Hikmat Nama

Walk into any Unani dawakhana and the consultation begins the same way it has for a thousand years: the hakeem takes your wrist and reads your nabz نبض — your pulse. He isn't only counting beats. He is reading your mizaj مزاج, your temperament: the particular balance of heat, cold, moisture and dryness that makes your body yours.

Classical Unani describes four broad temperaments — damwi (warm and moist), balghami (cold and moist), safrawi (hot and dry) and saudawi (cold and dry). No one is purely one type, but one usually leads. Two patients with the same complaint — say, acidity — may leave with entirely different prescriptions, because the same disease sits differently in different temperaments.

This is the quiet difference between Unani and a one-pill-for-all approach: the medicine is matched to the person, not just the disease. It is also why your first sitting takes time. The hakeem asks about your sleep, your appetite, your moods, the seasons that trouble you — all of it is data about your mizaj.

Curious about your own? Try the mizaj quiz on our home page — then let the hakeem confirm it properly at a sitting.

Hijama حجامہ — cupping therapy — is probably the most asked-about treatment at our clinic, and the most misunderstood. Here is exactly what happens, so there are no surprises.

First, a consultation. Hijama is not given on demand — the hakeem checks your condition, your mizaj and your history, and decides whether cupping suits you at all, and at which classical points. Then the skin is cleaned, cups are placed to create gentle suction, and after a few minutes fine, shallow scratches are made so the cups can draw a small amount of stagnant blood. It looks more dramatic than it feels — most patients describe a pulling sensation, not pain.

Hygiene is not negotiable. Cups and blades are sterile and single-use, opened in front of you, and disposed of after. The marks fade in a few days to a week.

For women, we provide specialised female doctors, and hijama home visits are available so the therapy can be taken in complete privacy. Patients commonly take hijama for chronic pain, headaches and general heaviness — and it is given by appointment, so message us on WhatsApp before you come.

Every patient of a dawakhana knows the word parhez پرہیز — the foods to avoid, and the ones to favour, while treatment runs its course. In Unani, parhez is not an afterthought to the medicine. It is medicine.

The logic follows the mizaj: a condition of excess heat is not helped by daily fried and spicy food, however good the formulation; a cold, heavy temperament sinks deeper under ice water and midnight meals. The hakeem's prescription and your plate must pull in the same direction — that is why chronic diseases, especially, respond so much better when parhez is taken seriously.

We have prepared free sample parhez charts below for three common areas — digestion, joints and skin. They are general guides: at your sitting, the hakeem will personalise one for your condition and temperament. Print one, put it on the fridge, and bring your questions to the clinic.

Chronic skin disease is rarely only about the skin. In Unani, complaints like psoriasis (chambal), eczema and vitiligo (bars) برص are read as signs that something deeper — digestion, blood quality, the balance of the mizaj — has drifted, and the skin is where it shows.

Treatment therefore works on two fronts at once: classical herbal formulations and medicated oils for the skin itself, and internal correction — decoctions, parhez [dietary regimen] and habits — for the imbalance underneath. This is slower than a steroid cream, and more honest: chronic skin disease responds gradually, over a course, not overnight.

What patients notice first is usually calmer itching and less spread; repigmentation in vitiligo and clearing in psoriasis take longer and vary from person to person. The hakeem will tell you plainly at the first sitting what is realistic for your case, and when a dermatologist should also be involved.

Message us about a skin condition →

Hyderabadi food is a joy and, for many stomachs, a daily test. Acidity, bloating, constipation and the heaviness after meals are the complaints Unani has answered for centuries — because in classical medicine, digestion (hazm) is where most disease begins.

Rather than suppressing acid indefinitely, the hakeem asks why your stomach produces trouble: a hot, dry mizaj that flares with spice and stress; a cold, damp one that turns food to gas and lethargy; meals eaten late, fast, or on top of the last ones. The prescription pairs gentle formulations — a joshanda [decoction], a majun [herbal paste] matched to your temperament — with a parhez that removes the cause instead of chasing the symptom.

Most digestive complaints respond well and reasonably quickly. If your symptoms include red-flag signs — persistent vomiting, blood, unexplained weight loss — the hakeem will insist on modern investigation first. That is not a contradiction; it is good medicine.

