Too little is known about Unani, one of the world’s major therapies rooted in a holistic perspective. Founded by Hippocrates, and built on by various cultures including the Arab world, Unani is a sophisticated therapy offering cures for an impressive range of maladies

Personalities based on humours

There are four types of personalities based on the characteristics and the proportion in which the four humours are present in the human body.

• Sanguine or plethoric: They have a hot and moist temperament, and are obese and robust. They are very active, tense and moderately hypersexual. They have a good appetite and a full strong pulse. They have red complexion, and a slight feeling of heaviness in the body.

• Choleretic or bilious: These individuals possess a hot and dry temperament. They get angry quickly. They have a sallow complexion and a lean and hairy body. They are proud, revengeful and shrewd. They are energetic and intelligent individuals, usually with a strong inclination to indulge in sexual pleasures. They are fastidious about food and have a strong and rapid pulse as well as prominent blood vessels.

• Phlegmatic or pituitic: Their constitution is cold and moist. They are flaccid and obese individuals, with white and pasty skin. They have thin and soft hair and narrow (non-prominent) blood vessels. Their movements and activities are sluggish and their intelligence is slow and dull. They are overcome with drowsiness, do not get angry and are not much given to gastronomic or venereal pleasures. They also experience excessive heaviness of the body.

• Melancholic type: Their temperament is cold and dry. They are thin, dark, with narrow blood vessels and slow pulse. They show slight inclination towards sexual activity, and suffer from loss of sleep.