"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food," -Hippocrates,
(The father of modern medicine two-and-a-half thousand years ago.)
“It is, therefore, evident that it is possible to cure by foods, aliments and fruits; but as today the science of medicine is imperfect, this fact is not yet fully grasped. When the science of medicine reaches perfection, treatment will be given by foods, aliments, fragrant fruits and vegetables, and by various waters, hot and cold in temperature." - Abdu’l-Bahá
"Can we eat to starve cancer? ... add natural extract resveratrol from red grapes also in red wine, which inhibit abnormal angiogenesis by 60%... add berries, green tea and soy... What we eat is chemotherapy 3 times per day."
-Dr. William Li - TED2010 - Presentation Feb 2010
"There is a fountain of youth, and it is circulating in the Qi/Chi of live whole foods flowing through bok choy, the likes of shitake mushrooms, resveratrol in black and red grapes and various herbs." - Saquina Akanni
The Unani Medical System is an alternative medicine system which mirrors quantum medicine, as it postulates everything in the universe is energy, consciousness, mind, body and spirit. It is the source of the Mediterranean Diet.
Unani is an Arabic word that literally means "medicine and healing of the physical, mental, and spiritual realms." Unan means "of the Greeks" in recognition of its Greek origin. In practice throughout the world, it is most often called Unani Tibb.
Unani medicine owes its origin to Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.) and his numerous followers. Considered the Father of Medicine,
it was Bukrath (Hippocrates) who freed medicine from the realm of superstition and magic and gave it the status of science. Other Greek medical masters, such as Dioscourides and Jalinoos (Galen) 131-210 AD, who we recognize as the forerunners of Western herbal medicine, are also considered founders of Unani medicine. Many scholars enriched his system including Al-Razi (Rhazes) 850-925 A.D. and Abu Ali Ibn Sina (Avicenna) 980-1037 A.D. are also noteworthy.
Unani Medicine was the path of modern medicine until the shift in consciousness to materialism. It continued to spread east and was further enriched by imbibing the best of contemporary systems of medicine in Persia, the middle eastern and far eastern countries. In India the Unani system found immediate favor with the masses and spread all over the country. So if you ever wondered how those spices, garlic olive, olive oil and exotic flavors got to the Iberian Peninsula it was immigration of the Moors thanks to Spain. It's the Moorish heritage that shows up in agriculture, architecture and the food enhanced with the use of ground almonds and spices, such as saffron, cinnamon, nutmeg and sesame in those savory dishes hence, the Mediterranean diet - food therapy!
"In fact, dissemination, of most of these agricultural commodities, originated from what grew the Fertile Crescent. Three civilizations were responsible for this diffusion: The Phoenicians, The Greeks (and a little bit the Romans), The Moors and Christopher Columbus who brought back the potato and the tomato. Ayurveda and Christian Medicine, Hindu and the Christian doctors joined forces, translating important ancient Greek medical texts: Hippocrates 5th century B.C. and Galen's work 2nd century A.D. Thereafter pathology and psychological assessments were linked to balancing the Four Humours to prevent dis-ease. Diet headed the list of the therapeutic remedies.
In 948 A.D. the Byzantium Emperor sent an illustrated copy of Discoride's de Materia Medica. This too, was translated. Discoride's work became as a basis for pharmacopoeia: the identifying of plants, their particular curative powers and how to prepare compound medications using them. During the reign of the Caliph Abd ar-Rahman 111 the green revolution of the al-Andalus had reached its peak. Excellent agronomy, agricultural studies and irrigation technologies reaped exceptional harvests – three times a year.
There was a demographic explosion: people were very healthy. Diet nutrition was the base-reason for this success. The diet of the Greeks and the Romans succeeded only according to one's wealth status. It was the Moors who liberated knowledge, implementing a good diet with healthy living. Doctors saw fit to encourage al-Andalusians to live a healthy lifestyle. The basis of that diet is what forms the Mediterranean Diet today."
What is the mediterranean diet?
For the Mediterranean people it is not a set diet, but rather a lifestyle or food therapy. Their diet incorporates the basics of healthy eating, plus a splash of flavorful olive oil and perhaps a glass of good red wine, among other components characterizing the traditional cooking style of countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. This healthy diet lifestyle includes whole foods and no chemicals; whole grains, fruits, beans and vegetables, yogurt, fish and diary with limited red meat.
