What is the bates method?

Would you like to never have to wear your glasses or contact lenses again? Do you wish you could have perfect eyesight with 20/20 vision? This article will explain what the bates method is and why your eyesight naturally deteriorates.

If you have glasses/contacts you will find that your prescription gets stronger over time and you eyesight doesn't get any better. This is because they are only used as temporary aids - similar to using a wheelchair if you cannot walk properly; glasses do not improve your eyesight in fact they make them worse! This is because the eye muscles are under worked and deteriorate - they eye isn't able to be used efficiently (with the wheelchair scenario, this is like your legs becoming weaker due to not being used).

So what actually causes your vision to worsen?

Well, this depends on your condition which could be age related macular degeneration, myopia, hyperopia or astigmatism to name a few, but generally the reason why eyesight deteriorates is due to your eyes being put under stress. For example when you look at a TV or computer screen for long periods of time, your eyes adapt to this stress so that in future it can perform the task more efficiently. The problem with this is that to adapt to the stress, the eyeball has to change shape - this is what leads to eye problems. If your eye ball changes shape then you cannot see as clearly as you used to because of the light be refracted to a different place on your eye – it’s all fairly confusing, but basically stress on the eye causes bad vision.

Laser eye surgery aims to change the shape of the eyeball again back to it's original shape. This is a very effective procedure and is quick, but is expensive and there is a small minority that experience side effects such as needing glasses again in a few years time which can be a nuisance considering the cost. The best way to do this procedure is by booking with an optician or your GP.

An alternative to glasses/contacts and eye surgery are eye exercises. Dr bates created certain eye exercises that work by changing the shape of the eyeball through strengthening and relaxing the eye muscles (to relieve stress). This is essentially what the bates method is – using eye exercises to relax the eye and reverse the damaging effects of stress on the eye.