Paul McCartney says eye yoga keeps him from needing glasses – here’s the truth about eye exercises

Paul McCartney recently told The Times that he does eye yoga to avoid needing glasses. In an interview, she revealed that she was introduced to eye exercises in India a few years ago and has been practicing since then.

He believes that by exercising the eye muscles, you can reduce the need for glasses. Macca has demonstrated some of these methods on YouTube.

So what is eye yoga and can exercising your eyes prevent the need for glasses?

Various forms of eye yoga have been practiced for thousands of years. One example, tratak kriya, from India, is a form of yoga meditation practiced in the belief that it produces higher levels of consciousness and spiritual awakening. The Sanskrit word «tratak» means «focus your eyes» and involves staring at something like 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 Glass, in which he claimed that eye exercises could prevent the need for glasses. .

He believed that any glasses correction can be overcome by exercises involving eye movement and visual techniques, such as looking at an eye chart, focusing on contours of letters, blinking often, closing the eyes to see the letter and imagining that it is blacker. The Bates eye exercises website continues his work today.

However, the basis of Bates’ theory, that the eye changes its shape during movement and focus, is not true in life.

A 2018 study in the International Journal of Yoga compared visual acuity (the smallest letter that can be seen) and refractive error (the order of a person’s glasses) in groups that practiced Bates or trakata yoga for eight weeks. The study concluded that no exercise made a difference in refractive error or visual acuity.

The Bates method has been rejected by ophthalmologists, not only because of the lack of evidence but because it can be dangerous, it promotes «solarisation» (staring at the Sun), which is dangerous and exposes the retina to excessive sunlight.

To understand why yoga eye exercises or Bates-theory will not correct your vision, it is better to understand the eye and how we see.

Why do we need glasses?

The need for glasses arises when light rays do not focus on the retina. When the point of focus appears in front of the retina, this is myopia or short-sightedness. When the focus is behind the retina, this is hypermetropia or farsightedness.

Astigmatism occurs when the curvature of the eye’s surface is more like a rugby ball than a cone, causing blur in all areas. And presbyopia is a common aging process in which the crystalline lens of the eye becomes hard and unable to focus on near objects, which is why many people need reading glasses in middle age.

Some of the focus of the eye is achieved by the cornea (the front part of the eye). But the focal structure that responds is the crystal lens, which becomes bulbous or convex when focusing on close objects and cold when focusing at a distance.

The size of the pupil and the convexity of the lens are controlled by the ciliary muscles and ligaments in the eye. On the other hand, the muscles involved in eye movement are outside the eye (extraocular muscles).

Although the inner and outer eye muscles work together to some extent – ​​reading involves convergence and focus – moving your eyes to different viewing positions does not make a difference to the shape or eye size or focus. So the mechanics of using eye exercises to change refractive power are not mixed.

Specific eye exercises, however, are often prescribed by orthopedic surgeons (specialists who diagnose and treat eye movement disorders and problems with how the eyes work together) for certain conditions.

Another example is «convergence insufficiency», where people have double vision up close due to difficulty moving their eyes inwards. Practicing smooth pen blending, where your eyes follow the pen as it moves slowly to your nose, can help.

When adults who are too small for reading glasses have difficulty focusing up close, this can be improved by focusing on a small letter or text, which is held and moved slowly to the nose.

It is also common for older people to find that looking up becomes more difficult with age. We look very much like small children, we meet the eyes of the adults around us. But eye muscles tire without practice, so unless you have a job or hobby that requires this, such as snooker, looking up may be uncomfortable when you you are getting old.

But while such exercise may help some areas of vision, evidence is lacking to support a significant delay in presbyopia with exercise.

Understandably, people want to take care of and improve their eyes and vision. Eye yoga will not hurt your eyes, as long as you do it for a few minutes and relax the muscles by looking away afterwards. But some lifestyle changes can help your eyes more.

Regular eye visits (usually every year for children and every two years for adults) to check your eye prescription, eye pressure, and eye health retina and eye health to ensure that any early signs of diseases such as glaucoma can be detected and treated.

Taking frequent breaks from the screen helps reduce dry eyes. You can follow the 20:20:20 rule: every 20 minutes, take a 20-second break and look no further than 20 feet. Spending time outside is good for your eyes and children spend time outside they are less likely to be myopic.

Eat well. Some evidence suggests that a Mediterranean diet and green leafy vegetables such as kale and spinach help prevent macular degeneration. Foods rich in omega 3 can help with dry eyes. Get a good night’s sleep and wear good quality sunglasses when in the sun.

If you suffer from dry eyes or use screens for a long time, a meibomian gland massage can help – a simple method in which a warm compress is applied to the eyelid followed by a gentle downward massage , to mix the oil produced in the eyes. , to make it easier. Read clearly, and if possible, read a lot of text on a computer rather than a phone.

Eye yoga won’t change or eliminate your need for glasses, but there are other ways to take care of your eyes and vision.