prevention of chronic diseases is a necessity in clinical sport and exercise medicine ( 1 ) . 
avicenna  , the great ancient iranian physician , in his masterpiece ,  the canon of medicine  , introduced as an essential medical encyclopedia and divided to five books ( 2 ) , described subjects about hygiene and health preservation and promotion and disease prevention .
exercise which he called  riazat  has been described in the first book , third craft , second teaching and chapter one , pp229 - 234 of the arabic canon . according to his viewpoint
if exercise is used correctly , intermediately and in an appropriate time , it can prevent from some diseases .
exercise creates heat in body which helps defecating of wastes out of body and enriches digestion to digest food completely so it results in preventing from accumulation of accessory materials or undigested substances in body . in this chapter ,
avicenna also has described some diseases which can be produced because of physical inactivity ( 3 ) .
this study discusses about diseases which , according to avicenna s viewpoint , could be prevented by exercise but how exercise prevents from diseases is not the aim of this study .
qualitative research , phenomenology type , was the method of study . according to study s aim ,
subjects about diseases , which may be prevented by exercise , were gathered from avicenna s book ,  the canon of medicine  as sample of study .
then , subjects were classified and read out repeatedly , so main themes were created . finally ,
content analysis in qualitative research is a perspective method to describe data as a code and then interpretation of codes as themes and finally , presentation of a comment from the text ( 4 ) .
a mizaj that means dystemperament  ,  fever  and  soul impairment  . based on teaching of avicenna
, exercise could prevent from diseases which are created by some materials which he named them as  materialistic diseases  . in this group of diseases ,
one or more materials include accessory and defecating products ( wastes and undigested substances ) accumulate whether in whole or in a part of body and result in some difficulties .
due to accumulation of defecating materials in body , five abnormal situations may occur : 
 1-  imtela  : it means  filling  .
access materials can fill free spaces inside tissues and/or inside a duct ; for example , in vessels they may cause obstruction and result in infarction .
such obstruction in other spaces may result in other difficulties such as a kind of epilepsy and also an especial form of stroke which appears due to filling of brain s ventricles with materials or wastes.2-  oram  : it means  inflammation  .
if materials move in body and descend to another organ , they may cause inflammation . according to avicenna s viewpoint ,
inflammation is either soft or hard ; for example , a reason for swollen , erythematouse , painful and warm joint , may be a  soft inflammation  ; whereas a cancerous mass can be a  hard inflammation  ; however , there are some differences between  cancerous inflammation  and  hard inflammation  ; for example , in opposite to cancer , hard inflammation can decline the sensation of organ .
sometimes , inflammation may be occurring in internal organs such as liver ; and sometimes it offers external organs such as joints.3-  sui a mizaj  : it means 
vulnerability of mizaj altered temperament which is called dystemperament ( sui a mizaj ) leads to several different types of diseases
. sometimes it is caused by abnormal materials and waste products quality dominance . if matters temperament becomes warm or cold , bodies temperament will shift to be warmer or colder than normal .
this condition in brain is too dangerous and may result in some psychotic states.4- fever : prolonged persistence of abnormal materials and waste products may produce an unnatural heat in body and creates infection and fever .
some types of fevers causes after filling of spaces inside body either generally or locally , with waste so inactive physically individuals may suffer from fever because of two reasons : infection and imtela.5-  soul impairment  : receiving unhealthy vapour from the accumulated matters and waste products to  soul  , leads to  soul impairment  which may result in special diseases such as some psychotic states ( 3 ) .
access materials can fill free spaces inside tissues and/or inside a duct ; for example , in vessels they may cause obstruction and result in infarction .
such obstruction in other spaces may result in other difficulties such as a kind of epilepsy and also an especial form of stroke which appears due to filling of brain s ventricles with materials or wastes .
if materials move in body and descend to another organ , they may cause inflammation . according to avicenna s viewpoint ,
inflammation is either soft or hard ; for example , a reason for swollen , erythematouse , painful and warm joint , may be a  soft inflammation  ; whereas a cancerous mass can be a  hard inflammation  ; however , there are some differences between  cancerous inflammation  and  hard inflammation  ; for example , in opposite to cancer , hard inflammation can decline the sensation of organ .
