Treatment of Macular Degeneration by Acupuncture

 

Purpose of the study

Macular Degeneration (MD) is a very common affliction world wide, especially in North America. It is the most common cause of vision loss. The Canadian National Institute for the Blind estimates that it affects one million Canadians, 10-15 million Americans and as many as 30 million Europeans.

Conventional Western medicine does not have an effective treatment.

The purpose of this study is to pursue an effective treatment using acupuncture.

 

Material and Methods

I have successfully treated 12 cases: seven females and five males whose ages ranged from 59 years to 88 years. Seven cases had “dry” MD in both eyes. Two cases had “wet” MD in both eyes. Two cases had a combination of both.

The 12th case was exacerbated by the presence of an aneurysm behind one eyeball.

I asked patients to adhere to a “vegan” diet, which allowed salmon and sardines and fish-oil or seal-oil supplements.

The acupuncture points I used were:

I administered treatments every day for one week and then weekly for three months.

On August 1, 2010, a newspaper column appeared in the Ottawa Sun daily tabloid newspaper and it detailed my treatments and preliminary results for Macular Degeneration.

Because of this publicity, at the time of this writing, I am treating an additional 16 MD sufferers who are in the early stages of the first phase of treatment.

 

Results

The results were astonishing.

Of the original 12 cases who have completed treatments:

Four cases reported full recovery of vision, including one patient who reported being able to read without using glasses, which had been the case previously.

Seven cases showed varying degrees of vision improvement from eye damage.

The 12th patient dropped out after eight treatments because he experienced little improvement because of the aneurysm behind his eyeball.

The second group of 16 patients have only completed a week of treatments. Three have reported early improvement. One had not changed his diet, as requested.

 

Discussion

The current popular thesis as to the cause of Macular Degeneration is cholesterol deposits in the veins behind the eyeball, which result in narrowing of the arteries that supply nutrition and oxygen to the retina.

Through many years of clinical trial and research, I have developed a method to clear cholesterol deposits from arteries. I have detailed this procedure in several previous papers and articles.

I follow the same path in my treatment of Macular Degeneration sufferers and the method works well.

Because this is a preliminary study, it is not yet clear how long or how frequently a patient must return for further reinforcement. One patient has found that departing from her “vegan” diet triggered the onset of a possible recurrence. The symptoms of MD began to re-appear. However, returning to a “vegan” diet and subsequent acupuncture, returned her to full recovery.

She told a newspaper reporter that, before she started acupuncture treatment for MD, she could not read the large, illuminated letters on an outdoor sign for a fast food outlet. After treatment with acupuncture, she enjoys 20/20 vision and is able to read fine print in a telephone directory with ease and without glasses.

I intend to explore all these ramifications in my continuing research, which will embrace factors such as:

  1. Whether the MD is wet or dry.
  2. How long the patient has had the condition in each eye.
  3. What kind of medical treatment the patient has received previously. For example, laser treatment appears to have permanently damaged the light-sensitive cells, thus preventing full recovery.
  4. Degree of adherence to diet.
  5. Through my research, I have found that if heart disease is present, it should be treated at the same time as MD. If only MD is treated, the rate of improvement is slower. However, if both conditions are treated simultaneously, the rate of recovery is much more rapid.

 

Conclusion

Acupuncture is an extremely effective treatment for Macular Degeneration that is in its infancy and is worthy of being pursued. Further research is needed to determine the shelf life of treatment and to perfect the method of treatment.