What do leeches and maggots have in common?

Answer: These are a few of physicians’ favorite things.

As far as I can tell, though, these critters are one of those ancient remedies that modern medicine has reverted to because it can’t move forward.

Take leeches, for example. The leech is invaluable in microsurgery, especially when faced with the difficulties of reattaching minute veins, so surgeons claim.   Plastic surgeons swear by them, and I suppose they do have their place when it comes to reattaching a child’s ear or a finger, but let’s face it. I don’t want to pay anybody to put leeches on me and you probably don’t either.

Here are some suggested uses for leech therapy just in case you were dying to know:

Inflammatory Reactions
Heart Diseases
Rheumatic Diseases
Tendovaginitis and Tendinitis
Venous Disease and Varicose Veins
Arthritis
Muscle Tension
Antidyscratic therapy ( blood purification and regeneration) of toxicoses and mental illnesses
Thrombosis and embolism
Passive congestions and spastic conditions
Vertebrogenic Pain Syndromes
Transudates and exudates ( just big words for pus, blood and other fluids that filter into wounds).

Moving on to Maggots. They have their modern medical uses too.  I even know a story about how maggots saved someone’s life.  It happened fifteen years ago and it’s kind of X rated.  No sex, just death.

Young Bruce got his legs crushed in a car accident, once upon a time, when he was in high school.  It was sad.  A teenager wound up in a wheel chair and became very slovenly.  Then Bruce found some purpose to life: He started an herb business and developed remedies for different maladies, which he sold to health food stores in our area.  That’s how we met him.  The truth is, we felt sorry for the guy.

To make a long story short, though, Bruce wouldn’t bathe or let others bathe him.  Plus he became fatter and fatter, till he got sores between the layers of blubber–sores that became infected with parasites.  The only thing or things that saved his life was a maggot infestation.

The happy maggots arrived of their own accord and took up residence.  They ate Bruce’s diseased flesh, and he lived for another few years, till he found a more efficient way to kill himself—a heart attack.  End of true story.

When I think of  the so called ancient physician’s art of using leeches and maggots, and how it’s making a modern medical comeback I don’t know whether I want to laugh or cringe.

Five thousand years ago, Egyptian medics believed that letting a leech sip a sick patient’s blood could help cure everything from fevers to flatulence.  In medieval Europe, leeches were so closely associated with doctors that physicians themselves were called “leeches” –because they used millions of the parasites annually to treat patients.

I’ll leave you with that thought. End of post.