Reprinted with permission

By Brian Gray of the Times

JUDA – As Lorie Zeal’s eyesight continued to deteriorate, making it impossible to even see an eye chart, she was willing to try something new to try to restore her sight.“If you have nothing to lose and nothing else has helped you might as well try something new,” Zeal said.

Zeal suffers from Strickler’s Syndrome, an eye condition related to macular degeneration. Macular degeneration, according to the Web site www.sightsolution.com causes “distortion, blurriness or darkness of central vision. It may make activities such as distinguishing features on a face or reading the print difficult or impossible.”

Sitting at the dining room table she is all smiles when she talks about how an alternative treatment gave her a chance to see clearly again. Every once in a while she looked over to see what her puppy was doing and called him to sit on her lap while she talked about what having her eyesight means to her.
“I can see to read and to watch television now,” she said. Zeal said that beginning last fall her eyesight continued to get worse and for a time she wondered if she would ever see clearly again. It was impossible for her to even see the television. She couldn’t even read an eye chart, and she was worried her eyesight would never improve.

“My eyesight was getting worse and I thought I would be blind, which scared me,” she said.

A newsletter from the Wisconsin School of the Blind contained an advertisement about a new treatment, MicroAcupuncture™. MicroAcupuncture could help restore her sight, she said. At first she was skeptical. [MicroAcupuncture™ is a system that was founded and developed by Per Otte and fellow Dane, Dr. Freddry Dahlgren, that consists of a small number of points on the hands and feet.]

“You know, when you hear something that sounds too good to be true it usually is, “ she said. But she decided to look into the treatment and spent two months checking information on the Internet and contacting people across the country who had the treatment.“The people I talked to gave it good reviews. Out of the dozen people I talked to there only two said it hadn’t worked for them.”

But she still was a little leery of the idea that her eyesight could be helped through acupuncture by placing tiny pins in her feet, hands, temples and forehead, she said. “I talked to ophthalmologists who told me it was a new procedure that had no scientific basis. Some told me they wouldn’t recommend the procedure but one told me it wouldn’t hurt to try it. So I decided to give it a try,” she said. Because the procedure is not considered scientific, insurance wouldn’t pay for the approximately $1,000 for the five-day treatments.

She contacted the Arkansas Therapy Center in Hot Springs, Ark., which does the treatment. Zeal said the doctors and staff took time to talk to her about the treatment and made her feel comfortable to try it.

According to a pamphlet from the therapy center, MiroAcupuncture™ increases blood circulation in the eyes, which allows a healing process to take place.
“With increased blood flow the cones and rods are stimulated to repair themselves. Cones and rods receive vision information and are covered with light-sensitive cells,” the center’s pamphlet said.

Zeal and her husband, Ron, went to Hot Springs in May. The doctor, Lizbeth Ryan, gave her an eye test to determine how well she could see and then the treatment began.

“They gave me three 20-minute treatments each day I was there,” she said.
The clinic doctors told her the treatment was not guaranteed, although there is about a 90 percent success rate. By the second day, Zeal said she could tell her vision was improving. She said she started seeing shapes and her sight became clearer. What she was seeing was brighter, as if looking through a clean window. Colors were more vibrant than before, she said.
“I couldn’t believe how much better my eyesight was getting as the week went on,” she said. Her eyesight improved well enough for her to wear glasses.

“Before I went to get the treatments glasses wouldn’t even help my vision,” she said. “Now I only have them to watch television and drive.”