Eyeing Up The Latest Exercise Program
The Age
Tuesday October 19, 1993
Giving your eyes a good daily workout could free you from glasses or contact lenses, according to the promoters of an eye exercise program MOVE over Jane Fonda and Denise Austin. There is a new exercise video on the market that won't do a thing for flabby thighs or a bulging waistline, but will, say its promoters, allow you to ``throw away your glasses forever".
Freedom Vision's ``Eyerobics" video details a program of simple eye exercises based on the work of the controversial turn-of-the-century US ophthalmologist, Dr W.H. Bates, that are designed to improve your vision without the help of glasses or contact lenses.
Instead of sit-ups, push-ups and star jumps, the Eyerobics program advocates a regular regime of exercises such as ``palming", ``swinging" and ``sunning" to strengthen eye muscles and increase blood circulation around the eyes.
Eyerobics founder and presenter, Ms Bethany Alldridge, says 10 to 15 minutes of eye exercises and relaxation techniques a day can free people from the discomfort and inconvenience of glasses and contact lenses. She says the exercises may also act as a preventive measure against defective vision.
Ms Alldridge, who has been studying and teaching Dr Bates's natural vision techniques since 1985, says there is a crying need in the community for an alternative to glasses and contact lenses. Australian Optometrist Association figures show that more than 8.9 million, or 51 per cent, of Australians wear glasses or contact lenses. For those over the age of 45, the percentage is 89 per cent. ``So many people just don't know there is an alternative," Ms Alldridge says, ``and so many people these days are wanting to look after their own health."
The somewhat controversial philosophy behind the eye exercises advocated by Dr Bates is that most common eye complaints, such as short-sightedness, long-sightedness and astigmatisms, are the result of weak eye muscles rather than any fault with the eyes themselves. As such, the argument goes, strengthening the muscles will improve or correct the impairment. Ms Alldridge says even more serious conditions such as cataracts (in the early stages) and glaucoma have been known to improve through a program of regular eye exercises.
Furthermore, she says, Dr Bates believed that most common eye complaints were compounded by wearing glasses. She explains: ``If you put a piece of glass in front of your eyes to do the work, then the muscles that are supposed to do the work won't. Glasses are like crutches _ you can still walk using them but they won't make your muscles strong again."
The Eyerobics program recommends people use their glasses as little as possible, to encourage their eyes to work without them. Alternative ``glasses", called pinhole readers, are recommended in the interim stages as people first give up their old glasses. Ms Alldridge says these blacked-out spectacles, punctuated by a series of pinholes, block out blurred images allowing the eye to see clear, natural images.
But Dr Bates's theories about the effect of weak eye muscles on sight are dismissed by modern-day ophthalmologists as ``quackery". The honorary secretary of the Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists, Dr David Workman, says: ``There is no scientific evidence to support the contention that exercises can improve vision."
Dr Workman says the premise that weak muscles cause common eye conditions such as short-sightedness and long-sightedness is ``quite incorrect". He says these conditions are caused by the shape and length of the eyeballs themselves, not by the surrounding muscles.
While normal-sighted people may have an eyeball-length of about 22 millimetres, short-sighted people will have eyeballs as long as 26 to 30 millimetres. Similarly, long-sighted people will have shorter- length eyeballs. ``The eyeball is made of collagen, not muscle, so you can exercise until you're blue in the face and it won't make any difference."
But just as Dr Workman insists that it is impossible to devise an exercise that will ``allow you to throw away your glasses", he says it is impossible to devise an exercise that will harm the eyes. He says the only danger with Eyerobics and other natural-vision treatments is that some people may use them as a substitute for professional medical check-ups and treatment. ``We need to be careful that people don't put too much faith in treatments which have just not been proven."
But, Ms Alldridge says, there is proof that the exercises work in the form of the many people who have benefited over the years from Dr Bates's theories and treatment by his natural-vision followers. She says people from writer Aldous Huxley to the former Western Australian premier, Mr John Tonkin, have claimed that eye exercises saved their eyesight.
Mr Tonkin, now 92, claims to have absolutely perfect vision, which he attributes to a daily regime of eye exercises, followed since he was 17. Aldous Huxley wrote a book, `The Art of Seeing', about how Dr Bates's methods helped him overcome near blindness to see clearly without glasses.
Indeed, she says, the Chinese Government implemented a mandatory program of eye exercises in schools 11 years ago in an effort to stem an alarming increase in short sightedness. Closer to home, Mr Graham Nock, a 55-year-old director of a small Perth-based transport company, says he began exercising using the Eyerobics video in May. Four days later he could read without the glasses he had been wearing for the past 10 years. ``I was pretty keen. I was doing the full set of exercises morning and night. My eyes were sore at first, but then I threw my glasses away."
Ms Alldridge stresses that the effectiveness of the program depends entirely on the dedication of the individual.
But she is not promoting Eyerobics as a fail-safe cure for every eye condition. Some conditions, such as a detached retina, need mainstream medical treatment. ``It's no miracle cure, it's only a chance for people to get rid of their glasses. People should be given a choice."
© 1993 The Age