Yes, leeches can be thought of as slimy and unattractive creatures, but ugly or not, they do serve a lot of medical purposes when it comes to us, humans.

Since ancient times, leeches were used to treat many illnesses and disease through bloodletting, a method where blood was drawn out in the hope that removing impure blood would heal the body. Believe it or not, leech therapy is sometimes the best alternative in treating illnesses, and even surpasses pharmacological treatments. Because of its healing effects to the human body, this traditional method of curing diseases is still thriving today.

There are more than 600 species of leeches that have been identified, but only 15 of the species are used medically, so they are given a class of their own. They are classified as Hirudo Medicinalis or medicinal leeches.

Leech therapy has been used and is still in use for many diseases of the body. They are used to treat arthritis and other inflammatory processes. It is perfect for those with vascular (arterial and venous diseases), heart (ischemic diseases and hypertension), and lung problems (bronchitis and bronchial asthma). The medicinal leeches can also help in patients with pneumonia. The GI or gastrointestinal tract can also benefit from leech therapy, especially those who suffer from hepatitis, stomach ulcers, and pancreatitis, among others. Likewise, individuals with problems in their genitourinary system and gynecological disorders will also benefit greatly from leech therapy. Skin diseases like psoriasis, herpes, and eczema can also be treated with leech therapy. Other problems known to benefit from leech therapy are the eyes (example is glaucoma) and the brain (for infantile cerebral palsy).

Illnesses treated through the use of leeches include:

* Glaucoma
* Myasthenia
* Inflammatory Reactions
* Heart Disease
* Rheumatic Disorders
* Tendovaginitis
* Varicose Veins or Venus Disease
* Arthritis
* Muscle stiffness
* Thrombosis and embolisms
* Passive congestion and spastic conditions
* Vertebrogenic Pain Syndrome
* Blood purification

But how exactly do leeches treat these many illnesses and diseases?

Anticoagulating Effects of Leeches

The leech’s saliva contains enzymes and compounds that act as an anticoagulation agent. The most prominent of these anticoagulation agents is hirudin, which binds itself to thrombins, thus, effectively inhibiting coagulation of the blood.

Another compound that prevents coagulation is calin. This, on the other hand, works as an anticoagulant by prohibiting the von Willebrand factor to bind itself to collagen, and it is also an effective inhibitor of platelet aggregation caused by collagen.

The saliva of the leeches also contains Factor Xa inhibitor which also blocks the action of the coagulation factor Xa.

Clot Dissolving Effects of Leeches

The action of destabilase is to break up any fibrins that have formed. It also has a thrombolytic effect, which can also dissolve clots of blood that have formed.

Anti-inflammatory Effects of Leeches

Bdellins is a compound in the leech’s saliva that acts as an anti-inflammatory agent by inhibiting trypsin as well as plasmin. It also inhibits the action of the acrosin. Another anti-inflammatory agent is the eglins.

Vasodilating Effects of Leeches

There are three compounds in the leeches’ saliva that act as a vasodilator agent, and they are the histamine-like substances, the acetylcholine, and the carboxypeptidase A inhibitors. All these act to widen the vessels, thus, causing inflow of blood to the site.

Bacteriostatic and Anesthetic Effects of Leeches

The saliva of leeches also contains anesthetic substances which deaden pain on the site and also bacteria-inhibiting substances which inhibit the growth of bacteria.

Overall Effects to the Human Body

Once the leeches attach themselves to the skin of the patient and start sucking blood, the saliva enters the puncture site and along with it the enzymes and compounds responsible for all these positive effects. Working together, they act to cure the disease present in the individual. Because of anticoagulation agents, the blood becomes thinner, allowing it to flow freely through the vessels. The anti-clotting agents also dissolve clots found in the vessels, eliminating the risk of them traveling to other parts of the body and blocking an artery or vein. The vasodilating agents help widen the vessel walls by dilating them, and this causes the blood to flow unimpeded, too.

Patients who suffer from pain and inflammation will feel relief from the anti-inflammatory and anesthetic effects of the leech’s saliva.

