This trial was performed to compare quince (Cydonia oblonga) fruit with vitamin B6 on 76 pregnant women with a gestational age of 6-14 weeks and mild-to-moderate nausea and vomiting (NVP) (40 in the quince and 36 in the B6 group). The 'Pregnancy-Unique Quantification of Emesis' (PUQE-24) scale was used to examine the severity of NVP. The quince syrup (1 tablespoon/TDS) or vitamin B6 tablets (20 mg/TDS) were used as intervention for 1 week. The mean (±SD) age was 27.5 (±5.2) years. The score of the PUQE was decreased from 9.5 (± 2) at baseline to 5.2 (±2.3) on the 7th day and 5.3 (±2.6) on the 14th day (p < .001) in the quince group. In the other group, the scores were 8.4 (±1.8), 7.3 (±2.4) and 7.7 (±3.8), respectively (p = .001). The change in symptoms were more marked in the quince group (p < .001). Quince syrup seems to be a suitable treatment for NVP. Impact statement What is already known on this subject: Pregnancy-induced nausea and vomiting (NVP) is one of the most common problems during gestation. Treatment is mainly symptomatic, ranging from dietary changes and oral pharmacological treatment to hospitalization in severe forms. In early pregnancy, the use of chemical drugs is avoided, so there is an increasing tendency to use alternative therapies. According to the literature review in Iranian Traditional Medicine (ITM), the quince fruit (Cydonia oblonga) can be useful in NVP. Quince has a wide range of pharmacological activities including antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective and antidepressant effects. ITM literature suggests some therapeutic effects of the quince fruit on important organs like brain, heart, liver and stomach. What the results of this study add: The results of this study demonstrated the significant efficacy of quince in comparison with vitamin B6. What the implications are of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research: This fruit is also safe to be administered in pregnant women suffering from NVP.

Although wet cupping has been a treatment for centuries, its mechanism of action is not well understood. Because the anatomical features of the wet-cupping area might play a role in its mechanism, we focus on the features of the interscapular area in which a common type of wet-cupping therapy (WCT), called Hijamat-e-Aam in Iranian medicine, is usually applied and discuss the possible relation of those features to the acupuncture meridians. We gathered and analyzed data from reliable textbooks on modern medicine with a focus on the anatomical features of the interscapular area, topics related to WTC in Iranian medicine, and acupuncture sources obtained by searching PubMed, Google-Scholar, and Science Direct. The interscapular area used for WCT was found to have special features: brown adipose tissue, immediate proximity to sympathetic ganglia, passage of the thoracic duct, two important acupuncture meridians, and proximity to the main vessel divisions carrying blood from the heart and the brain. These features indicate that the interscapular application of WCT not only discharges waste materials through a shifting of blood to the site after application of a traction force but also invigorates the body's metabolism, increases immunity, and regulates blood biochemistry, which are desired therapeutic effects of WCT.

Objective:The extent to which a person's health-related behavior corresponds with medical instructions (adherence) is an important modifier of health system effectiveness. This study was designed to determine the patients’ adherence to Iranian traditional medicine in a group of patients with chronic disease.Methods:Convenience sampling was used to enroll 320 patients with chronic diseases from January 2014 to January 2015 in clinics of traditional medicine affiliated with medical universities in Tehran. Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS) was used to measure the adherence. After describing the variables and the frequency of adherence, logistic regression analysis was used to determine the influencing factors.Findings:Mean age was 40.8 (standard deviation [SD] =13) years. The mean of the duration of disease was 54.6 (SD = 56.1) months and mean of the duration of referring to the clinics 6.5 (SD = 6.9) months. Total score of MMAS was zero in 33 (10.3%) of patients (high adherence), one or two in 128 (40%) of patients (moderate adherence), and more than two in 159 (49.7%) of patients (low adherence). Forgetfulness, bad taste, not availability, and the high cost of the drugs were the most commonly reported causes of non-adherence. Adherence was associated with age (odds ratio [OR] =1.05, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1–1.1), marriage (OR = 10.8, 95% CI 2.05–57.6), number of prescribed drugs (OR = 0.05, 95% CI 0.02–0.14), and duration of disease (OR = 1.01, 95% CI 1–1.02).Conclusion:Considering the low adherence in users of medications of Iranian traditional medicine, health care practitioners need to be trained in adherence and the influencing factors and also to use some interventions to increase the adherence.

Background:Nowadays, hypertension is considered as a global public health issue and in recent decades, it has shown a growing trend due to changes in lifestyle.Objectives:The purpose of this investigation was to compare symptoms of hypertension with known diseases in ancient medical texts and to find a disease that had the maximum overlap of symptoms with hypertension.Materials and Methods:In this qualitative study, reliable sources of traditional medicine such as The Canon of Medicine by Avicenna, The Complete Art of Medicine (Kitab Kamil as-Sina’aat-Tibbiyya) by Haly Abbas, Facilitating Treatment and a letter for Health preservation (Tahsil Al-Elaj and Resale Hafez Al-Sehha) by Mohammad Taghi Shirazi, and some reliable resources of conventional medicine such as Harrison’s principles of internal medicine and databases such as Pubmed, Scopus, SID, and Magiran were probed base on keywords to find a disease that had the most overlapping symptoms with hypertension. By taking notes from the relevant materials, the extracted texts were compared and analyzed.Results:Findings showed that hypertension has the most overlap with Imila (accumulation of normal or abnormal fluid in the body) symptoms in Iranian traditional medicine. Although this is not a quietly perfect overlap and there are other causes and reasons including dry dystemperament of vessel wall (atherosclerosis), hot dystemperament of heart or damages to other organs like liver, kidney and nervous system that could also lead to hypertension according to Iranian traditional medicine.Conclusions:Finding the equivalent disease to HTN based on Iranian traditional medicine, could suggest a better strategy for preventing, treating and reducing debilitating its complications in the future. In conclusion, we can approach to hypertension with recommendations for reducing Imtila when we are dealing with a kind of hypertension that corresponds to Imtila. Therefore, if patient is suffering from another type of hypertension like dry dystemperament of vessel wall, it surely requires another treatment approach for reducing vessel wall dryness.