Blood-sucking leeches popular for treatments

Leeches – “an ancient creature that has always been helping people” – are said to cure all from bad blood circulation to arthritis.

Leeches are gross, but they are on the biting edge of science. From plastic surgery to muscle pain, these blood-sucking worms seem to know more about humans than we can imagine.

Surgeon Leonid Sarzhan picked up his first leech five years ago. Practicing in an old Soviet-built polyclinic in Kyiv, at one point he got tired of cutting people. "Leeches are more efficient than a scalpel," said Sarzhan. "Eighty percent of all surgeries simply cripple people. Operations send a shock to a human body, and recovery takes long time. Leeches aren't as traumatic."

Used for bloodletting, these worms have been around for centuries. Before there were antibiotics, doctors prescribed medical leeches to chronic wounds. This alternative medicine, known as hirudotherapy, now helps to relieve patients from a variety of pains: from arthritis to a gumboil. Leeches also managed to creep into anti-aging health and beauty products. The process of putting them to work though is not for the faint at heart.

Sarzhan buys his worms from Saint Petersburg laboratories, where he said they are carefully synthesized away from Mother Nature. In his Kyiv cabinet, leeches swim in a family of a dozen in big glass jars. When he pops the lid open, they try to escape.

"A leech is a unique creature. It doesn't cure only an illness, it cures energy of a body cell," Sarzhan explained philosophically. His patient, Melania Pavlenko, 74, closes her eyes as the nurse plants the black worms on her legs.

Suffering from varicosity, she said she tried surgery but it didn't help. "Now I apply leeches once in six months, and my veins go back to normal," Pavlenko said. One session involving five to six leeches costs around Hr 100, which is often cheaper and less traumatic than surgery or tablets.

On the more scientific side, a leech injects more than 100 bioactive chemicals into the blood. The bite itself doesn't hurt much as leech's saliva contains hirudin, which numbs the stinging sensation. It stabilizes blood circulation and prevents edemas and blood clots.

"A leech is an ancient creature that has always been helping people," said entrepreneur Svitlana Opanasiuk who also believes in leeches. "In the 18th century women used to put them behind their ears to have a smooth and luminous skin before attending a ball."

Opanasiuk has developed more than health affection for leeches. While they suck her blood, she learnt how to pump money from them. With a couple of friends, she launched a leech farm, which now sells its produce to Kyiv pharmacies and clinics. One leach costs Hr 7-8 depending on the volume of purchase.

Despite these upbeat stories, there are people who didn't enjoy the experience. A doctor from Mykolayiv Lidia Lutinova put her trust in worms while suffering from osteochondrosis. "I couldn't stand the pain [in bones] so I thought I'd give it a try," Lutinina recalled.

The doctor put two leeches behind her ears and four on her legs. It didn't hurt much, she said, but it didn't yield a result either. After the fourth session, Lutinina said she got worse: The bites wouldn't stop bleeding for several hours.

Doctors don't have an unequivocal opinion on leeches, she said. Yet health care authorities define hirudotherapy as folk medicine and allow doctors to practice it if they obtain a special license.

Donetsk-based cosmetics company Biokon has one of those permits. They have been breeding leeches for almost 20 years for sale, research and blending into various anti-aging creams.

A leech requires stable conditions – plenty of light, water temperature and regular food to grow big and healthy, it says on their website. In the wild, they are not spoilt by a choice in food snacking on the blood of mussels, worms and sometimes grubs. While Biokon refuses to disclose the menu of their pets, similar leech factories abroad feed them with cow blood or raw meat.

So what happens to a leech after it's done its gore business? "Sadly, a leech who does well for us pays with its life for it," said leech trader Opanasiuk. Leeches are treated as disposable syringes. But the benefit doesn't stop there, at least for Opanasiuk.

Perusing Biokon's experience, she makes a facial mask from dead leeches. "Anti-aging effect is guaranteed," said hard-core leech fan, Opanasiuk. (Kyivpost, November 26, 2010)

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