Making Friends With Leeches

Since ancient times bloodletting has been used as an important means of curing a variety of health conditions, mainly through activating the immune system. The practice was widely used as recently as the last century. Even today, it is widely recognised that even donating a pint of blood encourages a doubling of the rate of red blood corpuscle production, resulting in a strengthening of immunity.

In Ayurveda, localised bloodletting is used to treat a variety of ailments, including skin diseases, ulcers and abscesses, glandular problems, arthritis, sluggish circulation and inflammatory conditions. It is one of the processes that traditionally formed part of Panchakarma – Ayurvedic detoxification.

Leeches are a very useful tool in this process, and certain specific types have been identified as being  suitable for the purpose; only 15 out of more than 600 existing species are classified as medicinal leeches. These are non-toxic forms which are further purified and then potentised with the help of herbs. This makes it possible to introduce the medicines gently and without any damage to the patient’s body, as the remedies are released from the leech’s saliva while it is sucking blood. The leech’s saliva also contains medicines of its own, such as enzymes that prevent blood from clotting more effectively than commonly used drugs and other chemicals that are anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and anaesthetic in nature.

Many of our common diseases are a result of toxicity in the blood and blood letting provides a simple and painless way of stimulating the production of anti-toxic substances in the blood stream. The benefits are seen in improvement to the circulation,  in acceleration of healing and in the strengthening of the immune system.

Who would have believed that such a slimy and unattractive creature could do the work of a little doctor, while at the same time doing no harm?