Acupuncture can treat many eye conditions where there is no analogous western medicine approach. Typical examples include Dry Eye, Macular Degeneration, Glaucoma, and Retinitis Pigmentosa.

Abigail learned to treat eye and vision conditions from world renowned Chinese Medicine Ophthalmologist, Dr. Andy Rosenfarb of Acuvision.  Abigail is experienced in treating:
  • glaucoma and regulation of optic nerve pressure,
  • macular degeneration,
  • styes,
  • blocked tear ducts,
  • lazy eye,
  • night blindness,
  • eye strain, and
  • dry eye due to various causes such as screen time or menopause, as well as
  • other unusual eye conditions.
If you have a chronic degenerative eye condition, Abigail will gladly coordinate with your ophthalmologist to ensure that you are receiving the best possible care.

Common Eye Conditions Abigail Ballaban Treats

Macular Degeneration

Macular degeneration (wet and dry) – this is an accumulation of metabolic waste that starts off as soft and fatty deposits which calcify over time and become hard. These deposits block the micro-capillaries and blood vessels of the eyes; especially the macula, and lead to oxygen deprivation. This is the dry phase. It can switch to wet macular degeneration when the body tries to grow new blood cells to feed the macula, but the vessels are weak and can rupture easily.

Glaucoma

Glaucoma – this is an increase in intra-ocular pressure which affects the functioning of the optic nerve. Over time, the increase in pressure will cause optic nerve atrophy, which will lead to progressive vision loss. It is vital to ensure that the optic nerve integrity, strength and function.

Retinitus Pigmentosa

Retinitis pigmentosa – this is an accumulation of pigmentation; which is essentially another type of metabolic waste. The build-up is typically due to inflammation and oxidative stress. The body tries to break down the accumulation through an anti-inflammatory process, but actually ends up suffocating the cells and blocking blood flow to and from the eye.
These conditions (Macular Degeneration, Glaucoma, and Retinitus Pigmentosa) can cause blindness if left untreated.
Our clinical objectives are to improve and recover lost vision and to preserve the vision that you have long-term.  Patients may have been told by their doctors that they will go blind.  About 15% of eye patients do not respond to treatment, however, that leaves 85% that do.

Eye Conditions: Causes and Treatment Plan

Causes of Vision Loss

  • Oxidative stress – when we get stressed we have a tendency to breath less often and less deeply. This decrease in oxygenation in our bodies and our cells can cause damage to our tissues, and in this case the eye tissues.
  • Inflammation (local and systemic) – when there is inflammation, the body responds with anti-inflammatory agents. Anti-inflammatory cells are too big to cross the blood brain barrier to get to the eyes, so the body cannot decrease inflammation in the eyes.
  • Poor circulation – ocular blood vessels are very small, and they are also on the brain side of the blood brain barrier; there needs to be good circulation to and from the eyes to keep the different types of cells in the eyes healthy.

Treatment Phases

  • Recharge/Recover: This is the first 1-2 months of treatment, typically with treatments scheduled 2-3 times/week. If there is a major spike in vision recovery, this is when it will happen.  In this phase, the main treatment goal is to awake dormant cells of the eye.
  • Repair/Regenerate: This phase will take 8-15 months of treatment, 2-4 times/month.  The objective is to regrow and heal cells that are abnormal or damaged.  As a patient, you may continue to see small improvements over this time.
  • Preserve/Maintenance:  This becomes a long term strategy to preserve your vision. Treatments will be 1-3 times/month and will be an ongoing/permanent part of your  health care.  The long term goal is to keep the vision you have stable.

Getting Started

Pre- and post-functional vision testing is very important, so that we can assess objective progress.   We do some of these tests in our office when you come in for your treatments.

Your first visit will be longer so that we have time to gather this baseline data. We will continue to monitor your progress with the tests throughout the different phases of treatments. In addition, there are several other tests that we will need, but are out of our scope of practice.    We will work with your eye doctor around these.

If you have questions about whether this treatment can work for you, contact Abigail for a free consult to  make sure that your condition is appropriate for this protocol.

Contact Abigail Ballaban

Contact Abigail at (503) 389-8938 for more information on how acupuncture treatment can help your specific eye condition.