Treatment with medical leeches, or hirudotherapy, promises to get rid of numerous diseases of various systems of organs. We decided to check whether such a method has a scientific confirmation of its effectiveness.

Clinics And centers, Specializing On hirudotherapy, this method is advertised for the treatment of various diseases of the gastrointestinal tract (gastritis, hepatitis, diarrhea, constipation and cirrhosis of the liver), pathologies of the genitourinary system (cystitis, urolithiasis, prostatitis), gynecological problems (myoma, cysts, endometriosis, mastopathy, infertility), impaired blood circulation organs (hypertension, vegetative-vascular dystonia, arrhythmias, consequences of stroke and heart attack). With the help of leeches, they promise to cure sinusitis and hemorrhoids, bronchial asthma and diabetes mellitus, reset Excess weight, To establish metabolism and put away Cellulite. Some sites even consider Panicaia's leeches - they are supposedly Increase The number of neurons and interneuron ties, which, in turn, leads to an increase in the level of intelligence, helps with Parkinson and Alzheimer's illness, helps children who do not go due to cerebral palsy, can move independently, cure depression, epilepsy, schizophrenia, a whole spectrum oncological diseases and even HIV. It is not surprising that such a popular tool during the pandemic of a new coronavirus infection has received another application - leeches Consult Use for rehabilitation After the transferred Covid.

Hirudotherapy has been practiced by humanity since ancient times - mention of the healing properties of the method can Meet In the works of Hippocrates (IV - V centuries BC) and Avicenna (980–1037). Leeches Used In the medicine of ancient Egypt, India and China. In the XVII - XVIII centuries in Europe were popular bloodletting with leeches, because many pathological conditions of the body were explained by “bad blood”.

One leech sucks From 5 to 15 ml of blood per bite, about the same amount of still loses, while the bleeding stops. The hirudotherapy session uses five to seven animals. It turns out that in one procedure a person loses from 50 to 210 ml of blood. When bloodletting, they could release A much larger volume - up to half of the entire blood circulating in the body (however, such large -scale bloodletting ended, usually not a cure, but the death of the patient).

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Therapeutic effect of modern hirudotherapy Explained Not so much to get rid of the “excess” blood as the effect of the enzyme contained in the saliva - girudin, which has an anticoagulant effect. This is an action Determined Direct irreversible inhibiting of thrombin, that is, girudin is directly associated with the thrombin molecule and causes its inactivation. Modern pharmacology uses synthetic girudin (for example, the drug "Argatron") for the prevention or treatment of thrombosis in patients with heparin-induced thrombocytopenia. Also Applied An analogue of the natural girudin - Bivilirudin (trading names Angiomax and Angiox). Thus, the use of Girudin really has a scientific justification for the principle of work and it can be called effective in therapy of those pathologies where anticoagulants need to be used. With schizophrenia, depression, HIV, infertility or epilepsy of the appointment of anticoagulants, therefore, hirudotherapy will not have any effect.

It is also worth noting that, in contrast to the introduction of synthetic girudin, whose use is possible only in a hospital by licensed medical employees, hirudotherapy can be carried out in beauty centers or other rooms (and sometimes at home), not equipped in case of unforeseen reactions of the body, for example, allergies, which can pose the patient's health under the threat. There is also a whole list of contraindications for hirudotherapy that make medical leeches impossible even in cases where the patient needs anticoagulant therapy. For example, deep vein thrombosis during pregnancy Require the introduction of anticoagulants, while the pregnancy will be absolute contraindication for hirudotherapy.

In a systematic review of hirudotherapy It is noted Its effectiveness in the framework of the integrated treatment of many diseases, it is reported that "the methods of action and bioactive substances [of medical leeches] are still awaiting further study, their usefulness in certain medical conditions is obvious." The review also indicates that, in addition to anticoagulant action, hirudotherapy can have a limited antimicrobial, local analgesic and anti -inflammatory effect. Moreover, at least on Pubmed, There are no Data on the use of medical leeches in the framework of rehabilitation after a coronaviral infection.

Summing up, we can say that hirudotherapy really has a scientifically sound principle of action. Method Approved The American Office for Sanitary Supervision of the quality of food and medicines, and in our country - Central Design Bureau of the Russian Academy of Sciences. At the same time, it cannot be called a panacea, since the therapeutic effect is observed only for certain diseases, while classical pharmacological drugs are registered and demonstrated for their treatment and demonstrate their effectiveness. Separately, it is worth considering that treatment with leeches outside the specialized institution can be unsafe, and when choosing between leeches and drugs, it is worth considering possible contraindications of hirudotherapy.