Does Eye Yoga REALLY Work? Eye Doctor Reacts to Paul McCartney's Eye Exercises to Improve Vision

Transcript

so the very famous sir paul mccartney was recently 
featured on a podcast where he explained how doing   eye exercises or eye yoga has saved him from 
needing glasses it turns out this is not news   he's been making these claims and preaching about 
eye exercises for some time now there's even an   old youtube video that he made going through 
his whole process now this is probably the   oldest and longest running myth about eyes 
that's out there and it really stems from   a poor understanding of physics and how the eyes 
work so let's break down what's really happening   hey what's up this is dr alan here from the doctor 
iheal show helping you learn all about the eyes   vision and finding the best vision products 
if you're new here and like learning about the   eyes then consider hitting the button 
down below and ring the bell so that you don't   miss any of our featured videos now the eyes and 
the visual system is incredibly complex and even   for most healthcare workers out there if they 
are not a specialist in the area of the eyes   they probably don't fully understand how it works 
now the eye exercises that sir paul mccartney has   been teaching is basically looking up down 
left right and looking at different diagonal   directions and doing a couple sets of those 
along with focusing on the tip of his nose   and again repeating that several times now your 
eyeballs have six pairs of external eye muscles   that we call extraocular muscles and they do help 
your eyes look up look down left right but they   also have torsional muscles that allow your eyes 
to twist and turn whenever you're turning your   head and tilting it from side to side that way 
your eyes stay in alignment and you don't end up   seeing double vision so the whole looking up down 
and side to side thing really doesn't do anything   if i was being generous maybe it'll help for some 
people with bad eye strain or maybe for people who   have poor eye coordination after something like 
a head injury but again they'd be being pretty   generous the focusing up close on your nose bit 
is really the only part of this that has some mild   truth to it see your eyeballs have three distinct 
muscles within them two of which are part of the   iris the colored part of your eye yeah those are 
in fact two different muscles working together   to make your pupils either really large or really 
small and when you're focusing on a near object   your pupils constrict gets smaller creating 
what's called a pinhole effect which will   increase your ability to focus on a near object 
basically improving what's called your depth   of field or making your range of clear vision a 
little bit wider you can even test this principle   out on your own by creating a little pinhole size 
with your fingers like this over an eye and you   should see things in the distance and up close 
seem just a little bit sharper the other muscle   within the eye which is the true powerhouse for 
being able to focus up close is called the ciliary   body and when you flex this muscle it relaxes 
tension on the lens inside the eye which is kind   of like a glasses lens except it's flexible 
and allows you to focus on near objects so   when paul mccartney has been doing these eye 
exercises his eye yoga to focus on his nose   he's essentially been teaching his muscle to 
flex more inside of the eye to relax the lens and   allow it to focus better up close and this is not 
medical news as doing pencil push-up eye exercises   has been long used to help for kids that have a 
condition called accommodative insufficiency where   they're not able to fully coordinate using those 
specific muscles as well as for people who've had   traumatic brain injury or any sort of head injury 
because in most of those cases they also lose   coordination using these muscles this is commonly 
used in an evidence-based eye care practice called   vision therapy where you were prescribed eye 
exercises that show that it improves things for   lazy eye double vision and other neurological 
conditions but still even with that part of   focusing on your nose being somewhat true there's 
still many factors at play when it comes to   doing eye exercises not being data driven and the 
reason why most eye doctors will laugh or maybe   do an eye roll whenever somebody mentions doing it 
for somebody like paul mccartney who's in his late   70s and is claiming not to need glasses he is well 
into what we call presbyopia which sets in after   about the age of 50 and is where the lens inside 
of your eye grows so thick it begins to start to   harden and with that lens hardening even if 
you're using that muscle inside your eye to   focus the lens still cannot change shape and you 
can no longer use it to focus on your objects that   is why everybody after about the age of 50 usually 
ends up needing bifocals or reading glasses it's   just a normal part of aging that means for someone 
like paul who's 78 even though he's flexing his   muscles to focus on his nose that lens inside his 
eye is not able to flex and so it's not really   what's giving him a good vision now i personally 
do not know paul mccartney's eye health and even   if i did i wouldn't share it because that would 
be breaking hipaa laws but if it's true that he   does not need reading glasses or even prescription 
glasses here are probably the reasons why number   one is that as we age our pupils get smaller 
and smaller and when we're reading up close   they get smaller still so when paul is focusing on 
a near object his pupils get so small the pinhole   effect essentially gets better and he has a wider 
range of clear vision and it's really helpful for   looking at things like your phone or reading a 
book again it gives you just more leeway to kind   of trombone your way in finding that sweet spot 
the second reason is that at least one or both   of his eyes are probably mildly nearsighted that 
means that he can see up close a little bit easier   and he's just gotten used to seeing things in the 
distance being a little bit blurry but enough for   him to get by again i don't know what his visual 
acuity is but i'll tell you paul if you ever watch   this and you want to come out to our clinic so 
we can do a thorough test you're always welcome   to come on over or perhaps like most people 
over their 70s they've had something like   cataract surgery where they remove that hardened 
lens inside the eye and then replace it with a new   implant and thankfully these days we have really 
advanced technologies which allow for our implants   to be either multifocal or trifocal to give you 
that extra clear distance vision as well as up   close now again i don't know if paul's already 
had cataract surgery or not i know he's a long   time like vegetarian advocate and studies 
do show that people who eat more vegetables   such as vegetarians or vegans have a less risk 
for things like cataracts as far as the argument   that eye yoga or doing eye exercises to improve 
vision or to reverse the need for prescription   glasses unfortunately there is just little to no 
evidence that suggests that this is even possible   almost all anecdotal reports from people claiming 
that eye exercises have helped them can usually be   explained by some other mechanism at play but i'll 
tell you that if there was ever good evidence that   suggests that doing eye yoga or eye exercises 
could prevent or reverse the need for glasses   eye doctors would instantly jump on board be 
recommending it and prescribing it for people   but unfortunately right now there's just no 
evidence for it but again don't confuse the   eye yoga and these type of eye exercises that 
we're talking about here with what is called   vision therapy which is a well-documented and 
study sub-specialty of eye care which really   does help people for certain eye conditions so 
if you are somebody who's a kid with lazy eye   or double vision or if you've had brain injury 
in any way and you're having trouble focusing   then definitely try to find somebody in your area 
that offers something like vision therapy but hey   if you found value in this video click that like 
button for me and let me know in the comments what   your thoughts are on all of this an eye yoga have 
you tried it yourself any positive or negative   kind of issues with it just what are your thoughts 
drop in the comment section below and stay   tuned and make sure you  
because i hope to have one of my vision therapist   friends come on the channel so we can break down 
these myths and issues with eye focusing and all   of that a little bit more and please understand 
that i know a lot of people want something like   eye exercises to work i personally try to stay 
really open-minded about this but i myself have   to follow evidence-based practices and also 
please understand the little we've gone over   in this video is barely scratching the surface for 
how complex the eye coordination and eye teeming   really is and as always if you're having problems 
with your eyes and vision make sure to call your   local eye doctor and see them right away otherwise 
keep an eye on it and we'll talk to you soon you