Some of them saw jars of leeches at pharmacies as children and remember sick relatives who were treated with leeches behind closed doors. But for some middle-aged immigrants from eastern Europe or Russia, hirudotherapy is considered an old folk remedy, popular with their grandparents’ generation. Blood-sucking leeches are right up there with medieval bloodletting and plague for New Yorkers, the stuff of dusty old folios found in ancient libraries. Plucinski purchases all his leeches online from leech farms, which are delivered by courier. Empty metal folding chairs and a cushioned table line the curtained off area where clients typically wait in white robes taking their leeches. The designated leeching zone is an intimate space sectioned off to the side by hanging white sheets. Plucinski, an immigrant from Poland, places leeches on clients’ bodies to cure ailments, from sciatica to migraines, and for general good health. A wall of windows illuminates his high-ceilinged space, partitioned into different areas by freestanding bookshelves of various heights crammed with books on health, diet and detoxification.
Leech therapy skin#
The 58-year-old Plucinski is tall, blond, with light blue eyes and skin more olive than pink. Center might be too grand a word it’s a one-man show in a Brooklyn loft. Plucinski, a leech therapist, is the proprietor of the Silesian Holistic Center in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. “They are very hungry,” Andrew Plucinski says in a Polish accent, gesturing to the large glass jars where two dozen black, skinny leeches squiggle wildly in the water or cling motionless to the sides. Published in the Guardian US on March 9, 2014
0 kommentar(er)
