The first thing you should do if you or someone you know exhibits symptoms of a stroke is call an ambulance. The most effective stroke treatment known, a blood thinner called tPA, must be administered within three hours of the onset of symptoms, so every minute counts. Delaying hospitalization for any reason may worsen the patient's prognosis.
Bloodletting and apoplexy
Prior to the 19th century, bloodletting was a standard "cure" for practically everything, including stroke ("apoplexy"). In western medicine the practice was based on the ancient Theory of Humours, which held that all disease results from an imbalance of four bodily fluids: blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. Siphoning off a certain amount of blood -- often copious amounts of it, actually -- was believed to restore the balance necessary for recovery from illness and long-term good health.
Though advances in medical science led to the eventual abandonment of humour-based therapies, bloodletting continued to be prescribed as a treatment for apoplexy, albeit under a different rationale. With the recognition that blood pressure is a factor in arterial disease came the suggestion that bloodletting ought to be used to relieve the body of a "superabundance" of blood. Despite cumulative evidence that this was ineffective as a stroke treatment (and in some cases even harmful), the practice continued on into the early 20th century.
More recently (beginning in the 1960s), venesection (bloodletting by another name) has been proposed in conjunction with drug treatments as a means of reducing blood viscosity in stroke patients to enhance oxygen flow to the brain. Clinical tests of the procedure have proven inconclusive.
Do not try this at home
Turning to Chinese medicine, from which the specific notion of treating stroke victims by drawing blood from the fingertips appears to derive, a 2005 study published in the Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine confirms that there is a precedent for such a technique, reporting that "Bloodletting puncture at Twelve Well-Points of Hand can improve the consciousness of patients with brain injury in small area." Please note, however, that the tests which formed the basis of this study were conducted on patients already diagnosed with and hospitalized for stroke, and nowhere is it recommended that any such treatment be tried in the home.
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Sources and further reading:
Bloodletting as a "Cure" for Acute Stroke? I Don't Think So
About.com: Stroke, 18 May 2008The Claim: Pricking a Stroke Victim's Fingers Can Help Delay Symptoms
New York Times, 21 November 2006Hemodilution Does Not Improve Outcome in Stroke
The Lancet, 13 February 1988Effect of Bloodletting Puncture on Twelve Well Points of Hand on Consciousness and Heart Rate of Patients with Apoplexy
Journal of Trad. Chinese Medicine, June 2005From Apoplexy to Stroke - Review of Medical Literature
Age and Aging, September 1997
Last updated: 05/21/08
