Medical leeches have been used for more than 3,000 years, from the days of the pharaohs to the 18th and 19th centuries, when women of fashion put leeches behind their ears before a ball to attain rosy cheeks and shining eyes.
A written leech reference is found in the Bible, in Solomon�s Parables.
Unusual leech features were used by Plinius (1 century a.d.), Galenus ( 131-200), Aetius (335- 454), Avicenna (980-1037).
The leech industry has been developing for so many centuries. In the 18th and 19th centuries medicinal leeches were applied as a necessary measure at any disease. By the early 1900s, Europe annually used 120 million leeches. But medical science soon forgot about leeches as a result of rapid advances in chemistry and pharmacology and the global conflicts that took place in the first half of the 20th century. Aspirin and antibiotics eclipsed nature’s slithery healers; but only temporarily.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, medical journals began to print short articles that strained the credibility of modern minds steeped in scientific principles. Leeches cure both male and female infertility. They restore atrophied ovaries and reverse azoospermia (the absence of spermatozoa). They cure commissure problems and eliminate cysts – conditions that many woman have been unfortunate enough to experience. Several hirudotherapy sessions took care of certain ailments without invasive surgery! There were even more incredible tales. After 7 years of trials and observations, 26 cases of atrophied wombs showed signs of restoration!
There were some reports of leech benefits in oncology. Malignant tumors disappeared without the side effect of chemotherapy or invasive surgery. Clinical tests demonstrated that combining drugs with hirudotherapy significantly increased the drugs’ effectiveness.
Further tests showed that leeches helped to cure glaucoma.
It got to the point where the evidence could not longer be ignored. Facts can be persistent things, especially when professional hirudology associations and hirudotherapists threw their weight behind the arguments and researchers turned to leech physiology.
Bloodsucking aid
A simple principle lies at the heart of all hirudo-miracles. When leeches feed, they restore the flow of blood in healthy as well as damaged organs. Of course they don’t do this intentionally. Their saliva contains a natural thinner. Hirudin, that dilutes all organic obstacles: arterial sediments, cysts, clots and mutant cells that surround and protect malignant growths form the immune system’s agents. The leech needs the blood to circulate freely. Leeches don’t just drink blood, they feed by filtering it. In 20 to 60 minutes, a leech can go through several liters of blood, filtering and thinning it before it is returned to the vein. The 15-20 ml that it retains is the trash that your immune system couldn’t process and which can cause health problems. The filtered and thinned blood now circulated freely through your capillaries and arteries and works its own miracles as it harmonizes your body’s functions. This is especially noticeable if are being treated for hypertension or varicose veins. In addition the leech injects close to 20 unique enzymes and microelements that are active biological cleansers into your bloodstream. Hirudotherapy also reduces stress and normalizes sleeping patterns. Of course, it’s not the leech’s intention to relax you: it just wants to have a quiet meal, so nature has endowed it with capacity to calm and distract its host so it doesn’t notice the leech feeding!
Incidentally, it’s the enzymes that made the leech powder potent. Today, leech extract is an active component in anti-varicose creams and other medicinal cosmetic products.
In addition to all this, leeches sense which organs are unhealthy and target them. Their diagnosis is more accurate than endoscopies!
Needless to say, if you decide to undertake hirudotherapy you’ll need to be under a specialist’s supervision. Our bodies have thousands of interconnected energy points, and it often happens that to heal an ulcer, leeches are applies not only to the solar plexus, but also to the spleen and kidneys. Every cure has its own hirudo map!
The most surprising thing is that hirodotherapy is one of modern medicine’s most painless treatments. Don’t be afraid to try it. You’ll lie there waiting for the bite, but all you’ll feel is a slight prick and then a pleasant pulsation. And that’s it.
