Early ARMD research

About 10 years ago, I also did an examination of the benefits of eye-acupuncture on ARMD patients – to document, that it was possible to help these patients.
History shows, that it always takes some years, before a new idea and method finds a place in science. That is possibly the reason, that the time was not right then.
Later, some eye-specialists have privately said, that they wish eye-acupuncture to be an acknowledge method of treatment.
For example the eye-specialist in Copenhagen, who sent 5 ”incurable” eye-patients for treatment at colleagues, who had learned to deliver Acupuncture 2000. All five were helped successfully, but the eye-specialist did not dare to step forward with his knowledge – out of fear for what his colleagues would say.

I hope the time is right now.

Skive Folkeblad wrote:

Acupuncturist John Boel does research in ARMD – Macula Degeneration
– During the last couple of years, we have treated many ”incurable” eye-diseases with a new method of acupuncture, says acupuncturist John Boel from Aulum. Some have had dramatic improvements. We have tried to get the established specialists into the research-project. I have contacted the Danish Society for the Blind, the State Eye-clinic and all private practicing eye-specialists in Denmark, but none of them have been interested in participating. So I have decided to do the research myself and I have engaged a doctor to control the result.
ARMD (Macula Degeneration) is, together with glaucoma, the most common eye-disease, which afflicts elderly people. The eye-specialists can now, with very good results, operate on cataract. But they cannot cure ARMD. The patients are told, that they must live with their disease.
The result showed, that there was a measurable improvement with 12 out of the 20 test-subjects, which is to say 60%.

Dagbladet wrote:

The last way out
After 25 treatments and a much-improved sight, the 69-yearold Harald Krogh has not the least doubt about the value of acupuncture.
In December, I could not see anything with my right eye. Now it is functioning almost normally. It is fantastic. I should think, that my sight is now 80% of what it used to be, and it is still improving.
This comes from the 69-yearold former grocer, Harald Krogh, who is one of the 20 elderly people, who during the last couple of months have participated in the researchproject with Bodil and John Boel in Aulum. .
All 20 suffer from the eye-disease AMD – Age related Macula Degeneration, the most common eye-disease to afflict elderly people. The disease is deemed incurable by the established medical society. Harald Krogh had been told by his own eye-specialist, that he should learn to live with the disease.
John Boel said, before the research was started, that he with this specific form of acupuncture, that he had developed, would be able to obtain big improvements of the sight of more than 50% of the patients – and he also succeeded in this, according to the results, that he is now publishing.

Hope for millions 
John Boel himself is very satisfied with the result.
– As the first in the world, we have documented, that it is possible to treat ARMD successfully. Now eye-specialists and others cannot longer say, that they do not believe, that acupuncture treatments work. That excuse does not work any more. And at the same time, we have new hope for the millions of people all over the world suffering from Macula Degeneration and other serious eye-diseases, he says.

To the minister of health
John Boel is going to send the results of his research to a long list of Danish politicians, first of all minister of health Esther Larsen. Also to the Danish Society of the Blind, the State Eye-clinic in Hellerup and also eye-specialists all over the country.
– I offer these people to join in new research, so that we together can examine, why – opposed to previous experiences within the field of medical science – it is possible to make the degenerated retina heal. It is the only way that we can progress, so that we all learn, how most effectively to treat Macula Degeneration and other serious eye-diseases in the future.
-Even though I am sawing off the branch, upon which I myself is sitting, I think, that the authorities must control these treatments. Therefore I am sending the results to the politicians. Not because I want money from the authorities – I do not want that – but for the patients sake, says the acupuncturist from Aulum.

200.000 kr.
According to Bodil and John Boel, it has cost them 200.000 kr. to do this research. The patients, who are randomly chosen, have an average age of 74 years, and they have been treated for free during one month. Here, they have been given many treatments, where they have been lying down with acupuncture needles inserted in different parts of the body, mostly hands and feet.
The patients’ sight has been examined, with a sight-board and an advanced autoperimeter – an electronic measuringinstrument worth 150.000 kr., which is used for measuring the field of vision.
It is possible, that people will blame me and say, that the research is not scientific enough, but I have done it as scientifically, as I possibly could. I have developed my methods along the way, and I obtained better results with the newest ones than with the old ones. Just as three years ago, when I started treating for eye-diseases, I could only help about 25%. Today we are helping 60%, says John Boel.

Obstetrician
Boel feels, that he is in a similar situation as the Austrian obstetrician Semmelweis, whose story he followed in a television program a short time ago. In the middle of the 18th century, Semmelweis proved, that an infectious matter caused childbirth fever, but just as Boel, he could not convince the established medical society about this. Semmelweis died unknown. It was not until much later that people understood the consequences of this big discovery.
Boel hopes, that it will not take as long time, before his acupuncture methods are acknowledged.

Hendes Verden wrote in 1991:

He cures the incurable
There are 10.003 different registered eye-diseases in the world – one of them is Age related Macula Degeneration, also known as ARMD. The disease is seen by the ”establishment” as being incurable – but acupuncturist John Boel from Aulum has proven differently.
Age related Macula Degeneration (ARMD) causes deterioration of the vision and in the worst-case scenario, complete blindness. But the disease is really not incurable. That is, what acupuncturist John Boel from Aulum in the middle of Jutland says. And it is not just an empty claim, but the result of research, that he has done working with a doctor. I started the research at the end of November 1990, he tells us.
71-yearold Edvard Betzer from Århus was the owner of a cinema for many years – and he loves watching old movies. Therefore it was also very bad for him, when he was afflicted with Macula Degeneration, so that he could no longer read the subtitles. Now he can do that again – after treatments from John Boel.
What happens?
– I am sorry, that I can not explain what it is, that happens, says John – Therefore I have sent all the results to all eye-specialists in the country in the hope of finding somebody, who wants to participate in some research. They are the experts. They can explain, why the treatment works, and what really happens to the body! I can just – with great joy – see that it works.