A treatment for vision related disorders such as macular degeneration, diabetes, glaucoma and retinitis pigmentosa.

I have sent several people to the Arkansas Therapy Center with instructions that they must let me know if they have been helped.
They have been.
Dr. Wayne Gossard, Dallas

RAY OF HOPE
Dr. John Falls
2002

In a previous article on age-related macular degeneration (AMD), we distinguished between the relatively benign "dry" variety comprising 85% of the afflictions and rarely resulting in blindness, and the "wet" variety comprising 15% but causing much more progressive damage and ultimate blindness in almost all cases. It is responsible for the vast majority of blindness in those over 65 in this country. And until recently, all that could be offered by a variety of treatments were the tenuous hope that the pace of degenerative change might be slowed somewhat, delaying the inevitable blindness. Halting the progression or reversing it was only dreamed of. Now that dream has become a reality for 92% of the patients undergoing a revolutionary, totally safe treatment that has no side effects. Remember, we are focusing only on wet macular degeneration in this article.

The story begins in Copenhagen, Denmark, in the year 1984. Dr. Freddy Dahlgren, an ophthalmologist and also a certified acupuncturist, was surprised when some of his AMD patients undergoing acupuncture for non-visual conditions, usually arthritis, reported that their vision was improving. This he confirmed by retinal scans and sequential eye chart readings. He then began experimenting with different non-conventional acupuncture sites to see if the beneficial results could be increased. He found 48 different, new insertion points for the needles that enhanced the ocular results significantly. He also changed the standard "western" acupuncture regime from one lengthy session every two weeks, to three 20-minute sessions daily for ten to 12 days, a reversion to the traditional Chinese method. The results were remarkable.

As the work spread, he was soon inundated by patients from all over Europe and beyond. In the early decade of the 90's, he trained a young family friend, Per Otte who then joined him as an associate. Otte lacked a medical degree but had full training in acupuncture and oriental medicine earning a doctoral certificate in the latter. In 1996, Otte immigrated to the United States and originally located in Dallas. He hoped to affiliate with an eye clinic there, but was not accepted because he lacked an MD degree. All that he wanted to do was to replicate the Denmark success that he shared with Dr. Dahlgren, and since his certification in Oriental Medicine was sufficient to practice acupuncture in this country, he moved to a retirement community in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and established the Arkansas Therapy Center with his wife, who is a certified physical therapist. He immediately began attracting patients from the surrounding area who had tried all the other treatments for wet AMD and found them wanting. Word spread rapidly of not only cessation of progression, but also significant reversal of the damage. His patients now come from all over the USA, Canada and Mexico, the Caribbean states and Central America. His office is packed. His treatment room has 12 comfortable lounge chairs permitting him to treat very efficiently the many who come. He has tow of the highly technical retinal scan machines, identical in serial number to those at the Mayo Clinic. They are state of the art.

I first learned of him from a longtime friend who was a shipmate of mine on the US Consolation during the Korean War. He was a general surgeon and I was a Ward medical officer. We worked together extremely well. We began a lifelong friendship. After the war, he returned to Dallas, eventually becoming the Chief of Surgery at the second largest hospital in that city. About five years ago, he developed rapidly progressive wet macular degeneration. Within three years, despite treatments at the best eye clinics in Texas and the famous Barnes Eye Center in St. Louis, he had to give up his practice and surrender his driving license. This was all the more devastating because his wife suffered a severe stroke and was dependant upon him as caretaker. But then fate intervened. A longtime friend of his, a rancher in south Texas, had developed wet macular degeneration and it was progressing despite treatment until he heard from a neighbor about the outstanding results being achieved in a remote place called Hot Springs Village, Arkansas. The rancher went there, checked it out, took the prescribed course of acupuncture and found soon after that he had recovered almost half the vision he had lost! My friend made the same trip, going down a skeptic and returning a convert. He experienced immediate significant improvement and continued to improve for an additional two weeks. His final retinal scan and eye chart readings had recovered to their values of two and a half years previously. He was astounded, but jubilant, when he called me to relate his experience of last November.

