Is there such a thing as natural vision correction? Is this a myth?
I mean, many of us – myself included – have been wearing glasses or contact lenses for years. Never once have our optometrists told us there are natural ways to improve our vision by exercising our eyes.
(Come to think about it, maybe they did know and are not telling us, because if these methods do work, we won’t be prescribing glasses and contact lenses anymore.)
Well, apparently there is such a thing as natural vision correction.
What is natural vision correction?
It comprises a series of exercises that train your eye muscles – just like you’ll train your biceps and abs – which over time leads to the natural improvement of your vision.
The focusing abilities of your eyes are controlled by a series of internal muscles. Due to the many stresses put upon the visual system, the use of glasses and contacts (yes, some research shows that wearing glasses and contact lenses can worsen your eyesight over time), and the natural aging process itself, these muscles become weak and distorted, therefore resulting in blurred vision.
What natural vision correction exercises do is to strengthen and train these muscles—just as you would any other weak muscles in your body—and redirect your point of focus, thus helping you see clearly without corrective lenses and preventing further deterioration of our eyes.
Scientific Proof
Is there scientific proof that eye exercises can improve one’s vision? I did some research and these are a couple of academic studies I found:
“Symptoms were totally eliminated in 53% of the patients, reduced in 43% and remained the same in only 4%.
Therefore …an overall success rate of 96%. There is an impressive and increasing body of evidence attesting to the trainability of accommodative function.” (From a study of 96 patients with some type of accommodative dysfunction who had completed a vision therapy program.)—Irwin B. Suchoff, O.D., and Timothy G. Petito, O.D. (1986) Journal of the American Optometric Association
An article published in the American Journal of Optometry & Physiological Optics summarized that “the literature provides a solid base of research supporting vision therapy as an effective treatment mode for accommodative deficiencies. Vision therapy procedures have been shown to improve accommodative function effectively and to eliminate or reduce associated symptoms.” (Rouse, 1987)
Seems to be more than a grain of salt there, doesn’t it?
Conclusion
Natural vision correction is a therapy that’s definitely worth considering, especially if you’re thinking about Lasik eye surgery – like I am.
Louis Zhang
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/natural-vision-correction-do-eye-exercises-work-65032.html
June 28th, 2009 - 6:10 pm
I keep hearing about “natural vision correction” done by “exercising your eyes” anyone know if it works?
June 28th, 2009 - 11:12 pm
If you mean cross eye correction, don't think exercise will work. Furthermore if you have surgery, it needs to be done by age 6 months, for best results. This is what we learned when child needed correction.
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June 28th, 2009 - 11:14 pm
there's a book on it called "help yourself to better sight" I've heard it has helped some people, but I haven't tried it myself yet
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June 28th, 2009 - 11:16 pm
i've heard of a few different ways to exercise your eyes. it really does work, but it does take time.
the best one i've heard of is to cover your eyes with some real thin fabric, almost mesh-like. then for one hour every day, watch tv or read a book with the fabric over your eyes.
the reason this works is that your eyes have to strengthen themselves to be able to make sense of what little visual info passes through the fabric.
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June 28th, 2009 - 11:18 pm
I'm not sure of your age, but in my mid-20's I read the book mentioned in one of your answers.
Yes, it can work; it did for me. Depending on your vision. Mine is not that bad; I also did a workshop which is what convinced me.
There are tons of exercises, but, you HAVE TO do them !
My eyesight (mostly nearsighted w/a stigmatism in my left eye), improved to where I didn't wear glasses for 12 years.
But, as I aged, I couldn't read the signs on the highway that were a ways away. I got another checkup and found I was going farsighted; so . . . back to the glasses.
The time off was great though; and, I think it was good for my eyes. The exercises also strenghthen the muscles around the eyes.
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June 28th, 2009 - 11:20 pm
If you are near-sighted or far sighted, it is from the shape of your eye. All the exercizes in the world will not fix that.
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June 28th, 2009 - 11:22 pm
Think of the eye as two parts. The first part are the 6 extrinsic eye muscles that are responsible for your eyes to move in the sockets. These muscles have to work together in both eyes, if not then visual problems can occur. These muscles can be trained at a young age to work together better if a visual problem is found. Exercises are part of the treatment, as well as eye patches to strengthen a weak eye. Now the other part is the eye ball itself. The image you look at must focus at the back of the eye or the retina. If the focal point is not correct it can be corrected by corrective lenses, or laser surgery. There is no I mean NO eye exercise in the universe that will change the shape of the eye ball or alter the shape and softness of the lens of the eye. So this means that eye exercises will not fix visual acuity problems like far or near sightedness or astigmatism.
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June 28th, 2009 - 11:24 pm
Every day nod your head frontwards, backwards, left side, right side three times and than rotate head in circlular motion three times. More effective if you do it will walking.
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Edgar Cayce