Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Treatment for Age-Related Macular Degeneration

How to Prevent Macular Degeneration ( AMD - age related macular degeneration )

1. Blood pressure, blood glucose monitoring: High blood pressure and high blood sugar can easily cause damage of the retina microvascular.

2. Drink a small amount of dry red wine: Drinking a small amount of red grape wine every week can promote the microcirculation of the eye.

3. Adequate intake of foods rich in vitamins: Consuming enough foods rich in lutein, zeaxanthin, vitamins C and vitamin E may delay aging. Lutein and zeaxanthin, like vitamin C and vitamin E are important antioxidants which can prevent free radical damage of visual cells while the former also has the effect of filtering blue light, thus contributing to the improvement or delay the aging and degeneration of the eye and can also protect the macula from purple and blue light damage. Foods that are rich in those substances include: dark green leafy vegetables such as spinach, parsley, broccoli, peas, yellow fruits and vegetables, like carrots, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, citrus, etc. Also Eggs, fish, algae are good sources. Research indicates that the incidence of age-related macular degeneration can be reduced by 43% in people who eat these foods every day.

4. Preventing and controlling thearteriosclerosis, reducing pathogenic factors: Age-related macular degeneration is associated with atherosclerosis. It is a sign of whole body atherosclerosis seen in the eye fundus. Always keeping a happy mood, reducing stress, doing exercise regularly, avoiding fatty, greasy and spicy food, and an adequate intake of vitamins can help prevent the occurrence and development of arteriosclerosis.

5. Wearing dark glasses to avoid light damage: Scientists discovered through long-term research that the visible short-wave lights in sun-violet and blue lights have a destructive effect on retinal, which causes the death of photosensitive cells, and leads to macular degeneration.

6. Quitting-smoking: smoking is one of the major risk factors of cardio-cerebral-vascular disease. It is one of the factors of increasing prevalence of age-related macular degeneration. In the United States, each year 20% of deaths are due to complications of smoking. Smoking can cause different levels of damage to various parts of the eye. The major harmful ingredients in tobacco are nicotine, tar, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide. Smoke also contains a variety of heavy metals and harmful minerals such as aluminum, lead, mercury, and so on. Nicotine can make blood vessels constrict, leading to the ischemia and hypoxia of the ocular tissue. Nicotine and carbon monoxide make a change in blood viscosity and elevate platelet aggregation, further causing thrombosis and leading to vascular lesions in the eye. The risk of age-related macular degeneration in smokers is 6.6 times that of non-smokers. Passive smoking can also increase the risk of age-related macular degeneration.

7.  Acupuncture and Chinese medicine for macular degeneration: In macular degeneration, conventional medicine offers very little to patients with early stage of macular degeneration. So far, anti-VEGF treatment, laser treatment, thermal or photodynamic therapy (PDT) is mainly for patients with advanced AMD and it cannot guarantee the visual acuity after the treatment. But if the patients can get early detection, early diagnosis and early treatment by integrated Chinese herb, acupuncture and Western medicine, it may reduce the impact of macular degeneration by slowing its progression toward more advanced stages, and help to prevent macular degeneration from progressing to the point of vision loss.