Gear up for 20/20!

Eisha Sarkar
Posted On Times Wellness on Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Book Review: Better Eyesight Without Glasses
Author: Dr William Bates, MD
Publisher: Harper Collins
Price: Rs 195
Pages: 217

Nineteenth-century ophthalmologist Dr William Bates' Better Eyesight Without Glasses is an eye-opener, quite literally. In his own distinctive style, Bates builds up evidence using his own research and experimental data to prove why prescription lenses do more harm than good to your eyes and how your eyes can actually become better with the help of simple reading exercises.

The book, originally published in 1919, demolishes some of the most popular theories with respect to the eyes, especially in the treatment of problems of refraction by ophthalmologists. The author challenges the orthodox concept of accommodation (your eyes' ability to focus correctly) by saying that your eyes should not 'try' to see instead of just seeing and that by being able to relax the eye completely, one can even see or read things that one would deem not possible because of problems of refraction.

Dr Bates says the accommodation of the human eye is not constant and so everyone, at some point in their lives, can become myopic, hypermetrope and even astigmatic. Contrary to popular perception, he says, these defects are not permanent, and can be corrected without spectacles. "All glasses contract the field of vision to a greater or lesser degree. Even with very weak glasses, patients are unable to see distinctly unless they look through the centre of the lenses, with the frames at right angles to the line of vision; not only is their vision lowered if they fail to do this, but annoying nervous symptoms such as dizziness and headaches are sometimes produced. Therefore they are unable to turn their eyes freely in different directions," he writes.

Exercises for your eyes

The Bates Method restores sight firstly with a series of exercises that relax and soothe the eye muscles. The techniques are palming (where you close your eyes and cover them with your palms to exclude all light), swinging (where you literally move your eyes from one letter on the test card to another till the first is blurred), memorising letters and even imagining them. Dr Bates claims that it is only when the eye and the mind are completely rested does one attain the normal 20/20 vision.

Examples

Dr Bates uses examples of his patients to illustrate how the techniques helped them – a doctor who suffered from presbyopia, a girl who could see Jupiter’s moons with her naked eye but not the numbers on a test card a few feet away because she didn't like mathematics and women who were 'nearly blind' later managed to see without glasses.

Verdict

The book is quite technical and it does take some time to assimilate its contents. The format is one of the key drawbacks. While most self-help books come in easy 'Steps to take' format, this one provides information in paragraphs and hence, it's confusing. You can most certainly not read and do your eye exercises at the same time. While some readers have lauded the book in online readers' forums and gone on to the extent of saying that they were "immensely benefited from the exercises in this book" others say that no scientific trials have been conducted to prove that these theories that were outlines in the early 20th century actually work.

While the choice of whether to follow the author's tips or not should rest with the individual reader, some of Dr Bates' theories that truly oppose conventional ophthalmic processes may pave the way for newer approach in the field of eye checks and eye care.