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056 Focusing on the Basics: Treating Degenerative Eye Conditions With Chinese Medicine • Paul Nebauer
Episode 5626th October 2018 • Qiological Podcast • Michael Max
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There are basics, principles, fundamentals, some building blocks of how the matter and energy of creation interact and transform. Over the centuries, through wildly different ideas of illness, health and workings of the human body, doctors have applied these principles to the challenges of their day to relieve suffering.

As practitioners, we too are part of this stream. We use the ideas and perceptions of those who came before, and do our best to see how these fundamentals play out in our clinical work.

In this conversation we explore how the basics have been both useful and effective in treating degenerative eye conditions such as macular degeneration and retinal tears. Our guest takes the fundamentals we all share, and applies them as seems appropriate in his clinical work. The result is a deeper understanding of how “incurable” illnesses can respond to the principles of medicine we all share.

Listen in for a conversation on how to learn from your patients.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Transcripts

Paul Nebauer:

What that formula seems to do is actually encourage, phagocytosis

Paul Nebauer:

encourage the immune system to actively get in and eat debris that is collecting

Paul Nebauer:

behind the retina, which is, which is the cause of macular degeneration.

Paul Nebauer:

So, you know, with, with dry macula, you get this buildup of rubbish, which you

Paul Nebauer:

know, which are basically the sort of the visual plates drop off as they are used up

Paul Nebauer:

and then accumulate behind the rationale.

Michael Max:

I'm Michael max, and this is geologic.

Michael Max:

You probably love this study and practice of east Asian medicine,

Michael Max:

learning new things, being of service to others, creating a positive

Michael Max:

change in your corner of the world.

Michael Max:

You know, we venerate the masters, we hold them up as shining examples

Michael Max:

of what we would like to be someday, but let's be honest here.

Michael Max:

Most of us will never be masters.

Michael Max:

Those rarefied characters are few and far between and the process of

Michael Max:

takes is not one that most of them.

Michael Max:

Would willingly sign up for, we do however, have a good shot at being

Michael Max:

a fine journeymen or journey woman.

Michael Max:

Why is it so hard to become a man?

Michael Max:

I suspect it's because masters are usually forged in troublesome fires.

Michael Max:

They may be living through a time of war and disease and their medicine comes

Michael Max:

through the crucible of deep suffering, or perhaps they've gone through a terrible

Michael Max:

illness or accident of their own, where they just happen to be one of those

Michael Max:

acutely sensitive people in ways that makes everything in life really difficult.

Michael Max:

Are you really up for that bundle of pain lately?

Michael Max:

I've been hearing people say things like I'm just a lonely second year student,

Michael Max:

or I'm only a newbie with a few years of experience, or I've not been to China.

Michael Max:

There's all kinds of ways that it seems we put ourselves down and notice

Michael Max:

how we're failing to live up to what might actually be an impossible goal.

Michael Max:

I suspect the journey we take in practicing medicine is not to become

Michael Max:

like one of the masters we idolize, but to become more the practitioner.

Michael Max:

With our particular slant on the medicine that's ours to become.

Michael Max:

I suspect that if we somehow can grow more deeply into the person that we

Michael Max:

already are, take our unique perspective, insights, challenges, blind spots,

Michael Max:

and potential and Polish it through the relentless process of attentively

Michael Max:

honing our craft on a day to day basis.

Michael Max:

Then I suspect we have a shot at being solid, capable, and absurd.

Michael Max:

This is the path of the journey woman and the journeyman, and we are thickly

Michael Max:

in it and it changes us as we develop a patina and a shine that is consistent

Michael Max:

with the grain of our character and experience mastery might be out there

Michael Max:

for you as well, who knows, but one thing for sure, it's the path of the journey

Michael Max:

that gets us to where we're going.

Michael Max:

And I reckon there's some real wisdom in that phrase.

Michael Max:

The journey is the reward.

Michael Max:

Paul Bauer.

Michael Max:

Welcome to qiological.

Michael Max:

Thank you, Michael.

Michael Max:

So glad to have you here.

Michael Max:

I read your article in the lantern.

Michael Max:

I don't remember exactly when it came out.

Michael Max:

I think it was within the past

Paul Nebauer:

year or so.

Paul Nebauer:

Yes, it was December, 2017.

Michael Max:

It's such a great magazine listeners.

Michael Max:

If you're not reading the lantern, there'll be a link

Michael Max:

to it on the show notes page.

Michael Max:

It's fantastic publication.

Michael Max:

Anyway, I read your article concerning the treatment of macular degeneration,

Michael Max:

and it really caught my attention because I've recently become aware of

Michael Max:

some of the Microsystems of acupuncture that are becoming popular here in the

Michael Max:

United States for treating this issue.

Michael Max:

But it seems like your experience came directly with.

Michael Max:

Through what you were seeing and learning and.

Paul Nebauer:

Yes.

Paul Nebauer:

I'd have to say that my experience was my response to people presenting with

Paul Nebauer:

visual problems and may saying, well, you know, this is what I was taught.

Paul Nebauer:

I trained in the Chinese system and in China.

Paul Nebauer:

And so I applied.

Paul Nebauer:

Chinese style acupuncture.

