The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Faith Healers and Psychiatric Illnesses: A Systematic Review of the Literature in the Arab World.

Faith healing is a traditional healing method involving spiritual and faith-based practices performed by a religious medicine man referred to here as a faith healer. The practice of faith healing is widespread in the Arab World for treating a range of mental disorders. This research aims to review the literature concerned with faith healing practice in the Muslim Arab population. Based on the results of the review, there are seven distinct aspects of faith healing. These include the characteristics of persons who visit faith healers, the rate of visits, the symptoms for which visits are made, the treatment methods, the general stigma and prevalent attitudes toward mental disorders in the Arab world, and the perceived effectiveness of faith healing as applied to mental disorders. The results of the review show that many patients with mental disorders, as a first resort, prefer to seek the help of faith healers (or other non-professional trusted counselors) rather than approach mental health services. This is due to several factors: the misconceptions around causes of mental illness in Arab traditions and culture and the stigma associated with mental illness. As an overall determination derived from the literature, Arabs remain highly reliant on faith healers as helpful resources for dealing with mental health problems. In conclusion, the recommendation to public health authorities is to consider including faith healers in the support system for mental health and cease viewing them as barriers to optimal care.

Ethnopharmacological Study of Medicinal Plants Used in the Treatment of Skin Burns in the Arab World.

Traditional healers are often practiced in rural areas owing to cultural beliefs and are known to provide various forms of healthcare and home remedies. Patients in the Mediterranean region rely on traditional medicine to cure a variety of health concerns, like skin burns. This study was conducted to identify the various practices used by traditional healers for treating skin burns. The survey was conducted in 18 Arab countries, including Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Bahrain, Palestine, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Lebanon, Yemen, Tunisia, Oman, Morocco, and Sudan. Between September 2020 and July 2021, an online questionnaire was administered to 7530 participants from 12 Asian and 5 African countries. The survey was designed to gather information from common medicinal plant users and herbalists on their practices as specialists in using various herbal and medicinal plant products for diagnosis and treatment. Among the participants, 2260 had a scientific background in plant application, and the study included one phytotherapeutic professional. The crude-extraction technique was favored, by Arabic folk, for plant preparation over the maceration and decoction method. Olive oil was the most commonly used product among participants as an anti-inflammation and for scar reduction. Aloe vera, olive oil, sesame, Ceretonia siliqua, lavender, potato, cucumber, shea butter, and wheat flour are used as crude drugs to reduce pain because of their analgesic and cooling effects. The present study is the first database of medicinal plants with burn-healing properties conducted in Arab countries. These plants can be employed in the search for new bioactive substances through pharmacochemical investigations, as well as in the development of new formulations containing a combination of these plants.

Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi (936-1013 CE), Icon of Medieval Surgery.

Abu al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi (936-1013 common era [CE]), also known in the West as Albucasis, was a great Arab physician and surgeon of the late 10th and early 11th centuries CE. He is best known for his surgical knowledge and expertise. His greatest contribution to medicine is the Kitab al-Tasrif, which includes thirty treatises on medical sciences. His early and great contributions to the field of surgery were seminal. For his endeavors in this field, a number of surgeons and scholars have dubbed him the "Father of Operative Surgery".

History of cupping (Hijama): a narrative review of literature.

Cupping (Hijama in Arabic) is an ancient, holistic method for the treatment of a variety of diseases. Though the exact origin of cupping therapy is a matter of controversy, its use has been documented in early Egyptian and Chinese medical practices. Diverse human civilizations have contributed to the historical development and continuation of cupping therapy. This narrative review describes the history of cupping, historical definitions, cupping instruments and uses of cupping therapy. Electronic searches of relevant databases (PubMed, Google Scholar and OvidSP) were conducted using keywords and Boolean operators. Manual searches and references of published articles and books were also conducted. A number of articles (N = 625) were retained for extensive review, and finally 83 articles were included in this paper. The historical descriptions of cupping therapy were found in ancient human civilizations of the Eastern and Western world. There were inconsistent data concerning the origin of cupping, definitions, instruments, procedures, definite advancements and research in Hijama over centuries. Cupping therapy fell out of favor in 17th and mid-18th centuries but recovered popularity in modern medicine. Currently, cupping therapy is used for health promotion, prophylaxis and treatment of a variety of diseases around the world. Cupping therapy with a good safety profile has a checkered history and is a well-recognized traditional method for managing medical conditions. Currently, the scope of cupping therapy is expanding, and a growing body of research is providing additional evidence-based data for the further advancement of cupping therapy in the treatment of a variety of diseases.

