Ibn Sina in his Canon said,
“Speaking in general the signs of plethora of the first type are :
Objective : red face ; full veins ; tightness of skin ; sluggish movements (gestures) ; full pulse. High-coloured urine ; dense urine ; scanty appetite.
Subjective : sense of weight in the limbs ; weak vision ; dreams in which there is a sense of weight—as when one dreams one is unable to move, or is carrying a heavy weight, or cannot give utterance to words. This kind of dream may be compared with that associated with attenuation of humours, or where the humours are moderate in amount for here one dreams one is flying through the air, or moving at a great spee
The translator’s note is: “The modern term " hypertension" is covered by the old term of plethora or repletion. The correspondence is verified by some of its symptoms. Thus, hemorrhagic phenomena occur—in the nose, retina, cerebrum, meninges, labyrinth, the skin ; and as hematuria and hsemetemesis simulating organic disease. Hypertension causes fatigue of the heart shown by : dyspnoea, palpitation, quick pulse, anginal attacks, nocturnal pseudo-asthma, bruit de galop.”