Ask about your digestion →

Old joint pain has a rhythm every sufferer knows: better in warmth, worse in winter and rain, stiff in the morning, tired by night. Unani takes that rhythm seriously — gathiya (arthritis), cervical spondylosis and gout are classically understood as cold, heavy conditions, and the treatment is designed to warm, loosen and clear.

A typical course combines three things: internal formulations for the inflammation and the mizaj; roghan (medicated oil) روغن therapies and dalak [therapeutic massage] for the joint itself; and where suitable, regimental therapies such as hijama or fasd. Alongside runs the parhez — warming foods, methi and haldi in the kitchen, and the habits that stop each winter from undoing the summer's progress.

Chronic joint disease is managed, not erased: the aim is less pain, more movement, fewer bad weeks. Many of our longest-standing patients are joint patients — they return each season because the approach is gentle enough to live with for years.

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Unani physicians named sciatica irq-un-nisa عرق النساء centuries ago and described exactly what patients still report: a pain that starts in the lower back or hip and runs down the back of the leg, sometimes to the foot, worse with sitting and cold.

Classical management combines internal formulations, roghan applications along the path of the pain, and regimental therapies — hijama at specific points and, in suitable patients, irsal-e-alaq (leech therapy) — with strict parhez against cold, heavy foods. Rest positions, gentle movement and warmth do the quiet background work.

The hakeem will also tell you when a scan and an orthopaedic or neuro opinion matter — severe weakness, numbness or loss of control are not for herbal management alone. For the common, grinding, seasonal sciatica, however, patients often find the Unani course brings relief that lasts.

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Some coughs keep a calendar. Every monsoon, every winter, the same wheeze, the same blocked sinuses, the same nights sitting up. Unani calls these seasonal, phlegm-heavy conditions balghami complaints, and treats them on the season's own schedule.

The approach is layered: a course before your bad season begins, to reduce the phlegm burden and strengthen the chest; joshanda and warming formulations during it; and parhez that avoids the cold, damp foods that feed the complaint. For allergic rhinitis and sinusitis, steam-based regimental therapy (hamam bukhari) gives many patients direct relief.

Asthma patients: continue your inhalers and prescribed medicines — Unani care runs alongside them, never instead of them, and the goal over time is fewer episodes and easier seasons, with your doctor in the loop.

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"Kamzori" — weakness — is one of the most common words spoken across our desk. Tiredness that sleep doesn't fix, heaviness by afternoon, a mind that won't settle at night. Unani reads these together, because energy, digestion and sleep are one system, not three.

The hakeem first looks for the pattern: a cold, damp sluggishness that needs warming and movement; a hot, dry restlessness that needs cooling and calm; poor hazm quietly starving the body of what it eats. Then come the classical restoratives — khameera, majun and tonics matched to the temperament — and a routine: meal timing, morning activity, the wind-down before bed.

Where tiredness hides something measurable — anaemia, thyroid, sugar — the hakeem will say so and send you for the test. Restoration works best when nothing is being missed.

Ask about strength and sleep →

Classical Unani ranks the liver among the most important organs in the body — the seat of digestion's second stage and the maker of the humours. So when a scan says fatty liver, or the eyes yellow with yarqan (jaundice), the dawakhana takes it seriously and treats it methodically.

Unani hepatics — classical formulations built around liver-supportive herbs — are paired with the parhez that does half the work: less fried and heavy food, no alcohol, earlier dinners, and steady weight loss where needed. Fatty liver in particular is a lifestyle disease, and it responds to a corrected lifestyle with supportive treatment remarkably well.

Jaundice and abnormal liver tests always deserve modern investigation alongside — the hakeem works with your reports, not instead of them.

Message us about liver care →

Few pains are remembered like a stone's. Unani's classical literature on pathri (kidney and bladder stones) and urinary complaints is extensive, and the traditional lithotriptic formulations — herbs used to help small stones pass and discourage new ones from forming — are still the dawakhana's daily work.

Management depends on the stone: small stones are often supported to pass with formulations, generous water and the right parhez; recurrent stone-formers get a longer course aimed at the tendency itself — the diet, the water habits, the mizaj that keeps producing them. Burning urination and recurrent urinary complaints are treated on the same principles.

