Is it true that herbal therapy can treat myopia?

There is currently no authoritative evidence-based medical evidence to support that herbal therapy can cure true myopia, and it can only alleviate some pseudomyopia caused by visual fatigue.

I have met many parents who came for consultation, and they all said that their children used certain herbal eye patches or herbal prescriptions to clear the liver and improve eyesight. After half a month, they checked their vision and found that the naked eye vision had indeed increased by one or two lines. I felt that herbal medicine was really useful in treating myopia. In fact, most of this situation is caused by the child himself having pseudomyopia - long-term use of the eyes at close range causes ciliary muscle spasm and blurred vision. It is not really myopia in the first place. Ingredients such as chrysanthemum, cassia seed, and sweet potato in herbs have the effect of moisturizing and soothing the eyes. In addition, when using herbal eye patches, it is equivalent to forcing the eyes to rest for more than ten minutes. The spasmed muscles relax and the vision naturally returns to normal levels. What essentially relieves visual fatigue is not curing myopia.

But if you have gone to the hospital for a dilated eye exam and are diagnosed with true myopia caused by elongated axial length, then there is really no way to rely on herbal medicine. You can think of the eye axis as our height. Once it grows, it cannot be retracted unless a surgical operation is performed. This is an organic change that has already occurred. Whether you drink herbal medicine or apply herbal packs, you cannot change the lengthened eye axis. Naturally, it is impossible to cure true myopia. This is also the current consensus of the global ophthalmology community.

Of course, there are now many studies in the field of traditional Chinese medicine that are exploring the intervention effect of herbs on myopia. For example, a small sample study found that certain herbal extracts can help improve the blood supply to the eyes and may slow down the axial growth of adolescents. However, these studies are still in the experimental stage and are not supported by large-scale clinical data. They cannot achieve a "cure" effect and are far from being promoted.

Last month, the mother of a sophomore in high school came to me and said that she spent more than 7,000 in the first half of the year to buy three courses of herbal myopia treatment packages, which included medicinal soup, medicinal packs, and the acupoint massage the store said. She originally thought she could cure her child's 150-degree myopia, but this time when she started to go for an optometry test, the degree directly rose to 275 degrees, which made her cry. Think about it, high school students spend at least a dozen hours staring at books and courseware from morning to night every day. Even if they drink herbal tea every day, as long as the eye intensity does not decrease, the eye axis will still swell. The effect of soothing visual fatigue cannot withstand such a heavy eye load.

That’s not to say that herbs are completely useless. If you stare at the computer at work and your eyes are dry, sore and swollen, make some chrysanthemum and wolfberry tea, or apply warm mugwort packs for ten minutes. Your eyes will indeed feel much more comfortable. This auxiliary effect in relieving visual fatigue can also help reduce the risk of myopia progression to a certain extent. However, if this auxiliary effect is touted as a "radical cure of myopia", or even advises people who are already myopic not to wear glasses and only rely on herbal conditioning, then it is completely misleading. If myopia is really detected, go to a regular hospital for optometry intervention first, which is more reliable than anything else.