sometimes , inflammation may be occurring in internal organs such as liver ; and sometimes it offers external organs such as joints .
vulnerability of mizaj altered temperament which is called dystemperament ( sui a mizaj ) leads to several different types of diseases
if matters temperament becomes warm or cold , bodies temperament will shift to be warmer or colder than normal .
this condition in brain is too dangerous and may result in some psychotic states . 4-
fever : prolonged persistence of abnormal materials and waste products may produce an unnatural heat in body and creates infection and fever .
some types of fevers causes after filling of spaces inside body either generally or locally , with waste so inactive physically individuals may suffer from fever because of two reasons : infection and imtela .
5-  soul impairment  : receiving unhealthy vapour from the accumulated matters and waste products to  soul  , leads to  soul impairment  which may result in special diseases such as some psychotic states ( 3 ) .
based on teaching of avicenna , exercise could prevent from diseases which are created by some materials which he named them as  materialistic diseases  . in this group of diseases ,
one or more materials include accessory and defecating products ( wastes and undigested substances ) accumulate whether in whole or in a part of body and result in some difficulties .
due to accumulation of defecating materials in body , five abnormal situations may occur : 
 1-  imtela  : it means  filling  .
access materials can fill free spaces inside tissues and/or inside a duct ; for example , in vessels they may cause obstruction and result in infarction .
such obstruction in other spaces may result in other difficulties such as a kind of epilepsy and also an especial form of stroke which appears due to filling of brain s ventricles with materials or wastes.2-  oram  : it means  inflammation  .
if materials move in body and descend to another organ , they may cause inflammation . according to avicenna s viewpoint ,
inflammation is either soft or hard ; for example , a reason for swollen , erythematouse , painful and warm joint , may be a  soft inflammation  ; whereas a cancerous mass can be a  hard inflammation  ; however , there are some differences between  cancerous inflammation  and  hard inflammation  ; for example , in opposite to cancer , hard inflammation can decline the sensation of organ .
sometimes , inflammation may be occurring in internal organs such as liver ; and sometimes it offers external organs such as joints.3-  sui a mizaj  : it means  dystemperament 
vulnerability of mizaj altered temperament which is called dystemperament ( sui a mizaj ) leads to several different types of diseases .
if matters temperament becomes warm or cold , bodies temperament will shift to be warmer or colder than normal .
this condition in brain is too dangerous and may result in some psychotic states.4- fever : prolonged persistence of abnormal materials and waste products may produce an unnatural heat in body and creates infection and fever .
some types of fevers causes after filling of spaces inside body either generally or locally , with waste so inactive physically individuals may suffer from fever because of two reasons : infection and imtela.5-  soul impairment  : receiving unhealthy vapour from the accumulated matters and waste products to  soul  , leads to  soul impairment  which may result in special diseases such as some psychotic states ( 3 ) .
access materials can fill free spaces inside tissues and/or inside a duct ; for example , in vessels they may cause obstruction and result in infarction .
such obstruction in other spaces may result in other difficulties such as a kind of epilepsy and also an especial form of stroke which appears due to filling of brain s ventricles with materials or wastes .
2-  oram  : it means  inflammation  . if materials move in body and descend to another organ , they may cause inflammation . according to avicenna s viewpoint ,
inflammation is either soft or hard ; for example , a reason for swollen , erythematouse , painful and warm joint , may be a  soft inflammation 
; whereas a cancerous mass can be a  hard inflammation  ; however , there are some differences between  cancerous inflammation  and  hard inflammation  ; for example , in opposite to cancer , hard inflammation can decline the sensation of organ .
sometimes , inflammation may be occurring in internal organs such as liver ; and sometimes it offers external organs such as joints .
vulnerability of mizaj altered temperament which is called dystemperament ( sui a mizaj ) leads to several different types of diseases .
if matters temperament becomes warm or cold , bodies temperament will shift to be warmer or colder than normal .
this condition in brain is too dangerous and may result in some psychotic states . 4-
fever : prolonged persistence of abnormal materials and waste products may produce an unnatural heat in body and creates infection and fever .
some types of fevers causes after filling of spaces inside body either generally or locally , with waste so inactive physically individuals may suffer from fever because of two reasons : infection and imtela .
