By Doing Eye Exercises Can You Really Through Away Your Myopic Correction

Kathryn Thompson, DipApSc(Orth) DOBA
GradcertHealthScEd MAppSc(Orth)
Elaine Cornell MA Macq DipApSc Cumb PhD DOBA
Nathan Moss BSc(Hons)PhD

Traditionally the correction of refractive error has primarily involved the use of spectacles, contact lenses or more recently refractive surgery. Vision therapists have proposed that visual blur caused by uncorrected refractive error, is a result of strain and stress by extra-ocular muscles and claim that ocular exercise regimes to alleviate such stresses are capable of altering adult refraction to the extent that no optical correction is required (Bates, 1920). However, there is little scientific evidence to support these claims.

Procedure: A study of 15 adults (18-53 years) who had myopic refractive errors were randomly assigned to one of two exercise regimes of similar duration (3 weeks). One treatment was based on the Bates method or Natural Vision Therapy ( NVT) and the other used the Cam stimulator as a control therapy.

Results: While the subjects of this study were highly motivated to improve their visual function there were no statistically significant changes in refractive error with either form of treatment for spherical refractive error between NVT and Cam Stimulator treatments (F (1,11) = 1.386,p=0.264). No significant main effects were found for spherical refractive error in either pre to post treatment (F(1,11) = 0.438, p=0.522) or treatments (F (1,11) = 0.035, p=0.855).

Discussion: A majority of participants reported perceived improvements in visual acuity and overall visual performance. However, objective measurements of visual acuity and eye muscle function revealed no significant alteration from baseline measurements. The reported improvement may be attributable to an increased tolerance of visual blue in some environments, and to the anticipation of improvement through ocular exercises as part of a belief that glasses were not remedial.