Heres a post for those of you who want a breath of fresh air from the elections...
We've all heard about the possible medicinal usage of marijuana, but medicinal leeches just sounds plain disgusting. Yes, that's right the use of leeches (blood-sucking parasites) may have the potential to help treat patients with skin or blood circulation problems. One lady, Duck-Im Kim was diagnosed with a rare skin disease called purpura that causes a purple or red discoloration of the skin. Doctors think it is caused by bleeding underneath the skin. After her skin condition began to worsen Kim decided to seek less conventional methods to treat her condition. Enter doctor Dong-Ha Han, nicknamed "Dr. Leech," who has been using leeches to treat patients with vasculitis, skin ulcers, atopic dermatitis, rheumatic arthritis, migraines, and gout. After five sessions (at $220 per session) Kim reports that the leech treatment was "gruesome at first, but I couldn't believe it when I saw the results." According to Dr. Han the theory behind using leeches is that they will bite you and suck clotted blood vessels, allowing fresh oxygenated blood to circulate. The key, he says is in the enzyme Hirudin, a very powerful anti-coagulant in leech saliva. As for the pain, Kim says "It feels like a needle poking, but the pain soon goes away." That's because leeches secrete local anesthetic enzymes naturally to avoid being detected by the host.
According to Dr. Sae-Il Chun, dean of Graduate School of Complimentary Alternative medicine at Pochon CHA University in Korea, "There's no hard data on whether this [medicinal leech usage] works." Currently leeches and maggots for medicinal use are legal. Maggot therapy is useful for burns and bedsores.
Do you think the medicinal use of leeches is acceptable, or is it just a scam? Does the use of leeches and maggots deserve more research from the scientific community or should it be banned?
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5 comments:
Use of leeches should obviously be researched by the scientific and medical community. However, that doesn't mean that their effects are suspect. Many creatures and plants are used today to treat certain illnesses and injuries. Dog saliva is great for cleaning open wounds and cuts. Herbs are used to help digestive problems. Some of these "treatments" have been scientifically proven and medically approved, but some haven't and still seem to be effective for certain ailments. So, I don't think that these treatments should be banned, as long as the individual agrees to do so and the treatment giver isn't a fake.
If there really is a medical use, then they should be allowed to be used as treatment
heh.. since the doctor's korean.. i must say.. i have to agree with him! :p anyways.. I believe that as long as leeches work as a medical use and could potentially better or save the lives of people, then I believe that we should go ahead and use them. As long as anything can be used for medical purposes that can help people should not be banned. gooo leeches!
I believe that leeches were used as treatment for diseases a long time ago. Maggots are used in today's medicinal field when doctor's need to remove dead flesh i.e. when a patient has severe third degree burns. While I'm not sure if the leeches are reliable in the field of medicine, all options should be researched throughly, not matter how gross they may seem.
As long as people are seeing results there is no reason to ban the use of leeches. However, I think there needs to be more medical research to absolutely prove that leeches help cure patients. Personally, I think they need to find a different method to help treat patients with skin or blood circulation problems because using leeches is just plain nasty.
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