. Go to the bathroom every morning, noon and night and wash your head and body with lukewarm water. Try to have fun and laugh a lot throughout the day.

Mix 5 grams of lotus flower and Lallemantia iberica seed, 10 grams of borage flower, 15 grams of violet flower and 200 grams of honey Gol-e-Ghand (a mixture rose flower and honey) and make it soft paste and eat put a syrup spoon every morning, noon and night and swallow with water or you can mix it with cold water and sugar and eat. (Avoid eating hot temperament foods).

3- Melancholy in choleric temperament

Some of its symptoms are: screaming, delirium, intense anger, staring like predatory animals and the warmth of the body skin.

First, excess yellow bile must be removed under the supervision of a doctor. Then, as a treatment, leek and coriander seeds, 5 grams each, Basfaij (Polypodium vulgare), lemon balm, borage flower, yellow chebulic myrobalan skin, black chebulic myrobalan skin, and Terminalia chebula skin, 10 grams each, Indian lavender 15 grams, and Roman mastic 20 grams. Mix all and grind, then mix with 500 grams of wax-free honey. Eat a syrup spoon every morning, noon and night.

4- Melancholy in phlegmatic temperament

Those who have a cold and wet temperament and have Melancholy, often feel bored and their body are cold.

These people should take Adiantum capillus-veneris and Shami epithymum, each 10 grams, Basfaij and Fennel, each 20 grams, senna, Terminalia chebula skin, and viola flower, 30 grams each, chicory root, jujube, Assyrian plum and Bargani plum, each 20 pieces. After mixing and grinding, boil a tablespoon of it in water every morning and night, filter and drink.

 

 

Resources:
1- The Qanoun in Medicine, Abu Ali Sina (Avicenna), p 246, (Persian).
2- Daeratol Maarif Giah Darmanie Iran (Noskhehaye Shafabakhsh), by Haji Sharifi, Ahmad (Attare Esfahani)