Treatment of Parkinson's disease in Iranian ancient medicine.

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most frequent neurodegenerative disorder in the world.1 It affects 1% of the population over 65 years. In PD patients it can be seen that almost 60% of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra of the mid brain are lost.2 Due to the disease motor symptoms such as bradykinesia, rigidity and resting tremors exist.3 The most common drugs, albeit with side effects, used to treat this disease include: levodopa, selegiline, amantadine and so forth.4 Non of the current therapies can to exchange in neurodegenerative procedure of the disease, and just symptomatic treatment caried out to enhance the life quality in the diseases.1 The clinical symptoms and treatment strategies of the disease were described by different Iranian physicians in the past centuries. Iranian traditional physicians such as Abu Bakr Mohammad Ibn Zakariya Razi (9th−10th century AD) in book of Man La Yahzaroho al-Tabib,5 Seyyed Mohammad Hossein Aghili Khorasani (17th−18th century AD) in book of Makhzan al-Advieh6 and Mohammad Mumen Mir Mohammad Zaman Tonekaboni, (17th century AD) in book of Tohfat al-Mumenin,7 also mentioned pharmaceutical agents for treatment guidelines as following in Table 1 below: Considering of these elements may be give a new vision in the treatment of this disorder. Hossein Jalaei Nobari was involved in drafting the article and revising it critically for important intellectual content, and Jalil Rashedi was involved in concept, design of study and translation. We thank the staff of the traditional medicine library of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. The authors declare no conflict of interest. The lead author (Jalil Rashedi) affirms that this manuscript is an honest, accurate, and transparent account of the study being reported; that no important aspects of the study have been omitted; and that any discrepancies from the study as planned (and, if relevant, registered) have been explained. Not applicable.