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The IOP Querent » New Research on Acupuncture and Eye Pressure Presented at ARVO

New Research on Acupuncture and Eye Pressure Presented at ARVO

New research presented at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) annual meeting last week revealed that acupuncture can dramatically reduce eye pressure (intraocular pressure). The study, titled Electro-acupuncture to decrease intraocular pressure in Rhesus monkeys with chronic glaucoma, was performed by scientists at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. Dr. Cantwell was the lead researcher and she was at ARVO to present the results.

Shauna CantwellDr. Cantwell explained that a single treatment of electro-acupuncture applied consistent with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) principles can decrease the intraocular pressure in monkeys with glaucoma for at least two days. The eye pressure reduction was more than 50%! The baseline eye pressure was 41.1 mmHg and the eye pressure after after acupuncture treatment was 20.9 mmHg on average. Primates are, of course, much closer to humans than mice, rats or rabbits. Therefore, I expect this research will apply to humans.

Dr. Cantwell further explained that they used two different meridian systems for treatment groups in the study. Experimental group A (EA-A) received treatment in the liver-gallbladder meridians (points bilaterally: Liver 3 - Gall Bladder 1, Gall bladder 34 - Gall Bladder 37). Experimental group B (EA-B) received treatment in the stomach-spleen meridians (points bilaterally: Spleen 2 - Stomach 7, Spleen 6 - Spleen10). Due to the type of glaucoma the monkeys have, the stomach-spleen treatment was more effective. However, Dr. Cantwell feels that the liver-gallbladder acupuncture treatment approach might be the more effective one for the common types of glaucoma found in most people. She emphasized that the specific meridian used was not of as much interest as the main result - the fact that acupuncture was able to reduce IOP so dramatically and for such an extended period of time in a controlled scientific study.

The full abstract is reproduced below:

Electro-acupuncture to decrease intraocular pressure in Rhesus monkeys with chronic glaucoma

S.L. Cantwell(2), D.E. Brooks(1), H. Xi(e2), H.L. Sapp(1)
1) Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences
2) Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32669

Purpose: To investigate electro-acupuncture (EA) as a therapeutic option for treatment of glaucoma utilizing two different acupuncture patterns of Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine (TCVM).

Methods:  Twelve male rhesus monkeys which have previously undergone Argon laser photocoagulation of the trabecular meshwork in one eye (OD) to produce an elevation in intraocular pressure (IOP) were used.  They were sedated with ketamine and randomly divided into three groups: i) control (no treatment), ii) EA-A (points bilaterally: Liver 3 - Gall Bladder 1, Gall bladder 34 - Gall Bladder 37), and iii) EA-B (points bilaterally: Spleen 2 - Stomach 7, Spleen 6 - Spleen10).  EA was applied one time for 30 minutes at 20 Hz.  A blinded observer measured the IOP of each eye at times: 1) pre-treatment, 2) one hour after treatment, then 24, 48 and 72 hours post treatment.

Results:  The IOP of the glaucomatous eyes significantly decreased to less than half the baseline IOP (baseline mean ± SD: 41.1±8.3 mmHg)  in the EA-B group at one hour post treatment (20.9±3.3 mmHg, p<0.05).  The IOP of the glaucoma eyes in EA-B was also significantly lower at 24 hours (26.6±9.3 mmHg) and 48 hours (27.9±3.8 mmHg), but was not significantly different by 72 hours (32.6±7.1 mmHg).  In EA-A group, there was a variable effect with a larger standard deviation (1 hr: 52.6±14.5 mmHg; 24h: 47.4±7.8 mmHg; 48h: 52.7±11.7 mmHg; 72h: 54.3±9.1 mmHg) and no difference in IOP from baseline (54.4±5.0 mmHg).  The OD IOP in the control group did not differ from baseline (45.2±6.6 mmHg) at any time period.  No significant difference compared to baseline (15.8±3.5 mmHg) was detected in IOP of the normal eyes (OS) of any treatment group.

Conclusions:  Electro-acupuncture applied consistent with TCVM principles can decrease the intraocular pressure in glaucomatous monkey eyes for at least two days in a research setting.  It should be further investigated as a therapeutic option for some types of glaucoma.


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Posted May 13 2007, 10:13 PM by Dave
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Comments

somkiatoo wrote re: New Research on Acupuncture and Eye Pressure Presented at ARVO
on 06-04-2007 1:45 AM

I have ever tried acupuncture with advanced POAG patients.

There is some improvement of the vision ( visual field ) which belongs to the increasing blood flow, not IOP lowering

When compare with eye massage technique, it help both increasing blood flow and IOP lowering.