Paul Nebauer:

And the herbs that I'd been taught were good for ice stuff,

Paul Nebauer:

which was basically formulas.

Paul Nebauer:

Like CIGI.

Paul Nebauer:

And, you know, things like Joey shaoyang son with the addition of,

Paul Nebauer:

of sort of Jew a go cheetah Shanko.

Paul Nebauer:

So I simply applied what I'd been taught and people would come back and say,

Paul Nebauer:

well, you know, look, I can actually see.

Paul Nebauer:

I can say the numbers on the bus, or I don't have as many floaters or

Paul Nebauer:

my eyes don't get as sore or gritty.

Paul Nebauer:

So I just relied on that feedback.

Paul Nebauer:

My first experience with really acute visual problems turning up.

Paul Nebauer:

Responding.

Paul Nebauer:

Well, when I moved to Bellingen, which is the small town I live in now, which

Paul Nebauer:

is on the north coast of new south Wales.

Paul Nebauer:

And I had a patient who turned up with a retinal tear.

Paul Nebauer:

So this was Margaret, a 74 year old woman who had lost vision

Paul Nebauer:

in her remaining good art.

Paul Nebauer:

She had, she was centrally blind in her left eye.

Michael Max:

And was that from the retina terror or was that from something else?

Michael Max:

That was a

Paul Nebauer:

combination of macular degeneration and cataracts.

Paul Nebauer:

She had woken up suddenly without central vision in her good eye.

Paul Nebauer:

And this was the second time this had happened to Margaret.

Paul Nebauer:

So on the previous occasion, I think she'd been in Perth on the other side of

Paul Nebauer:

Australia and the treatment was to inject.

Paul Nebauer:

Some sort of gas into the eye and then lie her face down for 11 days.

Paul Nebauer:

So for treating the

Michael Max:

retina terror.

Michael Max:

Yep.

Michael Max:

Yeah, that's, that's a very common treatment.

Michael Max:

I think they use a laser to try to repair it

Paul Nebauer:

to license.

Paul Nebauer:

So she came to me and said, look, I can't get into the nearest

Paul Nebauer:

major hospital for quite a while.

Paul Nebauer:

I don't want to go through that again.

Paul Nebauer:

Is there anything you can do?

Paul Nebauer:

And I said, look, this is my experience.

Paul Nebauer:

It looks hopeful.

Paul Nebauer:

I don't know how good it will be for an acute situation

Paul Nebauer:

like yours, but let's try it.

Paul Nebauer:

Okay.

Paul Nebauer:

So

Michael Max:

let me just make sure I'm following this correctly.

Michael Max:

She came in with a retina tear.

Michael Max:

That's usually treated with this procedure that we just discussed

Michael Max:

face down gas in the eye.

Michael Max:

It gives it a chance, but she didn't want to go through that.

Michael Max:

And she couldn't even get into the hospital for a period of time.

Michael Max:

Yep.

Michael Max:

Okay.

Michael Max:

That's a tall order to take to an acupuncturist herbalist.

Paul Nebauer:

Yeah.

Paul Nebauer:

So that was, that was quite challenging.

Paul Nebauer:

Um, Started needling.

Paul Nebauer:

So I was using the eye points on the occiput.

Paul Nebauer:

So the eye-line on the occiput and points like young Laos.

Paul Nebauer:

So small intestine five, I think.

Paul Nebauer:

Goldblatt a 37 Guan Ming, which, you know, return the light points like that

Paul Nebauer:

and other, and other sort of general points points like gallbladder 21.

Paul Nebauer:

And so on points around the eye, the usual suspects, the usual suspect

Paul Nebauer:

here, according to my, you know, my training then, and within two weeks,

Paul Nebauer:

Margaret came into, into my clinic.

Paul Nebauer:

So I think we'd had four treatments.

Paul Nebauer:

I think I saw her on the, on the Friday and on the Monday she came in and said,

Paul Nebauer:

well, something marvelous has happened.

Paul Nebauer:

I can see out of that.

Paul Nebauer:

I again, wow.

Michael Max:

Now that's supposed to be impossible.

Michael Max:

It's not

Paul Nebauer:

something you hear talked about every day.

Paul Nebauer:

No, not at all, but if you talk to someone like Andrew and Eugene here, He would

Paul Nebauer:

maintain that this is the sort of thing that, you know, that Chinese medicine deed

Paul Nebauer:

all the time that we were judged on our success in emergency clinical situations.

Michael Max:

Oh, that's very different than the majority of

Michael Max:

the patients that we see today is.

Paul Nebauer:

Yes.

Paul Nebauer:

Yes.

Paul Nebauer:

That is quite different.

Paul Nebauer:

Most people would be, you know, from here, they would be put on

Paul Nebauer:

a plane to Sydney these days and probably have their eyes laser.

Paul Nebauer:

Yeah.

Michael Max:

Okay.

Michael Max:

So retina tire, you treated her on Friday.

Michael Max:

She comes in Monday and says something.

Michael Max:

Marvelous is.

Michael Max:

Okay.

Paul Nebauer:

That was the third and fourth treatments.

Paul Nebauer:

Third

Michael Max:

and

Paul Nebauer:

fourth treatments.

