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Leechcraft Fans Keep Poor Albanian in Business
Mon Sep 30, 9:31 AM ET
By Benet Koleka

BERAT, Albania (Reuters) - The man they call the "doctor" is illiterate. He cleans the public toilet and can afford only salads in the summer, beans in the winter and vodka throughout the year.

But come May or August, Kujtim Selami and the leeches he catches for a living are a fashionable commodity in the southern town of Berat, the oldest settlement in poverty-stricken Albania.

Townspeople and outlying villagers alike knock at his door to have leeches applied where their bodies ache, hoping the worm-like creatures will suck out the "bad blood."

Selami refers to the leeches he catches in the marshes near Berat as "pills." He sells them for a pittance on which he ekes out the most meager of existences.

"This is just like changing the oil and filters of a car," said Selami in an attempt at a scientific explanation.

"She cleans the bad because she has a liquid she throws inside your body and sucks out the bad blood."

BENEFICIAL BLOODSUCKERS

The leech is a parasite the size of a man's little finger which clamps itself to the flesh of its host and sucks out blood, injecting a foamy anti-coagulant at the same time.

The backs of the ones Selami sells in Berat are covered in black, red and blue dots and their bellies are a deep green. On a feast of blood they can grow to the size of an adult's middle finger and drop away from the body.

Then, Selami says, they should be disposed of carefully "not to let the bad blood spill out," and be buried.

Leeches were a popular form of medical treatment for centuries throughout Europe, believed to be a cure for anything from headaches to gout, much like in Berat nowadays. But they were discarded with the advent of 20th century medicine.

Now, they are back in vogue as a clean, effective treatment for wounds. Since the 1970s surgeons have regained respect for the little bloodsucker, whose body was seemingly tailor-made for establishing and maintaining blood flow to damaged limbs.

Hospitals need them so much that leeches are being farmed.

Only in Albania, however, can you see them in the market.

When Selami sits by the sidewalk exhibiting his writhing leeches in glass jars and looking at women's legs, his thoughts are on sales.

"Leeches are very good for bulging veins in the backs of the legs. But the women are afraid of using them," he said.

He used to sell leeches at about 100 leks (70 cents) each but competition from two other leech-catchers from Berat forced him to cut the price to 30 or even 20 leks.

Sipping his glass of cheap vodka with a trembling hand, Selami says he may break even at the end of the month or have as much as four dollars left over.

He splits the work and the proceeds with Shame Karavolli, a broad featured man whose job it is to sell the leeches on the market when Selami is out hunting in the marshes.

In Berat people apply leeches for illnesses such as high blood pressure, hemorrhoids, skin afflictions and boils.

A local engineer said he took the treatment in addition to mainstream medicine to lower his cholesterol level "because even respected doctors and pharmacists told me to go ahead and friends told me they felt relaxed after the cure."

"It felt just like the light pricking of a bee for 45 minutes and I have to admit I felt better," he said.

Selami says old people take his cure regularly even when they are in good form.

BY THE FISTFUL

He reaches the leech marshes through a field full of oil well pumps. His hand stops trembling, his lost look focuses on the pond and he starts stirring the water with his legs and hands.

A few minutes later, his fist comes out full of what looks like thick, writhing worms which he detaches with difficulty.

He returns to his bare room, a bed and table full of plastic and glass containers. He bottles his catch in plain water, no more than 20 at a time "because they might eat each other."

"Last year I had 30 live for one year by changing their water every day," Selami said, smiling with pride at this rare feat of leechcraft.

Despite being the only respectable leech man in town, he has not yet achieved the status of his teacher "Sadik The Leech," who died 30 years ago.

But while Sadik is enshrined only in memory, an Albanian national daily has devoted a small story to Selami, which he cut out and keeps in his jacket pocket.

"This is about me but I cannot read. I have had it read to me, but I guess that is nothing compared to reading it myself."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...3&e=4&u=/nm/20020930/od_nm/albania_leeches_dc

sakina:blah::hmph:
 
Looks like the lot of a leech-gatherer hasn't changed much:

"He told, that to these waters he had come
To gather Leeches, being old and poor:
Employment hazardous and wearisome!
And he had many hardships to endure . . . "

That was Wordsworth's version, exactly two centuries ago in 1802.

http://www.online-literature.com/wordsworth/516/

Nothing about vodka in those days, though. :(
 
rynner wrote
in Wales they have a Leech Farm!

Interesting site,
However, if the leech is reluctant to bite, make a small needle prick on the skin to produce a tiny droplet of blood (which should result in enthusiastic attachment). :p

But aferwards, they kill them
2. Leeches which have been used on a patient should be disposed of by initially narcotizing them with 8% alcohol and then placing them in 70% alcohol in a galley-pot for 5 minutes and then discarding them via a sluice or incinerator.

sakina
:eek:
 
Beany said:
If you want to catch medicinal leeches in the UK, you'll need a licence, as they're a protected species now. They're on the list here:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/paw/publications/law/appenda5.htm
right between the tentacled lagoon worm and the sand lizard.

