If you are one of the many people who suffer from vision problems, you might have heard about vision therapy. This will usually take the form of special exercises that are meant to improve your vision and/or correct specific vision problems. While this kind of thing is effective, it is important to avoid buying into some of the hype and myths that have been propagated online. Let’s try to shed some light on this practice so that you can understand it properly.
Discarding The Myths
Vision therapy is not a “magic bullet” solution. It will not necessarily work for all vision problems. While these exercises have proven to be very effective for certain problems and conditions, they are not a miracle cure.
You should also understand that the people who make these grandiose claims are not always honest. They might be trying to sell a particular product that ties in with vision training exercises or trying to get views and clicks for advertising revenue. That being said, corrective vision exercises have proven to be remarkably useful despite their limitations.
How Does Vision Therapy Work?
This kind of therapy is basically a form of physical and mental training. Just as you can train your muscles to be stronger and faster, you can also train your eyes to a certain extent. Think about the difference in skill between a novice athlete and a top-level professional, and you can understand what a difference training makes. Of course, it only works if it is done correctly.
Here is an example of one type of vision correction exercise. This one is known as the Brock string exercise, and it requires a string with several colored slider beads. The string is secured against a vertical surface using a magnet, and the string is held horizontally at eye level. Looking directly down the string, a person can train their eyes to focus and coordinate on a single point. Over time, this exercise helps to correct ailments in which the eyes are failing to work together properly.
If you are interested in this kind of vision correction, you should do so with the guidance of a professional optometrist or someone who is similarly qualified. You can find plenty of “DIY” vision correction articles on the internet, but we shouldn’t have to tell you that those will be hit-and-miss solutions. If this kind of thing is done improperly, you could end up making your problem worse.
The Evidence
There is a lot of scientific evidence to support the effectiveness of these vision correction exercises. One quick internet search will yield a number of studies like this one. This study measured the effect of visual therapy on concussion patients. The remarkable thing is that all of those who underwent the therapy were able to overcome or improve their vision issues.
The patients were divided into those who suffered from convergence insufficiency (CI) and those who suffered from accommodative insufficiency (AI). Of the CI patients who underwent visual therapy, 85% were returned to a pre-concussion state of vision. The other 15% showed improvement, even if their conditions were not fully “cured.” Amongst the AI patients, 33% were completely relieved, while the other 67% showed considerable improvement. Thus, we can say that this kind of therapy is highly effective for concussion victims, especially those suffering from convergence insufficiency.
If you would like to go into more detail on the subject, this study is a lot more extensive and specific. All of the metrics and figures in this study support the effectiveness of vision therapy exercises for a number of different conditions. We can also see how the brain plays into the picture, as it controls the muscles that control the movements of your eyes.
Conclusion
If you think that you might be able to benefit from vision therapy, the first thing you should do is call a trusted optometrist and get their opinion on the matter. Such exercises may or may not be effective for your particular problem, so don’t rush into anything. However, many people have been able to overcome their vision problems through these simple training methods, and we hope that you can be one of them.