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Leeches, for centuries, have been used by ancient medicine men to treat human illness especially inflammation and pain management. Descriptions and images of leeches being used in ancient Greek medical treatments could be seen in tombs of Egyptian pharaohs. However, popularity of its used made the supply and production of leeches scarce in the 18^th and 19^th century.

Medicinal uses of leeches

Leeches are commonly used for plastic surgery, osteoarthritis, Trichuris suis, Necator americanus, and inflammatory bowel disease. The source of anticoagulants is the antithrombin agent found in the saliva of the leech. Hirudin and the synthetic analogues of the chemical have been approved for human medicinal use. Several other live organisms such as worms, snails, ticks, centipedes, and spiders were used for treatments. Leeches have been used in the medical world to aid the healing of wounds after plastic surgery, treat venous congestion, arterial repair, treatment of ring avulsion injuries, and relieve possible venous congestion in the nipple after breast surgery. Leeches potentially alleviate post phlebitis syndrome caused by deep thrombosis.

The synthetic analogues are what make other predatory arthropods important, such as the snails, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, and the ticks. They provide potential analgesic peptides in their venom. The snail venom contains ziconotide, which has been used in severe pain cases among humans as an alternative to opioids. The venom contains anticoagulants and centipede venom, which carries the right amount of protein that could help correct the abnormalities in the lipid metabolism of a person.

A look into insurance

Aetna policy considers that the leech therapy is necessary for poor venous congestion or outflow obstruction conditions. It is also necessary to salvage vascularly compromised flaps or replants. However, it reviewed the medicinal leech therapy as investigational in terms of cancer pain management, tissue ischemia treatment, and pain management for osteoarthritis. In a 2001 survey associated with TCAM utililization, it has been found that in Iran people are still going into massage therapy, cupping, leech therapy, herbal remedies, and bone setting.

Can hirudin from leeches really cure cancer? Can we use this as cancer alternative treatment?

Hirudin, a protein called Hirudo medicinalis, demonstrates thrombin inhibitor effect. Because of its high affinity to thrombin, Hirudin heparin-like substance inhibits almost all actions of thrombin. Recently China included Hirudin in its proprietary Chinese medicines. Hirudin as cancer alternative treatment prevents metastasis of tumor cells and has been proven effective in tumors such as fibrosarcoma, osteosarcoma, vascular sarcoma, melanoma, and leukaemia. During chemotherapy and radiation therapy, hirudin promotes blood flow and increase efficacy. Animal experiments and clinical studies showed no side effects in either acute or subacute toxicity tests.

References

AetnaClinical Policy Bulletin: Bio-Surgery: Medicinal Leech Therapy and Medical Maggots.

Bodeker, G. & Ong, C. K. (2005). WHO global atlas of traditional complementary and alternative medicine. Switzerland: WHO.

Cherniak, E. P. (2011). Bugs as drugs, Part two:Worms, leeches, scorpions, snails, ticks, centipedes, and spiders. Alternative Medicine Review LLC, 16(1).

Guangxi WanFeng Pharmaceutical Group (2011). Untitled document from http://leechmenow.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/The-Unique-killer-for-heart-and-braindisease.pdf based on Url:http://www.wfyy.com.cn

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