Basically the diet is food therapy, food is the medicine and medicine is the food in the so called Mediterranean diet. Therefore, it is not surprising to learn that people following the Mediterranean diet in other countries have a lower incidence of heart disease and cancer. The Mediterranean diet is simply "food therapy" medicine for the body, mind, spirit, emotions and good food for the soul. It is a healthy eating pattern and a lifestyle that also includes walking (out in nature) and sport exercises like soccer and dance, rather than running on a treadmill in a gym.
Four Mediterranean nations: Italy, Greece, Morocco, and Spain have recently filed a petition to have their staple diet, commonly known around the world as simply, ‘The Mediterranean Diet’, listed as a cultural heritage item by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This committee is designed to recognize natural and cultural sites around the world in order to protect them from any alteration. Italy, Greece, Morocco, and Spain want to protect the diet’s integrity and states it is becoming endangered, because it is being changed in areas around the world.
Back to what happened to destroy "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food" in Western and American medicine, in the early sixteenth century there was a shift in philosophy when Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes both came to similar conclusions in relation to the state of the science and philosophy of their time. Descartes’s philosophy was dualistic, making a complete split, dividing reality into two separate realms – mind and matter. In Descartes's philosophy, the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter and that all things are composed of material. All phenomena including consciousness are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance, if I can not see it, count and measure it - it is not real. Hence, Western medicine consciousness shifted away from natural foods and remedies and moved toward isolated medicines that could withstand double blind studied and be measured for better living through chemistry, which included our food.
Carl Jung wrote, “The Western form of consciousness is by no means the same as consciousness, pure and simple. Rather it is a historically determined, geographically limited entity that only represents a fraction of humanity. The extension of our form of consciousness should not take place at the expense of other forms of consciousness; instead it should come about through the cultivation of those elements in our own psyche, which are analogous to the qualities of the alien psyche - just as the East is obliged to cultivate our technology, our science and (our) industry.”
Jung’s sage recommendation was many years ahead of his time, and since it did not inspire even his most inveterate critics to take exception to it, it was quickly forgotten. What’s the source of the problem? The source of the problem is the consciousness and the language. Both create a community of scientist with a finite reservoir of potential solutions to a problem, when those are exhausted, the scientific progress is halted.
Unani Medicine is modern medicines version of quantum medicine and energy healing. Unani Medicine was unchallenged for a long time even after the Mughal period and spread with Muslims and Islam into northern Africa and northern India. The Unani system however, suffered a setback during the colonial period for want of official patronage and is in fact the least known therapeutic system today. Here is a great book to get you started: The Traditional Healer's Handbook by Hakim G. M. Chishti, ND.
I must admit I was also in the dark on Unani Medicine until I had to find an Alternative Medicine that began with the letter "U" for this book. While alternative medicines like Ayurvedic and Chinese Medicines or therapies like Reiki and crystal therapy are somewhat known and a person might have some idea of what it is; few know or recognize Unani Medicine as par with Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Dare to peer through its vale and I am pretty sure you will appreciate its wonders and value par with the other major alternative medicine systems.
Unani Medicine uses the Four Element system: Earth, Water, Fire, and Air and the four homours. Each of the Four Elements have specific qualities. Earth is cold and dry; Water is cold and moist; Fire is hot and dry; Air is hot and moist. If these elements are present in the human body in balance and harmony, the temperature is normal. However, if any one of the elements is dominate, the temperature become out of balance causing dis-harmony leading to disease.
Unani Medicine evolved with the Semitic people and is still practiced in the "Holy Land" where herbs grow ramped and in the Muslim world with the name Hikmat or Unani-Tibb for the past 13 centuries. Its medical practitioners are called Hakims. Unani is an Arabic spelling of Ionian (meaning Greek - al-Yunaan). Medicine in ancient Greece was based on the concept of balancing body humors and this foundation remains the fundamental principle.
The Unani system identifies the presence of four humors in the body: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. A healthy body maintains a dynamic equilibrium of these humours, and disorders arise when environmental or intrinsic factors influence a shift out of this equilibrium and one of the humours dominate. Humors either fell out of balance, which might yield diseases (depending on circumstances), or were restored to balance to heal diseases. This system has Four Humours: Hot, Cold, Wet and Dry and Four Elements: Earth, Water, Fire, and Air thus differing from the Ayurvedic medical system of Three Doshas and the Chinese medical system of Five Elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. However, with all three food is the medicine and medicine is the food.
