Sooo many people have asked about my leech therapy I decided to do a 'how to' video.
I am not a medical doctor and I am not offering any medical advice...just my experience. Do not try if you have a compromised immune system, recent major surgery or are allergic to leech spit, seriously.
Did you know that Medical Journals document hundreds of studies on Leech Salivary Gland Extract (spit)? Who knew. (I have read most of them).
I am one year into recovery for acute, permanent, Femoral DVT's. I went from having to crawl to walking a couple of miles to getting back into doing inline skating. The biggest improvement in DVT was wrought by my first at home 'leeching' a couple of months ago.
I had improvement of about 50%! from a total of 11 leeches. ALSO..was not expectiing this but my arthritis in both knees (from total knee replacements) a year before TOTALLY DISAPPEARED! Also, was not expecting this but bilateral parathesis (from the knee surgery) of the big toe improved by 50% or more.
WHY DID I TRY THIS?
Because the idea of being an invalid was just not in my book and my vascular surgeon said after a two week 'window' there is no safe therapy for acute FDVT's. tPA, a thrombolytic is too risky. I was desperate.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Leeches are blessed with a cocktail of wonderful biopeptides. The most commonly know is Hirudin. The one I wanted is Destabilase and is specific for isopeptide bonds in organized fibrin.
WHERE DO YOU PUT THEM?
I personally think it doesn't matter because the superficial vein system will ultimately join with the entire veinous system but that is my assumption. I would try to avoid putting them onto larger veins...just seems logical?
I choose the ankle because I noticed that they tend to leave small 'bite' scars
(like the Mercedes emblem,ha). Also I have a lot of veinous stasis in that area.
ARE THERE ANY DANGERS (I asked myself)
For me I have a normal immune system, and used no antibiotics. Have had no problems.
DOES IT HURT?
Like a mild sting at first so just deal with it. After about ten minutes that goes away. You may have some mild itching during healing. On this application I noticed no stinging at all.
HOW LONG WILL THE BITE BLEED?
Depends on a number of factors. For some it may be an hour and for others it may be 48 hours (like me on coumadin). Just plan on getting a little blood stain on something so don't wear your best clothes for a while, smile.
IS BEING ON COUMADIN/WARFARIN A PROBLEM?
I have done this while on coumadin (INR=2.8) and no problem. This time I discontinued my coumadin three days before to allow the bites to heal faster.This time the bleeding stopped in three hours. I will wait a couple more days before resuming coumadin.
IF IT'S SO GOOD WHY DON'T DOCTORS RECOMMEND IT?
Mainly because of the "yuuch' factor, scary, and all the pharmaceutical companies can make a ton of $money off drugs and other stuff that doesn't work very well. I know.
WHAT KIND OF LEECHES DO I USE?
'Hirudin Medicinalis' and they run anywhere from $8 each on up to $25. I used the $8 company. Just google for where to order. I order ten at a time to allow for a few escapees. For me that came to $105 including the special shipping thermos.
WHAT DO I DO WITH LEECHES AFTER FEEDING?
You can put them into a jar of rubbing alcohol to kill them if you choose. I put them into an aquarium with a few inches of water. You can reuse them in a few months. Don't use chlorinated water. Don't put new hungry leeches into the same bowl as the ones that just fed on you. Always put a very fine covering over the bowl to allow air while keeping the leeches from escaping. They like to have plenty of darkness if possible, especially the young unfed leeches. Also place a few rough, clean stones in the bowl to help them with 'molting'.
You can easily waste hours watching these guys swim and play in the tank/bowl.
Remember leeches have no skeleton and even a fat one can morph into a skinny fella and escape through a 1/8" opening (three did that while I was doing this video). You can watch a fat 1" long leech morph into a 6" long skinny dipper...cool.
Once fed they are not going to try to feed again on you even if they escape. If the hungery ones escape they will likely die in the room shortly (mine did).
WHAT ELSE ARE LEECHES USED FOR?
I can only vouch for Fibrin clot reduction, Arthritis reduction, and some neurological therapy. The literature includes Lung Cancers, Diabetes, Surgery of reattaching limbs, skin disorders, antibacterial, immune disorders, fibromyalgia,macular degeneration,some viruses, relaxation, and more.
WHERE CAN I GET MORE INFO?
http://www.bterfoundation.org/
Also do a google search. You will find that the Russians are really the avant garde' leech specialists. Most of the tech journals are done by Russian teams.
India and other countries have a great deal of learning in their Ayurvedic medicine.
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Good question. Any Hirudo Medicinalis Leech will suck blood if it's hungary. First know that not all leeches are Hirudo and other types may not be the blood sucking type. Also, if you have any contaminant on your skin, especially things like oil, gasoline,alcohol, etc. they may not want dinner on ya. Any Hirudo Leech will suck your blood if it has been starved for several months. That is how the supplier ships them. Yours must not have been seriously hungry so they were just messin' with U
32f3245f4 7 months ago
For me there was no permanent scarring but the bite on my thigh still has a 1/8" melatonin spot/+4mo. The nose scar went away totally in four days. I use the ankle area for my dvt's because it's not noticeble. Tight bandages can trap blood pigments like hemosiderin and cause tissue staining but if you change them every few hours should be no problem. I keep the bandages on overnight in case a bite starts to bleed like if I scratch it. It's messy but for me I can't thank those critters enough.
32f3245f4 8 months ago
Whats the healing process, such as time for wound to heal, bruising, and scarring? Thanks
viciousKev 8 months ago
@viciousKev
Not sure if you are referring to the leech bite wound itself or some kind of wound you are hoping to heal with the leech. Variables include your genetic markers for clotting, and your meds such as coumadin, aspirin, and also on the location.
For me: the leech bite quits bleeding in three hours (if I have stayed off coumadin for at least 3 days). Scars:ankle,nose,thigh=less than two weeks.A skin pigment spot may remain for months or few days.
For my wife the times were even less.
32f3245f4 8 months ago