Leak your way to better health Photos: Courtesy of Liu Qingguo

Bloodletting may sound like a terrifying holdout from the Middle Ages (leeches, anybody?), but some Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) devotees say phlebotomy's ancient history is a feature, not a bug. It's been practiced for thousands of years, so it must be real, right? Read on to hear about the process from TCM experts.

A bloody history

Liu Qingguo, the 48-year-old president of the Acupuncture Institute of the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and the deputy secretary of the China Association of Acupuncture-Moxibustion, says there is lack of understanding about bloodletting, but no real controversy. As a senior TCM doctor, Liu has around two decades of clinical experience with acupuncture and he's quite familiar with bloodletting as a medical tactic.

"This is an international treatment, traces of which can be found from ancient Greece to Rome, Tibet and Mongolia," he said. "There are many different types of blood releasing, including one that is based on acupuncture points, meridians and collaterals, and focus of infection, depending on the symptoms."

In spite of the storied history, Liu believes that bloodletting is not commonly well-known in a modern context because it's only applicable to some diseases. But for those problems, Liu says, its efficacy is unparalleled.

"For headache patients, they may perceive the relief of discomfort after having a little blood released at the acupuncture points on the top or side of their head," he said. "This treatment is also applicable to symptoms like skin diseases, sprains, headache and even high blood pressure."

Bloodletting works, Liu says, because it releases "bad blood" from your body. "The blood normally appears in a dark purple color that remained in the infectious parts like a pool of dead water," said Liu. "One way for judging the amount of bleeding is the change of the blood color from dark to light."

Several different types of needle may be used for bloodletting, but Liu himself tends to prefer the "heat needle," which is about two inches long and made of stainless steel, which is then heated in a fire until it turns red-hot. That means it's ready to be stabbed into the patient. Liu prefers the heat needle because the high temperature prevents infection and creates a wider point of entry that allows a smoother release of the bad blood.

How much blood is taken? Liu says TCM doctors normally just let the blood leak out until it stops naturally, which is usually about 30 to 50 milliliters, but some can be 200 milliliters or more.

Lin Tao, a doctor at the Haidian TCM hospital also touts the efficacy of bloodletting. "There was a 30-year-old patient who came for treatment for his acute waist sprain symptom from work," he said. "He came on a stretcher but left on his own two feet after having the blood releasing treatment."

"A man can produce around 40 milliliters of blood per day," said Lin, "so you don't need to worry that a few drops of blood might affect your health.

But even within the TCM field, not everyone is such a bloodletting supporter. Li Zhengqing, the chief physician from Beijing Xizhihe TCM hospital is trained in both TCM and Western medicine, and he expressed reservations about bloodletting, especially when the blood is a couple hundred milliliters.

"An adult has around 4,000 to 5,000 milliliters of blood in his/her body, but tens of milliliters of blood taken at one time can still be a lot and unnecessary," he said.

He also objects to the idea that releasing blood could do anything to reduce blood pressure. "Releasing the venous blood instead of the arterial blood wouldn't reduce the blood pressure," he said.

Proof in the platelets

A 50-year-old Chinese patient named Kevin offers himself as a direct witness of this therapy's effectiveness on his varicose veins. "It used to be very serious that my legs would not be able to stand for just five hours of walking," he said. Like other patients, he went to some ordinary hospitals for treatment with no effect. He's now had bloodletting five times and has noticed improvement. "Although it would not be completely cured any time soon, I now at least may walk for hours without feeling pain in my legs," said Kevin.

Although Liu and his colleagues are firm believers in the ancient science of phlebotomy, Liu observed that while he has many expat acupuncture patients, none have partaken of the bloodletting.

Steven Herold is an American student who tried acupuncture and massage treatments out of curiosity and recommendations by his friends. "Those are the only two TCM therapies I have had," he said. "No one could convince me to have the medicine with all kinds of weird stuff like centipedes or leeches." Like many foreigners, Herold finds bloodletting hard to accept. "TCM doctors may have their say about this, but I don't think that I would ever want to try it."

Great moments in phlebotomy

Bloodletting did have many adamant adherents in the West. In fact, George Washington was a great believer in the treatment until his death by excessive bloodletting.

"Washington died of losing almost half of his whole body's blood by the doctors who gave him this treatment," said Lin, but he assures that TCM bloodletting is a different treatment. "Firstly, we do it based on acupuncture points or the focus of infection instead of random parts of one's body," he said. "Also we have our standard for the quantity of blood leaking to make sure that it is in the non-affect range for patient's health."

"It is understandable that some people have their opposite opinions to this therapy because of its 'bloody' appearance," said Lin, "but eventually I think it really has to come down to its real medical effect on certain symptoms instead of how it looks or sounds."