leech therapy

Naturopathy: Leech therapy

(05.08.2010) Representations from ancient India bear witness to the use of leech therapy already 500 years before our time. 300 years later, the Greeks describe the bloodsucker medicine in Europe and so it goes on over the Middle Ages to modern times. The traditional climax reached the method in the 18th century, where the wasteful handling of the leeches should have claimed fatalities and as „vampirism“ was designated. Initially revived by representatives of natural medicine as a method of classical excretory techniques in the 20th century, plastic surgery in particular also uses the useful bloodsuckers today. What's wrong with this bloody method that does not seem to replace itself for millennia??

Leech Therapy:
The leech: A blood-sucking annelid worm
The course of treatment: painless and bloody
Effect of leech therapy
Leech therapy application areas
Leech therapy contraindications
Leeches as thrown products

The leech: A blood-sucking annelid worm

The leech (scient. Hirudo) is a European Ringelwurm, which leaves the native fresh water in a natural environment at best, to lay eggs in the soil, is bred for medical purposes in so-called leeches close to nature. I.d.R. A leech starves for up to eight months before being sold to naturopaths and physicians.

The preferred species in medicine Hirudo medicinalis is about 2-4 cm long and loves the blood of humans and animals alike. As a biting and sucking tool the leech serves three jaws, which are occupied with sharp teeth. After a bite, he leaves a wound in the form of a three-pointed star, which can also remain as a scar.

The course of treatment: painless and bloody

For a treatment, 1-12 leeches are set. For this purpose, each animal is inserted with its head forward in a laboratory tube and placed on the desired skin area of ​​the patient. Since the hirudo is quite odor-sensitive, should avoid exhalations of alcohol and drugs and the application of fragrance and perfume, so he does not turn down the meal. The bite is less painful and the rhythmic bloodsucking barely noticeable. After 10 to 40 minutes and 5-8 ml of blood, the leeches are full and simply fall off. However, the bleeding continues to seep for up to 20 hours, which is a significant part of the effect of a leech treatment. As with a gentle bloodletting, 30-50ml of blood are lost.

Effect of leech therapy

The active ingredients: The beneficial mixture is produced in the cervical glands. The reason for the long after-bleeding of the wound and the healing effects are numerous active ingredients in the salivary saliva, which the animal produces in the cervical glands and secretes it during the sucking process. For example, the contained hirudin is anticoagulant and antithrombotic, the eglins inhibit inflammation, while the histamine triggers local vascular spasms. The loss of blood has a decongesting (anti-inflammatory), anti-inflammatory and blood-thinning effect, metabolic waste and body toxins are discharged, the lymphatic flow accelerated. Meanwhile, the known active ingredients are also produced by genetic engineering.

Leech therapy application areas

Areas of application: Leech therapy in naturopathy and university medicine: The ability of the saliva mixture, v. A. A better flowability of the blood also explains the most common uses of leech therapy.

In natural medicine, leeches are also used in particular in cases of fullness, congestion and pain. These include high blood pressure, tinnitus, thrombosis, varicose veins, phlebitis and hemorrhoids as well as joint and soft tissue rheumatism, acute gout attack and acute glaucoma. But even in chronic inflammation of the sinuses (sinusitis) or the middle ear (otitis media) therapy is helpful to you. For the treatment of other chronic diseases, naturopaths and naturopathic doctors use the effect of the bloodsucker as a Umstimmungstherapie to stimulate the self-healing by increasing the responsiveness of the body.

In evidence-based medicine, the use of leeches is largely limited to plastic surgery, where the worm saliva after transplantation of fingers, ears or skin to optimize wound healing and prevent rejection of the new tissue.

Leech therapy contraindications

The contraindications: Attention in case of blood coagulation disorders: Due to its mode of action should in disturbed blood coagulation by drugs or liver disease, a few days before and after surgery, in existing diabetes mellitus, arterial disease (PAOD) and skin infections in the area of ​​the treatment area due to expected complications to Leech therapy must be avoided.

Leeches as thrown products

The downer: Leeches as throwaway products: With the achievements of modern medicine and its hygiene standards, the leech therapy temporarily disappeared, not least because it was suspected of spreading disease. Today, each leech is used only once and then immediately killed in alcohol. Until a few years ago, Germany's most important leech ZAUG, to acknowledge the medical performance of the animals, this has taken back from the therapists. Isolated from the still „virgin“ Conspecifics were offered the Egeln a suitable habitat for the pension period. The company ZAUG closed its pension pond in 2006, after the withdrawal of the leeches was officially banned.

Incidentally, in addition to bred and imported leeches are used. The latter are kept in quarantine for at least 32 weeks before being deployed. (Dipl.Päd. Jeanette Viñals Stein, naturopath)

Read on

Study on the efficacy of leech therapy in joint osteoarthritis by the Carl and Veronica Carstens Foundation (Nature & Medicine)