Page 6 - BOAF Journal 1 2012:2707

Behavioral Optometry BOAF Volume1 Number1 2012
Article - Geoff Shayler, BSc FCOptom, FCSO
...Manipulative Therapies
(Original English)
Vision, Posture and Ma- nipulative Therapies.
Over the years, I have ob- served my patients both from an Optometric and associated postural aspect. Many years ago I began training in Kinesiol- ogy, a therapy whose roots be- gan in the 60s by American Chi- ropractors, Drs George Good-
heart and John Thie1. As a re- sult of this knowledge, I gradu- ally became more aware of the relationships between eye or eye movement anomalies and physical structure.
My experience of working in association with Kinesiologists, Chiropractors and Osteopaths has shown links between our respective professions. In this article I would like to introduce some of the links between the eyes and the physical structure of the body and how a defect in one can affect the other. I am also including two case histo- ries, one shows how Optometry can help the chiropractor, the other how a Kinesiologist has been able to change visual per- formance.
Though we think of the eye as the organ of sight, it is well accepted that 20% of the fibers that make up the optic nerve go directly to so-called lower (pos- tural) centers in the brain rather
than to visual centers as do the other 80%. However, those 20% fibers represent up to 80% of the area of the retina - the peripheral retina. Apparently a large amount of visual informa- tion has little to do with "seeing" per se, but very much to do with being.
This would suggest that there are links in the brain di- rectly integrating these areas. If the visual system is sending incorrect information to the brain, the body’s proprioceptors may be having to overcompen- sate this defect leading to the body’s structural muscles over or under contracting causing structural misalignment leading to pain and discomfort and vice versa.
Iamnowgoingtolookata number of conditions that dem- onstrate these links:
1) Visual Mid-line shift syndrome
This is a condition whereby the individual has incorrect awareness of their visual world. Their primary position, (that di- rection that should be centrally and directly in front of the eyes) is projected out of position. Their projected primary position can be offset to the side or above or below their structural primary position. It is often as-
sociated with closed head traumatic brain injury.
A few years ago, I had a patient who was seeing his chi- ropractor on a weekly basis as his back kept “going out”. Op- tometric investigation showed no significant ocular muscle imbalance and little refractive change. This visit transpired following a lecture / practical from US behavioral optometrist, Geoff Getzell, OD when, amongst other things, the sub- ject of yoked prism lenses in therapy was discussed.
As a result of this I decided to use my new found knowl- edge and investigate further, I asked him to walk down a cor- ridor whilst wearing a pair of 16 PD yoked prism lenses, first with both bases to the right and then to repeat the activity with both prism bases to the left, in both cases observing his ability to walk, his posture and his sta- bility. With the prisms to the right his walk was reasonably stable, to the left walking was almost impossible.
I therefore supplied his new spectacles incorporating just 1PD base right each eye as a trial. These lenses proved to be the most successful he had ever been prescribed. He told me later that his visits to the chiropractor became very infre-
-6-