Size and position matter: a large or obstructing stone is a urologist's case first, and the hakeem will tell you so with the scan in hand. Bring your reports to the sitting.

Ask about stones and urinary care →

The classical texts devote whole chapters to the heart — and some of Unani's most loved preparations, like khameera خمیرہ, were composed as cardiac tonics. Today the dawakhana's role in heart health is honest and specific: supportive care around blood pressure, cholesterol and general cardiac strength.

Supportive means: classical tonics matched to your mizaj; a parhez that quietly moves the numbers — salt, fried food, meal timing; weight, sleep and stress worked on as treatment, not advice; and regular follow-up so progress is measured, not assumed.

It also means this, said plainly: never stop a prescribed BP or cardiac medicine on your own. Unani care runs alongside your physician's treatment, and the best results we see are in patients whose cardiologist and hakeem are both in the picture.

Ask about supportive heart care →

The old name says it precisely: dard-e-shaqeeqa درد شقیقہ — the pain of half the head. Unani physicians catalogued migraine's triggers long before trigger diaries existed: certain foods, missed meals, poor sleep, heat, strong smells, strain.

Treatment starts by mapping your migraine — its side, its triggers, its relationship with your digestion and mizaj — because in classical thinking many migraines begin in the stomach. Then a course: formulations for the temperament, roghan applications, hijama at classical points for suitable patients, and a parhez built around your specific triggers.

The realistic goal is fewer attacks, milder attacks, and less of your month lost. Sudden, unusual or "worst-ever" headaches need urgent modern evaluation — the hakeem will always say so.

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Waking with one side of the face fallen is frightening, and laqwa لقوہ — facial palsy — brings many families to the dawakhana in that first anxious week. The first step is always to rule out the serious: sudden facial weakness needs a doctor's evaluation to exclude stroke, immediately.

Once that is done, Unani rehabilitation is patient and practical: warming roghan therapies and dalak [massage] along the affected nerves, internal formulations for nerve strength, nutool [medicated pouring] in suitable cases, and daily facial exercises the patient owns. The same steady approach supports neuropathy and post-stroke weakness alongside physiotherapy.

Nerves heal slowly — in weeks and months, not days — and consistency beats intensity. Most laqwa patients recover well; the course is about helping that recovery along and protecting what returns.

Ask about laqwa rehabilitation →

Men's health is the dawakhana's oldest confidential department. Complaints of weakness, low vigour and performance worries are as common as they are unspoken — and the classical pharmacopoeia answers them with some of its most carefully composed formulations, the majun and khameera of the old books.

A proper consultation looks past the symptom: sleep, stress, sugar, weight, tobacco and the mizaj all sit underneath men's health, and treating them is half the treatment. The prescription pairs classical restoratives — see, for instance, the traditional preparations on our products page — with the routine corrections that make them work.

Every consultation is private, unhurried and free of embarrassment — in person at either clinic, or online from any city. What is discussed at the desk stays at the desk.

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PCOS — also called PCOD — is a modern name for a pattern Unani has long treated as a whole-body condition: irregular cycles, weight that resists effort, skin and hair changes, and often a tired, frustrated patient who has been told only to "lose weight and come back".

The Unani course treats the pattern, not just the period: formulations for the cycle and the metabolism, a realistic parhez aimed at the insulin-resistance engine underneath, and steady follow-up month by month, because cycles correct over months. Where reports are needed — hormones, scans — the hakeem works alongside them and alongside your gynaecologist.

Women who prefer it are attended by our female doctors, and consultations are available online — many PCOS patients do their follow-ups entirely over WhatsApp video.

Message us — women's health →

Likoria لیکوریا — leucorrhoea, the persistent white discharge — is one of the most common women's complaints in our part of the world, and one of the least discussed. Along with the discharge itself often come backache, weakness, tiredness and low mood — the classical texts describe the whole picture, not just the symptom.

Unani, which knows the condition as sailan-ur-rahem, treats it on two levels. Locally: hygiene guidance and gentle classical measures. Internally, which is where the real work happens: formulations that address the weakness and the imbalance producing the discharge, strengthening tonics for the fatigue that so often rides with it, and a parhez that cuts the heavy, cold and overly sour foods that classical medicine links with the complaint.

