SRINAGAR, Mar 21: Every year on this day, hundreds of patients make a beeline outside leech therapy centres here in the hope of getting rid of their long-time ailments.
They undergo a procedure wherein leeches are released on a person’s body and the tiny predatory worms piercing his or her skin with their teeth and inserting anticoagulants through their saliva, thus thinning the patient’s blood.
The leech therapists, usually medical practitioners from Unani system, claim that this procedure is very helpful in treating many ailments ranging from fatty liver to hypertension to blood clotting, which often causes strokes.
Dr Hakeem Naseer Ahmad, a Unani practitioner, said that leech therapy is used in case of infarction, or when there is altered or impaired blood circulation.
“The leech acts as a wonder medicine. What is basically the mechanism of leech therapy? Our aim is not sucking out the blood but to inject the enzymes found in saliva of the leech into the bloodstream. These improve the micro-circulation of blood and we achieve our pharmacological actions,” he said.
Ahmad, who has been holding leech therapy camps for the past 24 years, said he has found that the therapy is useful in treating both hypertension (high blood pressure) as well as hypotension (low blood pressure).
