RESEARCH PAGE
Additional Information
The healing properties of leeches have been known for hundreds of years. Leeches were
used during medieval times because they were known to heal infections, before
antibiotics were discovered.
In the last 50 years, leeches have been rediscovered and are scientifically better
understood. Leech therapy has never gone out of use to treat numerous disorders and
enhance wellbeing in the Middle East and in Eastern Europe, for example Poland,
Germany, Russia and the Ukraine.
As more people in other European countries have rediscovered the amazing healing
properties of leeches, there has been a huge resurgence in hirudotherapy and it is now
also practised in Australia, USA and New Zealand.
In a newspaper article from, The Daily Telegraph. Liverpool Hospital is the only hospital in
NSW that keeps the leeches. They ordered 5000 of leeches per year and they distribute to
other hospitals across Australia.
Recent research about the use of medicinal leech from around the world has shown that
its benefits and how it can save people lives and improve their treatment outcomes.
There are many medical conditions that will benefit from Leech therapy ranging from:
diabetes, stroke, cardiovascular disease, osteoarthritis, chronic skin conditions, venous
congestions, haemorrhoids, infertility and many more.
If you need more information regarding Leech Therapy, below is a list of scientific
research that you can read.
References
1. Munshi Y, Ara I, Rafique H, Ahmad Z. Leeching in the history--a review. Pak J Biol Sci. 2008 Jul
1;11(13):1650-3. https://scialert.net/abstract/?doi=pjbs.2008.1650.1653
Sig A.K. et al (2017) Medicinal leech therapy-an overall perspective. Integr Med Res.; 6
(4):337-343. Medicinal leech therapy—an overall perspective - ScienceDirecthttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221342201730104X
Dong H. et.al. (2016) Chinese Medicinal Leech
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2016/7895935/
Michalsen A. et al. (2002). Leech-therapy-for-symptomatic-treatment-of-knee-osteoarthritis-results- and-implications-of-a-pilot-study.pdf (mezaj.org) https://mezaj.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Leech-therapy-for-symptomatic-treatment-of-knee-osteoarthritis-results-and-implications-of-a-pilot-study.pdf
Michalsen A. et al. (2003) Effectiveness of Leech Therapy in Osteoarthritis of the Knee: A
Randomized, Controlled Trial: Annals of Internal Medicine: Vol 139, No 9 (acpjournals.org)
KumarS et al. (2012) Clinical Significance of Leech Therapy in Indian Medicine (sagepub.com)https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/abs/10.7326/0003-4819-139-9-200311040-00006
Nigar Z (2011) Effect of leech therapy in varicose veins Effect of Taleeq (nih.gov)
Panda A K (2012) Effectiveness of Leech Therapy in Gambhira Vata-Rakta (Acute Gout): A Pilot Study 557633b1752c8f8fdd59d843a43d398f180d.pdf (semanticscholar.org)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3336254/pdf/ASL-30-84.pdf
Hohmann C D (2018) The Effectiveness of Leech Therapy in Chronic Low Back Pain - PMC (nih.gov) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6334223/
Lemke S. (2020) Biomedicines | Free Full-Text | European Medicinal Leeches—New Roles in Modern Medicine (mdpi.com) https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9059/8/5/99
Munshi Y (2008) Leeching_in_History-libre.pdf (d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net)
Iqbal A (2017) Management of Chronic Non-healing Wounds by Hirudotherapy - PMC (nih.gov)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5339604/
Brzezinski P. (2015) Positive outcome of medical leeches (hirudotherapy) for venous congestion -
PMC (nih.gov) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4478405/
Ma C J (2020) Research progress in the use of leeches for medical purpose
fc3c8e484a5099c038ee41384c66f300.pdf (tmrjournals.com)
https://www.tmrjournals.com/public/articlePDF/20201219/fc3c8e484a5099c038ee41384c66f300.pdf
Singh A P (2010) 2010-Medicinal-leech-therapy-Hirudotherapy-A-brief-overview.pdf (mezaj.org)
Daane S, Zamora S, Rockwell WB. Clinical use of leeches in reconstructive surgery. Am J
Orthop (Belle Mead NJ). 1997 Aug;26(8):528-32. PMID: 9267551. Clinical use of leeches in
reconstructive surgery - PubMed (nih.gov) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9267551/