Paul Nebauer:

Yep.

Paul Nebauer:

And after the first couple of treatments, it was uncertain as to

Paul Nebauer:

whether anything was happening between the third and the fourth treatments.

Paul Nebauer:

What happened was that she started to get some visual input.

Paul Nebauer:

So she started to get flashes and waivers.

Paul Nebauer:

In that visual field in her left visual field.

Paul Nebauer:

And, you know, she woke up on Monday morning and she

Paul Nebauer:

could see through that again.

Paul Nebauer:

I also had her on herds at the same time, and I had her on my favorite formula,

Paul Nebauer:

which, which I called , which is basically a combination of , which is Lyceum Ramond.

Paul Nebauer:

Oh, Lyceum, chrysanthemum and Romania formula.

Paul Nebauer:

With the addition of Jehu, bupleurum Dugway, chrysanthemum flowers,

Paul Nebauer:

and go cheetah and shampoo.

Paul Nebauer:

And Woolwich.

Paul Nebauer:

So, you know, that's the classic formula with some additions.

Paul Nebauer:

And, and the logic between behind those additions is that,

Paul Nebauer:

you know, that that child who.

Paul Nebauer:

Raises the chief targets the RS because it's, it's working on the liver channel.

Paul Nebauer:

Dunway nourishes shed shampoo, I think has a reorganizing ability.

Paul Nebauer:

It dredges the channels.

Paul Nebauer:

And there are, there are some indications that shampoo is very good at eliminating

Paul Nebauer:

buildups of what we call insubstantial phlegm, or sometimes substantial.

Paul Nebauer:

In the brain, which Western medicine now recognizes as deposits

Paul Nebauer:

of stuff that, that is basically just clogging up the damn drugs.

Paul Nebauer:

And in the case of macular degeneration and retinal tear in this case, What

Paul Nebauer:

that formula seems to do is actually encourage, phagocytosis encourage

Paul Nebauer:

the immune system to actively get in and eat debris that is collecting

Paul Nebauer:

behind the retina, which is, which is the cause of macular degeneration.

Paul Nebauer:

So, you know, with, with dry macula, you get this buildup of rubbish, which you

Paul Nebauer:

know, which are basically the sort of visual plates drop off as they are used

Paul Nebauer:

up and then accumulate behind the retina.

Michael Max:

Very phlegmy sounding thing.

Michael Max:

Isn't it?

Michael Max:

Well, yeah.

Paul Nebauer:

And these Herb's do a great job at cleaning it up.

Michael Max:

And it sounds like they nourish the blood, which nurses deliver,

Michael Max:

which nurses the eyes at the same time.

Michael Max:

So you're both nourishing and taking out the garbage.

Michael Max:

Yep.

Michael Max:

Okay.

Michael Max:

Four treatments she wakes up.

Michael Max:

Now she can see out of that eye.

Michael Max:

What happens next?

Paul Nebauer:

I see Margaret occasionally look, I actually don't

Paul Nebauer:

know if Margaret's still alive.

Paul Nebauer:

She's now in her mid eighties.

Paul Nebauer:

The last time I saw her, she said, I don't really want to live past 84.

Paul Nebauer:

Mm.

Paul Nebauer:

And I haven't heard from her in a while, but the last I heard from

Paul Nebauer:

her, her vision was still fine.

Paul Nebauer:

I sort of kept encouraging her to take more Hertz and, you know, she might take

Paul Nebauer:

one batch a year or something like that.

Paul Nebauer:

But, you know, otherwise she'd be coming in, you know, for, for me

Paul Nebauer:

to treat the knee that she'd heard at gym or something like that.

Paul Nebauer:

Right.

Paul Nebauer:

So

Michael Max:

after the, I got better, you would still see her on occasion,

Michael Max:

but not necessarily for the eye.

Paul Nebauer:

No, it was fine after that.

Paul Nebauer:

And the rest of that story of Margaret story is that she was due

Paul Nebauer:

to have cataract surgery, to have the cataract on her bad eye removed.

Paul Nebauer:

So she went into the ophthalmic surgeon who looked at her eyes and

Paul Nebauer:

said, That cataracts gone, which we don't need to do the surgery.

Paul Nebauer:

Unfortunately, she didn't regain vision in that eye.

Paul Nebauer:

But on the other hand, we didn't treat that persistently because,

Paul Nebauer:

you know, she was happy with the return of vision in her right eye.

Michael Max:

It's really quite encouraging to hear.

Michael Max:

That some pretty straightforward acupuncture and herbs, nothing fancy here.

Michael Max:

This is, this is sort of straight ahead, Chinese medicine.

Michael Max:

It's very,

Paul Nebauer:

very basic traditional stuff.

Paul Nebauer:

The other case history, uh, who was a woman who was then 70, 76, I think a

Paul Nebauer:

more complicated story, a more sort of typical presentation of someone with

Paul Nebauer:

a long-term degenerative condition.

Paul Nebauer:

And in this case, Rosemary had suffered from wet and dry macular degeneration.

Paul Nebauer:

For a number of years, which is quite common.

Paul Nebauer:

It's common to see wet and dry, dry usually presents first.

