What is a Phlebotomy and How Does It Benefit the Patient?

---

Who would ever think that losing volumes of blood could possibly be beneficial? It seems the normal healthy mindset is to keep all the blood inside the body and to stop the bleeding of even the most minimal cut or scratch. Blood is a mysterious viscous fluid that sustains life for every living creature that has even trace amounts of this precious substance. So, what is the purpose of phlebotomy, historically known as “bloodletting”?

History

Bloodletting is believed to have started in Egypt. It then spread to Greece where physicians such as Erasistratus, who lived in the third century B.C., believed that all illness stemmed from an overabundance of blood, or plethora.

It is based in the belief that there can be “evil humors” or diseases in the body that must be released. To relieve the body of these haunting miseries was thought to be exceptionally beneficial.

Oddly enough, this practice, with time was transferred from physicians to the barber’s chair. Along with haircuts and beard trimming, they began to offer other services like phlebotomy, dentistry, small surgical procedures, and amputations.

In the 18th century, physicians began to own the procedure again and it was liberally used in many countries for refreshing of the toxin laden human body.

Many famous people were treated in this fashion including Marie-Antoinette, George Washington, and Charles II. Neither George, nor Charles survived it.

For some time, bloodletting was discontinued because it was thought to have caused the demise of more people than it actually cured. There was no way to adequately assess patients for co-morbidities and the way phlebotomy might actually affect different disease processes that were not identifiable. With negative inclination of the lack of a standard healing technique, new areas were sought for substitution of a cure that didn’t work anyway. A new wave of placebo standards became the norm, much like the phlebotomy attitudes that set precedence in the past. Potions, elixirs, ointments, and other types of concoctions were sold in horse drawn carriages by traveling salesmen. Some were successful.

Contemporary Phlebotomy

Phlebotomy’s controversial history has been well documented. With advanced technology and science’s ability to actually diagnose advantages, it is still practiced for the benefit of patients with a condition called hemochromatosis.

This is a condition in which the body builds too much iron and it is stored in the liver, spleen and pancreas. With this build up of iron, the body can become toxic and phlebotomy is thought to be beneficial by shrinking these organs and giving them a chance to refresh with thinner, newly generated blood cells.

Other Modern Day Conditions

Glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, hypertension, and metabolic syndrome due to obesity are all common problems with our population today. It is clinically proven that phlebotomy assists the body to recalibrate systems, which help regulate particular chemical imbalances in these patients.

Excluding patients with severe entomophobia, the use of leeches is still a common practice in some medical venues for relieving the body of too much toxic blood and integrating ancient practices in a controlled procedural process that actually works. With standards of care for monitoring lab values and the patient’s condition throughout the entire process, phlebotomy is still a viable option for certain physiological problems.