Health Wizardry in the 21st Century

As the movie Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince hits theatres, MSN Health & Fitness takes a journey back through the Potter books to consider some of the stranger-than-fiction realities behind remedies and potions used by Harry and friends at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"The truth is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with caution," says the wise headmaster Dumbledore. We hope all of you muggles out there are spared the more terrible truths among the treatments described here.

Leech therapy

Applying real, live bloodsuckers to the skin is an ancient treatment sometimes known as hirudotherapy, so named for the slimy species Hirudo medicinalis or "medicinal leech." Throughout the centuries it has been used in an attempt to treat everything from a grating personality to excessive swelling and tumors; in short, any condition believed to have been caused by an excess of blood or by a blockage in the circulatory system.

A few rural pharmacists in the U.S. still had jars of leeches on the shelf back in the 1930s and '40s, though you won't find them at your local Rite-Aid these days. Yet, the historic application of leeches for bloodletting has been validated by some contemporary research. Because leech saliva contains compounds with anesthetic and anticoagulant properties, hirudotherapy has been used successfully in reconstructive surgeries, where obstructed blood flow is a common complication. The leeches can essentially draw out clumps within blood vessels like bits of fruit clogging a straw in a strawberry smoothie.

Published studies have also suggested leech therapy may provide some pain relief in patients suffering from osteoarthritis. Bacterial infection and anemia are significant risks, however, making it that much harder to swallow actress Demi Moore's claim (on The Late Show with David Letterman) that leeches are an effective health and beauty aid. But anyone who wants to look like Ms. Moore might also note that leeches were an ingredient in the magical Polyjuice Potion that Harry drank in Chamber of Secrets to turn into someone else, if only for an hour.

Maggot therapy

It's ironic that maggots are used in any medical therapy at all, their meal of choice being dead and decaying flesh. But some of these little larvae are indeed used in FDA-approved treatments for conditions in which chronic diseases, soft-tissue wounds, or unaddressed infections leave dead skin on a live patient. Diabetes, notably, can constrict blood vessels and cause skin cells on the foot to die in small patches or ulcers. Live maggots applied to the area will eat the dead skin and leave healthy skin alone.

This method of cleansing or “debriding” the skin is known as “maggot debridement therapy.” Calling it MDT helps mask the stomach-churning reality of maggot therapy, though it's hard to deny what's going on when crawling larvae escape the dressing designed to contain them (MDT dressings are sold by one manufacturer under the trade name Creature Comforts). To effectively treat a wound, lab-grown fly larvae must be flown to a treatment center while still healthy and hungry, and—sorry—are available only by prescription.

Phage therapy

Something akin to phage therapy was used in The Goblet of Fire to treat acne, though sensitive readers can't help but wish plain old Oxy10 had been available at the Hogwarts school store.

"Phage" is short for bacteriophage, which is a viral organism that infects certain species of bacteria. So, if such a bacteria has infected the body, unleashing phages can potentially kill or infect that harmful bacteria. The therapy has been used for decades in Russia, and though it has yet to gain acceptance in the West, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have granted funds for further research. In 2007, a group of Italian researchers identified a phage that may be effective against Staphylococcus aureus—the cause of staph infections—which has proven stubbornly resistant to antibiotics.

Herb therapy

A wildly imaginative forest of fictional plants populates the Harry Potter series, including gillyweed, used to grow gills for breathing underwater, and the man-eating snargaluff tree. Some other plants and herbs have crossed over from reality into Rowling’s fiction. For example, the roots of real-life mandrake plants sometimes take an oddly human shape and are known to yield hallucinogenic effects when consumed; if you eat enough, they might even become screaming babies as they do in The Chamber of Secrets.

Several herbs with mystical names such as Cat's Claw, Feverfew, and Thunder God Vine have true medicinal properties. Herbs and plant extracts are at the foundation of modern pharmacology and are used in countless ancient remedies—FDA-approved and otherwise—from around the globe. Ginger, for example, appears in Harry's world and has been widely used in ours to treat a range of intestinal ailments. Though formal studies show mixed results, the root has been used to combat the nausea and vomiting that can accompany pregnancy, motion sickness, and chemotherapy. Sage (specifically Salvia officinalis, a member of the mint family) is being studied as an enhancer of cognitive function in Alzheimer’s patients.

An entire division of the NIH, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, is dedicated to the study of therapies that fall outside the bounds of conventional Western medicine. Perhaps, in time, treatments available in our own hospitals and healthcare centers will save us a trip to St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

Rich Maloof's award-winning writing has covered subjects ranging from soda pop to stem cells. He has written for MSN, CNN, MSNBC, Yahoo!, Women’s Health, and various other publications. He is the published author of 12 books to date, including several instructional titles for musicians. His latest title, This Will Kill You, is being released by St. Martin's Press in May.