In the field of eye care ,treatment of irreversible loss of vision has emerged as a new area of interest.
Although Modern Medicine has some treatment options for this type of loss of vision but they are costly and less effective. Eg— gene therapy which cost around INR 6 crores and claims just 10% improvement. Ealier stem cell was much but it totally unsuccessful.
Then comes the role of other Systems of Medicine to be explored.
What is more interesting about other Systems of Medicine is they are collectively termed as 'Alternative Systems of Medicine'but many systems in these 'Alternative Systems of Medicine' have such vast literature, which is plenty of times of today's Modern Medicine
Although Alternative system literally means that if you do not find a treatment in Modern Medicine you can try these systems such as Ayurveda,Acupuncture or Homeopathy.
Then why not Integrated approach instead of Alternative approach? Integrated approach literally means that integration of knowledge from all systems of Medicine for successful treatment, for example nutritional aspect discovered by the Modern Medicine and advising patient on lines of Ayurveda as per constitution of patient.As in the Modern Medicine there is no approach for Constitution of patient.
At this time many doctors of other systems have tried to find this treatment,some are genuinely offering treatment while some clinics have emerged claiming successful treatment of retinitis pigmentosa,macular degeneration and other incurable ailments without any experience to do so.
Most interesting aspect of this type of newly emerging self proclaimed doctors is that they do not have a proper record of treatment and still they are posing as doctors who are able to treat Retina and other issues.
Many times patients have enquired here and I came to know that they have been fooled plenty of times by such proclaimed healers.
So how to identify the genuine one in this field?
- Doctor should be registered with atleast one of the recognized systems of Medicine.
There should not be fake degrees mentioned with the practitioners as for example some of doctors write MD (Acu) as their acupuncture qualification.Worldwide including China there is no such degree as MD Acupuncture.Great teachers and professors in Acupuncture also write as C.Ac. means Certificate course in Acupuncture. - Besides the statement of patient there should atleast a result verified by gadgets of Modern medicine as O C T or visual fields etc.
- It will be better if the results are published in the National or International Journals of Medicine.
- If doctor is awarded for the work always check their credentials.
- Also evaluate the treatment response very initially,patient should respond as promised by the treating doctor.