Qualities
The concepts of Temperament, Humors and lifestyle have a common denominator—the qualities of heat, moistness, coldness and dryness. To remain healthy, the qualities associated with the Temperament of the individual needs to be in line with the overall qualities of the Humors and the individual. A lifestyle with opposite qualities to that of your Temperament should be chosen to maintain an equilibrium that is conducive to health maintenance and disease prevention. Disease or ill health can ensue if there is a change in the qualities, or if the quantitative ratio of the Humors is not in line with the qualities required by the Temperament of an individual.
Everything in the universe is made up of elements with their unique qualities: Earth (Cold & Dry), Water (Cold & Moist), Air (Hot & Moist) and Fire (Hot & Dry). The effect of the qualities on human beings, as well as all living organisms, is an important consideration in Traditional Persian Medicine (TPM).
According to the philosophy of (TPM), the qualities of heat and coldness are active qualities, whereas moistness and dryness are passive qualities. To understand the influence that these qualities have on us, it is necessary to understand their interaction in nature. This is illustrated below; the quality of heat is opposite to the quality of coldness, and moistness opposite to dryness: