JP/18/LEECH

JP/18/LEECH

'Repugnant' leeches can cure range of illnesses

Bambang Muryanto
Contributor/Yogyakarta

You will immediately be welcomed by the rancid smell of blood the
moment you enter the consulting room of an alternative healer in
Trayemen village, Pleret, Bantul, Yogyakarta.

Was it a room where surgery is performed? No. Inside, five
adult males were undergoing therapy. They were sitting in a
relaxed manner with their feet pointing upward.

At a glance there was nothing strange but when you looked at
their feet, you would be surprised, and feel repugnance! Why? One
or two large leeches had fastened themselves on the skin between
the toes of these five men, sucking their blood greedily.

Large quantities of blood soaked into old newspapers placed
underneath their feet. It was from here that the rancid smell
came.

That was what was going on one day in a consulting room of
Muhyidin, an alternative healer who uses leeches to cure people
of a variety of ailments. "This method can cure people of several
illnesses like rheumatism, hypertension, lung disorders, diabetes
and persistent dizziness," said 65-year-old Muhyidin.

Over 20 patients from various places, including from outside
Java, visit him in a day. Most had word-of-mouth recommendations
from other patients who were cured of their illnesses after
allowing leeches to suck their blood.

It has long been known that leeches can be used to cure people
of their ailments. In the past doctors often used leeches, worm-
like creatures that live in a forest or swampy area, to take the
blood of their patients.

The leeches used for this purpose were usually referred to as
medical leeches (Hirudo medicinalis). The saliva of these leeches
reportedly contains 15 chemical substances, one of which is
hirudine, which can prevent blood clotting.

Long history of use

Chief of the parasitology department of Gadjah Mada University
medical school Prof. Dr. Sugeng Juwono Mardihusodo, MSc, said
that according to the history of medicine, leeches began to be
used to treat illnesses as far back as 2,500 years ago, or
exactly during ancient Egyptian times.

At that time, they were used only to take people's blood.
Reportedly, Avicenna (980-1037 AD), a noted physician in the
Arabian peninsula, also used leeches to cure people of various
ailments.

In Europe there was wide use of leeches for medical purposes
in 19th century. Among other things, leeches were used to heal
wounds sustained by soldiers of France's Napoleon Bonaparte.

Muhyidin, however, has never formally learned the medical role
that leeches can play. His own experience with leeches prompted
him to provide his alternative medical service.

Muhyidin, who used to be a maker of stoves, knives and mosque
domes, suffered from serious diabetes. He had a wound on the sole
of one of his feet. As the wound would never heal, his doctor
decided to amputate his legs. Muhyidin refused to have this
amputation.

One day, while marketing the dome of a mosque in Muaraenim,
Palembang, he met someone who recommended to him that leeches
should be used to cure him of his diabetes.

"After taking this therapy for two months, I was completely
cured," Muhyidin, a father of two, said, showing a scar left by
the wound on the sole of one of his feet.

Upon his return home from Palembang, he met someone suffering
from the same illness. He advised this man to use leeches to
combat this illness. After some time, he was also healed of his
ailment. Inspired by this success, he later turned himself into
an alternative healer using leeches as the medium of healing.

The process in detail

When he started his alternative medical practice in 2002, he
said he was still afraid to hold leeches and fasten them between
the toes of his patients.

"At that time, I put the feet of my patient into a pail
containing leeches. Using a short stick, I fastened the leeches
on the feet of my patient," he said. He was in for more trouble,
however, when he got more and more patients because the patients
struggled with one another to get hold of the pail. I gathered my
courage and held the leeches in my hand," he said.

When a patient comes to him, Muhyidin will agilely fasten
hungry leeches between the toes of the patient. At first he
cleans the part that the leeches will bite with the leeches'
mucus.

Leeches like cleanliness and will not bite a dirty foot. When
a leech bites at his foot, a patient will not feel any pain
because a leech bite is analgesic in nature.

Sometimes, a leech feels reluctant to suck blood. When this
happens, Muhyidin immediately finds another leech that he keeps
in a glass jar. Why must a leech be fastened between the toes?
"That is the terminal of blood vessels," he said. Besides,
according to Prof. Sugeng, a person's sole is home for various
points of acupuncture that are linked to various body organs.

Sometimes Muhyidin faces an obstacle when treating a patient
for whom leeches are repugnant. Indeed, a leech is not pleasant
to the eyes. "When I just hold the foot, the patient will
scream," he said. That afternoon, a female patient from Semarang,
who was suffering from diabetes, covered her face with a
newspaper as she did not want to see the leeches fastened on her
foot.

After one or two leeches are fastened between the toes, a
patient must wait. Generally, a leech will be satisfied after
sucking blood for 2 hours. If the blood circulation of the
patient is not good, however, this process may take up to five
hours.

When a leech is replete, its body will swell to twice the size
of an adult's thumb. When your illness is not serious, you will
usually need four leech bites. If your illness is serious, you
could need as many as 10.

The leeches that are loaded with blood will then be collected
and bred on wet land somewhere around Adisucipto Airport. "This
place is chosen because it is still free of contamination by
pesticides," said Muhyidin, who said he got his supplies of
leeches from Palembang.

The blood-loaded leeches cannot be used again because they
will not start sucking blood again until six months later.

Effectiveness of 'hirudo' therapy

After receiving leech (hirudo) therapy, some patients say that
their condition improves. A UGM student suffering from
rheumatism, who wished to remain anonymous, said after a leech
sucked his blood, his legs did not feel stiff anymore.

"The saliva of a leech contains the enzyme hialuronidase,
which can break down the hialuronate acid and bind the connective
tissue," explained Prof Sugeng about why leeches can cure people
of their rheumatism.

H. Abdul Rozak, a heart patient from Tegal, Central Java, said
that his heartbeat returned to normal after taking hirudo therapy
twice. Sardjiono of Lampung, Sumatra, who had a stroke, can now
walk again after two sessions of hirudo therapy.

Prof Sugeng said that a leech would suck blood containing the
residue of metabolism that had been deposited for a long time. If
this residue is not taken out, it can disrupt the functions of
several body organs like kidneys, the heart and the lungs.

It is yet to be scientifically explained, however, how a leech
can cure people with diabetes. Besides Muhyidin, another diabetes
patient, H. Ahmad Nurhadi from Jakarta, has also been cured of
this illness.

In a letter to Muhyidin, he said that after a session of
hirudo therapy, the glucose level in his blood stabilized at
below 120 mg/litre. It is still difficult to explain,' said Prof.
Sugeng, with great curiosity.

Although leeches can be used to cure people of various
ailments, Prof Sugeng warned that not every patient could take
this therapy.

If you have hemophilia, a rare disease in which blood
continues to flow after a cut or other injury because one of the
substances that causes it to thicken does not work correctly,
then you cannot take hirudo therapy.

"If you have hemophilia and take this therapy, your bleeding
may be difficult to stop," Prof Sugeng stressed. Besides, hirudo
therapy can also cause allergies, the possibility of additional
infection and stress responses.

Although they look repugnant, leeches can cure several
illnesses. With time, it has been discovered that more and more
illnesses can be cured by hirudo therapy. Prof Sugeng even
includes in his paper titled 'Hirudo' Therapy, the result of
research conducted by Dr Andreas Michalsen et al of Essen,
Germany (2002) to the effect that hirudo therapy is better than
chemotherapy that uses diclovenac, a very potent painkiller.

With the cost of drugs and hospital treatment increasing,
hirudo therapy is relatively cheap and can provide people with
strong hope, especially the less well-off, that a cure is
available for their illnesses.

There's only one drawback, though: You have to overcome your
repugnance of leeches.