A Historical Glance at the Arabo-Islamic Surgical Instruments During the Ages.

Arabo-Islamic physicians demonstrated exceptional skill and innovation in surgery, by having used the instruments introduced by ancient Greeks and Greco-Roman surgeons. In many cases they have manufactured their own innovative designs promoting further the success of the difficult surgical operations of their era. The surgical instruments and the surgeon's boxes, used to regularise the plethora of the metallic items, were decorated with fine designs, in order to depict the Arab civilisation. For the first time surgery became a separate medical art, while Arabo-Islamic medicine re-introduced ancient Greek and Byzantine surgery to the world.

Views on ocular cancer in Arabo-Islamic medicine and the leading influence of the ancient Greek medicine.

In the ophthalmological treatises of the medieval Arabo-Islamic physicians such as al-Mawsili (9th-10th century), al-Kahhal (ca. 940-1010), Haly Abbas (10th century) and al Sadili (14th century) we may find references about ocular cancer, focusing on eyelid tumors and cancerous ulcers of the cornea. These references are similar to the analogous ones of ancient Greek physicians as these are preserved in the medical texts of the most famous Byzantine doctors, indicating the influence of ancient Greek medicine in the Arabo-Islamic one.

Experiencing Madness: Mental Patients in Medieval Arabo-Islamic Medicine.

This paper focuses on the mental patients in Arabo-Islamic Middle Ages. Patients suffering from mental illnesses generated a lot of interest for Arabo-Islamic physicians. The first objective of this study is to identify who were the mentally infirm and to compare the Arab physicians' typologies of mental patients to that of their Greek predecessors. The second part of this paper shifts the focus from theoretical descriptions to case histories and biographical sources, in order to understand how the physicians treated their mental patients, and to find out what was the social impact of this medical approach. Finally, because the special provision for the insane is a distinctive feature of the Islamic hospital, the third part of my paper examines whether the main purpose of these hospitals was the patients' confinement or their treatment.

Scientific publications from Arab world in leading journals of Integrative and Complementary Medicine: a bibliometric analysis.

BACKGROUND: Bibliometric analysis is increasingly employed as a useful tool to assess the quantity and quality of research performance. The specific goal of the current study was to evaluate the performance of research output originating from Arab world and published in international Integrative and Complementary Medicine (ICM) journals. METHODS: Original scientific publications and reviews from the 22 Arab countries that were published in 22 international peer-reviewed ICM journals during all previous years up to December 31(st) 2013, were screened using the Web of Science databases. RESULTS: Five hundred and ninety-one documents were retrieved from 19 ICM journals. The h-index of the set of papers under study was 47. The highest h-index was 27 for Morocco, 21 for Jordan, followed by 19 for each Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), and Egypt, and the lowest h-index was 1 for each of Comoros, Qatar, and Syrian Arab Republic. No data related to ICM were published from Djibouti, and Mauritania. After adjusting for economy and population power, Somalia (89), Morocco (32.5), Egypt (31.1), Yemen (21.4), and Palestine (21.2) had the highest research productivity. The total number of citations was 9,466, with an average citation of 16 per document. The study identified 262 (44.3 %) documents with 39 countries in Arab-foreign country collaborations. Arab authors collaborated most with countries in Europe (24.2 %), followed by countries in the Asia-Pacific region (9.8 %). CONCLUSION: Scientific research output in the ICM field in the Arab world region is increasing. Most of publications from Arab world in ICM filed were driven by societal use of medicinal plants and herbs. Search for new therapies from available low cost medicinal plants in Arab world has motivated many researchers in academia and pharmaceutical industry. Further investigation is required to support these findings in a wider journal as well as to improve research output in the field of ICM from Arab world region by investing in more national and international collaborative research project.

Non-linear processing of a linear speech stream: The influence of morphological structure on the recognition of spoken Arabic words.

