Glaucoma

"Glaucoma" Issue / Symptom Connections

Below you will find various relationships to, and potential clinical treatment approaches for glaucoma.

Content Related to Glaucoma

It is critical to appreciate that in Chinese Medicine, treatment for "glaucoma" is rarely focused on the symptoms exclusively. Alternatively, a practitioner is looking at the factors that led to the development of "glaucoma" - i.e. the "cause(s)".

For non-practitioners, we recommend reading treating the "cause" and not the "symptoms" for more on the overall approach and the importance of the TCM diagnostic system in formulating treatment approaches.

Within TCM, "glaucoma" is potentially related to one or more of the following diagnostic patterns: kidney yin deficiency, liver blood deficiency, and/or liver yin deficiency.

The above patterns are common examples. In clinical situations, however, there are any number of other possibilities. Many times there will be a layered combination of patterns in an interwoven blend with their symptoms - some being the cause of an issue and the result of another issue. While initially complex, this is illustrative of the the web of relationships that Chinese Medicine is designed to approach.

Related Acupuncture Protocols

When developing an acupuncture protocol a practitioner is very often focusing on the causal diagnoses in Chinese Medicine terms, not on the condition itself. To illustrate and guide developing an acupuncture treatment for someone experiencing glaucoma, this issue is referenced in the following acupuncture protocol section:

• View EX Shangming (Upper Brightness)
  
      Directly below the midpoint of the arch of the eyebrow, just under the superior border of the orbit. Below Yuyao.
  
      Disorders of the eyelids, pterygium. Vision issues, optic nerve atrophy, glaucoma.
• View EX Xinming 1 ()
  
      Midpoint of the skin folds posterior to the earlobe, 5 fen anterior-superior to TH 17.
  
      Xinming points were discovered by clinicians in the 70's. A range of eye disease, macular edema, degeneration, glaucoma, etc. Facial paralysis, trigeminal neuralgia, and other facial spasms (wind).
• View EX Xinming 2 ()
  
      At the depression 1 cun above the external end of eyebrow and 5 fen lateral.
  
      Xinming points were discovered by clinicians in the 70's. A range of eye disease, macular edema, degeneration, glaucoma, etc. Facial paralysis, trigeminal neuralgia, and other facial spasms (wind).
• View UB 1 (Bright Eyes)
  
      In a depression, .1 cun above the inner canthus of the eye.
  
      Main point for all eye disorders especially from wind (internal or external), excess, a/or heat. Eye pain, strain, redness, swelling, itching, twitching, blurry vision, etc. Myopia, color blindness, night blindness. Glaucoma, optic nerv…
• View UB 2 (Bamboo Gathering)
  
      On the medial end of the eyebrow, directly above the inner canthus of the eye (on the supraorbital notch).
  
      Local point for sinus congestion a/or headache. Red, itchy, watery eyes - allergies. Use in facial massage for headaches with GB 20, ST 8, LI 4, and UB 60. Glaucoma, night blindness, blurry and/or weak vision. Generally, needle towards…