Simon Jones: Yoga the top

The sham that is ‘eye yoga’ has been back in the news this week thanks to a segment on This Morning and a worrying follow up article in The Mirror. It’s a hard job title to write without giving it some sort of legitimacy, but eye yoga ‘instructor’, Jess Parkinson appeared on This Morning to extol the benefits of the exercises, which included enhancing vision and reducing the need for corrective lenses. Reducing the symptoms of modern-day eye fatigue was also a topic of conversation. 

It goes without saying that there is no scientific evidence to show exercising eye muscles improves any visual deficiency and while the eye care sector rightly dismisses eye yoga out of hand, there is always the risk that it will still resonate with the public. This Morning still carries a certain amount of gravitas, and it would be easy for a member of the public to assume that because something has made it to broadcast, then it must be true. Interspersing language about improving visual acuity with more recognisable conditions, such as eye fatigue, only serves to blur the lines between reality and falsehood.