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Acupuncture for Lazy Eye

What is Lazy Eye?

Lazy eye, technically called amblyopia, is when one of your eyes wanders in different directions to your other eye.  This may be due to poor vision in one eye and as a result your brain may favour your good eye.  Lazy eye can cause vision problems like loss of depth perception, and commonly affects children.  In fact, it’s the leading cause of impaired vision in this age group.  Keep reading to find out how acupuncture can treat lazy eye effectively!

acupuncture for lazy eye

Acupuncture Technique:

Acupuncture is a treatment technique that has been used for thousands of years in Traditional Chinese Medicine.  When you get acupuncture treatment, your Chinese Medicine practitioner will insert very fine needles into specifically selected sites on your body called acupoints.  By stimulating certain acupoints, your practitioner can access energy meridians in your body, thereby adjusting underlying imbalances.  Once these underlying health issues have been healed, your symptoms such as lazy eye will automatically be relieved.

How Does Acupuncture Treat Lazy Eye?

Chinese Medicine practitioners can use acupuncture to treat lazy eye in many ways.  The exact method used will depend on the underlying cause of your condition.  In Chinese Medicine, health conditions often arise due to imbalances between our vital organs.  To find out the underlying imbalance that’s causing your condition, your practitioner will ask you detailed questions about your symptoms and may take your pulse or observe your tongue.  In this way they can determine what the cause of your condition is, and then prescribe an individualised treatment plan for you.

Acupuncture for Lazy Eye

Treating Lazy Eye: Acupuncture for the Liver

The liver is a very important organ in your body.  It controls the function of detoxification, and works in harmony with the gallbladder to maintain your joints, nerves, and tendons, as well as your eyes.  This means that any conditions related to the eyes may be caused by a liver imbalance.  Similarly, if your lazy eye symptoms are due to a weak or damaged nerve, strengthening the liver through acupuncture can also help.

Lazy Eye from Muscle Imbalance (Strabismus Amblyopia):

Lazy eye is often caused by an imbalance between the muscles that position your eyes.  This prevents your eyes from working together and can lead to one eye turning inwards or outwards.  In Chinese Medicine, your muscles are maintained by the stomach and spleen, which also control the digestion and absorption of nutrients from food.  Acupuncture can be very effective at improving muscle imbalances, through balancing the spleen and stomach as well as improving circulation and blood flow to muscles.

Increased Risk of Lazy Eye due to Premature Birth or Small Size at Birth:

Most lazy eye cases develop in children between birth and the age of seven.  However, babies who are born very small or prematurely may have a higher risk of developing lazy eye.  The kidneys are important organs when it comes to conditions related to birth issues.  According to Chinese Medicine, the kidneys store the original energy and resources that the child receives from the parents.  Therefore, healing your kidneys may be an important part of treating lazy eye.

Balancing the kidneys will simultaneously help to treat lazy eye by nourishing the brain.  This is because the kidneys play an important role in maintaining brain functioning in Chinese Medicine.  When you experience lazy eye symptoms, your brain often interprets information from your eyes incorrectly.  For example, if one of your eyes has poorer vision than the other eye, your brain may start to ignore information from the weaker eye.  So nourishing the brain through balancing kidney function may also help to treat lazy eye.

Acupuncture for Lazy Eye

Is Acupuncture Effective at Treating Lazy Eye?

You may be thinking, “OK, the Chinese Medicine makes sense theoretically, but does it actually work?”  You’ll be pleased to learn the acupuncture has been scientifically proven to be effective at treating eye problems like lazy eye.  One study found that, “The total effective rate of acupuncture for amblyopia was significantly superior to conventional treatment, indicating that acupuncture was a promising treatment for amblyopia.”  As well as typical acupuncture treatment, another type of acupuncture called auricular acupuncture (involving acupoints on the ear), can also help to treat lazy eye.  Researchers found that, “Auricular point sticking therapy can obviously improve child visual acuity with simple manipulation.”

Conclusion:

Overall, lazy eye may occur due to poor vision in one eye, and the brain disregarding information from the weaker eye.  Many underlying factors may be contributing to lazy eye symptoms, including the eye, eye muscles, nerves that send visual information to the brain, and the brain itself.  Acupuncture can help to heal lazy eye by addressing the specific cause of your symptoms and balancing the organs that are responsible for your symptoms.

If you suffer from eye problems such as lazy eye, come along to our clinic Centre of Balance!  Our team of qualified professionals will be delighted to help you. 

