Medicinal Leeches

Introduction

Traditional medicine is one of the oldest diagnostic methods in human society which has been used by various nations and it owes its growth to the traditions, cultures, rituals and methods of various nations. Traditional medicine still has a place in many countries, works alongside modern medicine to protect health and to cure diseases and in the recent few decades, it has grown greatly. From a general point of view, traditional medicine is the knowledge of protecting health and includes a group of methods which culminates in the protection of health and curing various diseases, and it holds a close relationship with plants, animals, minerals and hand actions (all the operations which are carried out with the hands). One of the medical techniques in traditional medicine is using leeches, this extraordinary being known as the small surgeon. The leeches have been used for medicinal purposes for more than 2500 years in India, Greece, Iran and then in Europe.

Identifying leeches and method of use

Until now, approximately 650 species of leeches with various forms have been discovered. This animal solely feeds on blood ; fifty species feed off the blood of mammals and humans and the other group of leeches are carnivores. Some leeches are very venomous and dangerous to humans. Hakim Jurjani says in the book Dhakhirah Khwarazmshahi that the Indians have said that some of the leeches are venomous and harmful so it is better that before using leeches, one should throw them in water so that their colour and form is distinguished so that they aren’t a venomous species. It is indisputable that leeches have gained special attention from the doctors in ancient medicine as an important medicinal cure. In modern medicine, leeches are also used a lot. One of the items exported by the Soviet Union to the Western countries for medical use were leeches. Hundreds of millions of leeches have been exported from the Soviet Union to Europe over the previous years. Some leeches can enter the human’s and animal’s body through the nose, mouth or ear and move around. In this case, internal bleeding is caused and in some cases, the leech can cause suffocation in the human or animal’s windpipe. The useful and non-venomous leeches have been described with various colours. The colour of these leeches is normally brown, henna-like or olive-green bearing to black. There are two thin coloured lines on the back of the leeches which is one of the clear characteristics of the leech.

History and Islam’s views regarding the leech

Medicinal leeches even existed in the middle ages. At first, they were used only to drive away evil spirits, ignorant to their medical benefits but slowly, people from every corner of the world whose names we don’t know today and finding their names is impossible, started to use the leeches with a smarter purpose and wrote more intellectually regarding them. After the middle ages, with the arrival of traditional medicine in the world, the extension of great schools and the appearance of doctors such as Socrates, Hippocrates, Galen and Avicenna, medicinal leeches were introduced more intellectually and were presented to the world.

Undoubtedly, countries like Greece, Iran, China, India and some others in which traditional medicine set its roots had set the foundation for medicinal leeches. Later, artificial climates were created like pools for nurturing leeches and today, in countries like Turkey, there are leech banks. Millions of leeches are exported from Russia to Europe yearly and business with leeches has transformed into a large franchise. In the Shiite narrations, nothing has been mentioned about leeches but using it for a cure hasn’t been prevented either.

Venomous leeches

Leeches with thick heads and are dark blue or green are venomous. If the leech has a thin and soft exterior and resembles an eel, it is venomous. Also, leeches which have azure-coloured lines or are coloured like a turkey are venomous and one must refrain from using them. One must pay attention that hunting leeches must be in a natural ecosystem e.g. in swamps which have a normal kind of living for plants and animals and frogs live there easily. Clean and virus-free leeches live in these places but one must not hunt leeches from murky, slimy and smelly waters. Swamps with mosquitoes are a definite place to find leeches. If venomous leeches are used, it is possible for the patient to suffer from unconsciousness, fever, tremors, infection, skin diseases, abscesses and a state of nausea and sickness. Leeches must not be used twice as it is a transferrer of dangerous diseases and must be killed with salt or alcohol in the presence of the patient.

Points to observe regarding medicinal leeches

One who wishes to use a leech must first wash the place in question with water and soap but must not use perfumed soap. Rather, after washing it a few times, one must also wash it with pure, limpid water so that there is no smell to bother the leech. They must wait until the leech falls of itself after consuming its share of blood but if one wishes to separate it sooner, they should sprinkle some salt, ash, borax, alcohol, betadine, diluted Savlon or burnt wool where the leech was stuck so that the leech could fall off immediately.

