Holistic medicine has become popular of late because people want to take more responsibility for their own health or are distrustful of man made medicines. Like in most forms of health care the idea of holistic care extends to eye care. This is commonly termed natural eye care. Those that advocate this treatment believe that many problems can be prevented when treated naturally. They also believe that many people can be cured of conditions that they have lived with for many years using the holistic approach. In general, they are against any form of surgery on the eyes and believe that laser surgery is unnecessary.
Like many other holistic approaches to medicine and medical care the claims of natural eye care are disputed by the vast majority of health professionals. However there are also many health professionals that accept that certain forms of care can be helpful.
This leads to problems for people with eye conditions because you don’t really want to be experimenting with untried or untested treatments when your sight is at stake. Thus you should fully understand how a possible treatment will work and the consequences of using this treatment. Ask qualified people what they think of the treatment and make an informed decision.
You should also understand that by their very definition, many holistic treatments have no clinical studies conducted on them and are effectively passed on anecdotally or by word of mouth. To this extent there is no guarantee that a particular treatment that worked for one person will work for another. Holistic treatment and medicines are difficult to predict.
Having said this, health professionals generally agree that some forms of natural eye care can help to improve vision. This is known as eye therapy and is essentially about improving the muscles that control the eyes so that they are more responsive. They have even been termed eye aerobics by some people. They consist of exercises that are performed every day. They can be simple things like holding a finger out in front of your eyes and moving it towards and away for 5 minutes or so. Another exercise may be standing still and scanning the room that you are in with your eyes. As you scan the room your eyes will focus on different objects at a variety of focal lengths. This will give the muscles a thorough work out. There are other exercises that can be performed by an optometrist that can work one eye at a time. Some people may even wear a patch on the stronger eye so that the weaker one works harder.
Other forms of natural eye care are not as verifiable as this therapy. For instance, Fish oil and other natural supplements are taken to keep the eyes in good condition. If you are taking natural supplements you should always ask what and why the supplement is good for the eyes and any side effects that may result from taking it. Taking supplements like these are essentially about keeping the components of the eyes in good condition. They will not change the shape of the eyeball, for instance, if a person has an astigmatism. It is debatable whether supplements would improve a physical defect in the shape of the eye.
Another part of natural eye care is to treat them with respect. For instance if you are working in a job that requires deep concentration on one object for a long time then you should have breaks and look away from the object. This is general advice given to most people that stare at computer screens for their job. Look at a distant object every 20 minutes. Even get away from your desk from time to time.