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References:

Centre of Balance: Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine (n.d.). About Us. https://balancetcm.co.nz/about-us/

Gong R. L. (2011). [Observation on therapeutic effect of child amblyopia treated with auricular point sticking therapy]. Zhongguo Zhen Jiu = Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, 31(12), 1081–1083. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22256639/

Mayo Clinic. (2021, August 14). Lazy eye (amblyopia). https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/lazy-eye/symptoms-causes/syc-20352391

Yan, X., Zhu, T., Ma, C., Liu, A., Dong, L., & Wang, J. 2013. A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials on acupuncture for amblyopia. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/648054

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Monica

I am originally from Hebei province in China. I hold a NZ bachelor’s degree of health and science with a major in acupuncture. I am honoured to be an acupuncturist at Centre of Balance. Helping patients to alleviate their pain brings me the greatest joy. Chinese medicine emphasises the unity of human beings and nature. During the treatment, I hope to not only relieve your pain but also help you to understand the principles behind acupuncture’s effectiveness, as well as the significant impact of diet, emotions, lifestyle habits, and living environments on disease recovery. Self-healing is an ability that our bodies are naturally endowed with.

I studied acupuncture in New Zealand and completed one and a half years of supervised clinical internship before graduating. In the early stage of my training, I mainly worked with patients experiencing neck, shoulder, and lower back pain. Under the guidance of senior clinical tutors, I gradually developed hands-on experience and confidence in treating musculoskeletal pain conditions.
As my clinical exposure expanded, I began treating a wider range of internal conditions. Alongside traditional acupuncture, I was introduced to Umbilical Acupuncture and Tungs-acupuncture Points. What interested me most about these approaches is that they often do not require needling directly at the painful area, yet can still achieve very effective results.
I was especially inspired by observing my supervisor use Umbilical Acupuncture to treat common conditions such as insomnia, menstrual irregularities, and even rheumatoid arthritis, with very positive outcomes. Another supervisor was highly skilled in Tungs-acupuncture Points and achieved excellent results in treating pain, infertility, menstrual disorders, and a variety of women’s health conditions. After completing my studies and entering clinical practice, once I observed Dr. Szenan Phua using Tungs-acupuncture points to help cancer patients relieve pain, which further strengthened my trust in this treatment method.
I later completed training in Dr. Tan Balance Acupuncture, which had a strong influence on the way I approach treatment. One of the most noticeable features of this method is how quickly patients often feel improvement, especially with pain conditions. Dr. Szenan Phua’s New Balance Acupuncture combines meridian regulation with structural adjustment and internal organ balancing, including techniques such as pulse balancing and spinal adjustment.
From my clinical experience, pain is rarely just a local issue. It often involves underlying organ weakness or structural imbalance. When these aspects are addressed together, treatment can be more thorough and longer-lasting. I also apply this approach to internal conditions, particularly in fertility and women’s health. This includes supporting natural conception, IVF preparation and embryo transfer, pregnancy support, early-pregnancy nausea, and late-pregnancy labour induction. I combine these treatments with concepts learned from a few additional fertility training, which has given me a broader and more flexible clinical perspective. This has reinforced my belief that acupuncture should be adapted to each individual rather than applied through fixed formulas.
Two other areas of study that have been very helpful in my clinical work are Tongue Diagnosis and Dr. Zhu’s Scalp Acupuncture. Although tongue diagnosis is taught in my standard Chinese medicine training, further study allowed me to deepen and refine my diagnostic skills.
My first formal training was in Li’s Tongue Diagnosis, which looks not only at organ patterns, but also at how different areas of the tongue reflect the body’s structure. This system also explores personality traits and changes during pregnancy, making it both clinically useful and engaging. I later attended online lectures on Yin’s Tongue Diagnosis and studied the related materials independently. this learning has helped me make clearer and more accurate pattern differentiation, allowing my acupuncture treatments to be more targeted. It covers a wide range of conditions, including skin disorders, oncology-related presentations, mental health patterns, and joint or limb problems. In practice, tongue observation often provides valuable insight even before a patient begins describing their symptoms.
In addition to the methods above, I regularly use local bloodletting techniques, which can be very effective for improving circulation, reducing swelling, and relieving pain. I also incorporate auricular (ear) acupressure and stimulation, which I commonly use for allergies, insomnia, headaches, stress management, and various internal conditions.
In my clinical work, I value taking the time to listen carefully to each patient and to understand their overall health, lifestyle, and concerns. Based on each individual’s condition, I also provide personalised dietary guidance and lifestyle or wellness advice to support overall health and long-term wellbeing. I commonly support patients with musculoskeletal pain, such as neck, shoulder, knee, and back pain, as well as stress-related conditions, sleep issues, migraines, digestive concerns, and women’s health and fertility-related conditions.