Stargardt Disease | EssayIvy.com

South Baylo University

Capstone Proposal

Jessica Moore

A narrative review of the efficacy of Acupuncture for Stargardt Disease

Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental medicine

Anaheim, California

Feb 2018

Abstract

This research paper aims to study Stargardt disease in details and research whether Acupuncture

treatment can be applied to treat Stargardt disease effectively. Stargardt disease is a form of

molecular degeneration which affects the human beings. The paper will also compare the current

western treatment and the Chinese medicine approach and how they are applied to treat the

disease. Currently, we don’t have an appropriate treatment approach for Stargardt disease and

this makes this research very relevant and important. The disease affects the stem cells of the

eyes of the patients and the patients eventually go blind and are left with no hopes of receiving

the required treatment. We have some acupuncturists who claim to treat this disease with

acupuncture and dietary therapy. More studies are required to determine whether acupuncture

can help in slowing the eyes degeneration. For the studies to be done effectively, a large number

of people suffering from Stargardt need to be observed over a long time but this becomes quite

hard since Stargardt affects about only 2% of the people.

Table of contents

I) Introduction

II) Literature review

III) Materials and methods

III) Expected results (optional)

V) References

Chapter 1: Introduction

The purpose of this narrative review is to determine if acupuncture is an appropriate

method of treating Stargardt disease. This is an important topic since there are no current

treatments available in the western medicine for this degenerative blinding disease.

Stargardt disease, also referred to as Stargardt’s macular dystrophy (SMD) or fundus

flavimaculatus is normally characterized by central vision loss in the early stages of life. The

American Macular Degeneration Foundation found that in rare cases about one in 20,000 of

people diagnosed with macular degeneration is normally a child or a teenager.

Stargardt normally affects both eyes and mainly develops at the ages of six to twenty

years where the affected kids get some difficulties in reading or adapting to the bright light. The

causes and the treatment approaches for this disease vary with ages where the causes and the

treatment approaches offered to the young people are different from those of the old people.

Stargardt disease results from a gene called ABCA4 and this gene normally has a

recessive trait. When both the male and the female parents carry this gene, there is a 25% chance

that the children will have Stargardt disease.

Research has shown that Stargardt disease causes serious vision loss problem which

ranges from 20/50 to 20/200 as per the standard eye chart. In the US, legal blindness is normally

defined as a visual acuity of 20/200 or worse and this calls for corrective glasses.

Some of the major symptoms of Stargardt disease include poor eyesight in low lighting,

blurry or distorted vision, and difficulty in recognizing and differentiating familiar faces. In its

late stages, Stargardt can lead to color blindness.

While vitamin A is normally known to be good to the health of the eyes, it’s a different

case to the victims of Stargardt disease as it builds on the retina of the eyes of the patients and

ends up causing partial blindness to the victims.

It remains too early to know whether the cell transplant approach will be possible or not.

The clinical trials to determine if the stem cell treatment is effective and safe are still in the early

stages and their results are yet to be conclusive.

The lack of treatment good treatment options makes it very necessary for us to explore if

acupuncture can be an effective alternative approach for the people with Stargardt.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

It has proved to be very difficult to find any relevant studies related to the use of

acupuncture in treating Stargardt. There were seven articles found which were related to

acupuncture and the eyes. All the seven articles were found to be within 5 years. On acupuncture

and Stargardt, there were no articles found explaining how acupuncture can be applied in treating

Stargardt. These results made us take a step on studying acupuncture and Stargardt.

Many of the studies about acupuncture and the eyes have been done by the Chinese and

up to now we still have much research being done in China about acupuncture. There is a great

need for similar research in America, especially in the doctoral schools. We don’t have any

research going on in South Baylo University which means we have a serious problem with the

Doctoral Programs being offered. My research proposal helped me to understand that my current

Doctoral Program offers no research opportunities and has no future plans for any collaborations

with the many medical schools in this area. This is a major problem for the future of acupuncture

in the future of scientific research.

In a study on retinitis pigmetosa, Ava K Bittner, OD Ph.D., and his colleagues found that

acupuncture can help to improve scotia sensitivity in the eye. These were only preliminary

findings and more research is still needed.