Doctor Somkiat Athikhomkulchai

jaytee wrote re: New Research on Acupuncture and Eye Pressure Presented at ARVO
on 04-18-2008 5:12 PM

Thanks Doctor and great research paper! I went thru a couple of months of acupuncture teratment to see if we could make some marked improvement in my IOP and stave off my impending trab operation.

Unfortunately, I didnt have my Reichert tonometer then so I couldnt test in real time etc. The weekly goldman tests at my doctors office, didnt show much improvement however, though I believe I need to relook acupuncture again.

Are there other personal experiences from acupuncture on the blog, Dave?

Dave wrote re: New Research on Acupuncture and Eye Pressure Presented at ARVO
on 04-18-2008 9:11 PM

I have gotten emails from several people who have had acupuncture treatments in an attempt to reduce intraocular pressure. In fact, I did this myself. In every case that has been reported to me as well as in my own experience, there was no improvement in IOP. I think it would really pay to investigate this further. Dr. Cantwell's result were very impressive and this leads me to think those of us who have tried acupuncture might be missing something...

I haven't given up on trying acupuncture again in the future. However, at present my efforts and attention are going into a practice similar to (but not the same as) Qigong. It is similar in the sense that it works with energy and the energy channels (meridians) often associated with acupuncture. I am not aware of any reason this practice should not be as effective as acupuncture -- and I can do it myself as often as I wish to or need to. The technique is called Serene Impulse and the energy is called "Si" (which may be similar to, or the same as, Qi, Ki, and Chi energy).

tsingle999 wrote re: New Research on Acupuncture and Eye Pressure Presented at ARVO
on 04-25-2008 11:16 AM

How has your experience with Qigong been going?

Dave wrote re: New Research on Acupuncture and Eye Pressure Presented at ARVO
on 04-25-2008 12:22 PM

tsingle999 -- are you doing Qigong? If so, I'd like to hear about your experiences related to vision or eye pressure. I am not doing Qigong. I'm doing Serene Impulse, which is different. I may post some more info about Serene Impulse and IOP in the next few weeks. [UPDATAE: see Eye Pressure Miracle.]We have at least one reader I know of who is very knowledgeable in Qigong. However, he doesn't measure his eye pressure, so there is no data to report.

andrea wrote re: New Research on Acupuncture and Eye Pressure Presented at ARVO
on 05-12-2008 7:53 PM

Have you thought of beginning a blog bsed gtoup to learn meditation techniques and go through the processes that might lower eye pressures. If they dont have ways to measure they could use their doctor reports.

Dave wrote re: New Research on Acupuncture and Eye Pressure Presented at ARVO
on 05-13-2008 12:38 PM

andrea - Thanks for your comment. I have thought about starting a blog to discuss all the knowledge and techniques I have for creating inner peace and improving overall health. Obviously, that subject (i.e., consciousness and health) is of great interest to me.

However, when it comes to techniques for reducing eye pressure, that's what FitEyes.com is all about. I love to discuss any topic that relates to eye pressure and consciousness -- and we can do it right here on FitEyes.com.

There are a few caveats about meditation and eye pressure. First, some of the most popular and well-known meditation techniques dramatically increase my intraocular pressure. This increase occurs during the meditation practice. If one is doing something like this that temporarily raises IOP, one might not see any sign of this with infrequent eye pressure measurements at the doctor's office. I do not believe any glaucoma patient should experiment without having a reliable tonometer available for very frequent IOP monitoring. In fact, because the list of things that can dramatically affect IOP is vast, I feel that every glaucoma patient should be doing frequent self-tonometry in the same way that a diabetic patient would do frequent blood glucose monitoring. Without doing this, one is in the dark.

If you want to go beyond the limitations of traditional care, as you have indicated you do, an IOP value obtained once every few months in the doctor's office is of very little value in my opinion. Once you have done extensive self-tonometry, you will see that IOP fluctuates day to day and even minute to minute.

So, first there is the requirement that any meditation technique be checked very closely for its effect on IOP during and immediately after practicing.

Next there is the issue that a beginner will benefit most by being personally instructed in meditation by an experienced teacher. The success rate for people who try to learn meditation on their own is very low. That's why you don't see me putting specific meditation instructions on my blog. If I ever come up with a program that could be taught over the phone and via email, I will do it. But currently, when I teach someone to meditate, I monitor several of their physiological parameters (such as heart rate) to make sure they are performing the technique correctly. That's just one reason I like to teach it in person.

Here are two related links:

http://fiteyes.com/blogs/dave/2007/08/04/What-Can-We-Do-To-Prevent-Further-Glaucomatous-Damage-To-Our-Eyes

http://fiteyes.com/blogs/dave/2007/01/14/How-To-Measure-Your-IOP-At-Home-And-Change-the-World-Too

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