Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine | Bates Method

Definition

The Bates method, popularized in the early twentieth century by ophthalmologist William Horatio Bates, involves the use of therapeutic eye exercises. Bates claims these exercises will correct vision problems, thus alleviating the need for glasses or contact lenses. Patients practice eye exercises aimed at strengthening and training their eye muscles in an effort to overcome such problems as farsightedness (hyperopia), nearsightedness (myopia), and astigmatism.

Origins

The method was devised by Bates, who was born in 1860 in Newark, New Jersey. In 1885, he received his medical degree and began practicing in New York City. Over the years, he began to notice that eye...