Leeches can cure range of illnesses<\/p>\n
Bambang Muryanto, Contributor, Yogyakarta<\/p>\n
You will immediately be welcomed by the rancid smell of blood the
\nmoment you enter the consulting room of an alternative healer in
\nTrayemen village, Pleret, Bantul, Yogyakarta.<\/p>\n
Was it a room where surgery is performed? No. Inside, five
\nadult males were undergoing therapy. They were sitting in a
\nrelaxed manner with their feet pointing upward.<\/p>\n
At a glance there was nothing strange but when you looked at
\ntheir feet, you would be surprised, and feel repugnance! Why? One
\nor two large leeches had fastened themselves on the skin between
\nthe toes of these five men, sucking their blood greedily.<\/p>\n
Large quantities of blood soaked into old newspapers placed
\nunderneath their feet. It was from here that the rancid smell
\ncame.<\/p>\n
That was what was going on one day in a consulting room of
\nMuhyidin, an alternative healer who uses leeches to cure people
\nof a variety of ailments. \"This method can cure people of several
\nillnesses like rheumatism, hypertension, lung disorders, diabetes
\nand persistent dizziness,\" said 65-year-old Muhyidin.<\/p>\n
Over 20 patients from various places, including from outside
\nJava, visit him in a day. Most had word-of-mouth recommendations
\nfrom other patients who were cured of their illnesses after
\nallowing leeches to suck their blood.<\/p>\n
It has long been known that leeches can be used to cure people
\nof their ailments. In the past doctors often used leeches, worm-
\nlike creatures that live in a forest or swampy area, to take the
\nblood of their patients.<\/p>\n
The leeches used for this purpose were usually referred to as
\nmedical leeches (Hirudo medicinalis). The saliva of these leeches
\nreportedly contains 15 chemical substances, one of which is
\nhirudine, which can prevent blood clotting.<\/p>\n
Long history of use<\/p>\n
Chief of the parasitology department of Gadjah Mada University
\nmedical school Prof. Dr. Sugeng Juwono Mardihusodo, MSc, said
\nthat according to the history of medicine, leeches began to be
\nused to treat illnesses as far back as 2,500 years ago, or
\nexactly during ancient Egyptian times.<\/p>\n
At that time, they were used only to take people's blood.
\nReportedly, Avicenna (980-1037 AD), a noted physician in the
\nArabian peninsula, also used leeches to cure people of various
\nailments.<\/p>\n
In Europe there was wide use of leeches for medical purposes
\nin 19th century. Among other things, leeches were used to heal
\nwounds sustained by soldiers of France's Napoleon Bonaparte.<\/p>\n
Muhyidin, however, has never formally learned the medical role
\nthat leeches can play. His own experience with leeches prompted
\nhim to provide his alternative medical service.<\/p>\n
Muhyidin, who used to be a maker of stoves, knives and mosque
\ndomes, suffered from serious diabetes. He had a wound on the sole
\nof one of his feet. As the wound would never heal, his doctor
\ndecided to amputate his legs. Muhyidin refused to have this
\namputation.<\/p>\n
One day, while marketing the dome of a mosque in Muaraenim,
\nPalembang, he met someone who recommended to him that leeches
\nshould be used to cure him of his diabetes.<\/p>\n
\"After taking this therapy for two months, I was completely
\ncured,\" Muhyidin, a father of two, said, showing a scar left by
\nthe wound on the sole of one of his feet.<\/p>\n
Upon his return home from Palembang, he met someone suffering
\nfrom the same illness. He advised this man to use leeches to
\ncombat this illness. After some time, he was also healed of his
\nailment. Inspired by this success, he later turned himself into
\nan alternative healer using leeches as the medium of healing.<\/p>\n
The process in detail<\/p>\n
When he started his alternative medical practice in 2002, he
\nsaid he was still afraid to hold leeches and fasten them between
\nthe toes of his patients.<\/p>\n
\"At that time, I put the feet of my patient into a pail
\ncontaining leeches. Using a short stick, I fastened the leeches
\non the feet of my patient,\" he said. He was in for more trouble,
\nhowever, when he got more and more patients because the patients
\nstruggled with one another to get hold of the pail. I gathered my
\ncourage and held the leeches in my hand,\" he said.<\/p>\n
When a patient comes to him, Muhyidin will agilely fasten
\nhungry leeches between the toes of the patient. At first he
\ncleans the part that the leeches will bite with the leeches'
\nmucus.<\/p>\n
Leeches like cleanliness and will not bite a dirty foot. When
\na leech bites at his foot, a patient will not feel any pain
\nbecause a leech bite is analgesic in nature.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, a leech feels reluctant to suck blood. When this
\nhappens, Muhyidin immediately finds another leech that he keeps
\nin a glass jar. Why must a leech be fastened between the toes?
