title: Perception of Alzheimer Disease in Iranian Traditional Medicine.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia. In regards to the world's aging population, control and treatment of AD will be one of the major concerns of global public health in the next century. Alzheimer disease was not mentioned with the same phrase or its equivalent in traditional medical texts. The main of present paper was to investigate symptoms and causes of alzheimer disease from the view point of Iranian traditional medicine.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this qualitative study, we searched reliable sources of Iranian traditional medicine such as Canon of Medicide by Avicenna (Al-Quanon fi- tibb), Aghili cure by Aghili's (Molajat-E-aghili), Tib-E-Akbari, Exire -E-Aazam and Sharh-E-Asbab and some reliable resources of neurology were probed base on keywords to find a disease that had the most overlap in terms of symptoms with alzheimer disease. By taking from the relevant materials, the extracted texts were compared and analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Findings showed that alzheimer disease has the most overlap with Nesyan (fisad-e-zekr, fisad-e-fekr and fisad-e-takhayol) symptoms in Iranian traditional medicine. Although this is not a perfect overlap and there are causes, including coldness and dryness of the brain or coldness and wetness that could also lead to alzheimer disease according to Iranian traditional medicine.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  According to Iranian traditional medicine, The brain dystemperement is considered the main causes of alzheimer disease. By correcting the brain dystemperement, alzheimer can be well managed. This study helps to suggest a better strategy for preventing and treating alzheimer in the future.
authors.affiliation: Neurology Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Rostam
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Saifadini
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Medicine, School of Traditional Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Haleh
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tajadini
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Medicine, School of Traditional Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Rasool
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Choopani
authors.affiliation: Herbal and Traditional Medicines Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Mitra
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mehrabani
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Mohamad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kamalinegad
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Modeling in Health, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Aliakbar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Haghdoost
keywords: Alzheimer Disease; Iran; Medicine, Traditional