If one wishes for nothing unhygienic or unpleasant to occur after the leech separates, they can perform hijamah (cupping) over the bite of the leech. Then, they should apply anti-itching cream and sterilize the area of the wound with alcohol or any other kind of wound sterilizer every two hours. One must not wash the wound with normal unsterilized water for at least forty-eight hours and must pay special care that it doesn’t come into contact with polluted areas for four to five days or even a week. Normally, the bleeding stops a few hours following the separation of the leech. Even if the bleeding continues for sixteen hours, it normally isn’t dangerous and it is sometimes better to let the blood come out and stop when it is supposed to. Apparently, during the time that the blood is under the effect of the leech’s saliva, the bleeding continues and the illnesses leave with it, but if they wish to stop the bleeding sooner, they can stick burnt oak apple (Oak apple is a spherical gall which grows on fresh branches of the oak tree due to holes made by insects in order to lay eggs. This fruit contains sap and is fifty to seventy percent tannin. Oak apple contains more tannin than anything used for leather tanning. People benefit from oak apple in the industries of tanning, ink, dyeing and also for curing burns), nureh (a form of depilatory), soft and crumbled clay, the flour of fried broad beans, the ashes of burnt pumpkin skin or any other kind of bandage. Even though vitamin K is effective in stopping the bleeding, it must only be used in urgent circumstances as it prevents the medicinal leech from reaching its objective; to thin the blood.

The general method of using the leech

Using a leech must only be done under the supervision of a doctor, complete sanitation and knowledge on how to use a leech. Leeches must be brought from original and completely natural places. The leech must not be used more than once. A leech must not be kept and used again after drinking blood. Over the previous centuries, the chance of transmission of disease was less as the contact between nations was less and journeys took longer and therefore, the chance of transmission of disease was also less, but now that one can travel to the furthest corner of the world in a matter of hours with fast-travelling vehicles, the chance of transmission of disease is greater than before as a result of contact between the people of the world with each other. Leeches can quickly transmit a disease from one person to another. There are viruses and microbes which live in human blood, live alongside the immune system and coexist. These viruses aren’t a danger to the host body perhaps until the end of his life but as soon as it enters another body through a leech or anything else, it is possible for it to activate and cause irreparable danger for its new host.

Not using a leech more than once has been emphasised in the books of traditional and herbal medicine, even in the compilations of personalities such as Shaykh al-Rais Avicenna. Before using the leech, one must look at it from the inside to see whether it has drunk blood. In our time, with due attention to the speed of transmission of diseases, the special physiology of our bodies and the people being weaker, it isn’t advisable at all to use it more than once. Firstly, one must gain confidence that the leech hasn’t been used before and secondly, after using the leech, it must be killed with salt or alcohol. The exact place to use the leech is behind the ears, normally placing ten on each side. At the time of its death, the leech gives the blood it drank back which can show the specialists the internal diseases of the body which would help the doctor in curing diseases. After making sure the leech hasn’t been used before, wash it a few times with normal water and apply it to the place in question. When the leech starts to suck blood, a stinging sensation will be felt which will become less after a few minutes and will go away completely. One should never try to pull the leech off of the body of the patient by force while it is sucking. On top of being difficult, doing this may cause a part of the leech’s mouth to remain in the body and cause an infection. Therefore, one must wait until the leech finishes drinking blood. Leeches separate from the skin themselves after becoming full. Prepare a dish from before with some salt and alcohol in it so that as the leech falls, it dies and it gives back the blood it sucked.