Paul Nebauer:

And that is followed by, by the wet and the wet macular degeneration occurs

Paul Nebauer:

because the blood vessels struggle.

Paul Nebauer:

To get through the rubbish, to get to the retinal epithelial cells and

Paul Nebauer:

fighting their way through the drusen as it's called, um, they become torturous

Paul Nebauer:

and fragile and start to bleed.

Paul Nebauer:

So that's when you get wet macular degeneration.

Paul Nebauer:

So you have this sort of low grade hemorrhage happening in the, in the red.

Paul Nebauer:

The Western treatment for that is to inject a, an anti epithelial blood

Paul Nebauer:

cell restrictor into the retina.

Paul Nebauer:

So that sort of stops the growth of those blood cells.

Paul Nebauer:

Those sort of torturous micro, micro Capela is, but doesn't seem to do anything

Paul Nebauer:

to actually regenerate or clean up.

Paul Nebauer:

The damn the dead and damaged cells that are already there.

Paul Nebauer:

This is where I think that what we have to offer is superior because

Paul Nebauer:

we can actually help clean it up.

Paul Nebauer:

Stop the bleeding, clean up the rubbish and stimulate cells to function properly.

Paul Nebauer:

Again.

Paul Nebauer:

In fact, I was listening to a science broadcast this morning

Paul Nebauer:

that was talking about stem cell transplants to do the same thing.

Paul Nebauer:

And they were talking about how some of the cells in the retina there seem

Paul Nebauer:

to be sort of juvenile cells even.

Paul Nebauer:

Older retinas that can be stimulated to grow and to come to maturity.

Paul Nebauer:

And I suspect that what we do actually stimulate either the maturation of

Paul Nebauer:

those, if you like dormant cells,

Michael Max:

it's interesting.

Michael Max:

It's as if the body is carrying around a spare tire in case it's.

Paul Nebauer:

We tend to have quite a lot of reserve capacity

Paul Nebauer:

and in a lot of our organs

Michael Max:

and redundant systems and backups and all that stuff.

Michael Max:

Yeah.

Paul Nebauer:

So, you know, I, I think that that is at least

Paul Nebauer:

part of what we are doing.

Paul Nebauer:

And one of the questions that I've often asked myself, Is whether what

Paul Nebauer:

we can do is superior to what is being offered as an alternative.

Paul Nebauer:

If you like by Western medicine, which is the use of lutein and zeaxanthin

Paul Nebauer:

supplementation, which are the sort of the mainstay backup and preventative

Paul Nebauer:

treatments offered to most, you know, sort of Western, um, population.

Paul Nebauer:

And these things seem to work though, are the subject of big studies in

Paul Nebauer:

veteran communities in the states in the late nineties and early two thousands.

Paul Nebauer:

And they do seem to stimulate some return of function in cells, as well

Paul Nebauer:

as, you know, protecting or slowing down degeneration of, of the existing.

Paul Nebauer:

So.

Paul Nebauer:

And I think we're doing the same thing.

Paul Nebauer:

Um, the question is, are we doing it better?

Michael Max:

It's a great question.

Michael Max:

It would be a wonderful thing to run some kind of research on, right?

Michael Max:

I mean, those supplements are really considered the standard of treatment

Michael Max:

from the conventional perspective.

Michael Max:

Be interesting to do a study.

Michael Max:

Comparing that with look, it would be

Paul Nebauer:

so wonderful.

Paul Nebauer:

Wouldn't it?

Paul Nebauer:

Yeah.

Paul Nebauer:

Yeah.

Paul Nebauer:

And it would be, it would be terrific to do that.

Michael Max:

So tell us more about the second case.

Michael Max:

It sounds more

Paul Nebauer:

complicated, much more complicated.

Paul Nebauer:

So in Rosemary's case, you know, she turned up with

Paul Nebauer:

severely compromised vision.

Paul Nebauer:

She had been having the anti.

Paul Nebauer:

The G F injections for two years and they seem to have made no difference.

Paul Nebauer:

She turned up to my clinic.

Paul Nebauer:

She was a very feisty woman of a German origin.

Paul Nebauer:

And she said, I give you six months.

Michael Max:

I wish more of my patients were giving me a six months.

Paul Nebauer:

Yeah.

Paul Nebauer:

Anyway.

Paul Nebauer:

So, you know, we started started treatment.

Paul Nebauer:

Look, I work in a community clinic in Belgium and, um, Rosemary would

Paul Nebauer:

come into the community clinic.

Paul Nebauer:

You know, initially it was, it was a bit uncertain, whether

Paul Nebauer:

anything was really happening.

Paul Nebauer:

She would say things like there seem to be fewer.

Paul Nebauer:

She described them as curtains and cobwebs obscuring her vision.

Paul Nebauer:

She would say, you know, they're, they're, they're sort of curtly things that,

Paul Nebauer:

that sort of obscure my vision and they seem to be getting less, you know, the

Paul Nebauer:

curtain seems to be fading or withdrawal.

Paul Nebauer:

And she'd come in and say things like, oh, I can see the clock on the wall.

Paul Nebauer:

I can see the hands.

Paul Nebauer:

So it was obvious that, you know, there was something happening or

Paul Nebauer:

she'd look out the window and say, oh, I can see the leaves on the

Paul Nebauer:

tree instead of just the trunks.

