Review of Some 'Non-Conventional' Eye Therapies

Some of my patients have asked me about therapies or programs they have heard advertised that claim to fix vision problems with exercises or nutrients.

I am an optometrist who believes that the solution to vision problems is more than a formula of powers to be ground into a plastic lens that you’re now obligated to wear.

On that note, there are a lot of claims out there on how to cure disease, erase the need for prescriptive eyewear and resolve eye strain. Here’s the scientific info on some of them.

• The Bates Method: This is a series of exercises designed by Dr. William Hortio Bates published in his book, “Perfect Sight Without Glasses” claiming to give just that.

I attended an introductory lecture on this method a few years ago and did my best to hear past the accusations from the lecturer that optometrists had business to gain by over-correcting their patients and encourage vision deterioration. (We don’t do that. Really.) I do believe that strain from how we live today : computers for hours, driving long distances, television, etc tighten our muscles, dry our eyes, and discourage using peripheral vision and perception skills. Everything we are aware of is straight ahead and fine detail and our unused muscles and perceptive skills don’t get exercised. Movement is important – focusing from distance to near, looking from side to side, rolling your eyes, blinking, etc can keep us from getting locked up and from missing what’s around us.

The Bates Method though, has never proved to be effective in the scientific community. The method actually advises staring at the sun (a Huge No-No, by the way), claiming this helps the eye relax. Solar burns can be permanent resulting in a black spot right in the center of your vision. The heavily advertised “See Clearly Method” was based on these exercises and were taken off the market in 2006 because of a fraud lawsuit.

• Diet: Nutraceuticals (vitamins, minerals, herbs, amino acids, extracts) are regulated by the FDA as foods rather than drugs. That means they have not had to pass the same safety and efficacy tests with the FDA that drugs do. Unfortunately, that means there isn’t published evidence of the efficacy of nutraceuticals.

According to the AREDS study, high dose antioxidants have shown to lower the risk of developing vision loss caused by advanced age-related macular degeneration.

An antioxidant called N-acetyl-carnosine holds promise as an eyedrop to treat cataracts. In a study, 90% of treated eyes showed improved vision at six months. Honey in the eye or eating raw garlic did not, however.

• Acupuncture: This well-established practice can alter chemical release and regulate blood flow and has been used to treat dry eye, near-sightedness, eye turns, inflammation, cataracts and other ocular diseases. Again, there have not been large-scale scientific studies to examine the effectiveness of acupuncture. This is an area of wellness that I intend to investigate and share my experience and research with you in a future blog entry.

Obviously what needs to happen is more research on how these ‘non-conventional’ treatments work, if they work. Unfortunately out of the 17 schools of Optometry in the US, only 4 contain any education on these methods in their curriculum. With 36% of adults using alternative medicine, according to a survey by the National Institues of Health, there needs to be a significantly better meeting of the minds among philosophies of eye care.

BTW - the picture is of an oculizer designed in the early 1900's using a crank and pulley system to rotate the soft rubber eyecups while a plunger pokes the eye and a vacuum sucks at them. It didn't prove effective to exist today.