The size of the leeches one uses for the head and ear should be small and thin, and its length should be the phalanx of a finger or less. The leeches which are used for the hand, chest or triceps should be bigger and the big leeches should be used for the back downwards. The place to apply leeches on the hand is from the middle finger to the smallest finger. After the leech falls, one must disinfect the area immediately with plants such as thyme or white alcohol from hour to hour. Never wash the area with normal water until thirty-two hours after. The reason the wound from the leech is susceptible to infections and microbes is the leech’s saliva which contains an anticoagulant which prevents the bleeding from stopping for a few hours and this is the reason the bleeding continues. The bleeding after the leech falls off plays an important role in removing the pollution from the blood. Therefore, we advise that you don’t prevent the bleeding and don’t worry as after the circulation of the leech’s saliva in the veins of the body, clearing the blockages and sediments off the walls of the veins, the polluted blood which was affected by the leech’s saliva will exit from the wound over a few hours. Then, the bleeding will cease itself and the blood will coagulate.

Medicinal leeches

Medicinal leeches are the most effective method of curing diseases in the blood. Medicinal leeches is considered useful like the other methods of takhliyah (medicine-induced excretion) (e.g. qayy (vomiting), ishal (diarrhoea), hijamah and fasd (blood-letting)) and, in addition to sucking your blood, it releases approximately one hundred and six medicinal and nutritional materials which are good and useful into your body at the same time. In truth, according to Avicenna, fasd cleans your blood from the depths of the existence, hijamah from the surface of the body and leeches from your skin. Even though hijamah and fasd work especially on cleansing warm temperaments, the natural work of the leech is to suck the black bile from the body and in return, the diluent materials in the leech’s saliva are increased in the blood which increases the circulation of the blood inside the human in an effective manner. Therefore, research on the uses of this small animal still continues. From among six hundred and fifty species of leeches which can be found in nature, one species by the name of hirudo medicinalis or the medicinal leech which has special characteristics is more recommended. They can live for up to ten years and can live in normal water for a year without food. These beautiful and useful medicinal animals increase approximately one hundred and sixty kinds of materials from their mouth into the body which each material is more useful than the other and each one plays a useful and effective medicinal role. Below, we will refer to eighteen kinds of these effective materials of which hirudin is the most famous:

1. Hirudin
2. Pseudo-hirudin
3. Triglyceride
4. Cholesterol esterase
5. The leech’s prostaglandin
6. Lipolytic enzymes
7. Materials resembling histamines
8. Controller of kallikrein in blood plasma
9. Controller of Factor X
10. Desta bilase
11. Apyrase
12. Bdelin
13. Protease
14. Collagenase
15. Eglin
16. Kininase
17. Lipase
18. Hyaluronidase

The mechanisms of the leech’s actions

Reflexology (i.e. placing the leech on certain places of the body which has its own result) – prevents internal congestion (i.e. solving a state of suffocation) – prevents coagulation of the blood (i.e. it prevents the blood from forming scabs) – prevents clotting of the blood (i.e. it does something which prevents the blood from clotting for a while) – cures clotting (i.e. if a clot is found in someone’s blood, it will dissolve it) – resolves stagnancy of the blood in order to create or facilitate the distribution of material energy of the body to every part of it – causes new angiogenesis (i.e. by increasing the needed materials in order to create capillaries and securing oxygen and foodstuffs, the leech causes new angiogenesis around the place of the wound) – prevents ischemia (i.e. it prevents different small and large attacks to the brain and heart) – lowers blood pressure (this is more likely to happen with knowledge of reflexology) – strengthens the immune system (due to its effect on the centres of production of blood in the centre of the bones and effect on the centres of production of white blood cells in the lymph nodes, the leech strengthens the immune system well) – stops the microbes and viruses from growing (by increasing enzymes and disinfectants on one hand and strengthening the immune system of the person’s body on the other, the microbes and viruses will be removed in such a way that even if they aren’t removed, their growth will be delayed at the very least) – prevents inflammation (through its effect on the immune system, the leeches prevent inflammation in the body) – prevents regional swelling (which takes place through the anti-inflammation mechanism and also, removing the reason of swelling) – calmer (some of the secret materials in the leech’s saliva have calming and numbing qualities).

