JUDA - After regaining her eyesight once before, Lori Zeal faced the possibility that she would never see out of her left eye again.
Zeal, who suffers from Macular degeneration and other eye problems, regained her sight six years ago following several acupuncture treatments, she said.
In 2003, after years of her eyesight getting worse, she saw an advertisement about a new treatment called micro acupuncture, a treatment used in eastern Asia for centuries. She was skeptical that the treatment would work, but she didn't think she had any alternatives. Doctors had told her there was nothing they could do, and they told her she would eventually lose her sight.
She contacted the Arkansas Therapy Center in Hot Springs, Ark., which does the treatment.
Zeal and her husband, Ron, went to Hot Springs, and Lizbeth Ryan, the doctor at the center, gave her an eye test to determine how well she could see and then the treatments began.
During the acupuncture procedure, tiny needles were inserted into the bottoms of her feet and in her hands. The needles help oxygen travel through the body, which helps the patient's eyesight by increasing blood flow.
The clinic doctors told her the treatment was not guaranteed, although there is about a 90 percent success rate. They also told her most patients see an improvement gradually, sometimes up to one month after treatments. By the second day, Lori could tell her vision was improving. She started seeing shapes and her sight became more clear. Images she was seeing were brighter. Colors were more vibrant than before, she said.
She continued to go to Arkansas for yearly treatments and her eyesight has gotten better. Lori still had to use reading glasses, she said, but it was a big improvement from before.
Last fall she had surgery on her left eye because of glaucoma. The surgery left the eye blind. Once again she wasn't able to see the colors and the shapes she had grown to appreciate over the past few years.
It was devastating, Lori said.
She knew what it was like to be almost blind and to see only shadows. She knew what it was like not to be able to see the color of the sky or the color of the birds and the grass.
Lori didn't want to lose her sight again.
After she lost her eyesight in her left eye, she hoped that the yearly treatments at the Arkansas Therapy Center would help her recover her eyesight.
In the spring she went for treatment and once again her sight was restored.
"I have limited vision coming back to my left eye and my right eye was strengthened," she said with a smile.
What the treatments have done for her is difficult to put into words, she said. Lori doesn't need to understand how it works to appreciate the fact it does, she said.
"People have been doing this for centuries," Lori said.
Zeal, who suffers from Macular degeneration and other eye problems, regained her sight six years ago following several acupuncture treatments, she said.
In 2003, after years of her eyesight getting worse, she saw an advertisement about a new treatment called micro acupuncture, a treatment used in eastern Asia for centuries. She was skeptical that the treatment would work, but she didn't think she had any alternatives. Doctors had told her there was nothing they could do, and they told her she would eventually lose her sight.
She contacted the Arkansas Therapy Center in Hot Springs, Ark., which does the treatment.
Zeal and her husband, Ron, went to Hot Springs, and Lizbeth Ryan, the doctor at the center, gave her an eye test to determine how well she could see and then the treatments began.
During the acupuncture procedure, tiny needles were inserted into the bottoms of her feet and in her hands. The needles help oxygen travel through the body, which helps the patient's eyesight by increasing blood flow.
The clinic doctors told her the treatment was not guaranteed, although there is about a 90 percent success rate. They also told her most patients see an improvement gradually, sometimes up to one month after treatments. By the second day, Lori could tell her vision was improving. She started seeing shapes and her sight became more clear. Images she was seeing were brighter. Colors were more vibrant than before, she said.
She continued to go to Arkansas for yearly treatments and her eyesight has gotten better. Lori still had to use reading glasses, she said, but it was a big improvement from before.
Last fall she had surgery on her left eye because of glaucoma. The surgery left the eye blind. Once again she wasn't able to see the colors and the shapes she had grown to appreciate over the past few years.
It was devastating, Lori said.
She knew what it was like to be almost blind and to see only shadows. She knew what it was like not to be able to see the color of the sky or the color of the birds and the grass.
Lori didn't want to lose her sight again.
After she lost her eyesight in her left eye, she hoped that the yearly treatments at the Arkansas Therapy Center would help her recover her eyesight.
In the spring she went for treatment and once again her sight was restored.
"I have limited vision coming back to my left eye and my right eye was strengthened," she said with a smile.
What the treatments have done for her is difficult to put into words, she said. Lori doesn't need to understand how it works to appreciate the fact it does, she said.
"People have been doing this for centuries," Lori said.