Leeches can be used in many applications, including for medical and cosmetic purposes. The traditional use of leeches is to allow the leech to draw blood from the patient’s body to relieve symptoms such as headaches and associated pain. Leech oil is known to the local community to enhance the sexual abilities of humans. In India, it is used to prevent hair loss.
Leeches are in use for medical purposes for over 2000 years. An example using Leech Therapy Philadelphia to suck blood into the body to reach the goal of healing. There is today a real clinical application in this method; they are of great use for plastic surgeons when venous congestion of the skin and muscle flaps is a problem. The leech can suck the blood at the joint where the blood is clogged and circulate it again. Leeches are now used in plastic surgery and reconstructive surgery around the world. Research is also underway to relieve the symptoms of osteoarthritis using leeches.
Usage of Leeches
Treatment
Significant progress in the use of Leech Treatment in the medical field is that they have been approved in America for therapeutic use. Live leeches distribute to various places in the country and around the world for consumption. After sucking blood, leeches get treated in the same way as other blood treatment procedures, i.e., they can only be used on the same patient. It is primarily to prevent the spread of blood-borne diseases.
Another use of Leech Therapy Near Me also includes the treatment of black eyes. Hirudin, the anticoagulant of the leech, can be used in the treatment of inflammation of the middle ear. It is also under development for experimental use as a systemic anticoagulant and may be useful for in vitro blood collection. By extracting the anticoagulant serum from the leeches, researchers are isolating new pharmaceutical compounds for the possible treatment of heart disease.
From history, the leech was essential in 19th-century medicine for bleeding, a practice supposed to cure all ailments, from headaches to gout. The medicinal leech is gaining popularity in modern medicine thanks to the work of Dr Roy Sawyer, an American scientist who created the first leech farm in the world.
Thousands of patients have successfully rehabilitated parts of the body to technological advances in plastic and reconstructive surgery; at least some of these operations could have failed if the Leech Therapy Treatment had not been reintroduced into the operating room. The key to success lies in what the leech bite contains, which pierces a wound that bleeds for hours.
Leech saliva contains substances that numb the area of the wound, dilate the blood vessels to increase blood flow, and prevent blood clotting. Usually, the surgeon can circulate blood in the glued arteries, but not in the veins. With the venous circulation severely compromised, the blood going to the re-attached finger becomes congested; the fixed part becomes blue and lifeless and is very likely to get lost. At this point, leeches begin to play a significant role in removing blood from clotting.
Leech treatment
Diseases
It looks like something from medieval times. Use leeches to treat all diseases and conditions known to man. But it turns out that leeches are very powerful for treating a wide variety of ailments, including knee osteoarthritis.
Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis of the knee is a degenerative joint disease that causes cartilage rupture between the joints of the knees. It may be causing pain and loss of range of motion and bone lesions. Osteoarthritis of the knee seems to have several origins, including joint deformity, repeated injury, or excess weight. There is no curative treatment for osteoarthritis, and the focus is on pain treatments and the reduction of continuous lesions of the joint.
And that’s where leeches come in. Leeches secrete morphine, a powerful painkiller. Leeches also secrete an anticoagulant that improves blood flow to the area of application of leeches and an anti-inflammatory. As inflammation is responsible for the symptoms of osteoarthritis, the researchers believe that leeches could relieve pain in patients with osteoarthritis.
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classifies leeches as medical devices and has approved them for microsurgery. The FDA is also involved in regulating the transportation and sale of leeches. In Germany, it is estimated that there have been 70 000 treatments per year in recent years, of which four to five for each treatment. Most of these treatments aimed at reducing the pain associated with osteoarthritis of the knee.
Several studies have been conducted concerning the use of leeches to treat osteoarthritis of the knee.
Reported in the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, involved 16 patients with an average age of 68 years. These patients had persistent knee pain for more than six months. None had knee injuries, and all showed signs of X-ray arthritis. These patients were already treating their knee with physical therapy, relaxation, diet, and exercise.