If the fields flood round here in the summer they are full of medicinal leeches - big blackish green things , fascinting to watch and handle , but I always put them back - didn't know they were protected !
 
Mmm, those uses for leeches just keep-a-comin'

Health - Reuters
Leeches Help with Arthritis Pain
Tue Nov 4,10:17 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Treatment with leeches may reduce pain and stiffness in patients with arthritis of the knee, German scientists report.

Modern-day medicinal use of leeches is limited to the treatment of blood clotting problems after surgery. Dr. Gustav J. Dobos, from Kliniken Essen-Mitte, and colleagues maintain that leech saliva contains anti-inflammatory substances and other chemicals, which could relieve symptoms of arthritis.

In a study of patients with knee arthritis, Dobos' team compared a single treatment with 4 to 6 leeches with that of a 28-day regimen of topical diclofenac-a common treatment for arthritis. Leeches were applied to painful points of the affected knees of 24 patients and left in place for about 70 minutes, until they detached by themselves.

The new findings are reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

After 7 days, pain scores had improved to a much greater extent in the leeches group than in the diclofenac group. Moreover, benefits in function, stiffness and total arthritis symptoms were maintained through 91 days of follow-up, the report indicates.

The treatment was safe and well tolerated, the authors report, although they note that leech therapy does carry certain infectious risks.

In a related editorial, Dr. Marc C. Hochberg notes that a search of the Cochrane Collaboration database revealed no systematic reviews of trials of leeches in patients with osteoarthritis.

Furthermore, writes the physician from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, he doubts that the effect was probably anything more than would be seen with a skin irritant.

"The more exciting aspect of this work is the potential for the discovery of a novel analgesic agent that could be safely administered without the need for a leech bite," he concludes.

SOURCE: Annals of Internal Medicine, November 4, 2003.



Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited.
 
New fad:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7314531.stm

Demi hails blood-sucking therapy

Actress Demi Moore has confessed to indulging in an unusual alternative therapy - blood-sucking leeches.

The 45-year-old told US talk show host David Letterman she tried the treatment in Austria as part of a detox plan.

She said: "You watch it swell up on your blood... then when it's super drunk it just kind of rolls over like it is stumbling out of the bar."

Leeches have been used in medicine for centuries and are often used today in reconstructive surgery.

The anticoagulant secreted by the creatures fights blood clots and helps restore blood flow to inflamed body parts.

'Bite down'

But Moore said the leeches were allowed to bite her to release a "detox enzyme".

"It detoxifies your blood... generally you bleed for quite a bit and your health is optimised, and I'm feeling very detoxified right now!

"I did it in some woman's house lying on her bed. We did a little sampler first, which is in the belly button.

"It crawls in and you feel it bite down on you... Then you relax and work on your Lamaze breathing just to kind of relax."

She joked: "These aren't just swamp leeches though - we are talking about highly trained medical leeches."

The actress, who was previously married to Die Hard star Bruce Willis, says she is convinced the treatment worked and plans more.

"I only got four leeches and I felt a bit cheated," she added.

But Mr Andrew Wilmshurst, consultant plastic surgeon at Ninewells Hospital, near Dundee, said he was doubtful leeches would have a "detoxifying" effect on the body.

"Leeches are used as standard treatment in plastic surgery units around the UK, but only in two very specific areas," he said.

"Alternative therapies are not based on scientific fact... and it sounds like a load of mumbo jumbo to me."

Keith Richards could have saved himself a lot of trouble: instead of having his blood replaced, he could have got a few leeches in.
 
Leeches Pump Fresh Blood Into Russian Economy

Resurgence in the use of leeches is pumping fresh blood into Russia's economy with health experts, western governments and movie stars recently endorsing their healing benefits.
Leeches are swelling in popularity both medically and cosmetically with celebrity endorsements from the likes of Demi Moore who recently had leeches suck her blood in the name of detox therapy.

That is good news for Russia which breeds 10 times more leeches than the rest of the world combined and the majority of the country's leeches are born in the International Leech Centre just outside Moscow.

Imagine a library but with jars full of leeches instead of books with a female-dominated workforce making for a maternal atmosphere.

I"t always gives me beautiful, healthy skin. The blood flows to my face and makes it younger. It also gets rid of small wrinkles." - Irina Eliseyeva, leech enthusiast

Farm manager Elena Titova says: "There is always contact and a special relationship between humans and leeches. Women have a maternal instinct so they are better at doing this delicate and complicated work than men."

There are two million leeches at the farm - at one pound per leech, this is big business.

Each leech has three sets of jaws with 90 teeth; their medical value lies in the fact that they secrete a natural anaesthetic that also prevents the blood from clotting.

Feeding time involves buckets of cows' blood and resembles something out of a horror movie - leeches that are about to be sold do not get any food for three months to ensure their appetite is strong when they reach clients.

In a small clinic, housed in an anonymous block of flats in central Moscow, a 7-year-old boy is the reluctant recipient of leech therapy aimed at curing his hyperactivity.

He squeals with horror as the doctor attaches each leech. "It really stings when they start sucking," he says.

