Iridology: A Beneficial Alternative Health Technique?

Iridology as a practice began in the 1800s. It involves looking into the eye to determine bodily weaknesses and systemic levels of health. The practitioner examines the iris (the colored portion of the eye) and observes normal and abnormal reflective signs. Assessments only apply singularly on an individual client. It does not compare the one client's eyes to another. The purpose of iridology is to look into a person's eyes through to internal organs to see if a client's health regimen is helpful or not.

Each eye has many fibers, nerve endings, muscles and tissues associated with it. The eye is intricately connected with the brain and by extension connected with every organ of the body. These associations form the basis used in this alternative technique of looking at bodily conditions. The right eye corresponds to conditions on the right side of the body and the left eye corresponds to conditions on the body's left side. And, conditions in the lower regions of the body are reflective in lower portions of the iris, while upper parts of the body are matched to upper parts of the iris. Further, the heart and stomach areas are in the middle of the body and would be examined by looking at the center of the iris.

What Iridology Shows

Remarkably, iridology is said by proponents to reveal inherently weak or strong organs, glands and tissues. So by looking at markings in the eye, you can tell what internal zones they are in and what organs are affected. Basically, the practitioner looks at the fibers in eye to determine the health level of the constitution. Just by examining the condition of the iris, a practitioner can gauge whether or not there:

Is any high risk areas that may lead to disease;
Are circulatory or elimination issues;
Is a nerve depletion concern;
Is lymphatic system congestion by looking at the outer ring of the iris;
Is a need for rest, or need to rebuild immunity.

Additionally, a practitioner can supposedly gauge:
The stage of a disease such as the spastic or balloon conditions of the bowel in the transverse colon, for example;
If the patient has recuperative ability and the overall health of the body;
By examining the pupil area, a practitioner may assess if there is poor assimilation of nutrients.

What Iridology does not show

More importantly, iridologists are not medical doctors, so they cannot diagnose any diseases whatsoever. An iridologist can only say whether there is a weakness in a certain part of the body that may be leading to discomfort in a particular organ. The following are some representative questions that an iridologist may receive. In short, iridologists cannot:

Predict or indicate blood pressure levels, nor blood sugar level concerns;
Make or determine any medical diagnoses or diseases at all;
Determine any medications or drugs a person is taking;
Identify and medical or surgical conditions or operations a person may need;
Tell what foods a person does or does not eat;
Tell how much acidity there is in the body; only tell there is an acidic condition, not the level or how much acid exists;
Determine if there is any injury to the body or what may have caused injury;
Diagnose or correlate tissue information with a disease or symptoms of a disease;
Determine whether or any surgical procedure is needed;
Any thyroid or pregnancy conditions;
Homosexuality or aids, or even whether a person is male or female;

To be clear, an iridologist cannot say anything medically sound or even name diseases. As a whole, physicians and accredited medical institutions strongly repudiate iridology and all of its practices.