Pick a health goal and see what each tradition — and modern science — actually says about it, side by side.
Built for the moment when you want to compare, not to be told. Choose a goal and the seven traditions and modern science are laid out side by side, each with its own verdict.
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Pick a health goal and compare what each tradition — and modern science — says, based on our published articles.
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Of the 7 traditional claims we have checked in this area, 3 did not hold up in testing.
Ayurveda
India · over 3,000 years
Ayurveda has its own eye care, and it is unusually specific: netra tarpana, a warm ghee bath held over the open eye inside a dam of dough, and washes made with triphala. Both are framed as nourishing tejas, the fire…
Read the article →What the science says
PartialFor people who already have intermediate or advanced AMD, large randomised trials show that an antioxidant-plus-zinc formula containing 500 mg of vitamin C slows progression and vision loss. That is a treatment claim…
TCM
China · over 2,000 years
Traditional Chinese Medicine ties vision to Liver Blood and Kidney Essence, and for the ageing patient it prescribes goji berries and chrysanthemum tea to nourish the eyes. The mechanism on offer is energetic and…
Read the article →What the science says
PartialGoji is densely stocked with zeaxanthin, and zeaxanthin is one of the two compounds the AREDS2 arm added to the original formula; that arm slowed the spread of geographic atrophy toward the centre of vision. The…
Japanese Kampo
Japan · since the 7th century
Japan has a codified massage of its own. Anma has been taught from dedicated manuals since the Edo period — Fujibayashi Ryohaku's Anma Tebiki among them, still catalogued in the National Diet Library…
Read the article →What the science says
DisputedA randomised trial of anma in forty cancer survivors found improvement in fatigue and insomnia, but nobody has tested it for the eyes, and the technique deliberately leaves out the oil this practice depends on.…
Korean Medicine
Korea · Dongui Bogam (1613)
Korean medicine treats the failing eye as a liver matter and answers it with seeds. The Dongui Bogam's materia medica gives cassia seed — 決明子, literally the decide-brightness seed — the indication of 靑盲, the gradual…
Read the article →What the science says
DisputedThe trials behind this article tested a specific antioxidant-and-zinc formula in people who already have macular degeneration. Cassia seed has never been through that kind of test for it, and the liver-and-essence…
Unani
Greco-Persian lineage · since Avicenna
Avicenna gives friction a full section of the Canon's first book and grades it with some care: hard friction braces the body, soft friction relaxes it, repeated friction thins it, and the restorative kind, given after…
Read the article →What the science says
PartialUnani prescribes oil massage for the very fatigue this article is about, but never for the eyes, and no trial has tested the Unani version. PMID:29723235
European Herbalism
Europe · centuries of folk use
European herbalism had a dedicated eye herb and named it after the job: eyebright. Culpeper in 1653 is blunt about how highly he rates it — if the herb were used as much as it is neglected, he writes, it would half…
Read the article →What the science says
DisputedEyebright has no modern trial evidence for age-related vision loss, and the AREDS formula that does have it contains no eyebright. Two traditions pointing at the ageing eye is not two pieces of evidence for the same…
Tibetan Medicine (Sowa Rigpa)
Tibet · Sowa Rigpa
Tibetan medicine gives anointing a formal place rather than an incidental one. In the Four Tantras, the final tantra devotes a chapter to byug pa — anointing and massage — counting it among the five external therapies…
Read the article →What the science says
Not yet studiedA 423-patient trial of the Tibetan white-channel ointment measured motor recovery after stroke; nothing in this tradition has been tested for the eyes. PMID:40984831
Modern science is not a tradition. We list it separately — as an independent check on the claims above, not as one more voice among them.
Modern Science
A famous 11-center eye trial put vitamin C in the spotlight for aging eyes — here's what the evidence really says, and where it stops.
Read the article →Not medical advice. Consult a healthcare professional.