How does Unani medicine work?

Unani means “Greek”: a 2,400-year-old system that travelled from Hippocrates to Baghdad to Delhi. Unani grew from the Greek medicine of Hippocrates and Galen. Baghdad’s translators put it into Arabic, al-Razi and Ibn Sina expanded it, and hakims brought it to India from the 13th century.

Read how it works: How does Unani medicine work? · The history of Unani medicine · More boxes on Glassbox

Chapters in this interactive model

1. From Greece to Baghdad to Delhi: A 2,400-year journey of ideas, books and translators.
2. Four humours, one temperament: The core ideas of Unani, as the system itself describes them.
3. Pulse, flask, cup and jar: How a hakim examines a patient and what the treatments are.
4. What history got right, and what it got wrong: Careful observers, good rules for testing, and a theory that did not survive.
5. Does it work? Run a fair test: Placebo, blinding and randomising, and what trials of Unani have found.
6. Where old advice and new science meet: The six factors, today’s evidence, and rules for staying safe.