Recall in Ayurvedic Medicine, the system that derived from India, all matter is organized into three main elements, energy qualities, or doshas: Vata, Pita and Kapha. Each person is made up of a unique blending of these three doshas. In most people, one dosha predominates, affecting personality and body type. Health is maintained by balancing all three. Vata dosha is associated with coolness, dryness and activity; pitta dosha is sharp, hot and quick; kapha dosha has the qualities of heaviness, coolness and stability. Food are use to balance the three energy types or Doshas.
Recall that according to Traditional Chinese Medicine food therapy is part of tradition and daily life. Food therapy is the practice of using the energy healing and nutrition from natural whole foods, instead of medications. Simply called Chinese Nutrition, Chinese food therapy dates back as early as 2000 B.C. and documentation was found in The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, also known as the Huang Di Nei Jing and was most important in forming the basis of Traditional Chinese Medicine food therapy. Classified according to the Five Elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water foods are respectively classified into five food groups by the four seasons (spring, summer, late summer, autumn, and winter, as well as five tastes or flavors: Wood, spring, sour; Fire, summer, bitter; Earth, late summer, sweet; Metal, autumn, pungent and Water, winter, salty. In addition foods are classified by their natures, characteristics and properties.
The philosophy of Yin and Yang are used in the sphere of food therapy and cooking. Yang foods increase the body's heat (e.g. raise the metabolism), while Yin foods decrease the body's heat (e.g. lower the metabolism). As a generalization, Yang foods tend to be dense in food energy, especially energy from fat, while Yin foods tend to have high water content. Ideally it is beneficial to eat both types of food to keep the body in balance. When one eats too much Yang food the energy create excessive heat and one might suffer from acnes, indigestion or bad breath, while one who eats too much Yin food may experience cloudy mental state, feeling heavy, lethargic or anemic.
Medical practitioners or Hakims used examination of pulse, urine, and stool to determine which humour is dominant at the time. Some Hakims also examined the blood pressure and heartbeats. The Hakims then questioned, palpated, and observed the person to investigate the nature of the imbalance. An herbal formula was prepared to bring the humors back into equilibrium.
A New Modern Medicine Revolution
I stumbled upon a TED video featuring Dr. William Li presenting on food for therapy and the new medical revolution, while researching Unani Medicine and Baha'i Medicine. Dr Li speaks of a new way to think about food as a therapy, treating cancer and other diseases that thrive on abnormal Angiogenesis - blood vessels that grow to feed cancer cells. Dr Li explains that these foods are called anti-angiogenesis, because they prevent the growth of these blood vessels that feed tumors and cancer. It also works for obesity to cut off abnormal supply of blood vessels to shrink fat. You can inhibit abnormal angiogenesis by regulating healthy set-points. "The first (and best) step is eating cancer-fighting foods that cut off the supply lines and beat cancer at its own game." - Dr William Li
The TED presentation is called Can We Eat to Starve Cancer? about "Angiogenesis", food for therapy and illuminates a very real and practical path that is being taken by modern science. Dr. William Li heads the Angiogenesis Foundation, a nonprofit that is re-conceptualizing global disease. Now this is truly Quantum Medicine and energy healing in action. It is astonishing when we remind ourselves that all natural medicines including Traditional Chinese Medicine to Unani Medicine, which is practiced in the middle east and Persia use food therapy as medicine. Abdu’l-Baha’s words preceded this research by more than 100 years.
One of the foods mentioned in Dr. William Li's new medical revolution presentation for food therapy is resveratrol. It is very interesting that resveratrol is an anti-angiogenesis (regulates abnormal angiogenesis) which is found in red grapes and red wine. However, resveratrol has been used for thousands of years in Traditional Chinese Medicne and is available today in an affordable form called Japanese Knotwood a trans-resveratrol known as Hu Zhang.
Hu Zhang or Japanese Knotwood is Resveratrol
The Lost History of the Modern Anti-Aging Breakthrough of Resveratrol is Hu Zhang or Japanese Knotweed.
Medical researchers first observed the benefits of food as a therapy and coined the phrase "French Paradox" to describe the lower incidence of heart disease and cholesterol hidden somewhere in the French diet, even in the presence of a high fat diet in the Mediterranean population, popularizing the Mediterranean Diet. Resveratrol in red wine was identified as the source for the cholesterol and heart disease lowering effects.