\n\"That is the terminal of blood vessels,\" he said. Besides,
\naccording to Prof. Sugeng, a person's sole is home for various
\npoints of acupuncture that are linked to various body organs.<\/p>\n
Sometimes Muhyidin faces an obstacle when treating a patient
\nfor whom leeches are repugnant. Indeed, a leech is not pleasant
\nto the eyes. \"When I just hold the foot, the patient will
\nscream,\" he said. That afternoon, a female patient from Semarang,
\nwho was suffering from diabetes, covered her face with a
\nnewspaper as she did not want to see the leeches fastened on her
\nfoot.<\/p>\n
After one or two leeches are fastened between the toes, a
\npatient must wait. Generally, a leech will be satisfied after
\nsucking blood for 2 hours. If the blood circulation of the
\npatient is not good, however, this process may take up to five
\nhours.<\/p>\n
When a leech is replete, its body will swell to twice the size
\nof an adult's thumb. When your illness is not serious, you will
\nusually need four leech bites. If your illness is serious, you
\ncould need as many as 10.<\/p>\n
The leeches that are loaded with blood will then be collected
\nand bred on wet land somewhere around Adisucipto Airport. \"This
\nplace is chosen because it is still free of contamination by
\npesticides,\" said Muhyidin, who said he got his supplies of
\nleeches from Palembang.<\/p>\n
The blood-loaded leeches cannot be used again because they
\nwill not start sucking blood again until six months later.<\/p>\n
Effectiveness of 'hirudo' therapy<\/p>\n
After receiving leech (hirudo) therapy, some patients say that
\ntheir condition improves. A UGM student suffering from
\nrheumatism, who wished to remain anonymous, said after a leech
\nsucked his blood, his legs did not feel stiff anymore.<\/p>\n
\"The saliva of a leech contains the enzyme hialuronidase,
\nwhich can break down the hialuronate acid and bind the connective
\ntissue,\" explained Prof Sugeng about why leeches can cure people
\nof their rheumatism.<\/p>\n
H. Abdul Rozak, a heart patient from Tegal, Central Java, said
\nthat his heartbeat returned to normal after taking hirudo therapy
\ntwice. Sardjiono of Lampung, Sumatra, who had a stroke, can now
\nwalk again after two sessions of hirudo therapy.<\/p>\n
Prof Sugeng said that a leech would suck blood containing the
\nresidue of metabolism that had been deposited for a long time. If
\nthis residue is not taken out, it can disrupt the functions of
\nseveral body organs like kidneys, the heart and the lungs.<\/p>\n
It is yet to be scientifically explained, however, how a leech
\ncan cure people with diabetes. Besides Muhyidin, another diabetes
\npatient, H. Ahmad Nurhadi from Jakarta, has also been cured of
\nthis illness.<\/p>\n
In a letter to Muhyidin, he said that after a session of
\nhirudo therapy, the glucose level in his blood stabilized at
\nbelow 120 mg\/litre. It is still difficult to explain,' said Prof.
\nSugeng, with great curiosity.<\/p>\n
Although leeches can be used to cure people of various
\nailments, Prof Sugeng warned that not every patient could take
\nthis therapy.<\/p>\n
If you have hemophilia, a rare disease in which blood
\ncontinues to flow after a cut or other injury because one of the
\nsubstances that causes it to thicken does not work correctly,
\nthen you cannot take hirudo therapy.<\/p>\n
\"If you have hemophilia and take this therapy, your bleeding
\nmay be difficult to stop,\" Prof Sugeng stressed. Besides, hirudo
\ntherapy can also cause allergies, the possibility of additional
\ninfection and stress responses.<\/p>\n
Although they look repugnant, leeches can cure several
\nillnesses. With time, it has been discovered that more and more
\nillnesses can be cured by hirudo therapy. Prof Sugeng even
\nincludes in his paper titled 'Hirudo' Therapy, the result of
\nresearch conducted by Dr Andreas Michalsen et al of Essen,
\nGermany (2002) to the effect that hirudo therapy is better than
\nchemotherapy that uses diclovenac, a very potent painkiller.<\/p>\n
With the cost of drugs and hospital treatment increasing,
\nhirudo therapy is relatively cheap and can provide people with
\nstrong hope, especially the less well-off, that a cure is
\navailable for their illnesses.<\/p>\n
There's only one drawback, though: You have to overcome your
\nrepugnance of leeches.<\/p>",
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