Health Brief

ACUPUNCTURE RESTORED VISION

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CASE STUDY: 52-year-old Dorothy Bee suffered with macular degeneration since the age of 18. She had been told there was no cure for this hereditary condition and that no treatment could improve the visual loss or slow its progression.

Since her diagnosis, the patient functioned by touch and sound. She taught her son to read by relaying stories to him she had memorized. Her son had to spell out the words that he did not understand in order for those words to be cleared.

Three years ago, Bee's ophthalmologist, who is also a certified acupuncturist, told her about micro-acupuncture.

She received 10 treatments over a two-week period. Needles were inserted into her feet, hands and forehead for 15-minute intervals.

"The very first treatment was like somebody had lifted a veil off both my eyes," Bee explained. "Everything was so much clearer and sharper."

Her acupuncturist, Elizabeth Tukan, reported that more than 50% of her patients experience similar results.

"The eye merely receives the visual information and has to transfer it to the back part of the brain for interpretation," said Tukan. "Acupuncture acts like an antenna, adjusting the signal between the eye and the brain. The eye is still damaged, but that signal is fine tuned and the patient ends up seeing better."

The results of Acupuncture: Where Bee once had to sit six inches from the television screen, she can now watch programs from three to four feet away; she can see colors, differentiating the clouds from the sky; she can see cars and the people inside them; and with the help of a special mouse that magnifies words and projects them on a television screen, Bee is able to read and help her granddaughter with homework.

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SOURCE: Arizona Central, WWW azcentral corn, May 11. 2004