Today I want to focus on acupuncture for degenerative eye disease and, specifically, for retinitis pigmentosa. This is an increasingly common condition lately.
We have patients coming into our Brisbane acupuncture clinic regularly with retinitis pigmentosa – it is not an isolated eye condition.
I have studied with world-renowned Dr. Andy Rosenfarb to identify acupuncture methods to effectively treat this condition.
One particular lady (we will call “C”) came to my clinic from interstate – from a south-western suburb in Sydney. She was suffering from retinitis pigmentosa.
In this kind of situation we work with an intensive acupuncture program usually over a period of weeks, sometimes two. I treat patients for this condition twice daily, but sometimes three times daily, depending on the patient’s condition and situation.
It was a very special moment when “C” said to me with a smile on her face, “Alan, I was sitting down having a coffee at the café this morning, and I saw something move out of the corner of my eye”.
For people unfamiliar with retinitis pigmentosa, you might substitute the term “tunnel vision”. Effectively people with this condition do not have the capacity to pick up peripheral vision.
So for “C”, it was a monumental occasion to be able to see movement out of the corner of her eye. We are able to measure the results as we progress with acupuncture treatment of this condition as we are able to measure the field of vision where patients are regularly tested by an optometrist or ophthalmologist.
So we can ascertain the levels of improvement the patient may be experiencing. But the really precious points are where there is a subjective improvement – where the patient goes, “Lightbulb – I’ve just seen something I haven’t seen for years.”
It is very special to be able to help someone with retinitis pigmentosa through acupuncture. This is particularly because this condition is a degenerative eye disease – the patient will increasingly become blind without treatment.
To be able to slow down the process of degenerative eye disease with acupuncture, and in “C’s” case to expand her vision, is a wonderful way for me to make my way through life. What a wonderful outcome for “C” – that is what I like to see.
We are getting some really significant results from the use of acupuncture for retinitis pigmentosa. I encourage anyone with this condition, rather than resign themselves to their fate of degeneration of their eyesight, to give acupuncture a red-hot go because there is potential to use acupuncture to help most people suffering from this degenerative eye disease.
For current information on our acupuncture service for degenerative eye disease please visit Vision Acupuncture.