Two honest notes. First, discharge with itching, odour or colour change can be an infection that needs testing and modern treatment — the hakeem will check and say so. Second, this is exactly the consultation our female doctors exist for: attended entirely by women, in person or online, with complete privacy.

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The classical hakeems read the monthly cycle the way they read the pulse — as a report on the whole body. A cycle that arrives late, too heavy, too light, or with pain that folds the day in half is telling you something about the mizaj, the blood and the routine underneath it.

So the Unani course for menstrual complaints — irregularity, painful periods (dysmenorrhoea), heavy bleeding, scanty periods — starts with the pattern: what changed, when, alongside what. Treatment pairs cycle-regulating classical formulations with warmth, rest timed to the cycle, iron-rich and warming foods where bleeding has caused weakness, and stress and sleep treated as part of the prescription, because the cycle hears everything.

Cycles correct over months, not days — expect a course, with a review each month. Sudden heavy bleeding, severe new pain, or bleeding between periods should be checked by a gynaecologist first; the hakeem will always tell you when that is the case. Female doctors attend these consultations throughout, in person or online.

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Told that surgery is the only option, many men simply live with a hydrocele or varicocele for years. Unani offers a middle path worth knowing about: a classical, non-surgical course of internal formulations and local applications that, in suitable cases, reduces the swelling and the discomfort over a period of months.

"In suitable cases" is the honest part. Size, duration and cause decide what is realistic, and the hakeem will assess yours plainly at the first sitting — including when surgery genuinely is the better answer, or when a varicocele needs a urologist's attention for fertility reasons. What you get is an informed choice, not a sales pitch.

Consultations are completely confidential, and the course can be managed from any city with medicines by courier and follow-ups online.

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Bawaseer بواسیر is suffered in silence more than almost any condition — which is a pity, because early piles and fissures respond very well to gentle, non-surgical management.

The Unani course attacks the root first: constipation and a heating diet. Stool softening the classical way, formulations that shrink and settle the swelling, local applications for pain and healing, and a strict but liveable parhez — more fibre and water, less mirchi and fried food, no long sitting. Fissures usually settle first; piles take a steadier course; fistula is the most stubborn and needs honest assessment.

Bleeding should never be assumed to be "just piles" — the hakeem will examine and, where anything is unusual, insist on modern evaluation. Come early: the earlier the stage, the easier the cure.

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Hyderabad lives with diabetes at every dinner table, and the dawakhana's role in it is supportive and disciplined. Unani's classical anti-diabetic herbs and formulations are used alongside — never instead of — prescribed medicines, with one aim: steadier sugars, fewer complications, a body that copes better.

The real work is the regimen. A parhez built for your actual life, not an ideal one; walking made non-negotiable; sleep and stress treated as sugar issues, because they are; and the classical formulations supporting digestion, energy and the organs diabetes quietly wears down. Progress is tracked with your own readings and reports.

Patients who bring their doctor's prescription to the first sitting get the best results — the hakeem plans around it, and nothing is ever stopped without your physician's agreement.

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Few things are carried more heavily, or more privately, than waiting for a child. Unani has treated male and female infertility for centuries, and its approach suits couples who want a gentler, root-cause course — or who want to strengthen their chances alongside modern fertility treatment.

The course treats both partners, because fertility belongs to both: for men, classical restoratives for count, quality and vigour; for women, cycle regulation and uterine health — PCOS management included; for both, the parhez, weight, sleep and stress work that modern fertility clinics also insist on, expressed in the dawakhana's practical way.

Reports are welcome and useful — bring what you have. And where age or findings mean assisted treatment is the wiser path, the hakeem will say so honestly; the goal is a child, not a philosophy.

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Generations of Purani Haveli's children have grown up on the dawakhana's gentle side of the shelf — the light joshandas for seasonal coughs, the digestives for small upset stomachs, the tonics for the child who "doesn't eat anything".

Children's treatment in Unani is deliberately mild: low, food-like formulations, more attention to routine — meals, sleep, screens, play — and patience with the seasonal complaints that visit every child: colds, coughs, loose motions, poor appetite, low immunity. The aim is a child who falls sick less often and recovers faster, not a child on constant medicine.

Fever in infants, breathing difficulty, dehydration — these go to the paediatrician first, always. For everything gentler, the dawakhana's door has been the family's first stop for 27 years.

Ask about your child →