In the long run, leech therapy also helps to normalize the blood pressure of hypertensive individuals as well as lessen their risk of suffering from stroke and heart attacks. Blood circulation is also improved with leech therapy and it helps with the healing process of wounds, as well as wounds and lesions caused by diabetes. There is also a noticeable boost in the immune system’s function due to bacteriostatic agents.

Contraindication to Leech Therapy

Leech therapy is contraindicated to patients with HIV and AIDS. It is also not recommended to patients who are on immunosuppressive drugs. Leech therapy puts these patients at risk for bacterial sepsis, thus, worsening their conditions.

Demi Moore sat down with David Letterman Monday night to promote her new movie “Flawless.” Moore was looking pretty flawless herself, and dished to Dave about her new beauty treatment. She returned one week ago from a trip to Austria, where she had her blood sucked by leeches. The “leech therapy,” as she told Dave, was to detoxify her blood.

I feel like I’ve always been someone looking for the cutting edge of things that optimize your health and healing,” she told Dave. “I was in Austria doing a cleanse and part of the treatment was leech therapy.”

Demi Moore describes how four leeches got drunk on her blood, starting from her bellybutton, and how they don’t like hair and prefer waxed or shaved skin. She plans to go back for more.

Marine Phytoplankton

If Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin’s warning last week that Russia’s recent economic bump will most likely be short lived got you down, don’t fret there are some economic spheres besides McDonald’s that are going strong. As Time reports, leech farming is a “flourishing industry” and “a bright spot in a Russian economy.” That’s right, leeches. Not the oligarch kind that sucks wealth like a like a crack addict hits the pipe. The slimy, waterborne, blood sucking kind, or as known by its Latin moniker, Hirudo medicinalis.

Russia is leech producing central, churning out 10 times more blood suckers that any other country. The base of operations is the International Medical Leech Center at Udelnaya, southeast of Moscow. The Institute has a long history. Beginning in 1937, Udelnaya was the center of Soviet leech production. It’s unknown what their production quota was in Stalin’s Third Five Year Plan (1938-1941), but the Center produced about 3 million leeches a year. The number is evidence of how widespread leeches were used in Soviet medicine. Every Soviet pharmacy was required to carry a stock of at least 25.

The use of leeches continues to be a sound medical practice. According to Time,

[The Center] is now taking advantage of the growing popularity of leech therapy, also known as Hirudotherapy, around the world. Demi Moore last year spoke about the cleansing effects of leeches; Britain’s National Health Service buys 50,000 bloodsuckers every year; the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved leech therapy in 2004 because they proved beneficial in increasing blood circulation for patients who have had skin grafts.

Today the center sells the leeches to plastic surgeons, who put them on wounds to reduce the chance of scarring, to dentists, who apply them on gums to reduce swelling, and even to gynecologists, who use them to treat sexually transmitted diseases (Yes. You imagine right.). The oral cavity of the leech is rich with an anticoagulant, which allows the animal to feed continuously on blood but which also delivers the anti-clotting substance more effectively to the area of a wound than would a small injection puncture. Indeed, leeches are used very much like syringes. After a leech is used on a patient it has to be killed. “It’s like a disposable syringe, it isn’t good sanitary practice to use it twice,” says Gennady Nikonov the director of the Leech Center.

Perhaps strangest of all are the emotional relationships technicians at the Leech Center have formed with their leeches. Their jars require constant cleaning because, as Elena Titova, a 25 year veteran at the Center, explains, “Leeches urinate non-stop for three days after they are fed. You have to clean their jars very frequently during this time; otherwise they poison themselves with their own waste.” The staff feeds its stock “certified cattle blood” except on holidays when they treat the leeches to veal blood “as a treat.” According to Nikonov, raising leeches has a gender component. Women are more nurturing than men, and since each employee is responsible for their own crop, some organize their vacations around feeding so no one fiddles with their leeches. “Leeches are very attached to their owners,” Titova believes.

