| Macular Degeneration |
Eye-AcupunctureStinging SuccessArticle issued in Esotera 1/2000 by Anne Niemeyer
With a treatment well-suited of acupuncture and a therapeutic pair of glasses non-medical practitioner and certified optician Jürgen Hancke helps eye patients It all started in spring of 1996: First Mrs. L. (saleswoman, 43 at that time) had only
problems with reading – letters seemed fuzzy, straight lines curved, colours faded. As long as she’d been
living she was extremely short sighted which she had corrected with con-tact lenses.
Then she was no longer able to neither recognise the faces of her customers nor the numbers of the cash
register. Diagnosis of her eye-specialist: “Makula-Degeneration,” an – according to the eye specialists –
age related degenerative change of the retina (see box on page 60). At the centre of the sharpest
vision/sight, the “Macula”, sediments had formed. It was a shock for Mrs. L. when
the eye-specialist told her: “You have to live with this disease. There are no treatments from a school
medical point of view.” Rapidly the degeneration of her eyes continued. She could only see the outlines of faces, soon she could only differentiate between bright and dark. She lost her job, and increasingly suffered from depressions up to the point about thinking to commit suicide. In this situation she accidentally ran into a bus-driver who told her about a relative having suffered the same eye disease and which was successfully treated with acupuncture. Full of hope, but sceptical, Mrs. L. made an appointment with the Cologne practice of the non-medical practitioner and certified optician Jürgen Hancke. With a team of 10 employees, he particularly helps patients given up by school medicine, with a by him special developed therapy based on a world wide unique skull acupuncture. In the meantime Erika’s eye sight had sunk to 25%. In May 1998 she had twelve acupuncture treatments of 25 minutes each. The miracle verging result: The eye-sight of her right eye increased – in combination with a special designed therapeutic pair of glasses – up to 117% , that of her left up to 92%.
Mrs. L. is one of the in the meantime over 1000 patients who Jürgen Hancke could help – with amazing results: “Usually our patients are either given up by school medicine, or are no longer treatable or suffer incurable eye diseases from the start,” so the only 38 year old who clearly shows his excitement about his work. In his 540 square meter large practice, which is located only three subway stations from the Cologne main station, he is assisted by two further non-medical practitioner, three certified opticians and five assistants. One senses a special happiness among the patients from all over the world in the bright and modern furnished rooms – the certainty to be at the right place at the right time. Almost all the patients say to have lived through nerve-wrenching odysseys to eye practices and eye clinics. So did the 13 years old Nadine John, who began to suffer at the age of seven under “Retinitis Pigmentosa,” a degenerative illness resulting in the curvature of the retina, the dwindling of the optical nerve, constriction of the visionary field and which eventually leads to blindness. The eye specialist told Nadine’s mother with Nadine present to enrol her as quickly as possible at a school for blind and dismissed them with the words: “You simply have to accept that.” Already three weeks after the acupuncture therapy’s beginning in May 1999, a clear improvement took place. Nadine’s vision of her right eye increased from 16% to 30%, the vision of her left eye increased from 8% to 25%. After a total of 27 acupuncture treatments Nadine can again read and takes an active part in school sports. “Already at the beginning of my optician education 18 years ago, I did wonder why there were no real therapy for diseases such as Macula Degeneration – since the eyes are so close connected with the brain” Jürgen Hancke says. He got interested in subjects such as “the brain,” “the psyche” and “the sight,” started a psychotherapeutic education and soon realised: “If you want to do something for the eyes, then it can only work using the psyche and the brain.” From there on, he had put all his energy into exploring the causes for eye diseases. “How can the control loop of the eyes, the brain and the psyche be positively stimulated, to activate the own healing mechanism?” He asked himself. “Usually the brain regulates via the centre of vision the health of the eyes – the metabolism, the local blood circulation and the function of the nerves. The bodily own control mechanisms are capable of re-generating sick eyes. But if the optical system is overly stressed, then the bodily own control mechanisms fail. Is the optical system overtaxed, the eye atrophies,” the non-medical practitioner figured. He discovered one of the main causes of this overtaxing lies in the incapability of the eye to work synchronically (see box on the left). When the brain fruitlessly tries to bring the eyes into a parallel position – caused by small changes of the optical angle caused by stress or strong psychological strain - it results in loosing its performance. The requirement for the eyes to stay healthy is the correct functioning of the optical centre. The objective of a therapy lies among others, according to Hancke, in reactivating the optical centre in that way the eyes are able to synchronise the sole field information of each eye and thus heal it.