Although the significance of morphological structure is established in visual word processing, its role in auditory processing remains unclear. Using magnetoencephalography we probe the significance of the root morpheme for spoken Arabic words with two experimental manipulations. First we compare a model of auditory processing that calculates probable lexical outcomes based on whole-word competitors, versus a model that only considers the root as relevant to lexical identification. Second, we assess violations to the root-specific Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP), which disallows root-initial consonant gemination. Our results show root prediction to significantly correlate with neural activity in superior temporal regions, independent of predictions based on whole-word competitors. Furthermore, words that violated the OCP constraint were significantly easier to dismiss as valid words than probability-matched counterparts. The findings suggest that lexical auditory processing is dependent upon morphological structure, and that the root forms a principal unit through which spoken words are recognised.

Beetroot (Beta vulgaris L.) extract ameliorates gentamicin-induced nephrotoxicity associated oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis in rodent model.

The present investigation was designed to investigate the protective effect of (Beta vulgaris L.) beat root ethanolic extract (BVEE) on gentamicin-induced nephrotoxicity and to elucidate the potential mechanism. Serum specific kidney function parameters (urea, uric acid, total protein, creatinine, and histopathology of kidney tissue) were evaluated to access gentamicin-induced nephrotoxicity. The oxidative/nitrosative stress (Lipid peroxidation, MDA, NP-SH, Catalase, and nitric oxide levels) was assessed. The inflammatory response (TNF-α, IL-6, MPO, NF-κB (p65), and NF-κB (p65) DNA binding) and apoptotic marker (Caspase-3, Bax, and Bcl-2) were also evaluated. BVEE (250 and 500 mg/kg) treatment along with gentamicin restored/increased the renal endogenous antioxidant status. Gentamicin-induced increased renal inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α and IL-6), nuclear protein expression of NF-κB (p65), NF-κB-DNA binding activity, myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity, and nitric oxide level were significantly down regulated upon BVEE treatment. In addition, BVEE treatment significantly reduced the amount of cleaved caspase 3 and Bax, protein expression and increased the Bcl-2 protein expression. BVEE treatment also ameliorated the extent of histologic injury and reduced inflammatory infiltration in renal tubules. These findings suggest that BVEE treatment attenuates renal dysfunction and structural damage through the reduction of oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis in the kidney.

Contributions of Medieval Islamic physicians to the history of tracheostomy.

Tracheostomy was first described by Greco-Roman physicians, including Paulus of Aegina. Medieval Islamic clinicians extended the Greco-Roman ideas with substantial contributions to the field of surgery, including tracheostomy. Although Al-Zahrawi (936-1013 CE) stated that he had not heard or read of any Islamic physicians having performed tracheostomy, there is evidence that many prominent Islamic surgeons did practice this lifesaving procedure during medieval times. Throughout the Islamic Golden Age, Muslim physicians advanced the practice of tracheostomy with many modifications of the procedure, instrumentation, and adjuvant medicinal prescriptions.

The "Prince of Medicine": Yuhanna ibn Masawayh and the foundations of the western pharmaceutical tradition.

This essay examines three medieval pharmaceutical treatises purportedly authored by Yuhanna ibn Masawayh (anglicized to John Mesue) and traces their immense influence on the development of pharmacy in early modem Europe and the Hispanic world. Despite the importance of these works throughout the early modern period, Mesue is relatively unknown in the history of pharmacy and medicine, and his exact identity remains unclear. This essay argues that "Mesue" was most likely a pseudonym used by an unknown author of the Latin West and that the three works were crafted to meet the demands of the developing "medical marketplace" of late thirteenth-century Europe, where the manuscripts first appeared. At the same time, however, as the Arabic reference of the pseudonym suggests, these treatises were clearly products of the medieval Islamic world, including many innovations that would provide the basis for the theory and practice of pharmacy for centuries and arguably formed part of the artisanal epistemological influence on the Scientific Revolution.

Ibn Bajja on medicine and medical experience.