At this point, I contacted a nearby friend of mine who had been declared legally blind after a downhill course with wet AMD over the past five years. He had been treated at the Mayo Clinic; the Barnes Eye Clinic in St. Louis and at the Wilmar Institute for macular degeneration at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland and nothing had modified the relentless progression. He had not heard of micro acupuncture treatment for the disease. After being told the story of my Dallas friend, he asked me to contact the clinic to see if they had ever treated anyone in his 90's before, or who had had laser treatment of both retinas before. I contacted the clinic, was given a yes answer to both questions and when told, my friend had only one more question. "When can I get in?" We left for Arkansas by car on January 5, 2002.

This is what we learned by that experience. Their statistics show that 92% of those treated experience significant, measurable improvement. Eight percent fail to show any improvement after the first seven treatments, two and a half days, and are sent home as non-responders at this point. The responders are continued in three 20-minute sessions a day until they have completed thirty sessions. Before any treatment is instituted, a complete eye chart evaluation and retinal scan are done to establish a baseline. The scan machine measures the blood flow through all parts of the retina, the lining of the back of the eye. It converts the degree of flow into a color display ranging from yellow (normal flow) decreasing through orange, green deep red, deep purple and finally, black, which means minimal flow. Then treatment begins with insertion of very thin, tiny acupuncture needles placed in the soles of both feet, the palms of both hands and several on the forehead. There is little or no sensation during the insertion. After 20 minutes in the recumbent position, the needles are removed and discarded. There is no sensation on removal.

The treatments are repeated, two more each day at two to two-and-a-half- hour intervals. After the last treatment on the last day, the third and final retinal scan and eye chart readings are repeated and then reviewed with Otte in his office. He compares all three chart readings and scans with the patient, pointing out the areas of change, the magnitude of change and which areas of circulation improved the most. He answers all questions in a straightforward way. He gives the patient duplicate prints of the retinal scans and eye chart readings for their own files. It is thoroughly professional experience from beginning to end.

Some additional information that is useful is in order. We drove to Arkansas on January 5, 2002, in a leisurely two days. By car, the mileage is about 890 miles. The roads are excellent. The temperature runs about 20 degrees warmer there than here at this time of year. The most convenient place to stay is the Village Inn Motel, located in the same commercial mall area as the Arkansas Therapy Center, only 200 feet distance from each other. It is a very modern facility with quiet nights, comfortable rooms, laundry facilities, continental breakfasts and modest rates. My friend showed incontrovertible evidence of improvement after the first seven treatments and extended his stay for the entire course of treatment. We had made the prior agreement, that if this were the case, I would drive home and he would fly home from Little Rock, the nearest commercial airport. A shuttle is available to Hot Springs Village, one hour away. When he returned home the evening of January 11, he called me at once. His exact words I will never forget. " I saw more geographic detail out of the plane window at 35,000 feet than I saw out the window of your car on the way down!"

His vision continued to improve for three weeks after return, and then plateaud. He is delighted. He can now recognize faces again and see his own to shave. The improvement is linked to the increase of retinal circulation that follows this form of treatment. I talked with many of the patients who had returned for "booster" treatments from six months to a year after initial treatment. All were enthusiastic advocated of the method, stressing that they had tried all the conventional therapies first to no avail.

In summary, if you have a friend or relative who is saddled with progressive wet macular degeneration, and not making any progress with conventional treatment options, you should consider telling him or her that there is a safe, proven method that results in reversal of the process to varying degrees in 92% of those treated, with no adverse side effects or downside from the treatment itself, which unfortunately cannot be said of today's most frequently chosen modalities. I would also say, that if I am confronted by this disease, I will opt for increasing my retinal blood flow through this new treatment before risking any of the less effective, potentially more dangerous conventional methods employed today.

For more information, call the Arkansas Therapy Center at 1-800-422-4933. They will send out pertinent literature, a small map of the local area, a list of places to stay, price schedule for treatment, and will confirm an appointment at your request. Your effort on behalf of a victim of this woefully common, stubbornly resistant and progressive disease could become a sight-saving miracle.