Besides their use in surgeries and other procedures, leeches are also the central ingredient of Nikonov’s skin care line, Bio Energy:

Some of the leeches go into Nikonov’s own skin care range “Bio Energy,” which is made at the Center. The most expensive product, an anti-aging cream, contains dried, freshly-hatched larvae and retails for 47,000 rubles ($1,300) for 15 grams. The idea for the cosmetic range came after the collapse of Communism, when pharmacies were no longer required to sell leeches. “We had no money and the staff would go several months without wages,” says Nikonov. “We had too many leeches and we wanted to try and create something exciting and profitable.” Nikonov explains that the deconstructed leeches become ingredients in a cream, helping it the skin’s surface to improve circulation of oxygen, fats and protein. All this, he claims, leads to younger looking skin.

The biggest export market for the Center’s leeches is France. Nikonov, however, says that he remains very selective about his clientele. “We are careful about who we export them to,” he says. “I know in certain cuisines people put the leech on a goose. They wait until it gets fat on the goose blood and then fry the leech like it’s a sausage. This is considered a delicacy. I feel sorry for the leech. They should not be used this way.”

Okay . . . I guess it works if you work it.

Source:Ocnus.net 2009
http://www.ocnus.net/artman2/publish/Research_11/Leeching_onto_Success.shtml

Udelnaya is a sleepy town southeast of Moscow, full of muddy roads lined with brightly painted wooden houses. Behind a frozen stream there is one large brick building that looks a little out of place. Inside are hundreds of rows of jars exuding an unpleasant smell. They are full of Hirudo medicinalis, more commonly known as leeches. But few locals are turning up their noses at the presence of so many blood-sucking annelids. Leeches are the flourishing industry in Udelnaya, a bright spot in a Russian economy hurtling into recession.

Russia breeds 10 times more leeches than the rest of the world combined, most of them raised at the International Medical Leech Center at Udelnaya. It is an institution that has existed since 1937, producing 3 million leeches annually. It is now taking advantage of the growing popularity of leech therapy, also known as Hirudotherapy, around the world. Demi Moore last year spoke about the cleansing effects of leeches; Britain’s National Health Service buys 50,000 bloodsuckers every year; the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved leech therapy in 2004 because they proved beneficial in increasing blood circulation for patients who have had skin grafts. (See a brief history of leech lore.)

Today the center sells the leeches to plastic surgeons, who put them on wounds to reduce the chance of scarring, to dentists, who apply them on gums to reduce swelling, and even to gynecologists, who use them to treat sexually transmitted diseases (Yes. You imagine right.). The oral cavity of the leech is rich with an anticoagulant, which allows the animal to feed continuously on blood but which also delivers the anti-clotting substance more effectively to the area of a wound than would a small injection puncture. Indeed, leeches are used very much like syringes. After a leech is used on a patient it has to be killed. “It’s like a disposable syringe, it isn’t good sanitary practice to use it twice,” says Gennady Nikonov the director of the Leech Center. (See 10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now.)

Retailing for about 100 rubles each (or close to $3), Russians can buy them at wholesale at Udelnaya for half the price. For most Russians, medicinal leeches are not looked upon as exotic or primitive. Under Communist rule, leeches were readily available for sound therapeautic purposes. “It was mandatory for each pharmacy to have 25 leeches in stock at a time,” says Nikonov, who has worked at the Center for 19 years. He is very proud that the rest of the world is now catching up to Russia. (Check out the story of a modern-day exorcist.)

Still, leeches aren’t pretty. And neither do they smell nice. The odor from the Center’s laboratory is like stale meat in a dirty restroom. It can be detected from far away and becomes close to unbearable when approaching the jars full of leeches — all various hues of red and yellow depending on when they were last fed. “Leeches urinate non-stop for three days after they are fed,” explains Elena Titova, the head of laboratory production, who has worked at the center for 25 years. “You have to clean their jars very frequently during this time; otherwise they poison themselves with their own waste.”

The other component of the stench is blood. “We feed them certified cattle blood,” said Nikonov. “And on national holidays we give them veal blood as a treat.” For Nikonov, who was trained as a chemist, breeding the leeches is an art. “It looks like it’s just a jar full of water, but there are millions of chemical processes going on.”