The answer to the so-called "French paradox" may be found in red wine. More specifically, it may reside in small doses of resveratrol, a natural constituent of grapes, pomegranates, red wine and other foods, according to a new study by an international team of researchers. - Science Daily
The specific constituent ingredient of red wine has been identified as the key ingredient that produces these amazing health and longevity benefits is the potent molecule called "trans-resveratrol" (more commonly, "resveratrol"), and is being aggressively researched as a potential treatment for a variety of chronic and deadly diseases.
The benefits of resveratrol antioxidant and longevity claims have now been well documented, but the forgotten relationship of resveratrol to a Chinese herb known as "Hu Zhang" is practically unknown. Hu Zhang translates as "Tiger Cane" and has many names in Chinese Medicine, however resveratrol is commonly known as Japanese knotweed and has been used safely for over 1,500 years in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The the translation name arises from the variegated color of its stem, apparently reminding the ancient Chinese of the colors of the tiger. It is similar to a bamboo and grows wild and rapid.
Hu Zhang or Japanese Knotwood is extraordinarily potent and completely natural source of resveratrol. Hu Zhang is documented in the Chinese Herbal Medicine Materia Medica as Radix ety Rhizoma Polygoni Cuspidati and has alternative names such as Da Chang Zhang, and Ku Zhang in Japanese medicine. The indications listed are: invigorates the blood, dispels stasis, unblocks the channels, clears heat, discharges toxins and stops pain. These observations resonate quite closely with the observed "French Paradox" for; preventing heart disease (by invigorating the flow of blood), and lower cholesterol (unblocks the channels and dispelng stasis or stagnation), as well as many of the other health benefits that resveratrol provides. Hu Zhang or Japanese Knotwood is the trans-resveratrol used in it's highest organic quality in Salu International's Resveratrol Blend.
I can't tell you how happy I was to hear Dr. William Li include the foods I use in my Fountain of Youth System in his lecture: soy (tofu), green tea, bok choy, shatake mushrooms and resveratrol - all anti-angiogenesis foods.
Here is Dr. William Li's video link:
Can We Eat to Starve Cancer?
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/859
Here is one of my comments on a Resveratrol article:
Resveratrol
I agree with Dr. Simms on Resveratrol. I started my research last year after all the hooplah on the internet and TV. I tried 5 different brands and found one on the internet with 500mg of Trans-resveratrol. I took 2 every day for a month. The other brands came in 100mg some Trans-resveratrol some not. I have to admit I see the benefits in taking this supplement. It may or may not prolong my life, but it did increase my energy, endurance, some weight loss, not to mention my skin and hair. I look younger! A friend saw me last week after one year and she raved about my skin and how young I looked. She made my day. Resveratrol seems to make my systems work more efficiently. Make sure you get at least 500mg of trans-resveratrol a day, if you want to experience any results. I have my own health regime and supplements, but Resveratrol is potentially the most revolutionary discovery I made! Wishing you Health, Wealth, Prosperity and Forever Young:-)
Saquina Akanni of CA @ Feb 23, 2010 04:11:52 AM
Thank you for your contribution on Unani Medicine and Food Therapy
Pictures: http://www.bencaodao.com
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080604074908.htm
Mediterranean diet and food pyramid picture:
http://en.wikipedia.org
“Self Awareness Universe”, Amit Goswami, Ph.D. Angiogenesis Video: William Li: Can We Eat to Starve Cancer?
TED: The Bahai Faith and Unani Medicine:
To Your Health, Wealth and Prosperity
Love,
Saquina Akanni
The Prosperity Doctor
Wow! Have you ever noticed how children see the wonder in simple things and are wowed? My son was always wowed by the wonders of nature and simple things in life. Now my grandson amplifies that by ten. He wows himself and everyone around him. Just playing in the water of a fountain wows "Little Einstein" Jabril. He knows how to create his own Wow Therapy!
Have you ever been wowed by something you have seen or experienced? Take a minute and remember.
I am wowed by what I have seen and have been wowed by many experiences. I am taking this opportunity to share a couple with you. It is my intention to serve you in that something here will impact you to experience your own Wow Therapy! I am wowed by eyesight, Quantum Physics and zero point field energy infusion. I am wowed by some amazing experiences that have transformed my life. Here is one - my Wow Now 90 Day Challenge experience:
What wows you?
