Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff from dot com where smart happens. There's
Speaker 1: a new show on Discovery Channel called Monsters Inside Me,
Speaker 1: and it fits perfectly with today's question. What is a
Speaker 1: medical leech? You may have never seen a leech before.
Speaker 1: They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but
Speaker 1: medical leeches look a lot like a long slug about
Speaker 1: the size of your finger. They have a mouth at
Speaker 1: the second end that attaches quite firmly, and the leech
Speaker 1: will about double in size as it feeds. This sounds
Speaker 1: rather unpleasant, but leeches turn out to be useful in medicine.
Speaker 1: If you've ever had microsurgery on an extremity like a
Speaker 1: finger or an ear lobe, one post surgery problem you
Speaker 1: get involves blood flow. By attaching a leech, a patient
Speaker 1: gets several benefits. For one, the leech pulls blood through
Speaker 1: the extremity as it feeds. For another, it injects a
Speaker 1: helpful anticoagulant that improves blood flow. And because of the
Speaker 1: whole and that anticoagulant the leech leaves behind, there will
Speaker 1: be bleeding after the leech falls off, and it's also
Speaker 1: helpful to healing. Medical leeches are raised in captivity, so
Speaker 1: they're sterile to a certain degree. If you want to
Speaker 1: buy one, you can go find them on the internet
Speaker 1: for about seven bucks each. Leeches are not the only
Speaker 1: medically useful parasite. You can also buy medical maggots. These
Speaker 1: little worm like creatures are put into bad wounds to
Speaker 1: clean them out. The maggots will eat dead flesh, but
Speaker 1: leave living flesh alone. After a day or two, the
Speaker 1: wound is cleared of all the dead flesh and healing
Speaker 1: usually proceeds much more quickly. If you enjoy parasites like leeches,
Speaker 1: be sure to check out Monsters Inside Me on the
Speaker 1: Discovery Channel Wednesdays at nine pm. Do you have any
Speaker 1: ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send
Speaker 1: me an email at podcast at how stuff works dot com.
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