Why Wellness Culture Has Cozied Up to Leeches
The average patient today, confronted with the prospect of using a medicinal leech, or Hirudo medicinalis, a faceless aquatic invertebrate with a lust for blood, might feel some queasiness, if not outright repulsion. But the parasitic worm has been touted as a cure-all by various ancient medicine traditions: It can be seen in Ancient Egyptian…