This article lists the medical works written by Ibn Bajja, overviews those that have come down to us and studies the super-commentary of Galen's commentary to Hippocrates' "Aphorisms (Sharh fi al-Fusul)". This text shows a deep influence of al-Farabi, namely in a conception of medical experience which stems from the latter's construal of experience (tajriba) as the inductive process described by Aristotle in "Posterior Analytics" which brings the premises of demonstration. On this basis, Ibn Bajja advocated for a less scholastic, more empiric medicine, and his claim was echoed by Ibn Rushd. There are some similarities between Ibn Bajja's text and Ibn Rushd's "K. al-Kulliyyat fi al-tibb" which suggests that the latter had read "Sharh fi al-Fusul". This work gives moreover some evidence that human dissection could have been performed during Ibn Bajja's time.

Exploration of Islamic medicine plant extracts as powerful antifungals for the prevention of mycotoxigenic Aspergilli growth in organic silage.

BACKGROUND: Feed contamination with mycotoxins is a major risk factor for animals and humans as several toxins can exist as residues in meat and milk products, giving rise to carry-over to consumers via ingestion of foods of animal origin. The starting point for prevention, in this chain, is to eliminate the growth of mycotoxigenic fungi in the animal forage. Ten plant extracts, recommended in Islamic medicine, were evaluated as antifungal agents against mycotoxigenic Aspergilli, i.e. Aspergillus flavus and A. ochraceus, growth in organic maize silage. RESULTS: Most extracts had remarkable antifungal activities using both qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods. Cress (Lepidium sativum) seed extract was proven to be the most powerful among the plants examined. Blending of the most effective extracts (garden cress seed, pomegranate peel and olive leaf extracts), individually at their minimal fungicidal concentrations, with maize silage resulted in the reduction of inoculated A. flavus colony counts by 99.9, 99.6 and 98.7%, respectively, whereas silage blending with the combined extracts completely prohibited fungal growth for up to 30 days of incubation under aerobic conditions. CONCLUSION: Besides the health promoting effects, silage blending with the bioactive plant extracts examined could lead to the required protection from pathogenic and mycotoxigenic fungi.

The formation of the Arabic pharmacology between tradition and innovation.

The pharmacological tradition in the medieval Islamic world developed on the basis of the Greek tradition, with the works of Dioscorides and Galen being particularly popular. The terminology was influenced not only by Greek, but also Middle Persian, Syriac, and indigenous Arabic words. Through recent research into Graeco-Arabic translations, it has become possible to discern the evolution of pharmacological writing in Arabic: in the late eighth century, the technical terms were being developed, with transliterations being used; by the mid-ninth century, many standard Arabic translations for Greek words have been established. Various authors, however, expanded the pharmacology inherited from the Greeks. Galen had established a system of degrees of primary faculties (dry or moist, and warm or cold) that various physicians in the Islamic world modified. Al-Kindi, for instance, invented a theory of how to calculate these degrees in compound drugs, whereas ar-Razi criticised the epistemology that underlies Galen's theories. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) complemented the various degrees in his description of simple drugs. Furthermore, both Ibn Sarabiyun and al-Kaskari integrated new drugs from the Islamic heartland, and the Far East into the Greek system. In these ways, the Arabic pharmacology developed in a creative tension of tradition and innovation.

From anesthetic sponge to nonsinking skull perforator, unitary work neurosurgery in the ancient Arabic and Islamic world.

During the Middle Ages, the work of Middle Eastern physicians such as Avicenna, Albucasis, and Rhazes was of paramount importance in guarding the knowledge that had been accumulated throughout history, particularly the contributions of Greek and Roman scholars, and it is well known that the Arabic versions of all of the works by Hippocrates and Galen by Islamic and Arabic scholars are the only copies that have survived until now. In addition to preserving this wealth of knowledge, these Middle Eastern scholars made significant contributions of their own to both medicine and neurosurgery. Many points regarding ancient Arabic and Islamic science need to be discussed and clarified, such as cadaver dissections, anatomic studies, neurosurgical practice and instruments, Arabic translations of Hippocratic and other works, and the influence of the Islamic civilization on Western civilization, especially the Renaissance.

[The first printed textbook in dentistry]. / A világ elso, nyomtatásban megjelent fogászati könyve.

The first book focused solely on dentistry was published in Germany in 1530. Former scientific publications on dentistry were collected by an unknown author. The book presents 44 pages on the main issues of dentistry divided into 13 chapters. It was made by the Guttenberg method of printing.