Ocular stretching. Can it possibly improve your eyesight? Let’s investigate.
It’s going to be about this:
A group of muscles that rotate your eye.
Versus this:
A single, circular muscle inside your eye.
How do those two images explain the merit, or lack thereof, of “ocular stretching”? Let’s take a look, and with it debunk a lot of the “eye yoga” and “eye exercise” misinformation that is out there on the Web.
Inspiration for this topic, from a question in the forum from Cadence:
I read about ocular stretching claiming to improve the vision acuity on a power vision website. It seems a bit dubious as they talk about how stretching the ocular muscles around the eye can tense and relax the critical muscles, hence, leading to improved vision. Anyone has any information or ideas about this method?”
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That’s what the forum is for – getting answers for eyesight questions, so you don’t have to try everything yourself. So … is it real?
The Claim: Eyesight Improving Ocular Stretch
Here is what our power vision ocular stretching folks say is the basis of their exercise:
“Compared to the eye of someone with perfect vision, the muscles in a myopic eye are atrophied and have a more limited field of vision. These rotation exercises serve to reinvigorate deteriorated eye muscles and improve coordination at the extreme edges of one’s field of vision.”
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That sounds reasonable, at least until you read it. Does a muscle have a field of vision? Even if we forgive that bit of a nonsensical statement, the core of their premise doesn’t get much better. Why?
The Facts: You Can’t Roll It To Improved Eyesight
Let’s look at this ocular stretching pitch, with the illustrations we looked at, a moment ago:
These are not the eye muscles you are looking for.
Above, the extra ocular muscles. The ocular stretching guys say that rolling your eyes will help improve your eyesight. Because, atrophy, something, field of vision, I can’t be bothered to remember their logic. And neither should you.
There are six of these extra ocular muscles and they move the eyeball around in your eye socket. They have nothing whatsoever to do with the quality of your eyesight.
While the extra ocular muscles, as the word describes, outside of the eye do nothing for focus, the ciliary, a circular muscle inside the eye, does:
That’s the one!
Totally different muscle, different location, different task. You can roll your eyes till the end of time and your vision isn’t going to improve. It’s exactly like suggesting that shaking your head would improve your memory!
So obviously, not only does rolling your eyes not do any sort of “ocular stretching”. And even if there was such an activity, it wouldn’t do any good.
What You Should Do Instead
Here’s what you might consider, when looking at something like ocular stretching for your eyesight (per my response to the question in the forum):
If you think of improving your eyesight as a tiered approach:
1) Lower close-up strain, since that’s what caused initial myopia.
2) Reduce prescription use to have blur horizon, since misuse of prescription cause progressive, lens-induced myopia.
Those are the two causes. NITM and lens-induced. What will reverse it, and the only thing that will do it properly, is addressing the causes.”
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Here is the full thread of the originating forum topic.
Don’t fall for any eye rolling, eye stretching, eye yoga scheme. They don’t work. The promises sound tempting, they may have nice illustrations and lengthy explanations. Remember that curing any ailment means addressing the cause, which quite simply is close-up strain and lens-induced myopia.
Do enjoy some healthy eyesight today!
P.S.: (The cat picture, of course not really the result of ocular stretching gone wrong. It seemed apropos, considering the nature of the subject. No actual animals were harmed in the making of this article.)
