Introduction

Chinese medicine was designed thousands of years ago to prevent as well as treat disease. Each person is born with inherent strengths and weaknesses that are affected by the stress of inner emotions and external environmental factors. When we learn to protect our weaknesses and conserve our strengths, we can live a long and healthy life. Chinese medicine can help reveal each person’s strengths and weaknesses.

This work is not an exercise book to correct near- or farsightedness. Generally such books will provide exercises and good advice geared mainly toward improving vision affected by myopia and presbyopia (nearsightedness and farsightedness, respectively). Some highlight eye exercises that developed in the West, such as the Bates Method. Readers may find the "Eye Qigong" exercises in this book to be just as effective for those eye conditions. But while people with nearsightedness and farsightedness will find useful information in this book that improves the eyes and visual acuity, the main focus is degenerative eye conditions like macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, diabetic retinopathy, etc. These disorders of vision are rarely addressed with any efficacy in the literature or in practice. There are many factors that cause degenerative vision loss, including genetic predisposition, metabolic diseases, poor circulation, overuse, etc. Chinese medicine may lead you to fully understand your constitutional strengths and weaknesses, showing you how to safeguard your health and vision.

Personal accountability is the hallmark of Chinese medicine whereby the patient goes through a process of learning about himself or herself in relation to his or her environment. Once this understanding is brought about, the responsibility ultimately lies within each person to maintain care. Chinese medicine offers effective therapeutic modalities (acupuncture, moxa, herbs, Qigong) that may help restore health and function; however, the ultimate goal is to teach each patient to effectively care for him- or herself. Unlike our modern system of health care, the foundation of the theories and practices in this book is the taking of greater personal responsibility for one’s own health.

The book is designed to educate the reader about Chinese medicine and how it can help people with degenerative vision loss. Those already familiar with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) can skip introductory parts if they want and go ahead to specific information about the eye conditions. This book is also intended to act as a selfhelp book where the reader can apply certain "home care" therapies that may help improve vision. None of the therapies offered in this text are meant to be quick fixes, and in fact, success with most of them requires dedication, lifestyle change, and willingness to learn the principles behind the recommendations. It’s not something to undertake halfheartedly or with passing interest.

Many of the therapeutic modalities discussed may require the assistance of a qualified practitioner to help you along the way. Some people may not respond to the suggestions in this book and/or their condition may require integrative care. In the appendix there are a few recommendations of practitioners who have a lot of experience in helping people with vision problems. For a more complete list of practitioners who specialize in specific modalities, you can visit the resources sections at www.acupuncturehealth.com.

It is my recommendation that all people interested in incorporating these therapies continue to retain an ophthalmologist. I find more and more Western ophthalmologists opening up to the integration of acupuncture and other modalities for degenerative vision loss. My suggestion is to stay with an ophthalmologist who has your needs above anything! Find someone who will support what you’re doing, and if your current eye doctor is opposed to your trying the suggestions in these pages (or he is too egotistical), find someone who is open to helping you to help yourself. If you have tried everything and are ready to take an entirely different approach, or if you already have a holistic approach to your health and understand that vision problems can represent systemic imbalance and lack of harmony on a larger plane, this book offers options for treatment that are rarely explored in a Western eye clinic. If, however, you are not interested in balancing your life as a whole and simply want a quick fix to a nagging vision problem, you may not find what you are wishing for in the following pages.

-- Andy Rosenfarb, Warren, New Jersey

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