Surgeon labels Demi a sucker over leeches

Published on Saturday 29 March 2008 19:28

A LEADING Scottish medic has branded Demi Moore a sucker after she confessed to indulging in a bizarre alternative therapy.

The Hollywood star told US talk show host David Letterman that she has used blood-sucking leeches in a bid to cleanse her body of toxins.

The 45-year-old star tried the "treatment" in Austria as part of a detox plan.

But Andrew Wilmshurst, consultant plastic surgeon at Dundee's Ninewells Hospital, rubbished her claim that leeches would have a "detoxifying" effect on the body. He said: "Alternative therapies like this are not based on scientific fact and this sounds like a load of mumbo jumbo. It is very doubtful that the leeches would have the effect that she described.

"I would advise anyone else to think very carefully before looking to try something like this."

He added that leeches were used as standard treatment in plastic surgery units around the UK, but only in two specific areas.

"In plastic surgery leeches are generally used for decongesting parts of the body and draining blood away," he said.

Leeches have been used in medicine for centuries and are often used today in reconstructive surgery. The anticoagulant secreted by the creatures fights blood clots and helps restore blood flow to inflamed body parts.

Moore spoke of being covered in the slug-like water-based carnivores and said: "You watch it swell up on your blood then when it's super drunk it just kind of rolls over like it is stumbling out of the bar." She claimed the squirming predators released a "detox enzyme in her body".

"It detoxifies your blood. Generally you bleed for quite a bit and your health is optimised, and I'm feeling very detoxified right now."

The actress joked: "These aren't just swamp leeches though – we are talking about highly trained medical leeches."