Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Reading the iris as a sign of disease could not be confirmed in studies.
Also known as: iridology · iris diagnosis · iris analysis
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
Iridology — also called iris diagnosis — is a method from naturopathy. The basic idea: the iris of the eye is understood as a kind of map of the body, on which each organ corresponds to a particular zone. Iridologists look at the colour, structure, fibres, lightenings, rings and spots of the iris — often with a magnifier or from strongly enlarged photos — and read from them hints about constitution, predispositions and strains. Modern iridology was developed in the 19th century by the Hungarian physician Ignaz von Peczely, and later elaborated by Josef Deck and Bernard Jensen among others, giving rise to numerous “iris charts”. Controlled scientific studies have so far not confirmed that specific diseases can be reliably detected from the iris — different examiners often reach differing conclusions on the same eye. Iridology is therefore not a substitute for a medical examination, and an iris “finding” alone should neither reassure nor worry as long as real symptoms have not been medically assessed. As a mindful, holistic approach that invites people to look at themselves attentively, it may give something to some — the key is to place it correctly: as a prompt and a starting point for conversation, not as a diagnosis.
The iris is looked at magnified and patterns, colours and structures are assigned to particular areas. What is described is an overall picture, not a single measured value.
Anyone who wants information about liver, kidneys or thyroid gets it through blood values and imaging. The two do not exclude each other — but one does not do what the other does.
A new spot on the iris, a changed pupil shape, pain or shyness of light are findings on the eye and are investigated there — regardless of what the pattern is supposed to mean.
Basic insurance pays nothing here. Depending on the supplementary insurance part is reimbursed — a phone call beforehand clears that up.
The discipline assigns zones of the iris to organs and goes back to work from the nineteenth century. The structure of the iris stays largely stable through life and is individual enough to be used for identification — that constancy is what the idea rests on. In the comparative studies available, where findings had to be assigned without further information, the hit rate lay at the level of chance. It continues to be practised as a reading of signs.
What looking into the eye actually shows is not nothing: an arc at the corneal rim before the age of fifty can point to high blood fats, a Kayser-Fleischer ring to Wilson’s disease, and the retina shows sugar and blood pressure directly. What the iris, as things stand, does not show is the state of individual organs through assigned zones — the structure of the iris stays largely the same across life, even when something in the body changes. It continues to be practised as a reading of signs.
The iris is divided into sectors like a clock face; each zone is traditionally assigned a body region (see graphic).
Base colour, fibre density, rings, lightenings and dark marks are interpreted.
Traditionally “blue” (lymphatic), “brown” (haematogenic) and mixed types are distinguished.
Founded by Ignaz von Peczely (19th c.), later developed by Josef Deck and Bernard Jensen.
Controlled studies have not shown reliable detection of disease from the iris — not a diagnostic method in the medical sense.
An iris finding should never replace a needed examination; with real symptoms, always see a doctor.
A drop in circulation with pallor, sweating and nausea occurs almost only on an empty stomach and while sitting. A small bite beforehand and being treated lying down takes the ground from it.
Having drunk enough lessens dizziness and headache afterwards. That water flushes something out afterwards is a description and not a demonstrated effect — it is sensible anyway.
When a treatment works on muscles, tendons or fascia, the recovery needs building material. That holds for every method that concerns the moving apparatus.
Anyone who quickly gets dizzy at every treatment often has an empty iron store. That is no reason against the method, but a pointer worth taking along.
Iridology establishes no nutrient gap — that is the honest core. In controlled trials experienced examiners could not tell from the iris who was ill and who was not. If a list of preparations is recommended after a session, that list does not rest on the eye. What actually shows a nutrient picture is a blood test.
Not nothing: a pale ring around the iris points in younger people to raised blood fats, copper deposits show a storage disorder, and the back of the eye betrays blood pressure and blood sugar over years. Those are findings of eye medicine, not of iris markings — and they are worth distinguishing.
Clearly effective with proven deficiency, useless without. Take only with a documented deficiency — excess is harmful.
The colour of the iris comes from melanin and is genetically set; the pigment cells of the iris hang on the same route as those of the skin. Spots and rings are pigment patterns — they change with age, not with organs.
The iris structure is inherited and hardly changes through life. In controlled studies neither diseases nor deficiencies could be assigned reliably — blood values exist for that.
Both approaches share the same problem: in controlled studies the assignments could not be reproduced. With the iris there is the additional point that its structure is inherited and hardly changes through life.