In this study, part of the group received traditional treatments, and the rest treated with leeches treatment. Four leeches applied in the knee for 80 minutes. Pain levels were measured three days before and 28 days after surgery. The results were fast. Leech treatment relieved the pain after three days and continued throughout the 28-day test period. The leeches did not cause any side effects, and the patients indicated that the bite of the first leech was slightly painful.
A more extensive study conducted in 51 patients aged 40 years and older with knee osteoarthritis with severe pain. Four to six leeches were applied to the affected knee and were able to stay until they came off, which took about 70 minutes. Then, the patients rested the knee for 12 hours. The researchers then measured patients’ pain, stiffness, and range of motion after 3, 7, 28, and 91 days.
Leech-treated patients reported less pain, less stiffness, better function, and fewer total symptoms of osteoarthritis during the full 91 days that the researchers followed. There are many leech therapy benefits.
Farming
Leech farming is becoming an increasingly popular industry as the use of leeches has been established. One of the reasons is also due to the number of leeches becoming less abundant in nature, after intensive use of insecticides and pesticides. More research is underway to discover leech uses that can help us treat the blood problem, such as heart disease and high cholesterol levels in our body. The role of the leech will change from a blood-sucking creature, feared by many people, to a precious help for our health.
It has recently been reported that Japanese leeches are moving from the mountains to urban areas and causing a great deal of discomfort to residents.
These leeches, called “yamabiru,” are now a problem in 29 of Japan’s 47 prefectures, causing swelling and itching in their victims.
Although some parts of the earth have been reforested successfully, the rural population has decreased, deer and wild boar populations have increased dramatically, and these leeches are attaching to these unknown animals, which are increasingly becoming localized areas urban.
The Japanese are discovering leeches in their socks, having grown 5 to 10 times larger after having sucked their blood. These leeches are unusual by water leeches in the sense that people do not realize that they have been bitten until it starts to become uncomfortable to become taller in their shoes. Their blood-soaked feet frighten them and surprise them.
The problem is that when leeches bite, their saliva contains an anticoagulant that prevents the blood from clotting, allowing them to suck it. When they release their prey, the wound will bleed for some time because of this anticoagulant.
All leeches are hermaphrodites, which means they have male and female reproductive organs, and they can all carry eggs.
What do you do if you are bitten?
It is advisable to use a fingernail to loosen the suction of the leech. Other methods traditionally known to detach a leech are the use of a naked flame, a cigarette, salt, soda, lemon juice, vinegar, or alcohol. These “traditional” methods can cause the leech to regurgitate the contents of its stomach in the wound, which can carry disease and cause infection and worsening of swelling and bleeding. So, use the technique of the nail technique!
After removing the leech, be sure to wash the wound with soap and water and bandage, as it will bleed for a while.
Medical stylists
There is a word for using live animals to facilitate the treatment of a health problem or the diagnosis of a problem: biotherapy. And leeches are not the only animals used for biotherapeutic reasons. Maggots, or fly larvae, are another rather disgusting vermin that has significant medical benefits. They eat dead and infected tissue but leave healthy tissue intact. It is accomplished by their small gift of turning dead tissues into a type of mulch, which they then lay down.
The diabetic Pamela Mitchell, for example, lost her foot because of this disease – and then discovered the wonders of medical maggots. She was facing an amputation following infection when she found a doctor who had bought a plate of disinfected animals, which cost about $ 80 and let them go to work.
“They eat JUST the infected dead tissue (not the good as the surgery does), they excrete enzymes to promote healing, and they kill all the bacteria,” she wrote. “My feet have been healed for more than seven years now. Hardly a scar and I had an ulcer two inches in diameter and one inch deep and half an inch of bone exposed.
“Most doctors do not know all the Leech Therapy Benefits treatment.
Leach Therapy in Philadelphia
At the Philadelphia Acupuncture Clinic all Leach treatments performed by the certified leach therapist, medical doctor Konstantin Lakeev. Contact our clinic to book your appointment for Leath therapy.