<p>A few years ago when Hollywood actress Demi Moore said she let leeches suck her blood as part of a therapy to look fresh and young it made headlines. This ancient medical therapy of using leeches for clinical bloodletting to treat certain health conditions is making a comeback of sorts in India where it is said to have originated.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Leeches (Hirudo Medicinalis) are segmented worms from the Annelida family with suckers at the ends of their body. The bite of a leech is not painful as it releases an anaesthetic to prevent the hosts from feeling them.<br /><br />Many people are now taking to leech therapy to treat conditions ranging from blood pressure to gout, from healing wounds to even hair fall. <br /><br />“The therapy has a lot many advantages, without any side effect. It is a major therapeutic tool and helps in many blood-related diseases,” said ayurveda specialist Ravi Raghuvanshi.<br />Describing the therapy as “safe and advantageous”, he said the treatment is already “very popular” in the West. “The therapy is very popular in the West — particularly in countries like the US and Germany. In India, where the therapy originated, there is hardly any awareness or much research, though the practice dates back 5,000 years,” he said.<br /><br />In 2008, the Union health ministry decided to recognise leech therapy to treat a range of diseases. The technique is in vogue in Jammu and Kashmir, coastal Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and some parts of Gujarat. <br /><br />Divya Sharma, 47, of east Delhi’s Rohini, said, “I had suffered serious injury to my legs in an accident some months ago. The wounds turned gangrenous and doctors said they might have to amputate my legs. Then a friend advised me to try leech therapy. After I started it, my injuries began to get better day by day.”</p>
<p>A few years ago when Hollywood actress Demi Moore said she let leeches suck her blood as part of a therapy to look fresh and young it made headlines. This ancient medical therapy of using leeches for clinical bloodletting to treat certain health conditions is making a comeback of sorts in India where it is said to have originated.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Leeches (Hirudo Medicinalis) are segmented worms from the Annelida family with suckers at the ends of their body. The bite of a leech is not painful as it releases an anaesthetic to prevent the hosts from feeling them.<br /><br />Many people are now taking to leech therapy to treat conditions ranging from blood pressure to gout, from healing wounds to even hair fall. <br /><br />“The therapy has a lot many advantages, without any side effect. It is a major therapeutic tool and helps in many blood-related diseases,” said ayurveda specialist Ravi Raghuvanshi.<br />Describing the therapy as “safe and advantageous”, he said the treatment is already “very popular” in the West. “The therapy is very popular in the West — particularly in countries like the US and Germany. In India, where the therapy originated, there is hardly any awareness or much research, though the practice dates back 5,000 years,” he said.<br /><br />In 2008, the Union health ministry decided to recognise leech therapy to treat a range of diseases. The technique is in vogue in Jammu and Kashmir, coastal Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and some parts of Gujarat. <br /><br />Divya Sharma, 47, of east Delhi’s Rohini, said, “I had suffered serious injury to my legs in an accident some months ago. The wounds turned gangrenous and doctors said they might have to amputate my legs. Then a friend advised me to try leech therapy. After I started it, my injuries began to get better day by day.”</p>