Article Details

Abstract

Precision healthcare seeks to tailor risk assessment, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment to biological variation, environment, behavior, and patient preference. Unani medicine has long used Mizaj, or temperament, as a constitutional framework for individualizing diet, regimen, and medicines. Mizaj is understood through the qualitative interaction of Arkan and Akhlat and is assessed from physical, physiological, and psychological features. This narrative review examines possible points of dialogue between Mizaj and modern precision medicine. Classical sources, including Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb, Kitab al-Kulliyat, Kamil al-Sana'ah al-Tibbiyah, and Kitab al-Mansuri, were considered with biomedical literature from PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect. Both approaches recognize that people with the same diagnosis may differ in susceptibility, course, treatment response, and adverse effects. The resemblance is nevertheless conceptual. Mizaj is a whole-person clinical phenotype, whereas precision medicine uses defined molecular, physiological, environmental, and social measurements. Preliminary studies have associated temperament categories with body composition, metabolism, inflammatory variables, and psychological characteristics, but small samples, inconsistent instruments, and circular classification limit inference. Mizaj should not be equated directly with a genotype, biomarker, or pharmacogenomic profile. Progress requires validated and reproducible assessment, blinded classification, diverse cohorts, longitudinal outcomes, and multi-omic studies that test rather than assume biological distinctions.