Paul Nebauer:

So there was some obvious return of central vision.

Paul Nebauer:

Uh, we weren't sure quite how much.

Paul Nebauer:

Uh, but then she went back to see her ophthalmologist who took another,

Paul Nebauer:

um, optical tomography scan, an OTC, which sort of gives, gives us a

Paul Nebauer:

cross sectional view of the retina.

Paul Nebauer:

And, you know, and he reported that, that, where there had been massive.

Paul Nebauer:

Swelling in her retinas the year before they were now smooth.

Paul Nebauer:

And, you know, in addition, she could see two more lines in his eye chart.

Paul Nebauer:

So there was an obvious return of vision, but that took, that

Paul Nebauer:

took approximately a year.

Paul Nebauer:

We know it's

Michael Max:

not bad to take a year to do something that really,

Michael Max:

I mean, is there any other kind of treatment that, that can get that

Michael Max:

kind of a result that you know of?

Paul Nebauer:

Well, I guess not.

Michael Max:

I mean, I understand it's not a return to the vision

Michael Max:

that she had at age 20 or 30.

Michael Max:

No, no.

Michael Max:

At least for me as a practitioner to think about helping the body regenerate in ways

Michael Max:

and especially ways that conventional medicine can look at and measuring.

Michael Max:

This is different than it was before.

Michael Max:

This is a chronic degenerative disease that doesn't reverse itself.

Michael Max:

Yeah.

Michael Max:

Reversed itself to some degree.

Michael Max:

Yeah.

Paul Nebauer:

As you commented.

Paul Nebauer:

I think in the introduction, micro acupuncture is becoming increasingly

Paul Nebauer:

influential in the states and is gaining a reputation as an

Paul Nebauer:

effective treatment for our disease.

Paul Nebauer:

And the way that people like Andy Rosenfarb work is quite different from

Paul Nebauer:

the way that I work, for instance.

Paul Nebauer:

So Andy will see patients for, you know, blocks of treatment,

Paul Nebauer:

10 days, two treatments a day, and he's getting, you know, very

Paul Nebauer:

measurable results within that time.

Paul Nebauer:

So he will run.

Paul Nebauer:

Oh, visual field tests before and after or before, during and after to establish

Paul Nebauer:

whether or not the treatment is working and he's getting measurable results.

Paul Nebauer:

We certainly have.

Paul Nebauer:

Points on the board in terms of achieving very measurable,

Paul Nebauer:

measurable effects for these, for those chronic degenerative diseases.

Paul Nebauer:

So

Michael Max:

a year with, uh, Rosemary.

Michael Max:

Did she take herbs as well?

Michael Max:

Yes,

Paul Nebauer:

she was taking, she was taking my favorite formula, which

Paul Nebauer:

is the . And look in retrospect, if Rosemary presented to my clinic,

Paul Nebauer:

now I would put her on a much more.

Paul Nebauer:

sedating liver, fire, quenching formula.

Paul Nebauer:

So I put her on something like, you know, Joe with the addition of Jew, go cheats,

Paul Nebauer:

a church hung Pooh and Woolworth's, but I would concentrate more on her

Paul Nebauer:

liver cheat and I would use Sanchez from very, very early in the piece.

Michael Max:

Would you do that for both of your patients or just for her more

Paul Nebauer:

for Rosemarie because of the bleeding?

Paul Nebauer:

Yeah, because of the bleeding and because of the liver fire, Margaret was much more

Paul Nebauer:

a live, a blood deficient kind of patient.

Paul Nebauer:

Whereas with Rosemary, there was the combination of some liver blood

Paul Nebauer:

deficiency, but more liver cheese stagnation and liver Firefly.

Paul Nebauer:

And I would definitely treat that much more aggressively.

Paul Nebauer:

You

Paul Nebauer:

mentioned

Michael Max:

the, um, what's that in there for?

Paul Nebauer:

Okay.

Paul Nebauer:

Well I think that we'll wait, it's mainly there as a nourisher.

Paul Nebauer:

So it nourishes liver blood, and it has a slightly astringent property.

Paul Nebauer:

Uh, the reason that I use it and I think is, is because of sort of

Paul Nebauer:

Japanese research, which, which basically shows that it has very,

Paul Nebauer:

very positive calming effects or restorative effects on liver function.

Paul Nebauer:

So the Japanese use it to return liver enzymes to normal.

Paul Nebauer:

So I use it as a, as a liver regulator and restorer, and there are some indications.

Paul Nebauer:

That it has nutrition.

Paul Nebauer:

Well, I think obviously because of its role in, in nourishing liver blood,

Paul Nebauer:

so it has some nutritional aspects.

Paul Nebauer:

And one of the other questions that I've asked myself about the role

Paul Nebauer:

of psycho cheetah and in these formulas is that the lutein and Z.

Paul Nebauer:

Components of those herds, uh, relatively small that they are

Paul Nebauer:

also not active in decoction.

Paul Nebauer:

And the Lutyens is Anthony supplements that are, that are commonly used.

Paul Nebauer:

Those are all oil based extract.

Paul Nebauer:

So the oil carried extracts because those are fat soluble vitamins.

