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Our heart is like a tireless engine, and our blood vessels are like a crisscrossing highway, together supporting everyone's life activities. However, cardiovascular disease has become the number one killer threatening health, not only a common disease among middle-aged and elderly people, but also increasingly affecting younger people.

I. Why do blood vessels become "blocked" or "rusty"?

Clinically, we often attribute vascular damage to several "hidden killers." High blood pressure is like an excessively powerful "high-pressure water gun," constantly impacting the inner walls of blood vessels, making them hard and brittle; high blood lipids are like blood containing "oil," causing low-density lipoprotein cholesterol to deposit at damaged sites, forming atherosclerotic plaques; and the long-term high blood sugar in diabetic patients acts like a "corrosive agent," soaking blood vessels and accelerating arteriosclerosis.

These factors combined ultimately lead to blood vessels either narrowing and becoming blocked, causing myocardial infarction or cerebral infarction, or rupturing and bleeding at weak points. Prevention is far better than cure. A low-salt, low-fat diet, regular exercise, quitting smoking and limiting alcohol consumption, and regularly monitoring blood pressure and blood sugar are the simplest and most effective ways to protect blood vessels.

II. A New Mission for Ancient Creatures: Biennial Medicinal Leeches

While modern medicine focuses on lifestyle interventions, the treasures of traditional medicine are also being revitalized through modern scientific research. Among them, biennial medicinal leeches (usually referring to blood-sucking leeches such as *Hirudo medicinalis*, whose breeding cycle involves reaching maturity in the second year under suitable conditions) play a unique role.

*Hirudo medicinalis* is the only blood-sucking leech species included in the *Chinese Pharmacopoeia* and is widely recognized as the least controversial antithrombotic medicinal material. Despite its unassuming appearance, its salivary gland secretions contain approximately 2,000 bioactive substances, including hirudin.

• Anticoagulation Mechanism: Hirudin is currently the most potent natural thrombin inhibitor discovered. It precisely targets thrombin, preventing fibrinogen from converting into fibrin, thus acting as a "vanguard in dissolving blood clots," blocking thrombus formation at its source.
• Genomics Breakthrough: In recent years, with the development of functional genomics, researchers have not only completed high-quality genome sequencing of the Japanese medicinal leech, but also discovered more than 500 anti-thrombotic related genes. Interestingly, in addition to the classic hirudin in the two-year-old medicinal leech, an "antithrombotic peptide" gene with anti-platelet aggregation function has also been discovered. This discovery is the first to be verified in other leech species in more 30 years.
• Clinical Application: Based on these characteristics, medicinal leeches are not only made into freeze-dried powder for oral administration to treat "panvascular thrombotic diseases" such as coronary heart disease and carotid artery plaques, but a unique "live in vitro" therapy has also been developed. Under strictly controlled aseptic conditions, utilizing the sucking characteristics of two-year-old medicinal leeches, local blood stasis can be precisely cleared, improving blood circulation and showing unique efficacy for "chronic pain and blockage" conditions such as gout and lower extremity arterial occlusive disease.

III. Signal Recognition and Comprehensive Prevention and Treatment

Despite the availability of biological weapons like medicinal leeches, when facing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, "time is brain, time is heart muscle." Remember the "Stroke 120" mantra: "1" Check for facial drooping; "2" Check for weakness in one arm; "0" Listen for clear speech. If you experience a squeezing pain behind the sternum lasting more than 15 minutes, accompanied by cold sweats and nausea, this could be a sign of an acute myocardial infarction. Call 120 immediately and rest while awaiting rescue.

Whether controlling hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and hyperglycemia with modern medications or using traditional medicine's wisdom of using two-year-old medicinal leeches for adjunctive treatment, maintaining cardiovascular health is a lifelong "maintenance project." Starting today, controlling your diet, exercising regularly, and understanding your body's warning signs are the gentlest ways to care for your life.