• home
• introduction
• self-treatments
• treatments
• M.E Therapy
• exercise
• sitemap

Skip navigation Site:

• Home
• Introduction
• Site map

Mickel & Reverse Therapy:

• It worked for me!
• My experience
• Why it works
• Summary
• Update

Treatments:

• Acupuncture
• Homeopathy
• Osteopathy
• Shiatsu
• Reiki

Self treatments:

• Acupressure
• Heat and cold
• Essential oils
• Sleep management
• Eye exercises
• Supplements
• Diet

Exercise:

• Exercise and cfs
• Tai Chi 1
• Tai Chi 2
• Tai Chi 3
• Tai Chi seated 1
• Tai Chi seated 2
• Breathing and meditation
• More breathing exercises

Kettlebells:

• Kettlebells intro
• KBell techniques
• KBell dynamics 1
• KBell dynamics 2
• KBell presses

Other pages:

• Symptom finder
• Videos
• Disclaimer & policy

Eye strain in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia

The muscles which make up and surround your eyes are amongst the most sensitive in the body, and so unsurprisingly you may find increased eye strain and resulting headaches with M.E / CFS. Often during the early part of my CFS my head would feel tight and strained, and reading would be particularly exhausting. I've always been prone to eye strain, but by using basic exercises from the Bates method I was able to reduce both the eyestrain and some of the headaches and brain lag that went with it.

Dr.W.H Bates most famous advocate was the author Aldous Huxley. Huxley had been plagued by poor eyesight since he was 16, needing Braille and even a guide for eighteen months. Poor eyesight continued to be a major problem for which the opticians' answer was usually a stronger prescription for his glasses. But in 1939 he learned the methods devised by Dr.W.H.Bates and within two months was reading without glasses. He continued to have almost perfect vision until the last year of his life.

There are several books on this subject, notably Bates' own, Perfect sight without glasses. If you want to know more about this subject, Huxley's own book The Art of Seeing, is hard to beat for clarity, detail and background information.

Re-training your vision

The key point about the Bates method was our mental attitude to vision. We are very much a visually dependent culture. Most of us are using our eyes under conditions of stress, often reading for information under pressure, or watching the road for potential hazards as we drive, and this causes tensions in and around the eye which are rarely released. Unconciously we get into bad short-term habits of seeing and so we damage our vision in the process, resulting in headaches, tiredness or needing new glasses.

By both resting the eyes and practicing relaxed seeing as an end in itself the Bate's method breaks this habit and eye strain is reduced. Your intention should not be to see better but to use the eyes in a relaxed way, which will result, often quite rapidly, in better vision.

Some simple eye exercises for M.E / CFS

Look at something you find difficult to see clearly, a distant object if you're short sighted, maybe some small print if you're long sighted. Do what you would normally do if it was vital for you to see this clearly - you'll probably be squinting and straining until you force your eyes into focus. Now stop, and either sit or lie down. Close your eyes and cover them with your cupped palms, blocking out as much light as possible. Forget trying to see, just notice how sore the eye muscles are and let them relax. You'll probably see lots of light and grey shapes, but just let them go, don't follow them mentally or try turning them into anything. Feel the warmth from your hands and see a nice clear empty blackness in front of your eyes. Do this for a couple of minutes, then remove your hands and look upwards and blink rapidly but with the minimum of effort, as if your eyelids are butterfly wings. Close the eyes and cover again for a minute or two, again letting the muscles relax and the lights and greyness turn black, breathe deeply, let your shoulders drop, your jaw, your neck, and all of your face muscles.

Now open your eyes and without really making an effort look at again at the object you started with and the chances are, at least for a few moments, it will be in better focus than it was first time around. This is an object lesson - forcing the eyes works in the short term but relax them and you'll have less strain and better vision all the time.

More exercises for eye-strain

If you did the above test you've just learned two valuable techniques - covering the eyes with the palms excludes light and helps you to concentrate on resting the eyes with nothing to look at and the quick blinking moistens the surface of the eye which improves focus. Two other exercises to try are;

1) Direct a 60w table lamp into your eyes and from about 6 inches or 30cm move your head slowly one way, blinking lightly and rapidly, until the lamp is at the edge of your field of vision at one side. Then turn the head slowly back to the other side. Do this with just one or with both eyes at the same time, moving left and right several times. Again concentrate on allowing the eyes to relax. If you find the light too bright, blink more or move further away from the light until your eyes feel more comfortable. Do this for a minute or so, then stop cover the eyes with the palms and concentrate on letting them relax again. At first you will see a lot of bright light, but the contrast between light and dark will help the eyes adjust more quickly, and you will be seeing a much clearer blank tableau. As the eyes get accustomed to the light you will need to blink less.

2) Take the edges of your index fingers and raise the skin between the eyes and eyebrows, accross the width of the eyes. Direct the eyes down and the muscles will be stretched up. Hold for a few seconds. Look back up, blink rapidly and repeat. Follow this by closing the eyes and rolling the eyes clockwise several times, then anti-clockwise, slowly and evenly, letting the muscles around the eyes relax as the eyes stretch towards them. Again follow with resting the eyes with the palm exercise.

Eye exercises - How often for M.E /CFS

Do a combination of these four exercises in 10-20 minute session several times a day, or just once a month - whatever suits you. I found just 10 minutes once a day could make a noticable difference to the dizzy tiredness that can go with M.E / CFS, and whenever I felt that kind of tiredness coming on I make of point of doing some eye exercises in case eye strain is the cause. I describe these techniques as exercises but see them as relaxation rather than a work-out and you'll have the right approach.

There are many more exercises described in books about the Bates method, for dealing with long sightedness, short sightedness, strain from reading etc. If your eyes have worsened noticably with your M.E / CFS it may be worth learning some of those more specific exercises.

---

« Previous page | Home | Next page »