Paul Nebauer:

So you know how exactly they work and, and what part of them is, is

Paul Nebauer:

doing the work is a bit of a mystery.

Michael Max:

It would certainly be a mystery from the point

Michael Max:

of view of biochemistry.

Michael Max:

If we're just, if we're just looking at biochemist.

Michael Max:

But we're also looking at, you know, thousands of years of people using things

Michael Max:

like goat sheets for the eyes, right.

Michael Max:

To Hawk for the eyes.

Michael Max:

I mean, these are very common.

Michael Max:

These are just, you know, this is what you'll learn in your first

Michael Max:

quarter of studying Chinese herbs at these are very nourishing to

Michael Max:

deliver nourishing to the eyes.

Michael Max:

So yeah, how's that happening?

Michael Max:

Biomedically?

Michael Max:

I don't

Paul Nebauer:

know.

Paul Nebauer:

Okay.

Paul Nebauer:

Well, I wonder if it's, you know, it's as simple as, as you know,

Paul Nebauer:

chrysanthemum is often taken as a tea with breakfast and maybe just, you

Paul Nebauer:

know, combining the tea with whatever fat is in is in breakfast is what does.

Michael Max:

Well, in, in the go cheetah is often used as a food as well.

Michael Max:

You'll see it put in disco fries, jewel.

Michael Max:

In fact, you often see it for breakfast now that I think about it.

Michael Max:

Some porridges, conjure cheese and things of that nature.

Michael Max:

Yeah.

Michael Max:

At any rate, it sounds like you found some very helpful effects from these

Michael Max:

formulas for these two patients.

Michael Max:

Have you seen other patients with eye issues that leads you to updating

Michael Max:

your thinking on all of that?

Paul Nebauer:

Well, I've seen a number of patients.

Paul Nebauer:

Over the years.

Paul Nebauer:

And as a result of the article and a presentation, I gave at a, at a recent

Paul Nebauer:

conference in Sydney, I'm currently treating at a distance, a number of

Paul Nebauer:

practitioners who are presenting with, you know, various eye conditions.

Paul Nebauer:

So both things like detached retina, Or the after-effects of detached retina,

Paul Nebauer:

which are what we call floaters, which are bits of congealed protein in the

Paul Nebauer:

fluid of the eye, that obscure vision.

Paul Nebauer:

And I had a call just a few days ago from a woman.

Paul Nebauer:

Again, a practitioner who became blind.

Paul Nebauer:

In her left eye overnight with very, very aggressive macular degeneration.

Paul Nebauer:

So I'm currently advising those two practitioners and I'm treating a man with

Paul Nebauer:

very longstanding Stargardt's, which is an inherited kind of macular degeneration.

Paul Nebauer:

This guy is a truck driver and drives 'em slashes drives tractors with, you

Paul Nebauer:

know, sort of whirling blades on them.

Paul Nebauer:

So he's in his late fifties and has been losing his vision for a long, long time.

Paul Nebauer:

So we were trying to rescue what, what little bit reminds look?

Paul Nebauer:

The, the other things that I'm treating at the moment are, uh,

Paul Nebauer:

what's called vestibular migraine.

Michael Max:

A lot of people have this.

Paul Nebauer:

Yeah.

Paul Nebauer:

And, uh, and I find that variations on either Jewish TGG.

Paul Nebauer:

Uh, terrific for the symptoms of vertigo and dizziness associated

Paul Nebauer:

with vestibular migraine.

Paul Nebauer:

It's part of it's another indication of the, or another example of the wide

Paul Nebauer:

applicability of particular formulas,

Michael Max:

correct me if I'm wrong.

Michael Max:

It sounds like with these people that you're saying.

Michael Max:

And the formulas that you're working with.

Michael Max:

I mean, you're, you're very much focusing on the liver.

Michael Max:

In some cases, it's more of a nourishing with the, uh and in other cases, it's

Michael Max:

more of, of liver clearing clearing the liver Chi moving the liver GI

Michael Max:

getting rid of fire if there's fire.

Michael Max:

So on one hand, you're dealing with nourishing, if they're weak.

Michael Max:

And on the other hand, if there's a stagnation.

Michael Max:

Or an excess you're clearing that, that sounds like there's two axes

Michael Max:

that you're working with there.

Michael Max:

Is there anything else that's coming into

Paul Nebauer:

play?

Paul Nebauer:

Uh, well, okay.

Paul Nebauer:

In relation to, um, the vestibular migraine, the other presenting

Paul Nebauer:

picture is of phlegm obstruction.

Michael Max:

And what kind of symptoms are they showing up with for that?

Michael Max:

Is that the dizziness that you're seeing.

Paul Nebauer:

You'll have a combination of, of dizziness and vertigo, but

Paul Nebauer:

also a feeling of obstruction or blockage in the ears and sinuses

Paul Nebauer:

in terms of visual symptoms.

Paul Nebauer:

The other thing that people report to me frequently is that that their

Paul Nebauer:

vision improves so that they find they're able to read, find a printer.

Paul Nebauer:

Not use their reading glasses as much.

