Acupuncture and Macular Degeneration

Mary was born in Boca Raton and attended FAU in Boca Raton where she was involved in many social activities and helped professional women obtain employment rights. After graduation, she worked in different hospitals for many years as a social worker. She has always had a very healthy diet and tries to educate patients to use food to improve their health. After turning fifty, she switched to a mostly vegetarian diet: she ate mostly fish, tofu, and beans, while eating chicken once or twice a week. However, she loved to eat spicy food and nuts. She had been very healthy until she hit menopause; it was then that she began to develop inflammation in her eyes, intestinal membranes, and feet. She was told that she has neuropathy in both feet due to poor circulation.

At the age of fifty, he was diagnosed with macular degeneration in his right eye at Boca Raton Regional Hospital and began acupuncture treatments at the Fort Lauderdale School of Acupuncture. The retina in her left eye also detached three times and she required surgery at West Palm Hospital. The scar tissue that accumulated as a result of these multiple surgeries eventually caused all vision in her left eye to be lost. Although the wet and dry macular degeneration in her right eye was severe, she refused to have medication injected into her eyeball and instead underwent another surgery on her right eye due to bad experiences with her left eye. She also developed multiple hernias in the abdominal area that required repair surgery and foot neuropathy as a result of the surgery and high consumption of spicy foods. She began acupuncture treatment when she turned 50 for her medical problems, including inflammation in her intestines and feet, vertigo, and back pain. His abdominal muscles weakened with age and inflammation, he developed obstruction of the oral cavity many times, and underwent surgeries to repair his hernia. When she went to see her acupuncturist after her last intestinal surgery, she became very weak, lost her appetite, felt very dizzy, and pain in her back and feet prevented her from walking for more than two minutes. Her mind is still sharp with good memory. She still has some vision from his right eye, she decided to use acupuncture to strengthen herself and reduce inflammation in her intestine and retina.

At the age of ninety, he began acupuncture treatment for his right eye at the Boca Raton Acupuncture Clinic because he lost his left-sided vision after multiple surgeries and wanted to try something new to maintain his right-sided vision. After just four treatments, she began to feel more energetic and became more socially active, playing cards with her friends in her independent living community. Her acupuncturist also recommended reducing her consumption of spicy foods to reduce inflammation in her intestines and retinas. After four years of bi-weekly acupuncture treatment and radical dietary changes, she was able to dramatically improve her digestion and slow her macular degeneration. Mary will soon be celebrating her 95th birthday and she still drives, walks without a cane and continues to live a healthy and active life!

In this case, Mary believes that spicy food helps boost immune function and reduces inflammation. She has a good memory and relatively strong immune function until she reached menopause. Her kidney Yin was weaker due to her menopause; Her body could not tolerate too much stimulation and internal heat, which spicy food provides. She did not change this lifelong spicy food habit until her intestine and retina were so inflamed that she had to undergo multiple surgeries to correct macular degeneration and intestinal inflammation-related obstruction. But her Mary is very open minded, she was willing to find out why she got all the inflammation and even she was trying to stick to a vegan diet. Mary also believes that nuts are very healthy, which is why she eats a lot of nuts. Walnuts can induce a release of histamine, which aggravates inflammation in the retina and intestine. She began to change her eating habits once she realized that her inflammation can be changed with slight adjustments to her diet. When we are over 90 years old, our body has less reserves to balance the extreme diet: excess salt, spicy, alcohol, sweets and nuts. If you tend to have a large appetite, you need to monitor the amount of healthy food that enters your body. Moderation is the key to being healthy and happy with a clear mind and sharp vision.