Nikonov believes women are more nurturing than men when it comes to the creatures; and, at the laboratory, each employee raises her own batch of leeches from start to finish. “That way if something goes wrong and thousands of leeches die no one can blame anyone else,” says Titova. According to her, leeches are very attached to their owners. She organizes her vacation around their feeding times so that no one else interferes with her lot. When a leech is about to be sold, it has to be starved for three months to be at its most effective.

Some of the leeches go into Nikonov’s own skin care range “Bio Energy,” which is made at the Center. The most expensive product, an anti-aging cream, contains dried, freshly-hatched larvae and retails for 47,000 rubles ($1,300) for 15 grams. The idea for the cosmetic range came after the collapse of Communism, when pharmacies were no longer required to sell leeches. “We had no money and the staff would go several months without wages,” says Nikonov. “We had too many leeches and we wanted to try and create something exciting and profitable.” Nikonov explains that the deconstructed leeches become ingredients in a cream, helping it the skin’s surfce to improve circulation of oxygen, fats and protein. All this, he claims, leads to younger looking skin. (See pictures of Russia’s patriotic youth camps.)

The biggest export market for the Center’s leeches is France. Nikonov, however, says that he remains very selective about his clientele. “We are careful about who we export them to,” he says. “I know in certain cuisines people put the leech on a goose. They wait until it gets fat on the goose blood and then fry the leech like it’s a sausage. This is considered a delicacy. I feel sorry for the leech. They should not be used this way.”

By Marina Kamenev / Udelnaya Saturday, Mar. 28, 2009

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1886226,00.html

Leech therapy is simply means the use of leeches in medical treatment. It was once used as an almost universal cure, were largely abandoned by medicine, then in the second half of the 20th century refound a role
which is largely in plastic and reconstructive surgery.

Leeches can assist, for example, in the reattachment of severed body parts such as a finger, hand, toe, leg, ear, nose or the scalp. The surgeon usually has little difficult connecting the two ends of small arteries, since arteries are thick-walled and relatively simple to suture. However, veins are thin-walled, fragile, and difficult to suture. The surgeon may thus get blood flowing in the reattached arteries but not in the veins. With the venous circulation severely compromised, the blood going to the reattached body part becomes congested and stagnant. The reattached part turns blue and lifeless and is at risk of being lost. It is then that leeches are summoned to treat the threatening venous insufficiency, but only when there is adequate arterial flow. Contemporary leech therapy was pioneered by the surgeons, M. Derganc and F. Zdravic, who published a paper in 1960 describing the use of leeches to assist in tissue flap surgery — surgery in which a flap of skin is freed or rotated from an adjacent body area to cover a defect or injury. Their rationale behind this use of leeches was based on a unique property of the leech bite, namely, the creation of a puncture wound that bleeds for hours.

Besides, There is renewed interest in leech therapy in the field of complementary medicine and empirical evidence for specific benefit in knee osteoarthritis. Indeed, leech therapy was a mainstay in conventional treatment for pain in the history before 19-century. Scientists believe leeches help reduce pain through biologically active substances found in their saliva. In one of the study of leech therapy for osteoarthritis, 51 patients with osteoarthritis of the knee were assigned to receive either traditional treatment with a standard topical medication for 28 days or a single treatment involving the application of four to six leeches
to the affected area. At a one week follow-up, patients who received the leech therapy reported significantly less pain than those who were using the topical medication.

Leech therapy is also reported to be effective in treatment of cardiovascular diseases and hypertension. As we know, hirudin, an enzyme contain in the leeches saliva is a substance which has systemic anticoagulative effects. It also stimulates segmental reflex mechanisms and this contributes to the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Besides, because leeches suck a hosts blood and its hirudin has anticoagulation, it may cause hypovolemic hemodilution which are two of the things that will reduce the pressure of the blood flow on the walls of the blood vessels, thus leading to reduction in blood pressure. However, it should be noted that since there are much more effective treatments for the reduction of blood pressure, such as anti-hypertensive drugs, leech therapy is now mostly considered as an adjuvant therapy rather than an actual first-line treatment.