Department of Health Education, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Arch Iran Med. 2012 Dec;15(12):785-9.
Avicenna, a renowned Persian Muslim scientist has written numerous scientific papers and valuable medical books that are respected worldwide. For centuries his masterpiece, the "Canon of Medicine", has been used as a major medical reference. The Canon, as a prime encyclopedia on medicine is comprised of five books. In the introduction to the Canon, Avicenna has described the purpose of medicine as the preservation of health if it is already attained and its restoration when it is lost. He defines health as a trait or state, which results in the normal functioning of the human body and presumes that health is a steady state, whilst disease is more of a variable concept. Thus whenever we depart from a healthy state, we approach disease. A comparison of current views regarding definitions of health, disease and their components as defined by Avicenna could open new horizons for ancient, traditional medicine. The Canon contains numerous implications concerning the infrastructures of public health-related issues. For example the specifications of healthy water and air are well described in the "Canon of Medicine". To enable a better understanding of Avicenna's viewpoints about public health, we have briefly reviewed his perspective on the topics of health, disease, and environmental sanitation concerning water and air.
阿维森纳是一位著名的波斯穆斯林科学家，他撰写了许多科学论文和有价值的医学书籍，在世界范围内受到尊重。几个世纪以来，他的杰作《医典》一直被用作主要的医学参考。《医典》作为医学的主要百科全书，由五本书组成。在《医典》的引言中，阿维森纳将医学的目的描述为在已经获得健康的情况下保持健康，并在失去健康时恢复健康。他将健康定义为一种导致人体正常运作的特征或状态，并假设健康是一种稳定状态，而疾病则更多地是一个变量概念。因此，每当我们离开健康状态时，我们就会接近疾病。将当前关于健康、疾病及其组成部分的定义与阿维森纳定义的定义进行比较，可以为古老的传统医学开辟新的视野。《医典》中包含了许多与公共卫生相关问题的基础设施的含义。例如，健康水和空气的规格在《医典》中都有很好的描述。为了更好地理解阿维森纳关于公共卫生的观点，我们简要回顾了他关于水和空气与健康、疾病和环境卫生有关的主题的观点。