5-  soul impairment  : receiving unhealthy vapour from the accumulated matters and waste products to  soul  , leads to  soul impairment  which may result in special diseases such as some psychotic states ( 3 ) .
study s data indicate that according to avicenna s teaching there are several diseases caused due to physical inactivity .
approximately , there is a relation between all diseases that may be prevented by exercise and accumulation of abnormal materials . in modern medicine , various diseases which are prevented by exercise
have been known as well , for example coronary heart disease , stroke , hypertension , metabolic syndrome and cancer ( 5 ) .
some of these problems are similar to avicenna s opinion such as coronary obstruction ( 6 ) .
of course , nowadays preventive role of exercise against breast cancer is well - known .
exercise role to prevent from stroke has been known but which kind of stroke that may be prevented by exercise is not so clear ( 5 ) while this study tell us that strokes which are created due to  imtela  may be prevented by exercise .
it is interesting that some abnormal conditions have been explained in canon of medicine which can be prevented by exercise while there was not enough similar evidence about them in modern investigations such as fever .
there are some evidence about protective role of exercise against epilepsy ( 7 ) and hepatitis ( 8) but they recommend more investigations to be sure . according this study , if epilepsy occurs following of  imtela  and hepatitis introduces as an oram , exercise may prevent against both of them .
there are some diseases which are not raised today such as various kinds of  dystemperament  and  soul impairment  ; both  brain dystemperament  and  soul impairment  may results in some psychotic states .
today , it has been known that exercise could promote level of functions in schizophrenic patients ( 9 ) . may regular exercise in childhood prevent from occurring of schizophrenia as  brain dystemperament  or  soul impairment  in teen years ? it is necessary to know that all five groups of diseases that were indicated in this study have been described in a specific chapter in canon of medicine exhaustively and each one includes numerous diseases either are today well - known such as stroke or modern medicine is not familiar with them such as  soul impairment  and fever due to  imtela  .
imtela  be introduced as a reason for fever with unknown origin ( fuo ) ?
the presented remarkable examples of diseases which may be prevented by exercise in the canon of medicine tell us that ancient physicians such as avicenna were familiar with preventive role of exercise as well .
some diseases , which in new medicine exercise plays an important protective role against them , have been described by avicenna theoretically without any paraclinical helps and only on the basis of principles of iranian traditional medicine . to use his theories ,
for example , it is possible , easy , safe and low - cost to get an exact observation from epileptic patients by a traditional medicine physician in order to find signs of imtela according to avicenna s viewpoint and separates patients who present that signs .
the next step is study about efficacy of preventive role of exercise against seizure in detected group .
investigations about other abnormal status from which exercise may prevent , according to avicenna s viewpoint , are suggested .
ethical issues ( including plagiarism , informed consent , misconduct , data fabrication and/or falsification , double publication and/or submission , redundancy , etc ) have been completely observed by the authors .
mizaj  in iranian traditional medicine texts is a quality which is a consequence of mutual interaction of the four contradictory primary qualities ( hot , cold , wet , dry ) .
 in the modern medical era it has been known as well that physical activity and exercise are important factors to prevent from different chronic diseases . 
 scientifically , there are numerous evidence based studies about protective role of exercise against chronic diseases such as cardio- respiratory diseases , diabetes , and hyperlipidemia etc , which have been completely explained . 
 historically , ancient physicians such as avicenna had described this topic several hundred years ago . 
 however , ancient principles of medicine are too different in comparison with modern medicine and description of diseases which avicenna has talked about them and their managements are too much different , yet reviewing the protective role of sports and physical activity in his masterpiece ,  the canon of medicine  , reveals that avicenna has made a significant contribution to the evolution of following knowledge . 
 the present review discusses avicenna s opinion about protective role of exercise against some diseases through a comparison with modern medical views and also emphasizes aspects that need further investigation for these opinions to be useful in clinic in the future . 
Introduction
Method
Results
Materialistic diseases
Discussion
Conclusion
Ethical considerations
None