A study on acupuncture reducing the cases of dry eyes done by Blechschmidt, Krumsiek,

and Todorova found that acupuncture was not more effective than the conventional treatment,

but acupuncture had no side effects as compared to the eye drops which have some side effects.

A study of the acupuncture point GB37 suggests that acupuncture at GB37 can induce a complex

brain activity in the vision cortex.

A study which was done in 2015 found that acupuncture helped to improve retinitis

pigmetosa. This study found that the clinical effect of Erlong Xizhuʼs acupuncture was superior

to that of the conventional acupuncture for retinitis pigmentosa and was worth some promotion.

In my case, I was not able to find what Erlongʼs acupuncture was as the article was written in

Chinese and so I couldn’t understand.

Another study done in Switzerland found that there was some improvement in the visual

function of the patients who had inherited the retina diseases from acupuncture treatment. The

acupuncture protocol helped to improve the visual function of the patients who had inherited the

diseases of the retina and it was well-tolerated.

Nevertheless, the long-term effects of this main complementary therapy still remain to be

evaluated. Boel Acunova Acupuncture in Denmark claims that it’s leading the way in

opthmalogic acupuncture. John Boel, the founder of this school claims that more than 8000 eye

patients have received this treatment and the treatment has produced over 70% successful cases.

Dr. Boel published a pilot study project with ARMD Research. This pilot project had 27

ARMD patients who were split into three distinct groups. Different eye-specialists diagnosed

each of these patients who suffered from dry ARMD. The patients were given extensive

treatment over a period of four weeks using a new method of acupuncture referred to as the

acupuncture 2000 which is different from the Chinese acupuncture.

In the third test group, 60% of these patients experienced a 15.6% improvement in their

sight. In the second test group, 70% of the patients got a 28.5% improvement in their sight.

Finally, in the first test group, 80% of these patients got a 15-40% improvement in their sight.

The average improvement of the sight for all the three groups was 27%.

There is a great need to study the effects of acupuncture and Stargardt disease since we

don’t have any research data available in this area currently.

Chapter 3: Methods

The databases which were used in the research were PubMed, Medline, Embase, TCM, and

Google Scholar.

The main search terms in the research were acupuncture, Stargardt, vision, eyes, and eye disease.

When nothing was found for Stargardt treatment with acupuncture the search was expanded to

eye disease in general.

Articles on herbal remedies were excluded in this research as this is a review of the acupuncture

treatments available.

The search was kept to articles no older than 2013.

Chapter 4: References

Bittner, A. K., Gould, J. M., Rosenfarb, A., Rozanski, C., and Dagnelie, G. (2016). A pilot study

of an acupuncture protocol to improve visual function in retinitis pigmentosa patients.

Blechschmidt, T., Krumsiek, M., and Todorova, M. G. (2016). Improvement in Visual Function

in Patients with Inherited Diseases of the Retina Following Acupuncture Treatment. Department

of Ophthalmology. The University of Basel, Switzerland (Chairman a. i.: Prof. Selim Orgu

l).

233(4):416-23. doi: 10.1055/s-0041-111819.

Boel. (n.d.). Research into ARMD (Age-Related Macular Degeneration).

Liu, J., Nan, J., Xiong, S., Li, G., Qin, W., and Tian, J. (2013). Additional evidence for the

sustained effect of acupuncture at the vision-related acupuncture point, GB37.

Blechschmidt, T., Krumsiek, M., and Todorova, M. G. (2017). Acupuncture benefits for

Flammer syndrome in individuals with inherited diseases of the retina.

Kim, T., Kang, J. W., Kim, K. H., Kang, K., Shin, M., Jung, S., Kim, A., Jung, H., Choi, J.,

Hong, K. U., Lee, S. D., and Choi, S. (n.d.). Acupuncture for the Treatment of Dry Eye: A

Multicenter Randomised Controlled Trial with Active Comparison Intervention (Artificial

Teardrops).

Jiu, Z. Z. (July 2015). [Clinical observation of Erlong Xizhu acupuncture for retinitis

pigmentosa]: 681-684

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