Convenient, Traditional and Alternative Therapies for Cardiovascular Disorders

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are of major causes of death worldwide. Complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) are considered as new sources to find preventive and treatment approaches with mostly a historical perspective. Chinese medicine (CM), Persian medicine (PM), Ayurveda and homeopathy are as most popular traditional systems of medicine among various CAM methods. In this survey, we aimed to review most relevant and approved treatment by current investigations on these CAM systems in the field of CVD to present best traditional remedies and treatment approaches. To this, a search within databases including PubMed, Scopus and Google scholar was performed to find and select traditional approaches for CVD with the help of four CAM systems: CM, PM, Ayurveda and homeopathy. There are numerous cardiovascular and allied complications. Based on the type and group of disorder, the aforementioned complementary and alternative systems of medicine offer convenient and practical treatment approaches which can be considered along with the conventional interventions. Many mono and multi-ingredient preparations have been introduced by those popular systems of medicine. In addition, non-pharmacological treatments such as acupuncture and cupping are reported in some circumstances. Apart from various compound formulations, most of the human studies are limited to the single medicinal plants from modern phytotherapy. Accordingly, more comprehensive assessments are to be performed to distinguish those traditional remedies from popular holistic medical systems.