From: KutchScience
To: Dr naresh ; drmaltigupta@... ; drpddoshi19@... ;
drprpatel@... ; drsahai@... ; drskb@... ;
'Dr.H.L.Udeshi'
Sent: Friday, November 14, 2003 10:53 AM
Subject: Coming Back to OLDies GOLDies ?
http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displayStory.cfm?subjectid=3\
48945&story_id=2208650


SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - Treating arthritis Coming Back to OLDies GOLDies ?
http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displayStory.cfm?subjectid=3\
48945&story_id=2208650 Leeching away pain

Nov 13th 2003
From The Economist print edition

An old remedy may have a new application

AS RECENTLY as a century ago, many doctors carried a few leeches around in their
bags. Leeches, though often abused by quacks, had real value for controlling
blood clots because their saliva contains an anti-clotting agent.

Today, that job is normally done with anti-coagulent drugs—although leeches are
occasionally used to deal with post-operative clotting. Leech saliva, however,
contains another agent that enables the animals to extract the maximum amount of
blood from their hosts, with the minimum amount of fuss. This is an anaesthetic.
And a group of scientists led by Andreas Michalsen, of the University of
Duisburg-Essen, in Germany, has just put this fact to the test, to see whether
it might be useful for relieving the pain of arthritic joints. The upshot,
reported in Annals of Internal Medicine, is that it is.


Dr Michalsen picked 51 people suffering from osteo-arthritis of the knee.
(Osteo-arthritis is the sort caused by wear and tear, as opposed to rheumatoid
arthritis, which is caused by the immune system attacking the body's own
tissue.) About half of these people were treated with twice-daily doses of a
painkilling drug called diclofenac, applied to the affected knee. The others
were given a one-shot treatment with leeches. This involved allowing four to six
leeches to attach themselves to the knee, and then feed until they let go of
their own accord, which they tended to do after about an hour. Everyone was
asssessed in detail over the course of a month from the start of treatment, and
more generally over the course of three.

The result was that leech therapy beat diclofenac for pain relief, particularly
in the first week after application. It also seemed to bring longer-term
benefits in the form of reduced stiffness and better joint function, probably
because besides dulling pain, leech saliva also acts as an anti-inflammatory
agent. Whether such benefits outweigh the disadvantages of having half a dozen
leeches feasting from your knee for an hour is a matter of personal taste.

From Yours : Dr. BHUDIA.- Science Group Of INDIA.
President:"Kutch Science Foundation".
Founder President:"Kutch Amateurs Astronomers Club - Bhuj - Kutch".
Life Member:"kutch Itihaas Parishad".

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