Eyes may be the windows to the soul writes JUNE SAYER but in complementary medicine, they are also used as powerful diagnostic tools.

One such branch of complementary medicine is iridology, the study of the iris of the eye. This is a non-invasive therapy that shows a trained practitioner an overview of your body systems.

Iridologists, like many other health practitioners, do not diagnose disease rather they are able to see if an organ is under any particular stress.

The therapy is based on the assumption that every organ in the human body has a corresponding location within the iris and that one can determine whether an organ is healthy or stressed by examining the iris.

Traditional medical practitioners also recognise that certain symptoms of non-ocular disease can be detected by an examination of the eye.

The practitioner uses either an iris torch to read the signs shown in the patient’s iris, or they may take a photograph of the iris using a special type of camera.

Reading the signs in the iris is like reading a clock face. The eye is divided into twelve basic zones and each of the corresponding zones relates to a different part of the body.

For example looking at the outer zone of the left eye at between two and three o'clock the practitioner would be looking at the left lung area and as we have two lungs in our body, the right lung can be seen on the outer zone of the right eye between nine and ten o'clock.

Different colour markings on the iris indicate to the practitioner the changes taking place within the body.

There are many signs that the iridologist reads when taking a case history and these are also associated with a structural type.

Each person has their own type as indicated by the fibres in the eye. These types are described as ‘silk, linen, cheesecloth, Hessian or net’. The fibres in the silk eye are very fine and close together, whereas the fibres shown on the net are much wider apart.

The next time you see a close up of an eye on the television look closely at the markings on the iris. By doing this you are taking the first steps to seeing what an iridologist would look for during a consultation.

The iridology consultation is one of interaction between the patient and Iridologist and the information gleaned from the examination will be discussed at the end of the consultation. The client will be given advice as to how to improve their lifestyle and diet. The use of nutritional supplementation may be recommended.