In principle Hancke uses his acupuncture therapy on all eye diseases, even on Retinitis Pigmentosa which can neither be stopped nor cured by conventional medicine, also on retina diseases caused by diabetes, or on cataract. But he’s specialised on the macula degeneration. About 80% of his patients come with this diagnosis to his practice, all of whom are “incurable.” Jürgen Hancke: “At Nearly 90% of my patients the de-generation of the eyes can be stopped. In most of the cases it is even reversed.” Short- and long-sightedness, where the lenses are not capable of projecting the images directly onto the retina, can mostly be stopped only during the growing phase of children. A treatment is difficult when the eye is no longer in the growth stadium. The therapy after Hancke first checks the performance of vision with a sight test, the main aspect here on the co-operation of right and left brain half. For each patient, Hancke develops a personalised therapy: “Each patient gets different personalised acupuncture points and point combinations which best stimulate the visionary system.” Hancke explains “We stimulate different points of the visionary system and of the eye.” Usually one treatment lasts between one and four weeks and involves 20 to 60 acupuncture meetings. Three 20 to 25 minutes long meetings with a 30 minute break in-between per day. Really important, according to Hancke, is the combination of the acupuncture and the customised therapeutic pair of glasses which relieves the visionary system and which activates the eyes in a certain manner. “The therapeutic pair of glasses which are customised after the acupuncture meetings causes first that the images of both eyes are synchronised in the best possible way since even the smallest difference strains the visionary system. On the other hand it animates the eyes to compensate the deficit. Our experience shows that “dead retina points” only seem to be dead and in principle can be reactivated. Even with retina scars an improvement is achievable.” Yet, the patients have to carry the therapy costs by themselves. Like the 68 year old Helene Rolke, who barely understands why the health insurance companies do not pay but sarcastically says: “My eye sight is more important than having the money at the bank.” Her left eye had “wet old aged macula degeneration,” her right eye “dry macula degeneration” and cataract. Her left eye had only 4% visibility and her right 69%. After the four week therapy – three days with each three acupuncture meetings– she now has an eye sight of 61% on her left eye and 112% on her right eye. “After the acupuncture my constant headaches disappeared.” She gladly states. That other chronic illnesses also improve is an often side effect of the acupuncture, one of the co-working therapists confirms. With one patient rheumatic medication were no longer necessary, with others Tinnitus, infertility and heavy depressions disappeared. The reason for this, he assumes, is an unconscious working on conflicts while the acupuncture treatment, since often patients say after the meetings to have lived through past situations as if being in a dream. Other patients cried after the treatment without knowing why but were also very relieved. Jürgen Hancke thinks: “One has to see everything as a whole. If the visionary system is stressed, it costs a lot of energy to fight it. If the vision improves this energy is set free to “work” on other – even unconscious – problems. The 72 years old Anni Friedrichs also underwent 39 acupuncture meetings last August to treat her macula degeneration. Her vision, which deteriorated within 4 months to 42 % on the right and 50 % on the left, improved to 85 % on the right and 100 % on the left after the treatment and with the therapeutic glasses. “Now I drive my car again, like in old times and I am extremely happy I can see again. The DM 14.000 which I had to pay for the treatment were worth it,” so the old lady with the Cologne dialect. “When my eye specialist gave me a brochure concerning “age dependant macula degeneration” instead of a new prescription for new glasses, I had had the shock of my life,” Mrs. Friedrichs remembers with a shiver. This leaflet – given out by eye specialists to their patients – shows the affected persons the so called hard facts: “A real healing is not possible,” it says. To extinguish all hope, alternative therapies are deuced: “It is to warn of healing methods which promise a lot and do not live up to these promises. Acupuncture, infusion treatments, oxygen, injections behind the eye and other “medical wonders” only help the supplier and cost you a lot of money. Successes, which are sometimes reported in the media can only be explained with the fact that the macula degeneration has stopped and that the vision has improved by itself.” But what do the patients say about the reaction of their respective eye specialists after they have detected an improvement in their vision? “My eye specialist, whom I feel very comfortable with, reacted very positively and immediately wanted to work with Mr. Jürgen Hancke,” mentions Helene Rolke. Unfortunately an exception: The eye specialist of Anni Friedrichs can not say anything about her improvement because of data security. “I do not think acupuncture therapies – such tries have been existing for a long time – are successful.” As long as there is no effectiveness evidence by a study, a single case, does not convince him; yet “but if it helps, I have nothing against trying,” he says patronisingly - without even asking further questions. Mrs. L. was also frustrated after her examination at her eye specialist. “Something is not right here, I must repeat all tests,“ he wondered. When Mrs. Mäurer told him about her acupuncture therapy, her eye specialist showed rather disinterest and dismissed her with the remark: “It is a wonder that you can see again.” A specialist colleague from an eye clinic who Mrs. L. met on her search for help, immediately stated: “For me this improvement is just a spontaneous healing.” Taking the meanwhile more than thousand patients into account whom Jürgen Hancke could help with his acupuncture over the past years, it definitely is an exceptional increase of “spontaneous healings.” |
Aghast
of all the luck but still sceptical if this result would stay like it was, she waited for the time being.
One year later – she wears contact lenses for her short-sightedness and her therapeutic pair of glasses –
this sensational result has stabilised. “I am extremely happy. Of course all my depressions disappeared,”
the resolute saleswoman says, who found again a new job. 
Based on measures for the entire
visual system, specified diagnostic tests and self tests – Jürgen Hancke’s eyes also do not work
synchronous – he developed his new acupuncture treatment which neither relates to the Chinese acupuncture
nor the “skull acupuncture” after Dr. Toshikatsu Yamamoto” “I figured out”, he says, “the most effective
points stimulating the visionary centre, lie in the region of the head. Today I exactly know what point
and what combination of points achieve the best results.