The boy's doctor insists they can cure almost any disease or illness; such a belief may seem archaic but these little suckers are in demand.

:roll:
 
New species of nose-dwelling leech discovered

A new species of leech, discovered by an international team of scientists, has a preference for living up noses. :err:

Researchers say the leech can enter the body orifices of people and animals to attach itself to mucous membranes.

They have called the new blood-sucking species Tyrannobdella rex which means tyrant leech king.

The creature was first discovered in 2007 in Peru when a specimen was plucked from the nose of a girl who had been bathing in a river.

The creature lives in the remote parts of the Upper Amazon and has a "particularly unpleasant habit of infesting humans", the scientists say.

Studies also revealed that it had "a preference for living up noses". The research published their findings in the online scientific journal PLoS One .

Dr. Renzo Arauco-Brown, from the School of Medicine at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, was the medical doctor who extracted the leech and preserved sent it a zoologist in the US.

The zoologist, Dr Mark Siddall, from the American Museum of Natural History in New York, was quick to recognise it as a new species. He said it had some very unusual features, including just one single jaw, eight very large teeth and extremely small genitalia.

Dr Siddall then brought together a team of researchers who studied the leech's features and DNA.

Anna Phillips, a graduate student affiliated with the museum, led the study. She said: "We think that Tyrannobdella rex is most closely related to another leech that gets into the mouths of livestock in Mexico.

"The leech could feed on aquatic mammals, from their noses and mouths for example, where they could stay for weeks at a time."

The DNA analysis also revealed "evolutionary relationships" between leeches that now inhabit distant regions. This suggested that a common ancestor of this group may have lived when the continents were pressed together into a single land mass or supercontinent called Pangaea.

Dr Siddall explained: "The earliest species in this family of leeches no doubt shared an environment with dinosaurs about 200 million years ago.

"Some ancestor of our T. rex may have been up that other T. rex's nose."

Although around 600 to 700 species leeches have been described, scientists believe there could be as many as 10,000 species throughout the world in marine, terrestrial and fresh water environments.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8623332.stm
 
It also seems that leeches can get up your nose in Vietnam as well ...

Doctor pulls big leech out of patient's nose
A doctor in Vietnam was filmed pulling a "strange creature" that appears to be a large leech out of a patient's nose.

The video, filmed Monday at an ear, nose and throat doctor's clinic in Lao Cai, shows the doctor using instruments to reach for an object deep inside a patient's nose.

The doctor eventually removes the object, which is revealed to be a squirming creature that appears to be a large leech.

The patient and witnesses laugh with surprise at the size of what the filmer called a "strange creature."

SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2018/1...eech-out-of-patients-nose/1731539105487/?sl=5

(THE CITED VIDEO IS AVAILABLE AT THE LINKED WEBPAGE)
 
Meanwhile ... There are people who keep leeches as pets ...

Some People Keep Parasitic Leeches as Pets, And Let Them Drink Their Blood

To the disgust of many of our readers, we have discovered that keeping leeches as pets is actually a thing.

And yeah, it's certainly… a bit different. But in light of humanity's disconnect with nature, and our concerning lack of knowledge about parasitic creatures, the idea that some of us are nurturing these parasites is also, uh, fascinating.

"They're amazing, curious creatures that grow like crazy and make wonderful pets," leech keeper Ariane Khomjani told ScienceAlert.

He explained how individual leeches have their own unique personalities, with some being more adventurous and others more shy.

"Some like to try and sneak a feed more often than others, haha! But once they're full, they're content to sit and rest for a bit out of water if handled gently," he said.

Khomjani has four of these squishy vampires, including Leara who is pictured below. The species he keeps is one of the larger types: buffalo leeches (Hirudinaria manillensis) from Asia. ...

PetLeeches.jpg


FULL STORY (With Multiple Illustrations):
https://www.sciencealert.com/some-p...eeches-as-pets-and-let-them-drink-their-blood
 
Meanwhile ... There are people who keep leeches as pets ...

Some People Keep Parasitic Leeches as Pets, And Let Them Drink Their Blood

To the disgust of many of our readers, we have discovered that keeping leeches as pets is actually a thing.

And yeah, it's certainly… a bit different. But in light of humanity's disconnect with nature, and our concerning lack of knowledge about parasitic creatures, the idea that some of us are nurturing these parasites is also, uh, fascinating.

"They're amazing, curious creatures that grow like crazy and make wonderful pets," leech keeper Ariane Khomjani told ScienceAlert.

He explained how individual leeches have their own unique personalities, with some being more adventurous and others more shy.

"Some like to try and sneak a feed more often than others, haha! But once they're full, they're content to sit and rest for a bit out of water if handled gently," he said.

Khomjani has four of these squishy vampires, including Leara who is pictured below. The species he keeps is one of the larger types: buffalo leeches (Hirudinaria manillensis) from Asia. ...



FULL STORY (With Multiple Illustrations):
https://www.sciencealert.com/some-p...eeches-as-pets-and-let-them-drink-their-blood
Oh they're horrible!!
 
I encountered a few leeches in Asia. I was surprised at how painless it was.
 
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