11 Sep Eye Yoga: What Are The Purported Benefits?
Eye yoga or ocular exercises have alleged benefits, but it will not correct the eye concerns such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, and presbyopia.
Some of the ocular exercises you can do include:
- Eye rolling: it can be done by slowly looking up, all the way to the right, left, and down.
- Palming: palming is done by rubbing two hands together to keep warm and placing both hands over the eyes. Practice the exercise for several minutes
- Focus shifting: the exercise trains eye muscles while strengthening your ability to focus
Claimed Benefits of Eye Yoga
Some claim religiously practicing eye exercise can be beneficial to eye health including:
- Improve eyesight
- May slow the progression of glaucoma
- Help symptoms of dry eye and eye strain
- Alleviate dark bags under the eyes
- Can build ocular strength after cataract surgery
What Do the Studies Say?
A study’sfindings show eye yoga can be a nonpharmacologic and therapeutic intervention for minimizing symptoms of eye strain. It also showed that it can relieve the severity of eye fatigue.
There are claims that eye yoga can improve eyesight or even prevent glaucoma. However, more studies are needed to prove such claims. In addition, no clinical trials have been done to prove such claims.
Meanwhile, when it comes to eye strain, a 2016 study has shown that eye yoga can make eyes feel less fatigued.
Eye exercises do nothing for more serious eye conditions such as glaucoma or macular degeneration. Eye yoga can be beneficial as a relaxation method. However, it cannot be considered as a treatment for any eye condition. When it comes to these things, it is always better to talk to an expert instead of self-medicating.
SOURCE:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4932063/
https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/the-lowdown-on-eye-exercises
https://www.healthline.com/health/eye-health/eye-yoga#tips-for-eye-health
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/yoga-for-dry-eyes#causes-of-dry-eyes