Cataract etiology and prevention in traditional Persian medicine texts

Context: According to the World Health Organization, cataract is the most common retrievable blind cause in the world. Nowadays, surgery is the only treatment to restore vision in patient with cataract. In regard to the high costs of surgery, prevention has a particular importance. In modern medicine, cataract risk factors are hardly preventable.

Aims: Determination of the etiology and preventive solutions of cataract in traditional Persian medicine (TPM). Settings and Design: This is a summative qualitative content analysis that focused on Persian medicine texts in from 4th to 13th AH centuries.

Materials and Methods: TPM literature were searched during centuries 4th to 13th AH, by using this key words: “Nuzūl-ul-māʾ”, “Āʾb murwārīd” and “Āʾb āvardan chishm” or just “Māʾ,” and Databases (PubMed, PMC, Google Scholar, and Scopus) were searched by: Cataract; risk factor, etiology, prevention and treatment of cataract; This research has been done in seven phases.

Statistical Analysis Used: All data about the treatment of cataract were collected and categorized into modern style.

Results: According to TPM, to prevent cataract, first, it must be reduced or eliminated the causes of cataract; Those causes are classified to four themes such as physical factors, habits and inappropriate lifestyle, diseases, and age. Persian Physicians (Ḥakīm) proposed and used some prevention and medications to change some of these etiological factors to decrease the incidence of cataract.

Conclusions: In this research, a wide range of preventive measures for cataract is observed which cannot be found in modern medicine. Changes in some etiological factors such as lifestyle can prevent this disease. Affirming this claim depends on clinical researches.