There’s A New Type of Acupuncture That Can Help Stop Macular Degeneration and Other Eye Diseases

People suffering from macular degeneration have difficulty reading or clearly identifying people’s faces. This eye condition is the number one reason for complete or partial blindness in people 50 years and above.

In the United States, 13 million people suffer from macular degeneration and, until recently, non-surgical treatments for this disease have been rarely available.

However, a new treatment procedure called Micro Acupuncture has been proven to help strengthen the health of the eyes for people stricken with eye diseases such as diabetic neuropathy, retinitis pigmentosa, cataracts, glaucoma and macular degeneration. But since this type of practice is fairly new, just a handful of licensed acupuncturists are trained and have the knowhow to treat macular degeneration and many other eye conditions.

Micro acupuncture was discovered by Dr. Per Otte and Danish doctor Freddy Dahlgren in 1984. They did some studies that led to the discovery of Micro Acupuncture, a treatment that’s extremely effective in improving the health of the eyes for people suffering from eye conditions such as diabetic retinopathy, retinitis pigmentosa, cataracts, glaucoma, and macular degeneration.

In Europe, the combined number of patients treated by Dahlgren and Otte with micro acupuncture is over 5,000. Based on Otte’s statistics, the percentage of individuals suffering from macular degeneration who experienced significant improvement in their eyesight because of Micro Acupuncture is about 98 percent.

What is Macular Degeneration?

The Macular Degeneration Foundation, a charity run educational and medical research organization explains what brings about macular degeneration. The retina has an array of photosensitive cells that line the back of your eye. When light enters the retina and hits these cells, it is converted into electrical signals that are conveyed to the centers of the brain centers that interpret and process them.

An area of the retina known as the macula is where the largest collection of photosensitive cells reside. These cells enable you to visually perceive fine detail vision and critical color.

Macular degeneration (MD)actually refers to a set of eye diseases that causes the sight-sensing cells in the retina’s macular region to lose function or malfunction resulting in the debilitating loss of detail or vital central vision.

There is a dry type of macular degeneration and a wet type of macular degeneration. The dry type is the most common form of MD. A buildup of drusen or yellowish deposits beneath the retina causes the retina to lose some of its function and the macula to become less sensitive to light.

When you have a dry type of macular degeneration, there’s little chance you’ll go totally blind from this disease. The wet type of MD is called in various forms: subretinal neovascularization, neovascularization, and choroidal neovascularization.

MD arises due to the growth of new blood vessels under the macula. Any leakage in these blood vessels causes the surrounding cells to weaken leading to damage to the nerve tissue. Initially, your vision will blur and become distorted. But within a matter of weeks, partial or complete blindness can set in.

Otte has given some practitioners certification to provide Micro Acupuncture treatments. In a Micro Acupuncture procedure, the patient is first given a test for visual acuity and later a visual field scan to determine the extent of damage to the macula. The test does not require the use of dilation eye drops since it is non –invasive and painless.

The acupuncturist then uses a visual field scanning machine that requires the patient to focus on a central point while a screen inside the machine is flashed with varying intensity of lights. The vision of the patient can be mapped through this test which helps the acupuncturist to evaluate the severity of the degeneration of the macula. And from this, he or she can decide the type of treatment needed.

In a Micro Acupuncture treatment, the acupuncture points for eye diseases are identified and are usually located in the forehead , bottoms of the feet , and in the palms of the hands. The procedure usually lasts around 20 minutes. The procedure will initially comprise of five treatments and another visual field scan is performed to re-assess the patient.

If improvements are seen after five treatment sessions, then the patient has a chance to recover from his/her problem.

Once the five sessions are completed and there is noticeable improvement in the patient’s eye sight, treatment can continue until the patient is fully satisfied with the results and is ready to stop or until the improvements can no longer go any higher. One must understand that Micro Acupuncture is not a cure for macular degeneration.

Nevertheless, Micro Acupuncture is an extremely effective procedure that prevents MD’s further progress. It also improves eyesight and enhances the quality of life of the patient.

Dr. Hailing Fu is a doctor or Oriental medicine and the founder of Ling’s Acupuncture in Orlando, FL. She has also served as professor and clinic director at the Florida College of Integrative Medicine in Central Florida. College of Integrative Medicine in Central Florida.