Medicinal qualities of leeches

1. Cures fevers
2. Cures bloating
3. Removes refuse from the blood
4. Treats illnesses in the arteries and heart
5. Treats kinds of anaemia
6. Treats some kinds of cancer
7. Treats cerebral palsy in infants (or increases ICP)
8. Treats eye diseases like cataracts and glaucoma
9. Treats mouth, teeth and gum diseases like periodontitis (periodontitis is one of the infective diseases of the teeth which due to this, pus gathers around the root of the tooth, the patient feels pain in their gum, plasma comes from the root of the tooth and the mouth stinks and gets infected) and dental abscesses
10. Treats pulmonary diseases like bronchitis (bronchitis is the inflammation of the bronchus in the lungs. This phenomenon occurs in effect of the swelling of the windpipe or the bronchi and due to infection through bacteria and viruses or due to polluted air or smoking cigarettes etc.).
11. Treats systemic diseases like systemic lupus erythematosus (a form of diseases of the immune system in which the immune system attacks and harms the organs).
12. Treats skeletal diseases like backache, osteoporosis, arthritis and joint inflammation
13. Using the leech in curing wounds and medicinal suturing and curing various burns
14. Treats urinary and genital diseases like frequent urination, prostatitis and sterility
15. Treats digestive diseases like hepatitis, gastric ulcers and haemorrhoids
16. Treats female diseases like infertility, ovarian inflammation, growths on the breasts and ovarian cysts
17. Treats ear, throat and nose diseases like weakness of hearing, weakness of smelling, ear and nose infections, polyps and sinusitis
18. Treats skin and neural diseases like paraesthesia (feeling a tingling sensation or heat in your skin), neuralgia (a pain which stretches along a nerve or a neural route), neuropathy (neuropathy is a form of neural disorder which lays an effect on the balance of sensitivity and irritability of the nerves in the hands and feet. In this state, there is always a feeling of numbness and pain for the patient), eczema (also known as dermatitis which can lead to itching, redness, swelling, flaking of the skin and other symptoms) and pus-filled abscesses

Benefits of the medicinal leeches

1. Corrects nature
2. Solving congestion (blockage of the nose and a feeling of pressure in the intestine)
3. Corrects temperament
4. Opens the arteries
5. Dilutes the blood
6. Corrects the pH of the blood
7. Cools the temperament
8. Prevents strokes
9. Organises the blood circulation
10. Cleans the internal environment
11. Strengthens the immune system
12. Organises and secures the bodily energy
13. Corrects the function of the glands and important organs of the body
14. Removes polluted materials from the blood (especially safra (yellow bile) and sawda (black bile))

Method of using the leech

Some of the medicinal leech’s characteristics have been mentioned in the previous sections. Now, for general use of the leech, it is enough for you to know that if you place the leech in an undistinguished part of your body, it will have two kinds of effect:

1. Regional benefits such as cleaning the region, angiogenesis, dilution of the blood etc.
2. Systemic benefits such as diluting the blood of the body (hirudin), cleaning the sawda from the blood, increasing the speed of blood circulation etc.

Some of the doctors use the regional benefits of the leech more and on the other hand, some think about the systemic (blood) benefits of the leech. In the regional use, you can only utilise a percentage of the leech’s benefits. Using the leech in the regional method has a more limited aspect i.e. the leech’s characteristics are limited to the area it sucked from. Now, through using the knowledge of material energies within the body, you can place the leech in a place of the body in a specialist method which has both regional uses and general uses. While using the leech, one must keep in mind that the most important temperament in question is sawda and this temperament has a greater density naturally on the lower organs i.e. below the diaphragm. Therefore, in a theoretical sense, the best area to use a leech would be towards the lower parts of the body. Also, as you know, the place safra gathers is in the blood above the diaphragm i.e. the higher parts of the body around the brain and heart. Therefore, with attention to the fact that safra is usually thin and doesn’t need to become thinner, we don’t necessarily need to apply leeches to the upper parts of our bodies except in exceptional cases or in regional uses. As the most important action of the leech is thinning the blood and sucking the sawda, therefore, the first group of people who will benefit the most from leeches are the sawdawi (people with a black bile temperament) and the last group to benefit from the leeches are the safrawi (people with a yellow bile temperament).