Paul Nebauer:

So, you know, at general improvements in iComfort as well,

Michael Max:

what herbs, if any, are you adding in addition to things like

Michael Max:

the shirt shaoyang pool for dealing with that, like fullness in the ears and

Michael Max:

that sort of clogging that's going on

Paul Nebauer:

there look things like buncha, sup you know, sort of

Paul Nebauer:

Occasionally something like

Paul Nebauer:

, Michael Max: I'm sorry, what was

Paul Nebauer:

that one again?

Paul Nebauer:

So she out, uh, oh yes.

Paul Nebauer:

That little

Michael Max:

thorny thing.

Paul Nebauer:

Yes.

Paul Nebauer:

Yeah.

Paul Nebauer:

So that will be an acute cases.

Paul Nebauer:

And sometimes things like sung, uh, uh xantham Zante and say, uh Xinghua but,

Paul Nebauer:

uh, so things targeting the sinuses.

Michael Max:

It sounds like with your two patients, Rosemary and

Michael Max:

Margaret's emotionally, they were very different kinds of characters.

Michael Max:

Very, very different, very, very different.

Michael Max:

And of course, I mean, it kind of goes without saying in the work that we

Michael Max:

do a person's cycle of motive, makeup in some ways is going to probably

Michael Max:

be contributing to their problem.

Michael Max:

And probably in some ways, contributing to them getting better.

Paul Nebauer:

Definitely now, particularly in the case of Margaret,

Paul Nebauer:

she was a remarkably positive woman.

Paul Nebauer:

She'd had a very, very difficult life.

Paul Nebauer:

She grew up in, in England during the war and was, you know,

Paul Nebauer:

basically starved as a child.

Paul Nebauer:

Because they were so poor that had consequences for her in later life.

Paul Nebauer:

And I think that, that her, her macular degeneration was one of those,

Paul Nebauer:

you know, she was very liver, blood deficient, and I think that was a

Paul Nebauer:

consequence of her early semi starving.

Paul Nebauer:

But nonetheless, she was just such a remarkably positive person.

Paul Nebauer:

She always looked for the positive in any situation and was

Paul Nebauer:

always, you know, sort of deeply.

Paul Nebauer:

Anything positive hat that, that happens and graciously accepting of

Paul Nebauer:

those things that didn't go well.

Paul Nebauer:

So she was a very contented woman.

Michael Max:

Sounds like the opposite of Rosemary.

Paul Nebauer:

Rosemary was really sort of deeply frustrated and responded

Paul Nebauer:

with, uh, you know, quite fiery anger to when things weren't going well.

Paul Nebauer:

You know, so she found that really, really frustrating

Paul Nebauer:

that she was losing her vision.

Paul Nebauer:

You know, she was a very active woman, very dynamic and she

Paul Nebauer:

found it deeply frustrating.

Michael Max:

So even though before she couldn't see the leaves on the tree

Michael Max:

and now she could see the leaves on the tree was sort of that situation.

Michael Max:

And, well, I just, all I see is the leaves on the tree.

Paul Nebauer:

No, she was actually, she was overjoyed, but you know,

Paul Nebauer:

look, unfortunately, In, in Rosemary's life, the frustrations

Paul Nebauer:

seemed to outweigh the good things.

Paul Nebauer:

And in her particular situation, she.

Paul Nebauer:

Having trouble with things like transport.

Paul Nebauer:

You know, we were in a rural area.

Paul Nebauer:

She was coming from a village about 15 kilometers away to bell engine

Paul Nebauer:

to the community acupuncture clinic.

Paul Nebauer:

And there is a community transport service, but because of changes in the

Paul Nebauer:

way social services were delivered.

Paul Nebauer:

At the time she could only come once a month rather than once a week.

Paul Nebauer:

And unfortunately, the injections that she'd paid for, which were, were not then

Paul Nebauer:

covered by, by our sort of nationalized medicines, scheme were very expensive

Paul Nebauer:

and that they really bankrupted her, which was of course another, another

Paul Nebauer:

source of frustration, because she'd say.

Paul Nebauer:

A lot of money on a treatment that hadn't worked.

Michael Max:

Yeah.

Michael Max:

We see

Paul Nebauer:

this a lot.

Paul Nebauer:

Yeah.

Paul Nebauer:

And you know, and I'm, I'm hearing that now as well.

Paul Nebauer:

So even though the anti VGF injections are partly covered by our Medicare

Paul Nebauer:

system, I think the rebate is about a hundred dollars per injection.

Paul Nebauer:

And the patient is still $500 out of pocket.

Paul Nebauer:

And, you know, for some people that's once a month for others,

Paul Nebauer:

it's, you know, every six weeks.

Paul Nebauer:

So it's still a big out of pocket expense and I'm sure it would

Paul Nebauer:

be much worse in the study.

Michael Max:

Oh, I'm not even going to go into it, how bad it is and

Michael Max:

what I know people are spending on it for those who are listening

Michael Max:

to this conversation right now.

Michael Max:

And they're thinking, oh, you know, I've got some patients like this, or,

Michael Max:

you know, maybe I'm going to see some patients like this, or maybe I've

Michael Max:

even got a family member like this.

Michael Max:

Any suggestions that you would have.

Michael Max:

For how to think about how to approach other things to keep in mind when treating

Michael Max:

these kinds of degenerative eye diseases?

