Paul McCartney claims eye yoga helps vision, ophthalmologists say thats not a thing
I was today years old when I learned there was a thing called “eye yoga.” Don’t overthink it, it’s literally yoga for your eye muscles. At first glance I thought, “Eureka! I’ve finally found a physical activity I have the energy for!” And guess who’s a fan? Paul McCartney! The Times interviewed him about how he stays fit, and his eye yoga practice was among his tips. The exercises Paul does (hopefully while reciting the traditional ancient mantra ob-la-di, ob-la-da) looked simple enough: essentially moving your eyeballs so they’re directed at more places than just straight ahead in front of you. But ophthalmologists have weighed in about the breadth of eye yoga, and some other related methods, and pretty much say, “Nope, this isn’t really doing anything for eye health.” This is why I stay away from exercise, people!
Paul McCartney recently told The Times that he does eye yoga to avoid needing glasses. In the interview, he revealed that he was introduced to the eye exercises in India some years ago and has practised them ever since.
He believes that by exercising your eye muscles, you can reduce the need for glasses. Macca has demonstrated some of these techniques on YouTube.
So what is eye yoga and can exercising your eyes really prevent the need for glasses?
Different types of eye yoga have been practised for thousands of years. One example, tratak kriya, originating in India, is part of a yoga meditation practised in the belief that it develops higher states of consciousness and spiritual awakening. The Sanskrit word “tratak” means “fix your gaze” and involves staring at an object, such as a candle flame without blinking, until tears flow.
More recently, in the late 19th century, Dr William Bates, a New York ophthalmologist, published
The Bates Method for Better Eyesight Without Glasses, in which he made the case that eye exercises could avert the need for glasses.
He believed that any glasses correction can be overcome by exercises involving eye movement and visualisation techniques, such as looking at an eye chart, focusing on letter contours, blinking frequently, closing the eyes to visualise the letter and imagining it blacker and sharper. The Bates eye exercise website still promotes his work today.
However, the premise of Bates’ theory, that the eye changes its shape during movement and focus, is physiologically untrue.
A 2018 study in the International Journal of Yoga compared visual acuity (the smallest letter that can be seen) and refractive error (a person’s glasses prescription) in groups who practised either Bates exercises or trakata yoga for eight weeks. The study concluded that neither exercise made any difference to refractive error or visual acuity.
The Bates method has been rejected by ophthalmologists, not only because of lack of evidence but because it’s potentially harmful, promoting “solarisation” (looking at the Sun), which is dangerous and overexposes the retina to sunlight.
“The Sanskrit word ‘tratak’ means ‘fix your gaze’ and involves staring at an object, such as a candle flame without blinking, until tears flow.” The yogis are pulling one over on us, right? I realize we’re missing a lot (or all) of the context of tratak kriya, and other eye yoga traditions, and I’m willing to believe there’s a benefit to these exercises when done as part of a whole body yoga practice. It seems particularly Western-minded to pick out just “eye yoga” instead of seeing it as part of a holistic system. But yeah, I’ll be keeping up with my blinking for now.
To be fair to Sir Paul, none of the exercises he touted were harmful; they’re just not going to advance your eyesight, either. And also to be clear, he wasn’t talking about the Bates Method at all, whose first line on its Wikipedia entry reads “an ineffective and potentially dangerous alternative therapy aimed at improving eyesight.” Yikes. The Conversation’s article just brought up Bates as a practice with some similar exercises to eye yoga. The full article also included more of the nitty gritty physiology of how eyes work and how to keep them healthy. In short: visit your eye doctor every two years minimum, and don’t stare directly at the sun. (Except for #45, he can keep solarizing himself for all I care.)
PS — What is so terrible about wearing glasses?! I love mine!
Photos credit: cpuk / Avalon and Getty
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