TEHRAN —Similar to human beings who have distinguishing temperaments, everything including body organs, seasons, colors, day and night, flavors and climates has a temperament too.

In this article the temperament of psychiatric conditions will be fully explained.   

Psychiatric conditions 

Any changes in the psychiatric condition affect human’s temperament to some extent. The longer and deeper the conditions are the more dramatic and lasting the effects are. On the other hand, changes in one’s temperament would influence psychiatric condition as well. 

By releasing the heat from inside the body to the surface and vice versa and by absorbing heat from the body’s surface such psychiatric conditions would cause warmness or coldness in the body.

Anger and excitement increase warmness and dryness in the body and are the signs and also the cause of dry and warm Mizaj as someone with warm and dry Mizaj is more prone to get angry or excited. People who consume too much warm and dry food stuff might be affected by anger and excitement more often. 

Therefore all lifestyle tips for warm and dry Mizaj (temperament) would apply to anger and excitement as two psychiatric conditions. Eating spicy, sweat, salty, deep fried and roasted food stuff especially in warm seasons would trigger anger and excitement. 

Pleasure and worry are warm and wet while fear, horror, and depression can be a result or sign of cold and dry or in some cases cold and wet Mizaj. 

Someone who is suffering from depression tends to sleep to evade the sad thoughts and this would cause wetness in the body. People who are preoccupied, cynical, pessimistic, skeptic, or experience mental or emotional instability must know that they might either have a cold temperament or consume too much food stuff with cold and wet or cold and dry Mizaj.

These people should cut back on dairy products, watery and sour fruits and other food stuff of the kind. Instead they had better use food and hot drinks with warm temperament. Kebabs, spices, salty and spicy food, cinnamon tea, saffron tea, mint tea, or ginger tea suits such people as the fear and the sadness they feel caused by cold Mizaj of their brain or body would go away and they feel more courageous and fear less. 

It is worth mentioning that one should not necessarily experience the fear or anger, even imagining such psychiatric conditions would produce the same result. 

In order to maintain mental health one can both practice self-control and seek professional help and consultations. But more importantly adopting a lifestyle that suits one’s Mizaj by consuming foods and drinks in accordance with their temperament is very important in keeping mental health. 

If someone with warm Mizaj keeps eating food stuff with warming characteristics particularly during warm seasons it is not very unlikely for them to lose their temper. So in order to remain healthy, both physically and mentally, one should firstly reconsider and reform his or her lifestyle and diet and then seek professional help or study more deeply about the situation.

Seyed Mahdi Mirghazanfari, MD, holds a PhD degree in medical physiology and is an Iranian-Islamic traditional medicine researcher. He is also an assistant professor in AJA University of Medical Sciences, Tehran.

MQ/MG