To Heal the Eyes, Look to the Liver

Did you know that when you blink or move your eyes, the Liver sends a message to increase blood flow to you eyes? Long before this cool physiological function was discovered by scientists, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) knew of the important relationship between the Liver and the eyes, and that changes to eye health, like dryness, redness, swelling, floaters, vision changes, light sensitivity, and more, mean changes to your Liver health. Let’s take a closer look (see what I did there?) at this special relationship between the Liver and the eyes.

In TCM, each Yin organ is also associated with a specific sensory organ. The Heart has a relationship with the tongue and our sense of taste, the Kidney has a relationship with our ears and our sense of hearing, the Lung is connected to our skin and our sense of touch, as well as our nose and sense of smell. As such, a disorder of a sense organ would be an indication, or symptom, of an imbalance of the energetic organ system that it is related to.

When Liver Blood is abundant the eyes will be moist and the vision will be good. However, if the Liver Blood is not, you may experience blurred vision, myopia (short-sightedness), floaters in the eyes, colour blindness or dry and gritty eyes. When there are signs of heat in the Liver, this can manifest as redness, burning, dryness, and or itchiness.

Although the Liver has a huge influence on the eyes, there are of course other factors at play here including the Gallbladder, Heart, Kidneys, Lungs, Bladder and Small Intestine. When an acupuncturist does their evaluation, imbalances related to these meridians and others also need to be checked to determine best treatment strategy.

Patients who have turned to TCM for the treatment of chronic eye conditions found that they have been able to significantly reduce their reliance on drugs and corticosteroid eye drops. Many patients who sought TCM for their eye conditions also discovered that their eye condition was related to a different, seemingly unrelated, health concern such as eczema, asthma, and gastric distress, and more. Patients discovered this when the other ‘unrelated’ issue improved in conjunction with their treatment for the eye condition.