Functional constipation in children: non-pharmacological approach

Abstract

(medicine) as described by Avicenna on the opening pages of the al-Qānūn fī al-Tibb (The Cannon of Medicine) was “a science by which one learns the conditions of the human body in health and in the nonexistence of health to keep health or to bring it back”. According to Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine and other traditional Persian medicine (TPM) resources, the observance of the six essential qualities provides guidance to any medical intervention. These qualities include air, food and drink, physical activity and rest, sleep and wake, retention and release (the bodily functions of absorption and evacuation) as well as mood and mental states. According to Avicenna’s theory, there are different causes for diseases and ill health, and a single complaint may be linked to multiple combinations of excesses or deficiencies in these essential qualities. For example, the causes for developing constipation include mental stress, low food intake, dryness of food, low fluid intake, excessive urination, excessive sweating because of heavy exercise or hot weather (tissue dehydration), using astringent herbal medicines as well as intestinal sensory loss