Paul Nebauer:

Well, I think, I think the secret is, is to start early and

Paul Nebauer:

to treat as consistently as possible.

Paul Nebauer:

But the other thing is that, you know, as we saw with both Margaret and

Paul Nebauer:

Rosemarie, We can have both dramatic clinical effects for acute in acute

Paul Nebauer:

situations, but also in very, very chronic situations, which you know,

Paul Nebauer:

where people perhaps have, have given up.

Paul Nebauer:

So I think, I think that persistence is really the key.

Paul Nebauer:

That's the

Michael Max:

key I Deely if time and money was not the factor.

Michael Max:

How often would you want to see people?

Michael Max:

For these kinds of issues.

Paul Nebauer:

This is a question that I've, that I've asked myself.

Paul Nebauer:

I guess one of the main questions I've asked myself is what is the

Paul Nebauer:

relative question of acupuncture and of Herb's they work very well together.

Paul Nebauer:

And the way I treat is that I, that I like to see people weekly, if possible.

Paul Nebauer:

But, you know, fortnightly or monthly for acupuncture, if that's what they

Paul Nebauer:

can afford or have time for, but definitely keep taking the Herb's.

Michael Max:

Are you using tablets, powders, raw herbs?

Michael Max:

How do you,

Paul Nebauer:

uh, prescribe?

Paul Nebauer:

I use granules.

Paul Nebauer:

I don't have much faith in tablets and I don't like.

Paul Nebauer:

And I don't use pre-calculated herbs, so I'm mixed my own granules and, you know,

Paul Nebauer:

and I like that because I can vary the proportions or, or the mixes, depending

Paul Nebauer:

on the patient's clinical presentation.

Michael Max:

Yeah.

Michael Max:

The granules are great for that.

Michael Max:

Yeah.

Michael Max:

And they're super convenient for the patients.

Michael Max:

Yes, Paul, anything else that you'd like to share with us before we say goodbye for

Paul Nebauer:

today?

Paul Nebauer:

It would be wonderful to have some research, you know, establishing that,

Paul Nebauer:

that this works in, in a way that that can be presented to funding bodies.

Paul Nebauer:

Um, trying to get some research happening here.

Paul Nebauer:

Which is a little bit difficult because I'm way out in the boondocks.

Paul Nebauer:

And most of the research happens in the capital cities.

Paul Nebauer:

And I know that people like Andy Rosenfarb have been doing research

Paul Nebauer:

particularly into, I think with, um, transcranial electrical stimulation

Paul Nebauer:

in the, in the treatment of, uh, written artists pigmentosa.

Paul Nebauer:

Look, it would be just wonderful to see more research establishing our

Paul Nebauer:

medicine as an effective alternative.

Michael Max:

Absolutely.

Michael Max:

And I know that here in the United States, these days there's a doctorate

Michael Max:

programs are increasingly popular.

Michael Max:

And so if you any listeners out there, you've got an idea about this.

Michael Max:

Here's a.

Michael Max:

Th th um, this would probably not be a difficult study to do you, you

Michael Max:

would be comparing the supplements to some herbal formulations.

Michael Max:

That's a, it's a fairly straightforward study, isn't it?

Paul Nebauer:

Yeah, I don't, I don't know the, where the, we actually okay.

Paul Nebauer:

That, that would be one way of doing it.

Paul Nebauer:

I think that what, it would be good to establish the

Paul Nebauer:

efficacy of Chinese medicine.

Paul Nebauer:

And then perhaps do a followup study.

Paul Nebauer:

But the thing to do is, is actually do the study because with the

Paul Nebauer:

Lieutenant Z is Anthem supplementation.

Paul Nebauer:

It was the veteran studies that, you know, established those as workable

Paul Nebauer:

alternatives and that was United.

Paul Nebauer:

And that was in the days when really there wasn't anything else about.

Michael Max:

Well in there still really isn't much else that they have to offer.

Michael Max:

I find it interesting, fascinating, really that the best conventional

Michael Max:

medicine has at this point is something that's a supplement.

Michael Max:

That's a little bit unusual.

Michael Max:

Usually they're, they're working more with controlling something from a

Michael Max:

pharmaceutical perspective, but here

Paul Nebauer:

it's look.

Paul Nebauer:

The major treatment is actually the injection.

Paul Nebauer:

And the supplements are seen as supplements and as preventative myths.

Paul Nebauer:

And similarly in Australia, the majority, well, the vast majority of funding

Paul Nebauer:

and attention is, is going into the pharmaceuticals and into, you know,

Paul Nebauer:

research into stem cell approaches.

Paul Nebauer:

Well,

Michael Max:

it sounds like there are some possibilities here that

Michael Max:

we can certainly work with and, uh, follow up and see what happens.

Michael Max:

Paul, thank you so much for.

Michael Max:

Taking the time today here to, uh, talk with us about your experience

Michael Max:

with treating these eye conditions that are such a problem for people,

Michael Max:

especially as we age and sounds like there's some real hope out

Paul Nebauer:

there.

Paul Nebauer:

I think that we have a lot to offer and I would love to see.

Paul Nebauer:

Our minutes and being more widely used, because I think we can

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