An article in The Journal of Ethnopharmacology (subscribe today!) says leech saliva dissolves blood clots 20% faster than aspirin. You are probably as stunned as I am to find out that leeches make saliva. I thought they spent a great deal of their day making slime. It just shows how much of science remains shrouded in mystery.
Recently, I posted about Gila Monster spit and its role in weight loss. So I was excited to find another discussion about the use of animal juices in medical practice. Animal juices seem to be all over the medical literature lately, figuratively speaking.
I read an article the other day that said male camels produce an amazing amount of saliva to enhance mating. Female camels are, it seems, turned on by all the drooling. That never worked for me back when I was dating, so maybe it just works in camels. But this shows, once again, how much we have to learn from various disgusting secretions.
It is not uncommon for researchers to discover something that may not sound very promising (and I include camel phlegm in this category) that turns out to be a treasure trove of medical wonders. During my forty-some years hanging around the medical field, I've come to appreciate those times when our preconceived notions about medicine turn out to be wrong, or as Dr. Barry Marshall probably told his colleagues in Australia, total BS.
Barry is the guy who tried to tell his fellow doctors about a radical new medical fact he'd discovered. He was attending the 1984 meeting of the Australian Gastroenterological Society. It took place in Alice Springs, which is a perfect spot for people who like to talk about the colon.
Those gastroenterologists who gathered in that godforsaken place had always believed that ulcers are caused by stomach acid and stress. Barry had a display that explained why they were all wrong. He said stomach ulcers are caused by a bacterium called Helicobacter pylori. The other doctors laughed at Barry, even though he'd spent several hours creating the colorful display outlining his findings.
Later, he got to fly to Europe and get laughed at again by a meeting full of European doctors. All of this laughing must have hurt his feelings terribly because he flew home and decided to drink a glass of Helicobacter pylori to prove his theory. Sure enough, he developed an ulcer, then cured it by taking some antibiotics. That showed all those scoffing doctors. In 2005, Barry and his buddy Dr. Robin Warren won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discovery. Dr. Warren's role in their research was just as important as Barry's because I suspect he might've held Barry down and made him drink that glass of bacteria.
So what have we learned from this, besides the fact that Alice Springs is apparently like Las Vegas for gastroenterologists? We have learned that we should be less skeptical and more accepting of theories that initially sound stupid, especially when they contain the phrase "animal juices. We should be brave like Barry and help advance the frontiers of medicine, even if it means dealing with camel drool. If you want to help scientific advancement, you might consider licking a slug to see if its saliva works on headaches, too.