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John Murphy has been an editor for Review of Optometry for a dozen years. He covers business, clinical, pharmaceutical and news topics.
May
14
Written by:
John Murphy
5/14/2010 7:17 AM
It’s time to discuss an important health care issue that’s sweeping the nation. No, not Obama-care. It’s an eye-related health care issue. No, no! Not Board Certification. (Gracious, not that!) It’s a new exercise trend. No, not the Ab Blaster. Not Pilates. (Not even Pontius Pilates.)
It’s eye yoga. Yes, eye yoga!
Do you have tired eyes? The answer is eye yoga. Weak eyes? The answer? Eye yoga. Poor vision or eye disease? You guessed it: You need eye yoga.
Everyone is doing it. You can tell by the multitude of YouTube videos out there and the number of views they receive. Here’s an eye yoga video by Baba Ramdev, an actual yogi (I think). This video has been viewed nearly 60,000 times. None of those views are from me, though, because this video is in Hindi (I think) and is more than an hour long. (If I’m going to waste an hour on YouTube, I’ll watch dogs sliding in snow.)
You can also tell when an exercise trend is hot: Celebrities jump on board. And you don’t find bigger celebrities than The Walrus himself, Sir Paul McCartney.
“Eye yoga. Now there’s a subject,” Sir Paul says at the start of this clip. Before leading you through a few short “eye exercises,” he explains why your eye muscles need a regular workout: “The idea is that in your eyes, it’s just muscles like anywhere else, and that we don’t use them well enough. We sit at computers or watch telly all day, or read books, et cetera, so you’re basically just using one set of muscles.”
Paul says he learned eye yoga from “a guy” at a hotel in India. So, like, you know it’s credible. “If you do those regularly, it’s supposed to be very good for your sight.” (Don’t quit your day job, Paul.)
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Another “eye exercise” video that’s received a lot of views is this one, with host Roni Proter. These exercises, Roni says, “will increase your flexibility and strengthen your eyes.” Even “looking around the room . . . will also strengthen your eyes and help your focus.” This video raises many medical and scientific questions such as: What’s in those two big dog bowls she has in front of her?
Sure, these “eye exercises” seem like nothing more than the ol’ Bates Method warmed over for the YouTube generation. But the real question is: Is this a crock? You might as well ask: Is Paul McCartney a multi-bazillionaire?
“I don't think ‘eye-yoga’ has any real effect on anyone,” says Don Steensma, an optometrist and yoga teacher from (of course) California. “I have never introduced any eye yoga in my classes.”
Yoga is very good for the body, Dr. Steensma says, but even better for the mind. “Its main goal has always been to quiet our internal chattering mind.” So, he says, “doing eye yoga might accomplish the same thing.”
Eastern cultures have very strong beliefs in the ability of the mind to influence and control bodily functions, Dr. Steensma says. “The placebo effect can be very powerful. If you believe something strongly enough, it may actually work.”
When Dr. Steensma says this, you’re inclined to believe him. He’s an interesting guy. He was a high school dropout, but then he pulled his act together and whipped himself into shape when he joined the Air Force. Even after leaving the Air Force and becoming an optometrist, he kept in top condition—at age 53 he ran the Los Angeles marathon. “I thought I was in pretty good shape for my age,” he says.
But when he tried yoga, he found out yoga wasn’t as easy as it looked. He stuck with it, though.
“Yoga really does change your body. It does not create big muscles like weightlifting will, but a regular yoga practice will increase your functional strength, even more than weight lifting,” he says. “With time, yoga builds steel cable-like strength throughout the body.”
That’s all well and good. But let’s get back to eye exercises . . .
I have my own form of eye exercise. I think it’ll be the Next Big Thing to sweep the nation. It calms you down and recharges your batteries. It’s so easy that anyone can do it. You don’t even need a YouTube video to show you how. Just close your eyes. Now, imagine you see sheep jumping over a fence. Count them as they go by . . . One, two . . . You’re doing great . . . three, four . . . Keep those eyes closed . . . five . . . six . . . Now you’re getting . . . the hang . . . of. . . it . . . sevennn . . . eiiiiight . . . . z-z-z-z-z-z . . .
Copyright ©2010 John Murphy
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